| 释义 |
peppery, a.|ˈpɛpərɪ|
[f. pepper n. + -y.]
1. Abounding in pepper; of the nature of or resembling pepper, esp. in pungency or irritating effect; pungent, ‘hot’. (In quots. 1699, 1709, Consisting of small grains like pepper; in 1860, Characterized by small dots in engraving.)
1699W. Dampier Voy. II. i. 9 There you have black Oaz and dark Peppery Sand. 1709Ibid. III. ii. 182 Small Peppery Sand. 1830Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 170 It has a very bitter peppery taste. 1860O. W. Holmes Prof. Breakf.-t. ii, Thy roses hinted by the peppery burin of Bartolozzi. 1900Daily News 26 Oct. 3/2 You get a peppery feeling, a tickling, a dryness of the throat, an irritation of the mucous membrane.
2. fig.
a. Of speech or writing: Sharp, stinging, pungent; ‘highly spiced’.
b. Of a person, his temper, etc.: Hot-tempered, irascible, irritable, testy.
1826Scott Diary 28 Feb., Completed Malachi to-day. It is..in some places perhaps too peppery. 1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. xvii, Some good, strong, peppery doctrine. 1861Sat. Rev. 14 Sept. 268 The opponent may be a peppery, narrow-minded man. 1897N. & Q. 8th Ser. XII. 343/1 Dash [a dog] was small, young and peppery.
c. In extended uses: unpleasant, objectionable; strong, powerful.
1829P. Egan Boxiana 2nd Ser. II. 189 This was a short round, but peppery. 1901M. Franklin My Brilliant Career ix. 71 Gertie, the boys, and myself had to perform our morning ablutions in a leaky tin dish on a stool outside the kitchen door, which on cold frosty mornings was a pretty peppery performance. 1946Koestler Thieves in Night 128 ‘We even have to hire the tractor of the Hebrews at two pounds and a half per dunum.’ ‘A peppery price, by Mohammed.’ 1958P. Gammond Decca Bk. Jazz iv. 55 What was then known as ‘The Original Dixieland Jass Band—Untuneful Harmonists Playing Peppery Melodies’. 1958Which? I. ii. 25/1 The overhead-valve engine..is small in displacement, but peppery for its size.
d. Pepper-coloured.
1962I. Murdoch Unofficial Rose xxxvi. 343 Her soft peppery hair..was cut short in a neat yet raffish style about her beaming countenance.
Hence ˈpepperily adv.; ˈpepperiness.
1900R. Broughton Foes in Law xxi. 305 The olive branch is..offered, accepted..or pepperily tossed back. 1890Cent. Dict., Pepperiness. |