| 释义 |
shoeblack|ˈʃuːblæk|
[f. shoe n. + black v.]
a. One who cleans boots and shoes for a livelihood.
1778Foote Trip to Calais i. (1778) 21 As I live, a couple of shoe-blacks. 1831Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. ix, Will the whole Finance Ministers..of modern Europe undertake to make one Shoeblack happy?
attrib.1862G. H. Townsend Man. of Dates s.v. Shoeblacks, The existing ragged school shoeblack brigade was founded in 1851.
b. shoe-black plant = shoe-flower (shoe n. 6 c). Also ellipt.
1837J. Macfadyen Flora Jamaica I. 66 The flowers, from the mucilaginous juice they contain, are employed to give a polish to the leather of shoes; and hence the plant has received the name of the shoe-black. 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Shoe-black,..a name in Jamaica for the Hibiscus rosa sinensis. 1866Treas. Bot. I. 589/1 Hibiscus Rosa sinensis... These flowers..are used..in Java for blacking shoes, whence the plant is frequently called the Shoe-black Plant. 1965Harper's Bazaar Feb. 18/3 The scarlet blossoms of the bush they [sc. Jamaicans] call the Shoe-Black.
So † shoe-blacker, a shoeblack. shoe-blacking, (a) = blacking vbl. n. 3 b; (b) the blacking and polishing of shoes.
1755Johnson Dict., Japanner..2. A shoeblacker. 1843M. A. Richardson Local Hist. Table Bk., Hist. II. Index, Shoe blacker. 1890L. D'Oyle Notches 13 They were..the only persons possessed of shoe-blacking. 1902Alice Terton Lights & Shadows in Hosp. x. 166 His interest in the shoe-blacking soon waned. |