| 释义 |
pants, n. pl. orig. U.S.|pænts|
[Abbreviation of pantaloons.]
1. a. orig. = Pantaloons; subsequently used for trousers, worn by either men or women. Chiefly U.S. b. orig. colloquial and ‘shoppy’ for ‘drawers’; now used for underpants, panties, or shorts worn as an outer garment: cf. hot pants (hot a. 12 c).
1840E. A. Poe Peter Pendulum in Burton's Gentleman's Mag. Feb. 88 Standing on one leg three hours, to show off new-touch strapped pants. 1846O. W. Holmes Rhymed Lesson 515 The thing named ‘pants’ in certain documents, A word not made for gentlemen, but ‘gents’. 1853‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green (1857) 22 Seated with wash-leather..like the eleventh hussars..with their cherry-coloured pants. 1880Daily News 8 Nov. 2/7 Pants and shirts sell rather freely, and jerseys are still in request. 1884Philad. Even. Tel. XLI. No. 8. 2 His assailant tore the pocket from his pants. 1893A. S. Eccles Sciatica 37 Cutting off from a pair of merino pants the leg corresponding to the sound and unaffected limb. 1928R. Campbell Wayzgoose ii. 58 Through pants and vest the God explored. 1930H. G. Wells Autocracy of Mr. Parham ii. i. 95 He grows more and more independent of the idea that his pants are him. 1940O. Nash Face is Familiar 91 Sure, deck your lower limbs in pants. 1951T. Sterling House without Door xiii. 152 She chose her blue underwear... She laid the pants and brassière on her bed. 1956H. Gold Man who was not with It (1965) i. 5 Grack..plucked a tricksie in shorts as she wiggled by. He took the thin pants between his horny fingers. 1964,1968[see pantskirt s.v. pant n.3 2]. 1971New Yorker 11 Sept. 12/1 (Advt.), The back-zippered tunic is a great topper for skirts and pants. 1973N. Moss What's the Difference? p. ix, I heard an American student at Cambridge University telling some English friends how he climbed over a locked gate to get into his college and tore his pants, and one of them asked in confusion, ‘But how could you tear your pants without tearing your trousers?’ 1976National Observer (U.S.) 20 Nov. 13/2 The men in flannel shirts and work pants stood in the driveway outside the hillside house and talked about Vivien Kellems.
c. Slang phr. to be caught with one's pants down: in a state of embarrassing unpreparedness. orig. U.S.
1932Amer. Speech VII. 330 To be caught with one's pants down, to be caught off guard. 1943N. Balchin Small Back Room xiv. 164 We just let him carry on alone. Now, we're caught with our pants down, with nobody knowing anything about the damned thing. 1959Times Lit. Suppl. 10 July 407/2 Here were the ‘better elements’ caught with their pants down, as Americans coarsely put it. 1963P. McCutchan Man from Moscow iii. 36 There was..four days to go before the arrival of the Foreign Ministers but the West was not going to be caught with its pants down. 1974‘M. Innes’ Appleby's Other Story xvi. 133 He overheard Maurice Tytherton, in a great fury, say something to his nephew about having caught him with his pants down. 1976N. Thornburg Cutter & Bone v. 129 His record..did not amount to much more than indiscretion, an embarrassing talent for getting caught with his pants down.
d. Slang phr. to bore (or scare, talk, etc.) the pants off (someone): to bring about (the action of the verb) to a state of extremity.
1933E. O'Neill Ah, Wilderness! i. 38, I tell you you scared the pants off him. 1934E. Waugh Handful of Dust iii. 133 She bores my pants off, but she's a good trier. 1937N. Coward Present Indicative iv. 164 Even if I had known then how much time and ink he [sc. a critic] was going to waste in the future roasting the pants off me, I [etc.]. 1939E. B. White Quo Vadimus? ii. 65 And if I did have a butler named Fish, wouldn't I kid the pants off him? 1940O. Nash Face is Familiar 74 And that Mrs Comfitmonger while pounding her beat has dealt with personalities who would scare the pants off Lombroso. 1953H. Clevely Public Enemy i. 2 ‘Did you win?’ ‘We took the pants right off them.’ 1956B. Holiday Lady sings Blues (1973) i. 6 Once a girl hit me on the nose and it just about finished me. I took my gloves off and beat the pants off her. 1966R. Ellison in A. Chapman New Black Voices (1972) 402 Where does that idea come from?.. One place (which almost frightened the pants off me) was in Commentary. 1968M. Woodhouse Rock Baby vi. 51 He..told me there was an international athletics meeting at White City..and that Denmark would undoubtedly thrash the pants off us. 1972G. Bromley In Absence of Body ix. 119 Usually they take the pants off us, which is not surprising—they play regularly and it's our only game. 1975‘W. Haggard’ Scorpion's Tale ii. 23 There's some stupid story the island is haunted..there's something which scares the pants off the local peasantry.
e. In other phrases: to wear the pants: to be the dominant member of a household; to keep one's pants on: to keep calm, not to panic or get angry; (by) the seat of one's pants: in the handling of an aeroplane, car, etc.: (by) human instinct or experience, as opposed to technical aid or scientific knowledge. Also in extended uses and with hyphens (seat-of-the-pants) as adj. phr.
