| 释义 |
▪ I. puss, n.1|pʊs|
Also 6–7 pus, pusse.
[A word common to several Teutonic langs., usually as a call-name for the cat (rarely becoming as in Eng. a synonym of ‘cat’): cf. Du. poes, LG. puus, puus-katte, puus-man, Sw. dial. pus, katte-pus, Norw. puse, puus; also, Lith. puż, puiż, Ir. and Gael. pus. Etymology unknown: perh. originally merely a call to attract a cat.]
1. a. A conventional proper name of a cat; usually, a call-name.
a1530Heywood Johan & Tyb (Brandl) 590, I haue sene the day that pus my cat Hath had in a yere kytlyns eyghtene. 1565K. Daryus (ibid.) 181, I can fere the knaues with my grannams Cat. Pusse pusse, where art thou? 1568Jacob & Esau ii. iv. in Hazlitt Dodsley II. 223 Esau left not so much [of the pottage] as a lick for puss, our cat. 1591Percivall Sp. Dict., Miça, the terme to call a cat, as we saie ‘pusse’. 1648Herrick Hesper., His Age 89 Fore⁓telling..weather by our aches... True Calenders, as Pusses eare Washt o're, to tell what change is neare. 1712E. Cooke Voy. S. Sea 214 The Spaniards, when they call them, say Miz, as we do Puss. 1841S. Warren Ten Thousand a Year xxxvi, ‘Poor puss!’ he exclaimed, stroking her.
b. Hence a nursery synonym or pet-name for ‘cat’. Now mostly superseded by pussy.
1605Chapman, etc. Eastw. Hoe iv. i, When the famous fable of Whittington and his pusse shal be forgotten. 1694Motteux Rabelais iv. xvii. (1737) 71 The Bite of a She Puss [F. chatte]..was the Cause of his Death. 1744–5Mrs. Delany in Life & Corr. (1862) 342 Have I told you of a pretty tortoiseshell puss I have? c1840W. E. Forster in Reid Life (1888) I. v. 135 A most delightful black kitten..; a most refined, graceful, intellectual, amusing puss.
2. Applied to other animals.
a. A hare. In recent use only as a quasi-proper name.
1668G. Etherege She would if she could iv. ii, If a leveret be better meat than an old puss. 1703Farquhar Inconstant iii. ii, Ah sir, that one who has follow'd the game so long..shou'd let a Mungril Cur chop in, and run away with the Puss. 1709O. Dykes Eng. Prov. & Refl. (ed. 2) 289 Makes a Hare of the one, and a Hound of the other, and only takes Puss's Part, to set the Dog after her. 1747Gentl. Mag. 536 Now Puss in circling mazes flies. What glorious peals of musick rise! 1858R. S. Surtees Ask Mamma xxxviii, After scudding up the hill, puss stopped to listen and ascertain the quality of her pursuers.
b. As quasi-proper name for a tiger.
1837Heath's Bk. Beauty 156 Puss—a remarkably fine animal..had fastened on the trunk of Falkiner's elephant.
3. Applied to a girl or woman;
†a. Formerly, as a term of contempt or reproach (obs.);
b. in current use, playfully, as a familiar term of endearment, often connoting slyness.
1608Dekker 2nd Pt. Honest Wh. i. Wks. 1873 II. 111 This wench (your new Wife)..This Shee-cat will haue more liues then your last Pusse had. 1610B. Jonson Alch. v. iii, The bawdy Doctor, and the cosening Captaine, And Pvs my suster. 1663Pepys Diary 6 Aug., His wife, an ugly pusse, but brought him money. 1732Fielding Mod. Husb. iv. iv, I think her an ugly, ungenteel, squinting, flirting, impudent, odious, dirty puss. 1753School of Man 95 The ingratitude, the villainy, says he, of the little Puss. 1846Dickens Battle of Life i, ‘Somebody's birth-day, Puss’, replied the Doctor. 1861T. A. Trollope La Beata I. v. 102 To think that the little puss should defend herself so coolly. 1881Besant & Rice Ch. Fleet ii. ix, They could not have believed their daughter so sly and deceitful a puss.
c. int. puss, puss: used to imply that the person addressed is a ‘cat’ (see cat n.1 2 a).
1926H. Nicolson Let. 14 May in J. Lees-Milne Harold Nicolson (1980) xi. 235 The man was merely a prig..he would look very foolish..in Gordon Square (Puss, puss, puss). 1936A. Christie Murder in Mesopotamia vi. 47 ‘We've been so very worried about dear Mrs. Leidner, haven't we, Louise?’.. ‘Puss, puss,’ I thought to myself. 1948D. Ballantyne Cunninghams xviii. 95 ‘Stuck-up, if you ask me,’ Joy said. ‘Puss puss,’ Ralph said. 1954‘M. Cost’ Invitation from Minerva 75 ‘Your cinema career was short-lived anyway.’ ‘Puss-puss,’ she warned.
4. Short for puss-moth.
1819G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 431 Cerura Vinula. The Puss.
5. Puss in the corner: a game played by children, of whom one stands in the centre and tries to capture one of the ‘dens’ or ‘bases’ as the others change places; also, in a more elaborate form, a sailors' game in the British Navy; also called Puss, Puss.
