| 释义 |
ˈpiss-ˌant
Also pissant, piss ant; dial. piss-aint.
[f. piss n. + ant; cf. pismire.]
An ant, spec. in phrases drunk as a piss-ant, extremely intoxicated; game as a piss-ant, courageous, very brave. Also transf., fig., and attrib.
1661W. K. Conf. Charact., Meere Polititian (1860) 27 A multitude of pissants and vermins. 1770C. Carroll Let. 22 May in Maryland Hist. Mag. (1917) XII. 362 It seems the Pissants eat a great deal of Corn in the ground. 1847W. T. Porter Quarter Race in Kentucky 84 Pourin out of the woods like pissants out of an old log when tother end's afire. 1893J. Salisbury Gloss. Words S.E. Worcestershire 28 'Er screws 'er waist up till 'er looks like a piss-aint. 1903‘T. Collins’ Such is Life v. 184 His mind's so much took-up with the tuppenny-thruppenny things... Can't afford to come-out anything but a pis-ant. 1930J. Dos Passos 42nd Parallel i. 77 I'm drunk as a pissant still. 1935H. L. Davis Honey in Horn xvi. 278 Anybody who called owning horses disorderly conduct was a liar and a pissant. 1945Baker Austral. Lang. iv. 87 Game as a piss ant or drunk as a piss ant. 1946Mezzrow & Wolfe Really Blues (1957) 377 Piss-ant, a nobody, small fry. 1949H. Hornsby Lonesome Valley 185 Why, goddam it to Jesus Christ and back, they're thicker than piss ants. 1961P. White Riders in Chariot xiii. 448 ‘And on such a day!’ she shrieked, looking at the clock. ‘I bet that nephew of yours will be full as a piss-ant by eleven!’ 1962R. Tullipan March into Morning 59 The old white lady makes you as game as a pissant. 1966Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. 1964 xlii. 21 Pissant. Regularly used by men among men; elsewhere it is ant only. 1972F. van W. Mason Roads to Liberty 169 You stole my skelp, you no-'count piss-ant. 1973R. Heinlein Time Enough for Love (1974) 523 His grandfather paused just long enough to look back and say, ‘Not on your tintype{ddd}you pusillanimous piss⁓ant.’ 1978Guardian Weekly 25 June 18/4 That pissant [California Governor] Brown. 1979‘A. Hailey’ Overload iii. x. 237 All you do now is let off some pissant fire⁓crackers, then laze around here for a goddam month's vacation.
Hence ˈpissant v. intr. Austral. slang, to mess around.
1945Baker Austral. Lang. iv. 87 Someone is pissanting around when he is messing about. 1951Cusack & James Come in Spinner 307, I been pissantin' round the Northern Territory most of the time. 1959G. Hamilton Summer Glare 138 Struth, you pissant around like a rooster that's too old. |