| 释义 |
▪ I. sing-song, n.
[f. sing v.1 + song n.]
1. A ballad, a piece of verse, having musical rather than poetical qualities, esp. one of a monotonous or jingling character.
1609Ev. Woman in Hum. iv. i. in Bullen O. Pl., My posts shall not be garded with a little sing song. a1661Fuller Worthies, Berks. i. (1662) 86 This sing-song was made on the English by the Scots. 1709Brit. Apollo No. 70. 3/2 Her Sing-Songs..sound as well as Country Ding-Dongs. a1734North Examen i. ii. §130 (1740) 101 There was a Magazine provided of..Pictures and Sing-songs for the Service at Oxford. 1851D. Jerrold St. Giles xxx. 315 A beautiful legend; a nice sing-song to send men to sleep.
transf.1854A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss., Sing-song, a wearisome repetition of any tale or grievance. ‘Don't make such a sing-song about it.’
2. a. Verse or rhyme of the above type.
1693T. Rymer Short View Trag. 34 Campanella tells us, that the German and Gallican Heresie began with Sing-Song, and is carried on by Comedy and Tragedies. 1735Pope Prol. Sat. 226, I ne'er..daggled thro' the town, To fetch and carry sing-song up and down. 1775F. Burney Diary, Let. to Crisp 19 Nov., I would recommend to such worthy judges, the sing-song and prettiness of Waller and Cowley. 1833Westm. Rev. Jan. XVIII. 35 Its place is taken by the despised melodrame, the sing-song of opera. 1856Merivale Rom. Emp. I. (1865) VI. 207 His actions are celebrated in most grandiloquent sing-song.
b. Tone of voice marked by a monotonous rise and fall, with a kind of singing effect.
1822C. B. Brown Carwin, etc. II. 115 Their tone was an insipid sing-song, or a monotonous uniformity. 1835Willis Pencillings II. xliii. 43 Crying out the invitation to prayer in a long drawling sing-song. 1887Jessopp Arcady ii. 50 The fine old Norfolk words, and twang, and squeaky sing-song have gone.
†3. A singer, minstrel. Obs.—1
1694Motteux Rabelais v. xviii, Rhimers, Poets,..Sing-songs, Musitianers.
4. a. An amateur concert of an informal nature; a convivial meeting where each person is expected to contribute a song. Now more usu. a gathering for, or session of, community singing.
1769Trinculo's Trip 19 The dinner o'er, the sing-song done. 1857Ritchie Night Side London 192 The wealthy [have] their ‘ancient concerts’—the costermongers what they term their sing-song. 1865Slang Dict. 231 Sing-Song, a choral meeting at a pot-house. 1869J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London ii. 19 The London factory-bred girl..has her ‘young man’, and accompanies him of evenings to ‘sing-songs’ and raffles. 1885Times 11 Feb. 8/1 On Christmas night the whole camp was en fête, a capital sing-song having been got up. 1899Kipling Stalky ii. 252 ‘Had some rippin' sing-songs in camp, too,’ said Tertius. 1914D. O. Barnett Let. 18 Dec. (1915) 28 We've got some sing-songs and smokers on for Christmas. 1933Sun (Baltimore) 21 Oct. 14/6 Harvard students will..learn old German drinking songs at the German Sing-Song conducted by James W. Hawkes. 1968‘J. le Carré’ Small Town in Germany ix. 147 Wednesday was welfare. Ping pong night. Sing song night. 1974J. Aiken Midnight is Place i. 30 Ey, David! Coom to t'sing-song at t'Mason's Arms tonight?
b. The style of singing usual at a concert or gathering of this description.
1893E. J. Milliken 'Arry Ballads 3 A sand-parlour'd shanty devoted to sing-song and swipes.
