| 释义 |
skew-whiff, a. and adv. dial. and colloq.|skjuːˈwɪf, -ˈhwɪf|
Also skew-wiff, -wift, etc.; 8 scew-.
[f. skew a. and adv. + whiff n.1 or v.1]
Askew, awry (lit. and fig.).
1754Scots Mag. July 337/2 Behind, with a coach-horse short dock, cut your hair; Stick a flower before, scew-whiff, with an air. 1839W. Holloway General Dict. Provincialisms 154/1 Skew-whift, adj. (Askew, from Skef, Belg. oblique; and perhaps Whiffed, blown.) Awry. 1854A. E. Baker Gloss. Northamptonshire Words & Phrases II. 239 Skew-whiff, awry, aslant. ‘It's all skew-whiff.’ Probably blown on one side by a whiff or puff. 1879G. F. Jackson Shropshire Word-Bk. 386 Skew-wiff,..adv. awry; irregular; zigzag. 1895J. T. Clegg Stories, Sketches, & Rhymes in Rochdale Dialect 228 Her judgment's getten thrut skew-wift. 1899Shetland News 20 May 7/2, I hed ta geng skewquieff. 1935A. P. Herbert What a Word! iv. 101 Go on cackling..until the orator has to stop and ask you why you cackle. Then tell him. He won't get Frankenstein skew-whiff again. 1946D. L. Sayers Unpopular Opinions 59 When Neptune shouldered Britain out of the sea, he did not make a neat engineering job of it. Characteristically, Britain came up skew-wiff, with one edge thick and hard and the other soft and thin, like a slice of wedding-cake. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. iii. 47 If a boy's cap is on skew-whiff: ‘Are you wearing that cap or just walking underneath it?’ 1959N.Z. Listener 12 June 20/3 A breaker turned the bow skew-wiff. 1974J. Cleary Peter's Pence iii. 82 Our plans seem to have gone a bit skew-wiff, don't they? That's the trouble with the Irish. 1977Lancashire Life Feb. 53/4 Thi tie's put on skew-wiff. |