| 释义 |
▪ I. cackle, n.|ˈkæk(ə)l|
[f. the vb. stem: cf. Sw. kackel in same sense.]
1. A cackler. (Or ? adj. cackling.)
a1225Ancr. R. 66 Uoleweð..nout þe kakele [v.r. chakele, kakelinde] Eue. Mod. colloq. or dial. What a cackle she is!
2. Cackling; as of a hen or goose.
1674N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. To Rdr., Dinn'd & grated with the Cackle. 1697Dryden æneis viii. (R.) The silver goose..by her cackle, sav'd the state. 1833Tennyson Goose iii, The goose let fall a golden egg With cackle and with clatter.
3. a. fig. Stupid loquacity, silly chatter. Colloq. phr. cut the cackle (and come to the horses): stop talking (and get to the heart of the matter, the real business); hence cackle-cutting vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1676‘A. Rivetus, Jun.’ Mr. Smirke 18 Bedawb'd with Addle Eggs of the Animadverters own Cackle. 1859Tennyson Enid 276 The rustic cackle of your bourg. 1862Thornbury Turner I. 262 The cackle about Claude. 1889Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang I. 216/1 The great Ducrow..was wont to apostrophise the performers in his equestrian drama after this fashion: ‘Come, I say, you mummers, cut your cackle, and come to the 'osses!’ 1899Westm. Gaz. 27 June 2/1 Nine-tenths would be delighted if the famous phrase about ‘cutting the cackle’ were acted upon. 1919G. B. Shaw in Shaw on Theatre (1958) 124 Out with the lot of them, then: let us cut the cackle and come to the 'osses. 1921― Back to Methus. v. 239 Cut the cackle; and come to the synthetic couple. 1930Wyndham Lewis Apes of God xii. vi. 469 Cut the cackle Arthur—I'm pressed for time! 1957Economist 28 Dec. 1106/1 Nor..will delegates reassemble..in September after parting only in March—a decidedly cackle-cutting feature of this last session. 1958J. Wain Contenders ix. 193 ‘You must be wondering what all this is about,’ Ned put in, adopting his money-man's tone of directness and cackle-cutting.
b. A short spasmodic laugh, a chuckle.
1856Lever Martins of Cro' M. 410 ‘She hasn't got a nice day for pleasuring!’ said the Jew, with a vulgar cackle.
4. cackle-berry slang (orig. U.S.), an egg.
1916Dialect Notes IV. 272 Pass the cackleberries. 1925G. P. Krapp Eng. Lang. in Amer. I. v. 321 Sometimes slang is complicated in its suggestiveness, like cackleberry, meaning egg. 1962John o' London's 14 June 571/1 A cackle berry is an egg [in naut. slang].
▪ II. cackle, v.1|ˈkæk(ə)l|
Forms: 3 kakelen, cakelen, 4–5 cackle(n, 5 cakele, -yn, kakyl, 5–6 cakle, 6 cakyll, cackyll, -el, cacle, 7 cakell, 6– cackle; Sc. 6 kekkyl, kekell, 7 kekcle: see also keckle.
[Early ME. cakelen: corresp. to Du. kakelen, LG. kâkeln, Sw. kackla, Da. kagle; cf. also Ger. gackeln, Du. gaggelen, and gaggle. The evidence does not make it certain to what extent the word has arisen separately in different langs. in imitation of the animal sounds, or has been adopted from one language into another. The word may have been WGer. or at least Saxon: but the Eng. may also have been from Scandinavian.]
1. intr. To make a noise as a hen, especially after laying an egg; also to make a noise as a goose (which is more specifically to gaggle).
a1225Ancr. R. 66 Þe hen, hwon heo haueð ileid, ne con buten kakelen. 1393Gower Conf. II. 264 Somtime cacleth as a hen. c1440Promp. Parv. 58 Cakelyn of hennys, gracillo. c1470Hors, Shepe, & G. (1822) 17 The ghoos may cakle. 1549Compl. Scot. vi. 39 Quhilk gart the hennis kekkyl. 1552Huloet, Cakle lyke a henne, glocio. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. v. i. 105 If she should sing by day When euery Goose is cackling. 1660W. Secker Nonsuch Prof. 43 Some persons are like hens that after laying must be cackling. a1680Butler Rem. (1759) II. 139 Like..a Wildgoose always cackling when he is upon the Wing. 1824W. Irving T. Trav. II. 253 A hen could not cackle but she was on the alert to secure the new-laid egg.
b. Said of the chattering of other birds, esp. crows, jackdaws, magpies, and starlings. Obs.
a1225Ancr. R. 88 Ane rikelot þet cakeleð hire al þet heo isihð. 1530Lyndesay Test. Papyngo 94 Bark lyk ane Dog, and kekell lyke ane Ka. 1553T. Wilson Rhet. 117 b, Some cackels lyke a henne or a Jack dawe. 1613Markham Eng. Husbandman i. i. iii. (1635) 13 If Crowes flocke much together, and cakell and talke. 1675–7Hobbes Homer 275 A cloud of starelings cackle when they fly.
2. fig. Said of persons:
a. To be full of noisy and inconsequent talk; to talk glibly, be loquacious, prate, chatter.
b. To talk loudly or fussily about a petty achievement, like a hen after laying an egg.
c. To chuckle, ‘to laugh, to giggle’ (J.).
1530Palsgr. 473/1 Howe these women cackyll nowe they have dyned. 1599Broughton's Lett. ix. 34 Cease cackling of the vnlearnednes of thy betters. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull (1727) 70 Then Nic. grinned, cackled, and laughed. 1847Disraeli Tancred ii. v. (1871) 78 The peers cackle as if they had laid an egg. 1860Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. III. cxix. 59 It is also the business of a sensible government, not to cackle on its discoveries. 1862Thackeray Four Georges iii. 162 The equerries and women in waiting..cackled over their tea.
3. trans. To utter with or express by cackling.
c1225Ancr. R. 66 Ȝif hit nere icakeled. 1857Livingstone Trav. vi. 114 Any man who..cackles forth a torrent of vocables. 1880Howells Undisc. Country i. 28 The ladies..now rose..and joyously cackled satisfaction.
▪ III. ˈcackle, v.2 Naut.
Also kackle.
‘To cover a cable spirally with 3-inch old rope to protect it from chafe in the hawse hole’ (Adm. Smyth).
1748Anson Voy. iii. ii. (ed. 4) 427 They [cables] were besides cackled twenty fathom from the anchors. 1883Man. Seamanship for Boys' Training Ships R. Navy (Admiralty) (1886) 128 The cable is then served, or, as is termed, kackled with 2½-in. rounding, for the distance of 9 ft. from the eye. |