| 释义 |
▪ I. scrubby, a.1|ˈskrʌbɪ|
[f. scrub n.1 + -y.]
1. Stunted, under-developed.
1591Harington Orl. Fur. xiii. xxxiv. 98 A short thicke planke stood on a scrubby post That seru'd them for a boord to drinke and eat. 1727Swift Baucis & Phil. 177 The other Tree was griev'd, Grew scrubby, dy'd a-top, was stunted. 1794W. Pearce Agric. Berks 55 Woods... The scrubby stuff is..burnt into charcoal. 1860Wraxall Life in Sea ii. 30 The ground is..covered with scrubby lichens.
2. Covered with scrub or brushwood. Also, consisting of or in the form of scrub.
1676Petty Polit. Anat. Irel., etc. (1691) 115 About two Millions of Rocky, Boggy, and Scrubby Pasture, commonly call'd Unprofitable. 1835T. Batman in K. Cornwallis's New World (1859) I. 373 The country, however, proved too scrubby to enable the dogs to have a fair run. 1901M. Franklin My Brilliant Career iii. 14 The school was situated on a wild scrubby hill. 1936D. McCowan Animals Canad. Rockies xvi. 144 It finally reached a haven in the scrubby thicket. 1957M. Spark Comforters ix. 233 He saw the bits of paper come to rest, some on the scrubby ground, some among the deep marsh weeds. 1971Sci. Amer. Sept. 130/1 It takes less energy to support a pound of biomass in a mature tropical rain forest than it does in the grassy or scrubby forest stages that precede maturity. 1979D. Kyle Green River High vi. 82 We were edging on to scrubby land, patches of low, tangling heather.
3. Insignificant, shabby, paltry, of poor appearance.
1754J. Sackville Let. 4 Sept. in 16th Rep. R. Comm. Hist. Manuscripts: Rep. MSS. Mrs. Stopford-Sackville I. 40 in Parl. Papers 1904 (Cd. 1892) 1 He still continues to persecute me, and acts in regard to me in a most scrubby manner. 1782F. Burney Cecilia v. xii, To be treated like a little scrubby apprentice? 1860Mrs. Carlyle Lett. III. 35, I am so sorry to put you off with such a scrubby letter. 1894F. M. Elliot Roman Gossip i. 22 They were but a very scrubby mixture of the lowest peasants. 1913[see honest a. 4 d]. 1967Southerly XXVII. 75 It would work out, as it always did, under a cover of scrubby banality. 1975New Yorker 5 May 18/3 (Advt.), A great deal of talent has been badly used, though James Caan has some good scenes as scrubby, anxious Billy Rose.
▪ II. scrubby, a.2|ˈskrʌbɪ|
[f. scrub v.1 + -y.]
Rough, bristly.
1856Lever Martins of Cro' M. xl. 411 ‘Well, I should like to see her’, drawled out Merl, as he smoothed down his scrubby mustachios. |