| 释义 |
Pete, pete|piːt|
[Dimin. of the name Peter (see Peter n.).]
1. slang. (With small initial.)
a. A safe. Cf. Peter n.1 6 b.
1911G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society iv. 73 All the time a man equipped with burglar's tools would be kneeling behind the safe and drilling it open; those ‘petes’—as cracksmen call them—in people's houses are generally very easy to open. 1932Wodehouse Hot Water i. 32 Show me the pete I can't open with my eye-teeth and a pin, and I'll eat it. 1938D. Runyon Furthermore viii. 153 This is a very soft pete. It is old-fashioned, and you can open it with a toothpick. 1951Wodehouse Old Reliable x. 129 You think I'm scared to bust that pete?
b. Nitroglycerine, as used for safe-breaking.
1931D. W. Maurer in Writer's Digest Oct. 29/2 Soup, nitroglycerine or ‘pete’. 1948Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 668 Among the cant terms of the jug-heavies are..soup or pete, nitroglycerine.
c. attrib. and Comb., as pete box = sense 1 a; pete-man = peterman 3 c.
1931D. Runyon Guys & Dolls (1932) iv. 77 Nobody opens pete boxes for a living any more. They make the boxes too good, and they are all wired up with alarms.
1911G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society v. 105 You've already caught four ‘pete-men’ who attempted to drill the safe. 1931Everyman 21 May 522/1 All my safe⁓blower pals used..‘pete-men’.
2. (With capital initial.) Used in various mild exclamations and phrases expressive of exasperation or annoyance; esp. in phr. for Pete's sake.
1924Dialect Notes V. 274 For the love of Pete, for Pete's sake. 1942N. Balchin Darkness falls from Air ix. 170 Why in the name of Pete didn't you say so? 1949N. Marsh Swing, Brother, Swing iv. 59 Carlisle heard Mr. Bellairs whisper under his breath: ‘For the love of Pete!’ 1959W. Golding Free Fall vi. 129 Marry me, Taffy, for Pete's sake marry me. 1973‘B. Mather’ Snowline xviii. 223 For Pete's sake don't ask bloody fool questions. 1975Listener 24 July 115/1 For Pete's sake when will so-called ‘experts’..get it into their noddles that rising wages and prices are inflation. |