| 释义 |
ˈpuff-ˌpuff
[Echoic: cf. puff int.]
An imitation of the sound of repeated puffing by a steam-engine; hence, a nursery name for a locomotive, or a railway train.
1870M. Bridgman Ro. Lynne II. xiv. 307 With a puff-puff the train slowly passed out of Hampton Station. 1886Ruskin Præterita I. iii. 87 In this present age,..people don't give their children toy bricks, but toy puff-puffs. 1889P. H. Emerson Eng. Idylls 64 The stillness was broken only by the short sharp puff puff of the engines. 1894H. Drummond Ascent of Man 214 The child who says moo for cow,..or puff-puff for train, is an authority on the origin of human speech. |