| 释义 |
ˈcheese-ˌparing
[f. cheese n.1 + paring vbl. n. and ppl. a.]
A. n. A paring of the rind of cheese; an object of no value save in the eyes of a miserly economist.
1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iii. ii. 332, I doe remember him at Clements Inne, like a man made after Supper, of a Cheese-paring. 1771Smollett Humph. Cl. 28 Apr., I won't loose a cheese-paring. 1821Syd. Smith Wks. (1867) I. 331 That their candle-ends and cheese-parings are no longer safe.
b. fig.
1813Sir R. Wilson Diary II. 475, I am told the king of Saxony is to be re-established if he consents to give some cheese-parings to his neighbours. 1831J. Wilson Noctes Ambr. lvii. in Blackw. Mag. Aug. 413 Such a tallow-faced cheeseparing of a beardless, bucktoothed ninny.
B. vbl. n. The paring of cheese. fig. Niggardly economizing, parsimonious saving.
1871Q. Rev. Jan. 40 (Hoppe) To supply the deficiencies which the wretched cheeseparings of the two previous years had made in our means [of defence]. 1873Spectator 9 Aug. 1005/2 The discontent with the Government, much of it caused by cheeseparing.
C. ppl. a. Niggardly, miserly, parsimonious.
1867Cape Natal News 1 Jan., The more rigid and cheese-paring school of economists.
Add: Hence (as a back-formation) ˈcheesepare v., (a) intr., to make cheese-paring economies (also fig.); (b) trans., to save (money) in this way.
1890Pall Mall Gaz. 3 Feb. 2/2 But is it fair of Sir Hercules to throw all the blame on the Treasury? After all, it is the business of the Treasury to cheesepare. 1948E. Waugh Ess., Articles & Rev. (1986) 346 Don't cheat and don't cheese-pare: go where you are allowed and hope for better times. 1951Times 21 Sept. 3/1 By pointing to the decision of the Government ‘to give away to the film industry a large part of the few millions they have cheese-pared out of people with bad teeth and weak eyesight’. 1984Times 12 Dec. 10/6 It is truly perverse that a Treasury which insists it is essential to cheesepare a few millions here and there from the science budget is so little interested. 1986‘J. le Carré’ Perfect Spy xiii. 363 Why do I cheesepare and give him only two? |