| 释义 |
▪ I. patchwork|ˈpætʃwɜːk|
[f. patch v. or n.1 + work n.]
1. a. Work composed of pieces or fragments put together, esp. in a makeshift or incongruous manner; a thing patched up; a medley, jumble. Now often viewed as fig. from 2.
a1692H. Pollexfen Disc. Trade (1697) A iv, It cannot be expected they should have any effect for common Good, at best, but Patch-work. 1739Wks. of Learned I. 103 He that thinks the Iliad and Odysses the Patchwork of a Beggar's Rhapsodies. 1872Geo. Eliot Middlem. lxxiv, This imperfectly-taught woman, whose phrases and habits were an odd patchwork. 1887W. S. Pratt in W. Gladden Parish Probl. 457 Latin and German hymns—clever patch⁓work often resembling real poetic creations.
b. Work of patching up: see patch v. 2. nonce-use.
1712Swift Jrnl. to Stella 12 Dec., I should ruin myself with endeavouring to mend them,..and I have been too much engaged in patchwork already.
2. spec. Work consisting of small pieces of various kinds of cloth, differing in colour and pattern, and sometimes in size and shape, sewed together by the edges, generally with ornamental effect, so as to form one article, as a counterpane, cushion, tea-cosy, etc. crazy patchwork, that in which the pieces are quite irregular in shape and size: cf. crazy 5.
1726Swift Gulliver i. vi, My clothes..looked like the patch-work made by the ladies in England, only that mine were all of a colour. 1809W. Irving Knickerb. iii. iv, Every woman..wore pockets..fashioned with patch-work into many curious devices. 1872G. Macdonald Wilf. Cumb. I. iii. 17 The bed was covered with an equally charming counterpane of silk patchwork. 1892Mrs. Alexander Mammon xix. 268, I wish, Claude, you would do a little of my crazy patchwork, you work so beautifully.
b. Any surface divided into many small compartments of various shapes and kinds.
1865E. Burritt Walk Land's End 243 A glorious little world of Devonshire scenery, carpeted to the rim with the picturesque patchwork of Devonshire verdure. 1880Mrs. Parr Adam & Eve xii, A patchwork of fields spread out and ran down to the cliffs.
3. Mining. (local.) See quot.
1897Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. Mar. 177 The ironstones were formerly dug out in extensive open-air workings [in S. Wales] known as ‘patchworks’.
4. attrib.
a. Made up of miscellaneous pieces or fragments; composed of a combination of odds and ends. Also fig. (In some cases indistinguishable from 4 b.)
1713Gay Guard. No. 149 ⁋17 What Horace [Ars Poet. ll. 15–16] says of his patch-work poets: ‘Purpureus late qui splendeat unus et alter, Assuitur pannus—’. 1814W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. LXXIII. 463 Those second-hand minds and patchwork intellects. 1876N. Amer. Rev. CXXIII. 420 The patchwork rubric of the English church. 1905Daily Chron. 30 Aug. 5/6 A rupture is preferable to a patch-work peace. 1956H. J. Paton in H. D. Lewis Contemp. Brit. Philos. (ser. 3) 348, I never had any use for the patchwork theory popular at that time, which supposed his [sc. Kant's] work to be a mass of contradictions. 1977P. Scupham Hinterland 3 Now, the celebrated Ride stiffly through a patchwork multitude.
b. Made of, or of the nature of patchwork: see 2. Also fig.
1840Hood Kilmansegg. Dream vi, No patchwork quilt, all seams and scars. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. i. xv, There was the old patch-work counterpane. 1880Mrs. Parr Adam & Eve i, A low chair with..a patch-work cushion. 1933Chesterton All I Survey ix. 45, I am afraid of the Patchwork Peril, which is all colours and none. 1951M. McLuhan Mech. Bride (1967) 144/2 Everyone is intellectually and emotionally a patch⁓work quilt of occupied and unoccupied territory.
5. Comb.
1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 234 Spread with clean calico and adorned with patchwork-covered pillows.
Hence ˈpatchworker, a maker of patchwork; also fig.; ˈpatchworky a. [-y1], resembling or suggestive of patchwork.
1844Ainsworth's Mag. VI. 112 A patchworker of the piquant anecdotes of the newest French memoirs. 1884E. W. Hamilton Diary 29 Mar. (1972) II. 585 The exterior [of the house, Coombe Warren] is picturesque, but almost too unsymmetrical and ‘patch-work-y’. 1888Advance (Chicago) 3 May 275/1 It would quicken the zeal of the little patchworkers also, if they could see how pretty their gay quilts look upon the beds. 1906Speaker 20 Oct. 71/2 To a foreign student London presents..a patchworky spectacle. 1972New Yorker 26 Aug. 50/1 (caption) Tie on this patchworky, wrap-around skirt. 1977R. Richardson Discovering Patchwork (rear cover), This book..should..have much to offer the experienced patch⁓worker.
▪ II. patchwork, v.|ˈpætʃwɜːk|
[f. the n.]
1. trans. To make a patchwork of; to assemble haphazardly, to cobble together.
1941Punch 17 Sept. 246/1 It seems that Walt Disney is developing a taste for the simplest method of making a feature-length film: patchworking all the fragments that happen to be about. 1978A. S. Byatt Virgin in Garden xiv. 145 He had no knowledge of other texts from which Simmonds had patchworked his theory of the universe.
2. intr. To create a patchwork by assembling pieces of fabric. Cf. patchworker n.
1972R. Godden Diddakoi vii. 139 Lots of our mothers patchworked to make the quilts.
3. fig. To adorn or variegate (a landscape, etc.) with areas of contrasting colour or appearance. Usu. in pass.
1973Guardian 19 June 16/2 The fields..are patchworked with buttercups, pink bistort and purple field geranium. 1988Washington Post 5 Nov. e24/1 Croom is still a bucolic and simple area, patchworked with wooded glens and tobacco fields.
Hence ˈpatchworked ppl. a., consisting of or decorated with patchwork; fig. made up of disparate elements, ramshackle; heterogeneous, motley; ˈpatchworking vbl. n.
1978Washington Post 1 Oct. h3/2 The patchworking, which is essentially a cut-and-paste job, makes a warm and homey heirloom out of a basic wooden box. 1982Computerworld 8 Mar. 1/3 A five-year, half-billion-dollar plan to modernize its aging, error-prone and patchworked computer systems. 1988Washington Post 11 Dec. (Book World Suppl.) 5/2 The substance of this engrossing though patchworked personal narrative is almost equally divided between these two subjects. 1989Chicago Tribune 19 Feb. (Home Suppl.) 1/4 Evanston matrons are buying embroidered, hand-dyed and patchworked smocks, skirts and drawstring pants. |