5. attrib.
a. Of persons: Making mere jingling rhyme or monotonous verse; delighting in trivial or simple singing.
a1687Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.) Poems (1775) 141 And sing-song Durfey..Lives by his impudence, and not the muses. 1700T. Brown tr. Fresny's Amusem. 51 The poets..from Huffing Dryden, to Sing-Song Durfey. 1760Mrs. Delany Life & Corr. (1861) III. 620 A good-humoured sing-song man. 1794W. Combe Boydell's Thames I. 282 The severity of the sing-song satirist. 1872Punch 16 Nov. 200/1 You know that the sing-song lot mostly dislike good music.
b. Of the nature of sing-song; characterized by a jingling triviality or a monotonous rise and fall.
1734Prompter 24 Dec. 1/1 Are the Opera's any more than Sing-song Concerts? 1739Whitehead Manners 8 What sing-song Riot, and what Eunuch-squawling. 1810Scott 24 Oct. in Fam. Lett. (1894) I. vi. 196, I have other four little tales, or sing-song kind of verses. 1812Baker's Biogr. Dram. II. 313/2 A satire on the sing-song and raree-show insignificance of modern operas. 1832Macaulay Let. 21 July in Trevelyan, Shall I tell you the news in rhyme? I think I will send you a regular sing-song gazette.
c. Monotonous in cadence.
1825J. Neal Bro. Jonathan I. 89 A regular sing-song intonation. 1857Hughes Tom Brown i, Repeating in true sing-song vernacular the legend of St. George. 1874Burnand My Time xxii. 198 He addressed him in an unctuous tone, and in a sing-song style.
6. Special Comb.: sing-song girl, a Chinese girl who entertains men by singing and dancing (euphem. one of easy virtue); sing-song theory, the theory (propounded by Jespersen) that language evolved from primitive singing.
1934‘A. Bridge’ Ginger Griffin 326 So there will be more war in China because of a foreigner's idle love-letter to a sing-song girl. 1939Auden & Isherwood Journey to War 157 Even the singsong girls have changed their style. 1965J. Von Sternberg Fun in Chinese Laundry iv. 82 On the first floor were gambling tables, singsong girls. 1978China Now Mar./Apr. 19/2 The shocking thing was that in the cities—where officials danced or played with sing song girls—there were grain and food.
1939L. H. Gray Foundations of Lang. 40 Language has been traced by some to primitive rhythmic chants and to singing (the sing-song theory). 1973Current Anthropol. XIV. 27/3 He makes no reference to Jespersen's classic ‘sing-song’ theory of language origin (1922). Though this label was applied to Jespersen's hypothesis..by his critics, there seems little doubt that he believed language to have been chanted before it was spoken.
Hence ˈsing-ˌsongy a.
1892E. Lytton Let. 20 July in E. Lutyens Blessed Girl (1953) viii. 155 Vic is made to read poetry aloud to us. He has a very sing-songy voice. 1900Pall Mall Mag. Sept. 107 Reading in deep guttural tones, and in a sing-songy way.
▪ II. sing-song, v.
[f. prec.]
1. trans.
a. To force by means of singing.
1726Welsted Dissembled Wanton i. i, In Short, we are Sing-Songed at once out of our Senses and our Money.
b. To utter or express in a monotonous chant. Also, with direct speech as obj.
1867Our Young Folks March (Stand.), Some singsonged the multiplication table. 1882‘Edna Lyall’ Donovan vi, Now they sing-song all the things so, and I can't seem to pick myself up. 1884Graphic 15 Nov. 519/3 One sing-songing the alphabet. 1931[see caller n. 1 e]. 1963R. Wolff I, Keturah ii. iv. 171 ‘You can't catch me. You can't catch me,’ he singsonged. 1976P. A. Lake Leffert's Disease 173 ‘I'm sorry, he's not here,’ she sing-songed with her nasal twang.
2. intr. To sing, make verses, utter words, etc., in a sing-song manner.
1830W. Taylor Hist. Surv. Germ. Poetry I. 131 On the linden, birds were thronging, All chirping, warbling, singing songing. 1875Tennyson Q. Mary ii. i, There's no glory Like his who saves his country: and you sit Sing-songing here. 1901G. Douglas Ho. w. Green Shutters 267 He sing-songed, always saying ‘this fine bullock’ in exactly the same tone of voice. |