| 释义 |
▪ I. smatter, n.|ˈsmætə(r)|
[f. the vb.]
1. Superficial knowledge; a smattering.
1668Wilkins Real Char. 205 Unskilfulness, bungling,..slubber, smatter. 1690Temple Ess. Learning Wks. 1720 I. 297 Other Sciences..were in a manner extinguish'd.., excepting only a Smatter of Judicial Astrology. 1787W. Taylor Scots Poems 6 An' than jog on wi' rhymin smatter To toom my noddle. 1881Thompson Proc. U.S. Superintendents' Conv. 35 The mistake lies in the substitution of smatter for knowledge. 1883Adams College Fetich 27 That worthless smatter of the classics.
2. pl. Scraps, trifles, fragments; small sums. Sc.
1766A. Nicol Poems 76 He can pray, and tell long scrifts of Greek, And broken smatters of the Hebrew speak. 1808in Jamieson.
▪ II. smatter, v.|ˈsmætə(r)|
Forms: 4 smatre, 4–6 smater, 6 smatyr, 5– smatter.
[Of uncertain origin. Similar forms occur in Sw. smattra to patter, crackle, rattle, etc., G. schmettern to dash, resound, etc., but real connexion is very doubtful. In dialects there is also a verb smatter to smash: see the Eng. Dial. Dict.]
1.
†a. trans. To dirty, smirch, pollute, defile. Obs.
The sense in the Chaucer passage is not quite certain.
13..in Reliq. Antiq. I. 240 Swarte smekyd smethes smateryd with smoke. c1386Chaucer Pars. T. ⁋857 Yet wol they Kisse..and smatre [v.r. smater] hem. 1575–6Durham Deposit. (Surtees) 278 They of St. Margaret's wolde not smatter ther own church yard with thoise that then died in the plage. 1600W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 110 To say the Iesuits are all smattred with Atheisme, I will not. Ibid. 245 More odious stuffe then I haue handled, or am willing to smatter my pen withall.
b. U.S. To splash, splatter. Also intr.
1893N. & Q. 15 July 45 In the daily reports of the interesting Lizzie Borden murder trial, recently held in Massachusetts, I notice the peculiar use of the words smatter, smattering, and smattered in reference to splashes of blood. 1958S. A. Grau Hard Blue Sky iii. 125 The first heavy drops fell and smattered in the dust. 1974D. Richards Coming of Winter v. 144 The man had on a long grey coat, smattered with mud.
†2.
a. intr. To talk ignorantly or superficially, to prate or chatter, of something. Obs.
c1440Lovelich Merlin 3167 Where-offen with sorwe smateryth he of ony thing that to vs longeth for to be? c1522Skelton Why nat to Court? 711 For I abhore to smatter Of one so deuyllysshe a matter. But I wyll make further relacion. 1571R. Edwards Damon & Pithias in Hazl. Dodsley IV. 41 Damon smatters as well as he, of crafty philosophy. 1733Swift On Poetry 51 Of State-Affairs you cannot smatter, Are aukward when you try to flatter.
†b. Without const. Obs.
c1475in Wright Songs & Carols (Percy Soc.) 89 Trow ye that they lyst to smatter, Ore ageynst ther husbondes to clatter? 1523Skelton Garl. Laurel 1194 How Cownterfet Cowntenaunce..With Crafty Conueyaunce dothe smater and flater. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. v. 172 Good Prudence, smatter with your gossip, go. a1661B. Holyday Juvenal (1673) 263 Such rules..your nurses teach children, when they can scarce smatter. 1691E. Taylor Behmen's Theos. Phil. 204 No Tongue or Pen can more than smatter, at the recital of the love-inspired Words.
3. a. To have a slight or superficial knowledge or practice of; to dabble, to be a smatterer (in or at something).
1530Palsgr. 722/2, I smatter of a thyng, I have lytell knowledge in it. Ibid., He smattereth a lytell of the lawe. 1547Boorde Brev. Health Pref. 2 Fooles and incipient persons..wyl enterpryse to smatter and to meddle to mynyster medecynes. 1573L. Lloyd Marrow of Hist. (1653) 218 If a man can but smatter in six or seven languages he is noted to be a rare fellow. 1805G. McIndoe Poems 151 That's no' to hinder me to smatter..At making rhyme. 1827Hood Craniology 39 Just as in making broth they smatter By bobbing twenty things in water. 1882Harper's Mag. LXV. 595, I never knew you to smatter.
b. To go through in a superficial manner.
1881Mahaffy Rep. Irish Schools 26 The system makes it far more lucrative to smatter through all these things than to learn the great subjects.
4. trans. To talk or utter without proper knowledge or proficiency.
1609B. Jonson Sil. Woman iv. ii, The barber smatters Latin, I remember. 1663Butler Hud. i. i. 185 In proper terms, such as men smatter When they throw out and miss the matter. 1708Brit. Apollo No. 68. 3/1 So harsh and so mean are the Lines that you smatter. 1819Metropolis II. 253 A man..who could at least smatter a little French. 1860Thackeray Lovel i, He smattered words in not a few foreign languages.
5. To dabble in (a subject); to study or learn superficially.
1883American XXVI. 281 Then I smatter botany some. 1885Stevenson Dynamiter Wks. 1907 VI. 191, I have smattered law, smattered letters, smattered geography, smattered mathematics. |