| 释义 |
offal|ˈɒfəl|
Also 4 ofall, 5 offale, -aile, 6 offalle, -awle, 6–7 offall, 7–8 off-fall, (7 offell, uffal(l), 9 dial. offald, offil.
[f. off adv. + fall n.1: cf. Du. afval shavings, refuse, garbage, Ger. abfall waste, rubbish, pl. parings, shavings.]
1. That which falls off or is thrown off, as chips in dressing wood, dross in melting metals, etc.; the part which, in any process, is allowed to fall off or neglected as valueless or of no immediate use; refuse, waste; also pl., Scraps of waste stuff or refuse. Now only techn. or dial. = offal corn or wheat, offal leather, offal wood (cf. 6 a).
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xv. iv. (Tollem. MS.), Þe pouder of þe offal of golde. Ibid. xvii. cxxxv. (1495) 691 Hulkes and ofall and out caste of corne. c1440Promp. Parv. 362/1 Offal, that ys bleuit of a thynge, as chyppys, or oþer lyke. 1552Huloet, Offall of beanes, fabalia. 1581Mulcaster Positions xv. (1887) 68 To digest the good nurriture, and to auoide the offall. 1641Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 67 Every hives offell will serve to sweeten three gallons of water, and to make sufficient and good meade of the same. 1663Gerbier Counsel (1664) 49 To manage the uffal of the Timber. 1736Bailey Househ. Dict. 514 They..distil their rum from the offal of sugar. 1776Adam Smith W.N. i. xi. (1869) I. 235 The offals of the barn and stables will maintain a certain number of poultry. 1876Schultz Leather Manuf. 284 The term offal applies to all the parts outside the bends. 1877N.W. Linc. Gloss., Offals, refuse of any kind, but more particularly refuse corn. 1882W. Worc. Gloss., Offal, waste wood.
†b. In collective sing. and pl.: Fragments that fall off in breaking or using anything; crumbs; leavings; relics, remnants. Obs.
1563–87Foxe A. & M. (1684) II. 328 There were left twelve baskets, twelve maunds full of brokelets and offalls at that meal. 1582Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 64 If Gods eternal thee last disseuered offal Of Troy determyn too burne. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. iii. i. iii. iii. (1651) 430 Poor Lazarus..only seeks chippings, offals. 1659D. Pell Impr. Sea 295 Upon these Plancks, Yards, Masts, and offals of the Vessel, have all the Mariners got safe to the Shore. 1786A. Maclean Christ's Commiss. iii. (1846) 156 To partake of the crumbs and offals in common with the dogs.
2. a. The parts which are cut off in dressing the carcase of an animal killed for food; in earlier use applied mainly to the entrails; now, as a trade term, including the head and tail, as well as the kidneys, heart, tongue, liver, and other parts. † Formerly also in pl.
c1420Liber Cocorum (1862) 29 Take tho offal and tho lyver of tho swan In gode brothe thou sethe hom than. 1464Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 543 Receyved..for the fete and the offaile of a boloke, iiij.d. 1555W. Watreman Fardle Facions ii. vii. 156 Some..when thei haue slaine the beaste (in sacrifice), vse to laye parte of the offalle in the fire. 1595Enq. Tripe-wife (1881) 149 The Butchers offals were thy sweetest ware. a1735Arbuthnot (J.), He let out the offals of his meat to interest, and kept a register of such debtors in his pocket-book. 1868Daily News 19 June, What is technically termed the ‘offal’ of slaughtered animals..forms a most important feature of the metropolitan dead-meat trade. 1877Holderness Gloss., Offal, the cuttings of pork when a pig is killed.
b. Contemptuously: The parts of a slaughtered or dead animal unfit for food; putrid flesh; carrion; also, opprobriously, the bodies or limbs of the slain.
