| 释义 |
puppet, n.|ˈpʌpɪt|
Also 6 pupette, puppette, 6–8 puppit, 7 pupet.
[A later form of poppet, q.v., which has lost some senses and developed others, and has generally a more contemptuous connotation.]
1. A contemptuous term for a person (usually a woman): cf. poppet n. 1; but in sense app. associated with 2 or 3 below: a dressed up ‘mere doll’ or figure of a woman.
1586A. Day Eng. Secretary i. (1625) 69 If she be faire, then a spectacle to gaze on; if foule, then a simpring puppet to wonder on. 1601Dent Pathw. Heaven (1831) 39 Is it not a shame, that women..should make themselves such pictures puppets and peacocks as they do? 1661Evelyn Tyrannus 11 A Fregat newly rigg'd kept not half such a clatter in a storme, as this Puppets Streamers did when the Wind was in his Shrouds. 1828Scott F.M. Perth xv, A pretender..to the favour of the scornful puppet [Catharine]. 1871B. Taylor Faust (1875) I. vi. 102 But tell me now, ye curséd puppets, Why do ye stir the porridge so?
2. a. A figure (usually small) representing a human being; a child's doll; = poppet n. 2. With quot. 1837, cf. poppet n. 2 b. Obs. or arch.
1562Turner Herbal ii. 46 The rootes are..made like litle puppettes and mammettes which come to be sold in England in boxes. 1583Rates of Customs D viij, Puppets or Babies for Children the groce vis. viijd. 1664H. More Myst. Iniq. ii. ii. xxi, Having noted how Lactantius compared the Idols of the Heathen to the little Puppets that little Girls used to play with, and that the said Idols were but great Puppets for old Fools to play with. 1712Addison Spect. No. 500 ⁋3 The motherly airs of my little daughters when they are playing with their puppets. 1837Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. i. Leech of Folkest., Where did you get this pretty doll..? asked Susan, turning over the puppet. 1849James Woodman ii, I looked upon it as a sort of doll—a puppet.
†b. Contemptuously applied to an image or other material object which is worshipped; an idol; = poppet n. 2 c. Also fig. Obs.
1555W. Watreman Fardle Facions ii. x. 215 Thei [Tartars] make theim selues litle pupettes of silke or of felte,..and do them muche reuerence. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 56 At each end [of the tomb] was placed a Puppet or Pagod to protect it. 1664[see 2]. 1809Coleridge Sibyll. Leaves, Tombless Epitaph, The hollow puppets of a hollow age, Ever idolatrous, and changing ever Its worthless idols.
3. a. A small figure, human or animal, with jointed limbs, moved by means of strings or wires; esp. one of the figures in a puppet-show; a marionette; = poppet n. 3. Now also applied to a similar figure moved by rods, or to one in the form of a glove: see glove puppet s.v. glove n. 6, rod puppet s.v. rod n.1 12.
The original sense is now sometimes distinguished as string puppet s.v. string n. 32.
1538Elyot Dict., Gesticulator, he that playith with puppettes. 1591Spenser M. Hubberd 931 Like as a Puppit placed in a play, Whose part once past all men bid take away. 1602Shakes. Ham. iii. ii. 257, I could interpret betweene you and your loue: if I could see the Puppets dallying. 1667Gale Crt. Gentiles iv. 61 They are but as your Automata, those artificial Machines or Images called Puppits. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull i. xii, You look like a puppet moved by clockwork! 1802Paley Nat. Theol. vii. (1819) 70 The adjustment of the wires and strings by which a puppet is moved. 1934[see puppeteer]. 1958Oxf. Mag. 6 Feb. 250/2 The Water Babies is said to be the first full-length play to have been performed in this country by puppets. 1967Oxf. Compan. Theatre (ed. 3) 776/1 There are many different types of puppets, including the Hand- or Glove-Puppet, the Rod-Puppet, the Marionette, which are all rounded figures, and the flat puppets of the Shadow Show and the toy theatre.
b. fig. A person (usually one set up in a prominent position) whose acts, while ostensibly his own, are suggested and controlled by another; = poppet n. 3 b. Also, a country or state which is ostensibly independent but is actually under the control of some greater power. (Cf. 9 a, below.)
