| 释义 |
off stage, off-stage, adv. (phr.) and a.
[f. off prep., off- 4 b + stage n.]
Away from the stage; that is not appearing or occurring on a stage (see also quot. 1952). Also transf. and fig.
1922Times Lit. Suppl. 12 Oct. 647/1 It is of no relevance to the story whether the apathy is produced by cocaine or Buddhism; the cause, whatever it is, is ‘off stage’, as it were. 1933St. John Ervine Theatre in My Time vii. 43 A player with a distinctive and adenoidal voice..made his first speech off-stage. 1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §585/1 Offstage leading lady, an actor's sweetheart. 1948Times 17 Jan. 5/3 The off-stage noises of those who work to distract attention from what is really going on. 1952Granville Dict. Theatr. Terms 125 On-stage. Like off-stage, this is a somatic adjective. The on-stage arm is the one nearest the centre of the stage when an artiste faces the audience. Thus, in position stage left, the right will be the on-stage arm, and the left the offstage one... The same applies to furniture and properties so positioned. ‘Bring the settee a little more off-stage’ (i.e. towards the side). 1959J. Wain Travelling Woman viii. 110 The philosopher emptied one final shovelful of ashes into the bucket, carried it off to some unknown destination offstage, came back. Ibid. ix. 128 You didn't know me. I was just a figure off-stage somewhere. 1961J. McCabe Mr. Laurel & Mr. Hardy (1962) i. 31 If any of America's millions had seen the offstage Charles Spencer Chaplin of 1910, they might well [etc.]. 1967M. Argyle Psychol. Interpersonal Behaviour vii. 125 People do not work at their image-projection all the time; there is a difference between being ‘on-stage’ and ‘off-stage’; in the former, people feel under observation and are very concerned about the image they are projecting. 1975New Yorker 21 Apr. 103/3 The climax is the obligatory offstage pistol shot. |