| 释义 |
peanut|ˈpiːnʌt|
[f. pea1 + nut.]
1. The fruit or seed of Arachis hypogæa, or the plant itself, native to South America, much cultivated in warm climates; the fruit is a pod ripening underground, containing two seeds like peas, valued as food and for their oil; = ground-nut 2. Also applied to allied plants of similar character (or their fruit), as Voandzeia subterranea of Madagascar, Africa, and S. America, and Amphicarpæa monoica of N. America (hog-peanut: see hog n.1 13 d).
1807Salmagundi 27 June 240 Young seniors go down to the flag-staff to buy peanuts, and beer. 1835C. F. Hoffman Winter in West II. 206 Wrenching it from its roots as a Lilliputian would a peanut! 1886A. H. Church Food Grains Ind. 127 Half the weight of pea-nuts is oil. Ibid., Pea-nuts..yield a cake well adapted for feeding cattle. 1937A. F. Hill Econ. Bot. xvi. 358 The peanut is a native of Brazil but was early carried to the Old World tropics by the Portuguese explorers. It was brought to Virginia from Africa by the slaves and is now one of the most important crops of the south. 1967N. Freeling Strike Out 96 His wife was..reading Proust and eating peanuts. 1968J. W. Purseglove Tropical Crops: Dicotyledons I. 225 More than half the edible peanut stocks of the United States are used for peanut butter.
2. a. pl. Something small, trivial, or unimportant; spec. a small sum of money, esp. when regarded as inadequate payment. orig. U.S. slang.
1934H. N. Rose Thesaurus of Slang iii. 35/2 Small robbery,..peanuts; ex: The job was peanuts. 1936Metronome Feb. 21/4 Peanuts, any pay from a nickel a night and down. 1941B. Schulberg What makes Sammy Run? viii. 176 They got you working for peanuts. 1946J. B. Priestley Bright Day x. 285 ‘How was the poker game?’ ‘Peanuts. All I got was about twenty-five dollars and a headache.’ 1959J. Osborne World of Paul Slickey ii. x. 87 There's a thousand pounds a week from record sales..it ain't peanuts. 1968Globe & Mail (Toronto) 13 Jan. 29/2 All this is peanuts compared to the steady core of 3,600 ministers who make up the United Church clergy. 1973Scotsman 13 Feb. 8/5 A salary of {pstlg}3000 a year is peanuts for a man at the top of his profession. 1975New Yorker 26 May 23 (Advt.), Being in a region may be your only chance to sample the local delicacies. And the cost? Peanuts. 1977Time Out 17 June 15/1 The New Review's share of the budget is a much criticised 10% of the total, yet it's peanuts.
b. A small or unimportant person. Also in more specialized contexts (see quots.).
1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §389/1 Insignificant or petty person,..palooka, peanut, person of straw, picayune, [etc.]. Ibid., Peanuts, rubbish, small fry, small potatoes or punkins, trash, truck, persons of no consequence. Ibid. §429/4 Small person,..peanut, peewee, picayune. 1945Baker Austral. Lang. viii. 157 Peanut, a simple-minded soldier. 1963Australasian Post 14 Mar. 51/1 ‘And what,’ I asked cheerfully, ‘was this peanut's particular whinge?’ 1968Daily Mail 16 Mar. 6/4 Mods are the traditional enemies of Rockers, but there were no Mods that night... ‘They're scared of us... We call them peanuts.’ 1969Daily Mirror 3 Sept. 12/4 The youths were peanuts, or skin-heads. 1970Observer (Colour Suppl.) 12 Apr. 46/3 Once me and my mates used to go around robbing peanuts—mod girls.
3. a. attrib. and Comb. peanut-digger, peanut farmer (so peanut-farming), peanut oil, peanut-picker, peanut-seller, peanut-shell, peanut vendor; peanut-brained adj.; peanut boy U.S., a boy who sells peanuts and other wares; peanut brittle, a brittle toffee with roasted peanuts in it; peanut butter, a paste made with ground roasted peanuts; also attrib.; peanut candy U.S., candy with roasted peanuts in it; peanut gallery U.S. slang, the top gallery in a theatre; peanut-parcher U.S. = peanut-roaster (b), also attrib.; peanut politics (U.S. slang), ‘underhand and secret tactics’ (Farmer Americanisms); hence peanut politician U.S., one who deals in peanut politics; peanut roaster U.S., (a) a machine in which peanuts are roasted; (b) fig. a piece of machinery that puffs or hisses; peanut stand U.S., a booth, stall, or stand where peanuts, etc., are sold; peanut valve Electronics, a type of small thermionic valve (see quots.); also ellipt.
1857Porter's Spirit of Times 5 Sept. 12/1 At length the mare reached the quarter pole, where a little pea-nut boy had stationed himself. 1873‘Mark Twain’ Gilded Age xxxvi. 333 In the cars,..the peanut-boy..always hands you out a book of murders if you are fond of theology. 1922Joyce Ulysses 421 Come on, you doggone, bullnecked, beetlebrowed, hogjowled, peanutbrained, weaseleyed fourflushers, false alarms and excess baggage!
1903N.Y. Even. Post 2 Oct. 7 To prescribe that all records [of great eating] henceforth shall be measured in peanut brittle. 1947J. Bertram Shadow of War 336 The same jasmine tea, the same peanut brittle. 1965Mrs L. B. Johnson White House Diary 14 Feb. (1970) 244 Luci came bounding in this morning, to give her daddy a box of peanut brittle for his Valentine. 1976Monitor (McAllen, Texas) 30 Sept. 8C/7 Crunchy peanut brittle, chock-full of tasty, nutritious peanuts, isn't difficult to make if you remember to spread the candy thinly on the cookie sheet.
