| 释义 |
pesky, a. colloq. (orig. U.S.).|ˈpɛskɪ|
[Origin uncertain. (It has been conjectured to be an alteration of *pesty, f. pest = plague, which suits the sense exactly.)]
a. ‘Plaguy’, ‘confounded’; annoying, disagreeable; hateful, abominable.[In Eng. Dial. Dict. from Oxf. and Bucks., etc., but app. only on the authority of late 19th c. novelists; not in any of the dialect glossaries.] 1775S. Deane in Connecticut Hist. Soc. Coll. (1870) II. 224 What reply, think ye, these heroes of five companies of the invincible Royal Irish, gave to this pesky Yankey? 1830Massachusetts Spy 13 Oct. 4/1 I'm plagu'd most to death with these ere pesky sore eyes. a1848‘Major J. Downing’ May-day New York 36 (Bartlett), I found [looking for houses] a pesky sight worse job than I expected. 1859W. P. Tomlinson Kansas in 1858, 207 At Fort Scott the ruffians have..a large telescope,..to prevent themselves from being surprised by the pesky ‘abolitionists’. 1860Hotten Dict. Slang (ed. 2) 189 Pesky, an intensitive expression, implying annoyance. 1878Mrs. Stowe Poganuc P. xxiv. 214 'Taint nothin' but one o' these 'ere pesky spring colds she's got. 1885G. Allen Babylon i, To cuff him about the head for his pesky idleness. 1901M. Franklin My Brilliant Career xiii. 113 He had always considered Harold as too sensible to neglect his business to stand grinning at a pesky youngster in short skirts and a pigtail. 1909L. M. Montgomery Anne of Avonlea xxvii. 318 Them pesky hens are in my pansy bed again. 1942E. Paul Narrow St. xxiii. 193 Sometimes I wish he would take over this pesky garden and let me manage the restaurant. 1956D. Karp All Honorable Men 252 Just stay away from reporters. And if you can't—you have no comment. If they get real pesky, thell them to talk to me. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. ix. 161 Juvenile repugnance continues to be expressed by the old standbys:..pesky [etc.]. 1974Times 23 Jan. 1/8 Dr Benjamin Spock..says that an inability to be firm with their children is the commonest problem of parents in America today, and that it can lead to a child's personality becoming ‘balkier and peskier’ as the months and years go by. 1974Sunday Express 30 June 6/4 The pesky thing didn't come anywhere near to working. 1977Time 8 Aug. 39/2 But a pesky psychological climate is overhanging the securities markets.
b. as adv. = peskily; ‘plaguy’.
1845S. Judd Margaret 305 (Bartlett) So pesky slow, we shan't get through to-night. 1855Haliburton Nat. & Hum. Nat. II. ii. 64 Don't be so pesky starch. 1901Harper's Mag. Dec. 228 Pesky few Democrats ever I see. 1939L. M. Montgomery Anne of Ingleside xxii. 153 O' course I don't believe in fairies... I've heard they were pesky mischievous.
Hence ˈpeskily adv., ‘plaguily’, ‘confoundedly’.
1834C. A. Davis Lett. J. Downing 139 The Post Office accounts was the next bother; and that puzzled all on us peskily. 1835Haliburton Clockm. (1862) 65 He looked so peskily vexed. 1855― Nat. & Hum. Nat. I. v. 153 When a feller is so peskilly sleepy as I be. 1877Atlantic Monthly July 77/2 It does rile him peskily.
Add: ˈpeskiness n., irksomeness, disagreeableness.
1934in Webster, Peskiness. 1967Boston Sunday Herald 26 Mar. i. 30/4 If they do catch one [sc. a cold], it is likely to feel more like the peskiness of a fly than the crush of an elephant. 1980Times 10 Mar. 12/2 The stubborn peskiness of southerners. |