| 释义 |
browbeat, v.|ˈbraʊbiːt|
Pa. tense browbeat, pa. pple. browbeaten (browbeat obs.).
[f. brow n.1 + beat v.; it appears from the earlier quotations (see esp. browbeating vbl. n.), that the brow in question was that of the beater, not of the beaten party; but it is not evident whether the meaning was ‘to beat with one's (frowning) brows’, or ‘to beat (? lower) one's brows at’. Connexion with beetle-browed is suggested.]
1. trans. To bear down, discourage, or oppose, with stern, arrogant, or insolent looks or words; to snub, to bully; ‘to depress with severe brows, and stern or lofty looks’ (J.).
1581[see browbeating vbl. n.] 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 129 We must entertaine our friends and guests, with courtesie..and not to brow-beat them. 1662Petty Taxes 54 To be but brow-beaten by a prince or a grandee. 1706Phillips, Brow-beat, to look upon haughtily, or disdainfully, to snub, or keep under. 1743Fielding Journey i. xv, He browbeat the informers against us, and treated their evidence with..little favour. 1803J. Porter Thaddeus xxxvi. (1831) 327, I will not be browbeat and insulted. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 663 The bar and the bench united to browbeat the unfortunate Whig. 1879Froude Cæsar ix. 101 He was brow-beaten and threatened with violence.
b. absol.
1870L'Estrange Miss Mitford I. vi. 210 The well-fee'd lawyers have ceased to browbeat or to cajole.
2. fig. To present a threatening aspect to.
1860Wood in S. E. Dawson Handbk. Canada 266 One tremendous cliff..more than 1500 feet high, and inclined forward nearly 200 feet, brow-beating all beneath it.
3. humorously. To beat with the brow.
1830Tennyson Sonn. to J. M. K., While the worn-out clerk Browbeats his desk below. |