| 释义 |
▪ I. pottering, vbl. n.|ˈpɒtərɪŋ|
[f. as prec. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb potter; feeble, unsystematic, or desultory working; sauntering about, etc.: see the verb.
1530[see potter v. 1]. 1844E. FitzGerald Lett. (1889) I. 140 After my usual pottering about in the midland counties of England. 1860Emerson Cond. Life iii. (1861) 71 Long marches are no hardship to him... But this pottering in a few square yards of garden is dispiriting and drivelling. 1884E. Yates Recoll. & Exper. II. 39 There were lovely walks and drives..potterings about with Fenn in his sketching expeditions. 1893E. G. Duff Early Printed Bks. 195 Mere antiquarian pottering or aimless waste of time.
▪ II. ˈpottering, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
1. That potters: see the verb.
1826Scott Jrnl. 13 June, A big..trifle-headed, old pottering minister,..came to annoy me about a claim [etc.]. 1842Miall in Nonconf. II. 72 A plodding, pottering mind, far more expert in tinkering holes, than in forging and constructing new instruments. 1865M. E. Braddon Only a Clod xl, When I am a pottering old fellow of seventy, I shall have a great fortune and a handsome wife.
2. Involving or characterized by pottering.
a. Of work, etc.: Done in a feeble, unsystematic, or ineffectual way; hence, trifling, slight, paltry.
1740J. Clarke Educ. Youth (ed. 3) 28 What miserable pottering Work do the poor Boys make of it. 1837Whittock, etc. Bk. Trades (1842) 383 Although a small pottering business might be commenced with a much less sum. 1861Smiles Engineers I. 52 Only a few pottering improvements were made.
b. Of movement: Slow, loitering; aimless, unsteady.
1821Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 193 With ling'ring, pott'ring pace,..Thou, like an old man, bidd'st the world adieu. 1873R. Broughton Nancy II. 76 The long pottering stroll that Roger and I had taken one evening.
Hence ˈpotteringly adv.
1893G. Meredith in Pall Mall Mag. II. 194 Under one aspect we appear potteringly European; under another, drunk of the East. |