| 释义 |
▪ I. piggy, piggie, n.1|ˈpɪgɪ|
[f. pig n.1 + -y.]
1. A little pig, or animal so called; also playfully applied, with various connotations, to a child.
1799in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. III. 25 Go to the forest, piggy, and deplore The miserable lot of savage swine. 1890Spectator 10 May, If the worm objected to come out of the hole, ‘piggy’ [a hedgehog], with his head on one side, gently scratched away the grass with his right fore-paw and extracted him.
2. The game of tip-cat; the ‘cat’ or piece of wood used in this game. Also attrib.
1862C. C. Robinson Dial. Leeds 384 Piggy, a game played by boys with sticks, and a piece of rounded wood, pointed at each end, called the ‘piggy’, which, when struck at either end, rebounds, similar to the game of ‘cat’ elsewhere. 1867Standard 11 June, The game which is played by the street boys of London under the name of ‘tip-cat’..is, it appears, called ‘piggie’ in the north. 1884Manch. Guard. 22 Sept. 8/4 ‘Piggy’ (which some members..recognise under the name of ‘tip-cat’) [was] among the features he described as objectionable in our street life. 1909Westm. Gaz. 10 May 12/1 About 300 spectators attended the Barnsley Queen's Grounds..on the occasion of a long knock piggy match for {pstlg}50 and the championship of Yorkshire. 1971C. Bonington Annapurma South Face iv. 49 We have..a game of ‘Piggy’, where you throw a small peg into the air, strike it as far as you can with a stick, and nominate the number of strides a member of the opposing team must take to reach the peg; he can challenge you to meet the nominated number of strides.
3. Special Combs., as piggy-and-stick = sense 2; piggy bank, a pig-shaped money-box, often made of pottery (see also quot. 1976); also (with hyphen) attrib.; piggy-in-the-middle: see pig n.1 10; piggy-stick, (a) Mil. slang, the wooden handle of a soldier's entrenching tool; (b) = sense 2.
1932L. Golding Magnolia St. i. ix. 159 The little Jewboys..started playing ball or piggy-and-stick. 1941Butler Brothers Dry Goods, Home Goods, Toys Catal. Spring 312b/2 Piggy Banks..flesh colored composition. 1951Wodehouse Old Reliable x. 129 ‘Listen, I've busted banks.’ ‘You mean piggy banks?’ 1955A. Huxley Genius & Goddess 51 Ruth broke her piggy bank and squandered a year's accumulated savings on a make-up kit and a bottle of cheap perfume. 1972Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 12 Jan. 28/1 Police said a piggy bank thief entered the house through an unlocked window. 1976Lieberman & Rhodes Compl. CB Handbk. i. 20 To identify your own location..look for the nearest landmark. A few examples: the ‘piggy bank’ (toll booth) you just went through, a milepost, [etc.]. 1977New Yorker 29 Aug. 69/2 The passengers who rode American trams were so honest that they didn't even use tickets—they just dropped the fare in a piggy bank for the driver to collect when he was ready.
1930Brophy & Partridge Songs and Slang 1914–18 149 Piggy-stick, the wooden helve for the entrenching tool which the infantryman carried next his bayonet... From a child's game, tip-cat. 1968P. Jennings Living Village 179 The game which we knew in Coventry as tip-cap..was called in Yorkshire Knur and spel, in Cumberland piggy-stick.
▸ colloq. A toe. Chiefly in pl.
This sense of the word derives from the association with the use of piggy in the nursery rhyme ‘This little piggy went to market’, which usually is counted out on a child's toes. The traditional written English version of the rhyme uses pig; piggy occurs in familiar Scottish and North American versions of the rhyme (see P. M. Fraser This Little Piggy, & Other Counting Rhymes (1942) 4–5), and is a likely colloquial variant elsewhere.
[1908R. W. Gilder Poems 127 Quick as you can think Twenty small toes In four pretty rows, Like little piggies pink, All kick in the air.] 1978Washington Post 29 May c5/2 We think Miller is in the same condition as last year, when he was the alleged front runner, but he never got the piggies over the doorsill. 1989Sunday Express Mag. 12 Nov. 16/1 When she opens the door barefoot..prepared to face the press with her piggies on show, presumably it's okay for the rest of us, too. 1998Rock & Ice Sept. 51 (advt.) Snug in the heel. Precise over the instep. A little wider across your piggies.
▪ II. ˈpiggy, n.2 dial.
[dim. of pig n.2]
A little pot.
16..Country Lass in Whitelaw Bk. Scot. Song (1844) 304/1 My Paisley piggy, corked with sage Contains my drink but thin, O.
▪ III. ˈpiggy, a.
[f. pig n.1 + -y.]
Piglike; resembling that of a pig. Also, suggestive of pigs; loosely, unpleasant, unreasonable. Also comb.
a1845Hood Literary & Literal xii, Miss Ikey, Whose whole pronunciation was so piggy. 1874Burnand My time xxii. 198 He was fresh-coloured, with little piggy eyes. 1927J. Masefield Midnight Folk 24 There were seven old witches..at a very good supper... They were very piggy in their eating (picking the bones with their fingers, etc.). 1942[see grabby a.]. 1957‘N. Shute’ On Beach viii. 264 ‘Getting a bit piggy, isn't it?’.. ‘Everything shut up, and dirty, and stinking.’ 1958― Rainbow & Rose iv. 159, I started back and it began to rain and it got very piggy. a1963S. Plath Crossing Water (1971) 35 They have a piggy and a fishy air. 1970New Yorker 26 Sept. 39/2 ‘I don't want you to make love to anyone but me.’ ‘That's being piggy.’ 1976P. Hill Hunters xi. 158 Did she know her husband had lied to cover for Gatwood? Fat piggy-eyed Gatwood. |