[1550: see poppet n. 3 b.] 1592Greene Groat's W. Wit (1621) E iv, Those Puppets..that speake from our mouths, those Anticks garnisht in our colours. 1622Bacon Hen. VII 25 To make the people see..that their Plantagenet was indeed but a puppit, or a Counterfeit. 1768H. Walpole Hist. Doubts 81 He hoped by keeping the memory of Simnel's imposture, to discredit the true duke of York, as another puppet, when ever he should really appear. 1841Browning Pippa Passes Introd. 194 God's puppets, best and worst, Are we. 1867Freeman Norm. Conq. I. iv. §3. 206 Charles remained for some while a puppet in the hands of Herbert. 1933A. J. Toynbee Survey Internat. Affairs 452 In the wider field of international diplomatic negotiations over the Sino-Japanese dispute, the Japanese government deliberately gave formal recognition to their puppet in Manchuria. 1945Evening Standard 20 Dec. 3 The role she [sc. Siam] played as a ‘puppet’ of the Japs in South-East Asia, made it essential that she should give restitution to the people who were harmed. 1976Survey Summer-Autumn 18, I am not depressed about the large-scale non⁓fulfilment by the Russians (and their puppets) of the Helsinki agreements.
†c. A living personator in dramatic action; an actor in a pantomime. Obs.
a1592Greene Jas. IV Induct., Bohan. What were those Puppits that hopt and skipt about me year whayle [= ere⁓while]? Ober. My subiects. 1605Shakes. Lear ii. ii. 39 You come with Letters against the King, and take Vanitie the puppets part, against the Royaltie of her Father. a1668Davenant Play-Ho. to Lett 1, All the dry old Fools of Bartholomew Fair are come to hire our house,..numberless Jack-puddings: the new motion men of Norwich, Op'ra-Puppets. [1801Strutt Sports & Past. iii. ii. §19 All the absurdities of the puppet-show, except the discourses, are retained in the pantomimes, the difference consisting principally in the substitution of living puppets for wooden ones.]
†4. A little dog; a whelp; = puppy 1, 2. Obs.
1607R. C[arew] tr. Estienne's World of Wonders 147 The great curres..the litle puppets. 1652Gaule Magastrom. 336 She replied, Persa was dead; meaning her whelp or puppet. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. ix. 183/2 Whelpes, or Puppits, are..whelped blind.
†5. = poppet n. 4. Obs.
a1619Fletcher Wit without M. ii. ii, A maide makes conscience of halfe a Crowne a weeke for pinnes and puppits.
6. A lathe-head; = poppet n. 5.
1680Moxon Mech. Exerc., Turning I. 207 Then set your Puppets, and wedge them tight up. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. viii. 356/2 The Puppets, are the square peeces of wood..which have the..Iron Pinns in, upon which the work is turned. 1831J. Holland Manuf. Metal I. 208 Upon a strong table of wood..are fixed three cast-iron puppets or uprights.
†7. Naut. (See quot.) (Cf. poppet n. 6.)
1794Rigging & Seamanship I. 8 Screws, bed or barrel, for raising the heads of large masts.., are made of elm, and consist of two puppets, a bed, and a sole: the puppets are four feet nine inches long, have their lower parts round.., and are cut with a screw; their..head, is larger, and is either eight-square or round.
†8. A pupa. (Employed to render Du. popken.)
1670Phil. Trans. 2079 (Acct. of Swammerdam's Hist. Insect. Generalis, Utrecht, 1669) The manner how the Worms and Caterpillars turn into Puppets [Swammerdam 24, De maner op welke de Wurmen ende de Rupsen in Popkens veranderen]. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Puppets..the name given by Swammerdam to the nymphæ of animals, which he distinguishes from the chrysalises by this simple name, calling these the gilt puppets, from their golden colour.
9. attrib. and Comb.
a. Appositive (in senses 3 and 3 b): That is a puppet, lit. and fig.; managed by the will of another; so puppet administration, puppet army, puppet government, puppet leader, puppet régime, puppet ruler, puppet state, puppet troops.
a1680Butler Rem. (1759) II. 196 He is but a Puppet Saint, that moves he knows not how. 1715Rowe Lady J. Grey iv. i, Their puppet queen reigns here. 1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. xxiii. 286 She very much reminds us of those puppet-heroines, for whom the showman contrives to dialogue without any skill in ventriloquism. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiii. III. 299 Scotland would have been a smaller Poland, with a puppet sovereign, a turbulent diet, and an enslaved people. 1931Economist 14 Nov. 892/2 At Mukden, the puppet Chinese Government set up by the Japanese military authorities is reported to have proclaimed its independence. 1934C. Lambert Music Ho! iii. 182 The gangster film or the comic strip would seem more suitable mediums in which to treat the self-appointed puppet leaders..of the people. 1935(title) The puppet state of ‘Manchukuo’. 1937E. Snow Red Star over China 33 In 1935..the puppet régime of east Hopei was set up. 1938Ann. Reg. 1937 267 The threat to Chinese sovereignty constituted by..the puppet administration set up by her in East Hopei. 1938Ibid. 269 In December the Japanese set up two puppet Governments in North China. 1946News Chron. 25 Feb. 1/1 Remnants of the Japanese forces in Manchuria, assisted by former puppet troops and Chinese reactionaries, were operating against the Red Army. 1947Sun (Baltimore) 15 Aug. 12/8 We also have to ask ourselves whether strategically we can afford to let the Russians create another puppet state on the Asian mainland, just a few miles away from Japan. 1968I. Deutscher Marxism in Our Time (1972) 178 The support of the population permits them to make use of the jungle, while the Americans and their South Vietnamese puppet army cannot do this. 1971Standard (Dar es Salaam) 7 Apr. 1/1 Those present [at the conference] were undecided about the relative merits of the Sihanouk Government and the American puppet regime. 1974M. B. Brown Economics of Imperialism xii. 299 After the tanks came massive economic support for the Soviet puppet government. 1980Times 2 Jan. 9/2 Mr Babrak Karmal, the new puppet ruler of Afghanistan, appears to have been instructed to hold out a conciliatory hand to the rebels.