1903Harper's Mag. Oct. 981 Four sandwiches... Two of wholewheat bread with peanut butter. 1926–7Army & Navy Stores Catal. 2/2 Peanut Butter jars—each 1/-. 1974‘R. B. Dominic’ Epitaph for Lobbyist xiii. 113 A carnival with peanut butter fudge made by the Soroptimists. 1977Time 14 Mar. 42/2, I grew up on peanut butter sandwiches.
1856Mrs. Stowe Dred I. iv. 51 Dancing, flirting, writing love-letters, and all other enormities down to eating pea-nut candy. 1901B. Matthews Notes on Speech-Making 53 Some postprandial addresses..resemble the peanut candy where you cannot see the candy for the peanuts.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., Peanut-digger.
1976Time 27 Dec. 23/3 He met Carter at a commission conference in 1973 and was one of the few who early took the peanut farmer's presidential aspirations seriously. 1977Time 3 Jan. 13/2 As President Harry Truman was saved from haberdashing by failure, Jimmy Carter was saved from peanut farming by success.
1888Lippincott's Monthly Mag. XLII. 734 Go to the lowest theatre in any of our large cities, or..mark what is called the ‘Family Circle’ by theatre proprietors and to the general world is more felicitously known as the ‘Peanut Gallery’. 1945New Yorker 5 May 15/1 We were sitting in the peanut gallery of the Opera House. 1975Audubon Nov. 26/3, I can hear the laughter down in the pit and up in the peanut gallery. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 21 Aug. 12/1 Sitting in the peanut gallery with her two young daughters, she admitted: ‘I wouldn't miss it for the world. I grew up watching it.’
1882H. H. Kane Opium-Smoking 35 A small glass lamp with a glass cover, perforated just above the flame, and in which sweet or peanut oil is burned. 1912A. H. Lewis Apaches N.Y. 132 He trimmed the peanut-oil lamp. 1973R. Thomas If you can't be Good (1974) ii. 13 The reports of mine that did surface were major scandals... The Peanut Oil King Affair comes to mind.
1929W. Faulkner Sartoris (1932) iii. 261 ‘Narcissa'll take you..in her car.’.. ‘In that little peanut-parcher?’ 1942― Go down, Moses 228 The diminutive locomotive and its shrill peanut-parcher whistle. 1954― Fable 393 The shrill peanut-parcher whistle which did not presage the lurch [of the train].
1887N. York Mail & Express 27 May (Farmer Amer.), If the Governor would consent not to play peanut politics.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., Peanut-picker.
1931W. G. McAdoo Crowded Yrs. xii. 191 Any Democratic Cabinet, if not actually deficient mentally, consists of adolescents and small peanut politicians. 1977Lebende Sprachen XXII. 10/2 A politician who is merely interested in small advantages is a peanut politician.
1902Sears, Roebuck Catal. 589/3 The Boss Peanut and Coffee Roaster is the only successful roaster on the market. 1904‘O. Henry’ in N.Y. World Mag. 22 May 4/2 The whistle of a peanut-roaster puffed a hot scream into his ear. 1939These are our Lives (Federal Writers' Project, U.S.) 283 [He] drew out a gallon at a time as needed for his peanut roaster. 1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §769/2 Peanut roaster, an intake manifold with a leak. 1960Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 379/2 Peanut-roaster,..a small locomotive..an old or ramshackle automobile. 1971M. Tak Truck Talk 116 Peanut roaster, an intake manifold with a leak.
1971‘D. Halliday’ Dolly & Doctor Bird iii. 33 Peanut-sellers and newsvendors have free access to the front door.
1856Mrs. Stowe Dred I. i. 9 ‘There isn't one of the train that I would give that for!’, said she, flirting a shower of peanut-shells into the air.
1862‘Mark Twain’ Let. 8 Feb. (1917) I. iii. 67 He hasn't business talent enough to carry on a peanut stand. 1864T. Pastor ‘444’ Combination Songster 66 A blackguard by the name of McCarty..was book-keeper to a peanut-stand, And sold apples by the dozen. 1919[see frankfurter]. 1947Time 27 Jan. 58/2 He was always dabbling shrewdly in dry cleaning stores and peanut stands.
1923G. Parr Princ. & Pract. Wireless Transmission viii. 119 A valve which has proved very popular in America both on account of its size and low current consumption is that known as the Polar ‘Pea-nut’ valve. The bulb is tubular, its dimensions being 2 in. long by ½ in. diameter, and is fitted with a bayonet cap similar to the ordinary incandescent bulb. The valve requires only ·25 ampere at ·08 to 1 volt, and has a life double that of the ordinary tungsten valve. 1924[see detector 3]. 1930B.B.C. Year-bk. 1931 448/2 Peanut Valve, a type of three-electrode receiving valve requiring low filament current and anode voltage. The dimensions of the valve are very small and it is therefore of use where space and small battery consumption are a consideration.
1910G. B. McCutcheon Rose in Ring 56 The lowliest peanut-vender was laughing in his sleeve at the sleuth. 1978S. Naipaul North of South ii. v. 209 The peanut vendor was guilty of waging capitalist war against socialist society.
b. attrib. passing into adj. Trivial, worthless.
1836W. Dunlap Thirty Years Ago II. iii. 25 They were your pea-nut fellows, I suppose. 1854Congress. Globe 19 May 1230/3, I know them—a set of peanut agitators and Peter Funk philanthropists. 1892Congress. Rec. 18 June 5394/2 This country is not a peanut institution; it is a great country. 1910G. B. McCutcheon Rose in Ring 203, I suppose that peanut aristocrat friend of yours has told you it ain't swell or proper to wear tights. |