释义 |
out-Herod, v.|aʊtˈhɛrəd| [out- 23 b.] to out-Herod Herod: to outdo Herod (represented in the old Mystery Plays as a blustering tyrant) in violence; to be more outrageous than the most outrageous; hence, to outdo in any excess of evil or extravagance. (A casual Shaksperian expression, which has become current in the 19th c.)
1602Shakes. Ham. iii. ii. 16, I could haue such a Fellow whipt for o're-doing Termagant: it out-Herod's Herod. Pray you auoid it. 1800M. Edgeworth Belinda (1832) I. iii. 57 She out-Heroded Herod upon the occasion. 1819Metropolis I. 172 Out-heroding the French cavaliers in compliment and in extravagance. 1853Kingsley Misc. I. 276 As for manner, he [Alexander Smith] does sometimes, in imitating his models, out-Herod Herod. |