1709W. King Useful Trans. in Philos. v. 43 The English Plays have barbarous sounding Names, as..Puss in a Corner..and the like. 1714Pope Mart. Scriblerus i. v, I will permit my son to play at Apodidascinda, which can be no other than our Puss in a corner. 1738Gentl. Mag. VIII. 81 The favourite one was Puss in the Corner... In this play, four Boys or Girls post themselves at the four corners of the room and the fifth in the middle, who keeps himself on the watch to slip into one of the corner places when the present possessors are endeavouring to supplant one another. 1864Knight Passages Work. Life I. i. 34 The King..caught Fanny Burney playing at puss-in-the-corner. 1866Daily Tel. 8 Feb. 4/4 The necessities which frequently compel a Premier to make the reorganisation of his Cabinet a game of Puss-in-the-Corner. 1926‘R. Crompton’ William—the Conqueror xiii. 240 Now, what shall we play at first?.. Puss in the Corner? 1969I. & P. Opie Children's Games vi. 207 The fun of ‘Puss in the Corner’ is that the players themselves negotiate when they are going to run; its disadvantage is that it is normally for five players, no more and no less. Ibid., Names: ‘Puss in the Corner’ and ‘Puss, Puss’ (both common).
6. = pussy n. 6. coarse slang.
Quot. 1664 may not exemplify this meaning, claimed for it by Farmer and Henley.
1664Cotton Scarronides 107 æneas, here's a Health to thee, To Pusse and to good company. And he that will not do, as I do, Proclaims himself no friend to Dido. 1902Farmer & Henley Slang V. 333/1 Puss... The female pudendum..also pussy and pussy-cat. 1935in A. W. Read Lexical Evidence from Folk Epigr. in W.N. Amer. 71 She may (not?) be a cat trader's daughter, but she's got some puss. 1978I. M. Gaskin Spiritual Midwifery (rev. ed.) i. 32 ‘Vagina’ is the medical term, a Latin word, but I prefer to use ‘puss’ because it sounds friendlier. Ibid. 76 A loose mouth makes for a loose puss which makes the baby come out easier.
7. attrib. and Comb., as puss-house, puss-purr; puss-faced, puss-like adjs.; puss boot, shoe Jamaica (see quots. 1961 and 1970); puss-gentleman, a gentleman perfumed with civet (cf. cat = civet-cat, cat n.1 4).
1942L. Bennett Jamaica Dialect Verses 36 She..Put awn wan tear-up frack Shove har foot eena wan ole *puss boot An go. 1961F. G. Cassidy Jamaica Talk vi. 114 Tennis shoes with rubber soles and canvas tops are widely known in Jamaica as puss boots or puss shoes. 1970Country Life 26 Feb. 510/3 We [in Jamaica] say ‘puss boots’ for plimsolls.
1883Besant Let Nothing You Dismay ii, No poor *puss-faced swab to fear fair fighting.
1781Cowper Conversat. 284, I cannot talk with civit in the room, A fine *puss-gentleman that's all perfume.
1869J. S. Mill Let. 16 Jan. (1910) II. 177 Among the other additions there is a *puss-house.
1873Leland Egypt. Sketch Bk. 59 The cobras are *puss-like in their habits, and like petting.
1935T. S. Eliot Murder in Cathedral i. 43 *Puss-purr of leopard, footfall of padding bear.
▪ II. puss, n.2 dial. and slang (chiefly Ir. and U.S.).|pʊs|
[a. Ir. pus lip, mouth.]
A (discontented, pouting) mouth; a sour or ugly face; the mouth or face (considered as the object of a blow).
1890D. A. Simmons Words & Phr. Armagh & S. Donegal in Eng. Dial. Dict. (1903) IV. 653/2 He has an ugly puss. 1891J. Maitland Amer. Dict. Slang 213 Puss (P[rize] R[ing]), the mouth. 1898G. Bartram White-Headed Boy 40 Say I'm the besht man, or I'll break your puss. 1910P. W. Joyce Eng. as we speak it in Ireland 309 ‘He had a puss on him’, i.e. he looked sour or displeased—with lips contracted. 1911C. B. Chrysler White Slavery viii. 67 She gets ‘a slam in the puss’ (slugged, struck in the face). 1932J. T. Farrell Young Lonigan iii. 111 He twisted his lips in sneers, screwed up his puss. 1936‘F. O'Connor’ Bones of Contention 210 Are you a dummy or what to be standing there with that idioty bloody smile on your puss? 1953[see belt n.4]. 1961C. McCullers Clock without Hands iv. 81 When you looked at the picture I didn't like the look on your puss. 1971A. Burgess MF xiii. 149 You can get her to keep quiet about it, threaten her with a sock on the puss and that. 1973‘J. Patrick’ Glasgow Gang Observed v. 49 Ah don't fancy the look o' his puss. Go ower an' stab him fur me. 1978Guardian 2 Apr. 18/3 On the air, Frost's pasty puss looked like Nixon's with the air let out of it.
▪ III. puss, v. rare.
[f. puss n.1]
intr. To move or act like a cat, silently and stealthily.
a1953Dylan Thomas Adventures Skin Trade (1955) 101 They pussed and spied around the room, unaware of their dancing.
▪ IV. puss
obs. form of pus. |