1931Amer. Mercury Nov. 331/1 He claimed that Peggy was bossy, that she wore the pants and gave orders to Pal. 1936J. Steinbeck In Dubious Battle vi. 83 ‘I wish it would start,’ Jim said... ‘Keep your pants on,’ said Mac. 1942Harper's Mag. May 626/2 When you check your instruments you find it is doing a correct job of flying and that the seat of your pants and your eyes would have tricked you had you been allowed to do the ‘co-ordinating’. 1947Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch 26 Dec. 2/3 Even expert flyers can't tell by the feeling in ‘the seat of their pants’ when a airplane is about to stall. 1957L. P. Hartley Hireling x. 77 She's older than he is and she wears the pants. 1958Listener 20 Nov. 835/3 That's no help to the man who's driving by the seat of his pants, as we used to say in the R.A.F. police. 1965R. Sheckley Game of X (1966) xxi. 146 Flying was in fact extremely difficult, but..I was just one of those seat-of-the-pants naturals who instinctively do everything right. 1971Sunday Nation (Nairobi) 11 Apr. 29/1 The type of car which I have just put through one of my seat-of-the-pants road tests—the Alfa-Romeo 1300 GT Junior. 1972Times 18 Sept. 20/4 There was a feeling among the workforce that the firm was being run ‘by the seat of the pants’. 1973E. Bullins Theme is Blackness 68 [Mother] Now, put it some place where they'll be safe..understand? Safe! [Daddy] Okay..okay..Matilda..just keep your pants on, will ya? 1977M. Walker National Front i. 17 Mussolini had governed by the seat of his pants, guided in part by his early Socialism, in part by his..bombastic nationalism and above all..by his flair for presentation and publicity. 1978R. Jansson News Caper viii. 85 Thackray was not looking at the instruments... Perhaps that was what they meant by flying by the seat of the pants.
2. A colloquial abbreviation of pantalettes.
1851Washington Telegraph (U.S.) in Illustr. Lond. News 19 July 86/1 Garments as graceful and becoming as are the ‘frock and pants’. [Bloomer costume.]
3. attrib. and Comb., as pants pocket; pants dress, a dress with a divided skirt; pants rabbit U.S. slang (chiefly Mil.), a body louse; pants skirt = pantskirt s.v. pant n.3 2; pants suit = pant suit, trouser suit.
1964Women's Wear Daily 30 Nov. 4 Catherine Deneuve ordered at Heim a pantsdress in multicolored striped chiffon. 1969Sears Catal. Spring/Summer 32 Floral print especially smart in this pants dress because it's done in navy and white.
1931E. O'Neill The Hunted iv, in Mourning becomes Electra (1932) 170 He fumbles in his pants pocket. 1951T. Sterling House without Door vi. 78 He walked down the stairs, struggling for change in his pants pocket. 1974R. B. Parker Godwulf Manuscript xii. 99, I took a jackknife out of my pants pocket.
1918Nat. Geogr. Mag. June 499 They call the things ‘pants rabbits’ and ‘seam squirrels’. 1928W. H. Upson Me & Henry & Artillery 11 Some of the wise crackers in the battery used to call them pants-rabbits, which is not real scientific, as they usually roam around your back and shoulders and seldom hit below the belt. 1937J. Steinbeck Of Mice & Men ii. 36 What the hell kind of bed you giving us, anyways? We don't want no pants rabbits.
1964Glamour July 77 A blouse that looks like challis edged in wool lace, with a wine-dark leather pants-skirt. 1969Sears Catal. Spring/Summer 34 Plaid pants skirt. Twill. Front panel hides plaid culotte.
1964Glamour Dec. 112, 1 and 2 [sc. jacket and pants] make a pants-suit that's very current and handsome. 1968Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 26 June (1970) 691, I changed into a beige pants suit. 1975New Yorker 5 May 81/3 Elizabeth Franz..looked fine in a becoming pants suit.
▸ Brit. slang. Rubbish; nonsense. Freq. in pile (also load) of pants.
The use of the noun in this sense is often difficult to distinguish from a predicative adjectival use.
1994Guardian 22 Sept. ii. 4/2 It's all a bit embarrassing because Mayo (catchphrase: ‘It's a pile of pants!’) fails to recognise her at first. 1996SFX May 75/2 Sure, the pilot is complete pants, utterly derivative and deathly slow, and all the actors seem to be competing to see who can flex the least facial muscles, but don't let that put you off. 1996Sporting Life (Nexis) 4 Aug. 15 Snooker? I'd rather we never won a medal of any sort again than see that pile of pants being accorded olympic status. 1997Total Film Sept. 113/1 Then again, Mike says he's pleasantly surprised by our acting. I think he thought we were going to be absolute pants. 2000Independent (Electronic ed.) 21 Dec. A Liberal Democrat stunned his fellow peers when he dismissed a landmark report on the future of the historic environment as ‘a load of pants’. |