| 释义 |
ˈoff ˈcolour, ˈoff-ˌcolour, phr. and a.
Also (U.S.) off color.
[off prep. 5 b.]
1. phr. Not of natural or proper colour, paler or darker than usual; hence, not up to the mark, defective, deficient, out of order; also, not in good health, slightly unwell.
1876B. Harte Gabriel Conroy II. iv. iv. 90 Mr Hamlin had not been well, or, as he more happily expressed it, had been ‘off colour’. 1879Scribner's Mag. XIX. 680/2 He looked rather ‘off color’. 1885T. A. Guthrie Tinted Venus v. 60, I know I'm a wee bit off colour. 1893Stevenson Beach of Falesá 120 He had mighty little English, and my native was still off colour. 1898G. Giffen With Bat & Ball xi. 195 The devil with which the ball..seemed to rise from the pitch..made him a nasty bowler when the wicket was off-colour. 1898G. B. Shaw Mrs. Warren's Profession iii. 200 Frank: Off colour? Rev. S.: (repudiating the expression) No sir: unwell this morning. 1899Strand Mag. Mar. 313/1 Even the flute was off-colour. 1931A. J. Cronin Hatter's Castle i. iv. 80, I haven't been myself at all these last few days—quite off colour. 1955Times 10 Aug. 3/3 Hampshire if slightly off colour at the end, duly won at Portsmouth yesterday. 1966‘J. Hackston’ Father clears Out 86 He did not sit in the shed for just a while, as a man does when he suddenly feels off-colour. 1974A. Fowles Pastime ii. 12 ‘Where's Christine?’ he said. ‘Over her mum's. Her mum's off colour. She's staying..till she picks up.’
2. adj. (ˈoff-ˌcolour). Not of the right colour or shade, and so of inferior value: of diamonds, etc.
1860A. de Barrera Gems & Jewels 164 If the manufactured diamond is found to contain a flaw, or what is technically termed ‘off-color’, its value is proportionately diminished. 1878Scribner's Mag. XVI. 663/2 Diamonds..are referred to as white, Cape white, bye water, off color and yellow. Ibid. 667/1 Definite varieties, such as ‘Cape white’, ‘bye water’, ‘off-color’, and ‘yellow’. 1894Daily News 7 July 6/3 Purchasing ‘off-colour diamonds’ and substituting them for others of the first quality.
3. Of questionable taste, disreputable, improper, indecent; esp. of jokes; risqué; hinting at obscenity; = dirty a. 2.
1875J. G. Holland Sevenoaks in Scribner's Monthly Mar. 582/1 Everybody invited her, and yet every body, without any definite reason, considered her a little ‘off color’. 1883National Police Gaz. (U.S.) 17 Mar. 3/1 A few choice specimens of the off color morals and hypocritical manners of the stage. 1915Sat. Even. Post 23 Jan. 27/3 It is almost inevitable that sooner or later some one would be moved to tell an off-color story. 1932Kansas City (Missouri) Times 25 Mar. 21 It seemed a bit strange for a minister to be so devoted a reader of such a (then) decidedly off-color publication. 1952[see fest]. 1954Koestler Invis. Writing 58 It was still possible among intimate friends to pass on a joke that was politically off colour. 1958Spectator 20 June 803/2 Landladies with their slangy off-colour jokes. 1972‘G. Black’ Bitter Tea (1973) iv. 56 He had never played an off-colour commercial trick on me, possibly because I had never given him the chance.
So ˈoff-ˌcoloured a.
1896Cape Times in Daily News 2 June 8/5 Coloured and off-coloured professional gaol-birds in their convict suits. 1897Outing (U.S.) XXIX. 487/1 The off-colored puppy may or may not be the best one of the litter. 1904Daily Chron. 18 May 3/4 These were the ‘off-coloured’, the half-castes, the outcome of white supremacy in a black country. 1913C. Pettman Africanderisms 317 Mélées, the off-coloured diamonds from two carats down. 1936Times Lit. Suppl. 12 Sept. 717/2 A rabble of races, white, black and off-coloured, thus inhabits the Southern Africa of to-day. |