1581J. Derricke Image Irel. ii. F j, Though durtie tripes and offalls like please vnderknaues enoufe. 1598Shakes. Merry W. iii. v. 5 Haue I liu'd to be carried in a Basket like a barrow of butchers Offall? and to be throwne in the Thames? 1602― Ham. ii. ii. 608, I should haue fatted all the Region Kites With this Slaues Offall. 1667Milton P.L. x. 633 Till cramm'd and gorg'd, nigh burst With suckt and glutted offal. 1735Somerville Chase iii. 223 Dripping Offals, and the mangled Limbs Of Men and Beasts. 1828Scott F.M. Perth xv, Where is the hand..Is it nailed on the public pillory, or flung as offal to the houseless dogs? 1838Prescott Ferd. & Is. (1846) I. iv. 212 Supporting life by feeding on the most loathsome offal, on cats, dogs, etc. 1867Baker Nile Tribut. iv. (1872) 61 A flock of ravenous beaks were tearing at the offal.
3. In the fish trade: Low-priced and inferior fish as opposed to those called prime; esp. small fish of various kinds caught in the nets along with the larger or more valuable kinds.
1859Sala Tw. round Clock (1861) 17 ‘Offal’ means odd lots of different kinds of fish, mostly small and broken, but always fresh and wholesome. 1887E. J. Mather Nor'ard of Dogger ii. (1889) 19 Prime and offal were rigorously kept apart. The prime fish are soles, turbot, halibut and brill. Plaice, haddock, cod, ling, etc. come under the technical name of offal.
4. Refuse in general; rubbish, garbage. Now chiefly sing.
1598Barret Theor. Warres v. iv. 137 Great pits to bury and to cast therein, the garbedge, filthinese, and offalls of the campe. 1798Anti-Jacobin No. 9 (1799) 280 Express orders were given to afford them no other subsistence than the offals that might be collected in the streets. 1877S. Cox Salv. Mundi iv. (1878) 69 It became the common cesspool of the city into which all the offal was cast.
5. fig. Refuse, offscourings, dregs, scum. Chiefly in collect. sing.
1581Mulcaster Positions xxxvii. (1887) 159 That barbarous offall of all kinde of people. 1590Spenser F.Q. ii. iii. 8 The Miser threw him selfe, as an Offall, Streight at his foot in base humilitee. 1601Shakes. Jul. C. i. iii. 109 What trash is Rome? What Rubbish, and what Offall? 1728Morgan Algiers I. Pref. 2 Those Varlets, generally..the very Offal of the Ottomans. 1828Macaulay Ess., Hallam (1851) I. 86 Wretches..whom every body now believes to have been..the offal of gaols and brothels.
6. attrib. or as adj.
a. lit. (See preceding senses.)
1596Stanford Churchw. Acc. in Antiquary (1888) May 211 Chippes and offall woodd of the tree felled. 1599Marston Sco. Villanie iii. xi. 227 Fed with offall scraps, that sometimes fall From liberall wits. 1645Quarles Sol. Recant. xi. 76 Fair Crops from offall Corn are rarely found. 1717tr. Frezier's Voy. 238 Offal Meat, which consists in Heads, Tongues, Entrails, Feet,..which they eat on Fish-Days. 1764Museum Rusticum III. xii. 40, I supposed..that they would go to the tailing, or off-fall corn. 1778W. H. Marshall Minutes Agric. 17 Nov. 1776, Any offal-stick..eighteen inches long answers the purpose. 1825E. Hewlett Cottage Comf. vi. 49 Any offal milk. 1880Times 2 Dec. 8/2 For sale by auction, at Her Majesty's Dockyard,..offal wood..about 30 tons. 1886Chesh. Gloss., Offal corn, offal wheat, the lighter grains winnowed from the marketable samples, and used for feeding fowls. 1891J. J. Lalor in Cycl. Temp. & Prohib. 253/2 Patent, sole, harness, band and offal leather.
b. fig. Outcast; worthless; vile. Now esp. dial.
c1605Rowley Birth Merl. iii. vi, The offal fugitives of barren Germany. 1839Times 5 Feb., The last four years being the period of the M― or offal ministry in this island. 1860Geo. Eliot Mill on Fl. i. iv, He's an offal creatur as iver come about the primises. 1877Holderness Gloss., Offal, worthless; vile.
7. Comb., as offal-eater.
1889J. Jacobs æsop's Fables I. 66 The refuse-eater and the offal-eater Belauding each other.
Hence ˈoffalist (nonce-wd.), a gatherer of offal.
1822Sporting Mag. IX. 230 Athenæus, that offalist and great gatherer of all town and country talk. |