b. General attrib. uses and Combs. (chiefly in sense 3): ‘of a puppet or puppets’, as puppet-body, puppet-drama, puppet-fight, puppet-land, puppet-maker, puppet-mover, puppet-prompter, puppet-stage, puppet-string, puppet-teacher, puppet-theatre, puppet-work; puppet-like adj. and adv.; puppet-man, -master, the manager of a puppet-show; also fig. Also puppet-show, poppet-valve, etc.
1870G. Meredith Odes Fr. Hist. (1898) 62 What silly *puppet-bodies danced on strings.
1801Strutt Sports & Past. iii. ii. §19 The subjects of the *puppet-dramas were formerly taken from some well-known and popular stories.
1827Blackw. Mag. 265 The dolls threw stones behind them, and other dolls forthwith arose to people *puppetland.
1965W. Lamb Posture & Gesture iii. 41 That the *puppet-like pin-up girl's beauty is only skin deep is often revealed the moment she opens her mouth.
1611Cotgr., Poupetier, a babe-maker, or *puppet-maker.
1731Swift Strephon & Chloe 285 From yonder *puppet man inquire, Who wisely hides his wood and wire.
1630B. Jonson New Inn v. v. (1631) 96 Fidlers, Rushers, *Puppet-masters, Juglers. 1965M. Allingham Mind Readers ix. 97 Much more worrying was the question of the mind behind their experiments... Who was the puppet master?
1976H. Wilson Governance of Britain 10 None of the prime ministers of my experience..has been either a puppet or a puppet-master.
1745Fielding Tom Jones xii. vi, The landlady..fell foul on both her husband and the poor *puppet-mover.
1781Cowper Retirement 312 With limbs of British oak and nerves of wire, And wit that *puppet-prompters might inspire.
1594Nashe Terrors of Night Wks. (Grosart) III. 236 Comes some superfluous humour of ours..and erects a *puppet-stage, or some such ridiculous idle childish inuention.
1842E. Miall in Nonconf. II. 857 [The human understanding] is destined to higher ends than to be a sort of *puppet-string in the hands of state ecclesiastics.
1602Dekker Satirom. 93 Hold, silence, the *puppet-teacher speakes.
1871B. Taylor Faust (1875) I. 224 The rude transportable *puppet theatres in which Goethe first saw Faust represented.
a1680Butler Rem. (1759) I. 102 Th'are very Men, not Things That move by *Puppet-work and Springs.
Hence † ˈpuppet v., (a) intr. to play the puppet (sense 1 or 3 c); (b) trans. to dress like a puppet (? sense 1); ˈpuppetdom, ˈpuppethood, ˈpuppetism (nonce-wds.), the condition of a puppet (sense 3 b); puˈppetical a., pertaining to a puppet.
c1620Fletcher & Massinger Trag. Barnavelt ii. ii, Good Ladies, no more Councells: This is no time to *puppet in. 1635Quarles Embl. v. viii. (1718) 277 Whom thy fond indulgence decks And puppets up in soft, in silken weeds.
1891E. R. Pennell in Mary Wollstonecr.'s Rights Wom. Introd. 23 Not to substitute for the old sham sensibility of *puppetdom the new sham sexlessness of emancipation.
1885Sat. Rev. 19 Sept. 369/2 The dethronement or reduction to *puppethood of native dynasties.
1759Compl. Let.-writer (ed. 6) 225 My Punch (to use a *puppetical expression).
1801Ld. Campbell Let. Apr. in Life & Corr. (1881) I. 69 The intimacy between him [Addington] and Pitt continues as great as ever, and no doubt of his *puppetism any longer remains. 1818Cobbett Pol. Reg. XXXIII. 120 It was then..that the idea of puppetism came into his mind. |