| 释义 |
Balaam|ˈbeɪləm|
1. Name of the prophet whose history is narrated in Numbers xxii-xxiv, used connotatively. Hence: Balaam v., to make a Balaam of. Balaamite, one who follows religion for the sake of gain; whence Balaamitical a.
1648Milton Observ. Art. Peace Wks. (1851) 571 God..hath so dispos'd the mouth of these Balaams, that comming to Curse, they have stumbled into a kind of Blessing. 1598T. Bastard Chrestoleros (1880) 87 Bala-ming his patron which did him this wrong, Am not I thine asse which haue seru'd thee thus long. 1559Hist. Est. Scot. in Wodr. Soc. Misc. 73 The Bishopp of St. Andrewes, with his Balamites, came to St. Giles Kirk. 1561J. Daus tr. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 36 b, Maintayning the Nicolaitan or Balaamiticall doctrine.
2. (In journalistic slang) Trumpery paragraphs reserved to fill up the columns of a newspaper or magazine. Balaam-box (or -basket), a receptacle for such matter (also fig.); in U.S. printing-offices, a place in which stereotype paragraphs are kept for similar use.
1826Scott Mal. Malagr. iii. 3 How much Balaam (speaking technically) I have edged out of your valuable paper. 1827Blackw. Mag. Mar. 340 Several dozen letters on the same subject now in our Balaam-box. 1839Lockhart Scott lxx. (1842) 622 Balaam is the cant name for asinine paragraphs about monstrous productions of nature and the like, kept standing in type to be used whenever the real news of the day leave an awkward space that must be filled up somehow. 1861A. K. H. Boyd Recr. Country P. Ser. ii. 59 Rubbishing articles which are at present consigned to the Balaam-box. 1866Harper's Mag. May 816/1 There have been a number of anecdotes lying loose in the Balaam basket of memory. 1873F. Hall Mod. Eng. 17 Consigned, by the editor, to his balaam-basket. |