| 释义 |
body swerve, n. Brit.
Brit. |ˈbɒdiswəːv|, U.S. |ˈbɑdiˌswərv|
[‹ body n. + swerve n.]
1. orig. and chiefly Sport, esp. Association Football. An abrupt dodging or swerving motion of the body used to avoid collision or interception, esp. tactically in order to deceive an opponent as to one's intended direction of movement; the skilled use of such a move.
1933Times 4 Dec. 5/5 Crowe, after twice puzzling the Harlequin tacklers with his pronounced body swerve.., went on trying to beat them single-handed. 1937F. N. S. Creek Assoc. Football ii. 33 Another, but more difficult method of dribbling past an opponent is to persuade him to move out of the path of the ball by body-swerve. 1943Daily Express in B. James Eng. v Scotl. (1969) viii. 181 Stanley Matthews..provided the best entertainment with his uncanny footwork and body-swerve. 1964Times 10 Oct. 11/3 Those [pheasants] which by pace, side-slip and body swerve defeat the men below tuck up in undergrowth on pitching down. 1984Guardian Weekly 30 Dec. 16/2 I'm lucky, I once or twice saw the languid, arrogant outside body swerve of Richard Sharp; then there was the carefree, waiflike, insoucience [sic] of Barry John; the hopscotch of Bennett; [etc.]. 2002Daily Tel. (Nexis) 4 Mar. (Sport section) 3 The Finn beat his former Ajax goalkeeper with a body swerve before scoring with a well-executed shot from a difficult angle.
2. colloq. In extended use. An expedient evasion; an abrupt and unexpected change of course. Esp. in to give (something) a body swerve: to give (something) a miss, to go out of one's way to avoid (something).
1984Financial Times 15 Dec. 19/4 In 1981 the whole coalfield came out and forced Mrs Thatcher, if not into a U-turn, at least into a body swerve, as Scots miners' leader Mick McGahey put it. 1985M. Munro Patter 12 I'm meant to be goin [sic] to my old dear's but I think I'll give it a body swerve. 1993Daily Mirror 4 Aug. 24/4 A plot full of body swerves in a scintillating sex thriller that artfully apes the dark mysteries of the Forties. 1998N. Hornby About Boy (1999) xxxii. 249 He'd used the phrase to prove that he knew it.., but quickly realized that if you knew it, these were precisely the circumstances in which you would give it an enormous body-swerve; it sounded flip and pseud and shallow. |