| 释义 |
▪ I. cosy, cosey, cozy, a. and n. The normal spelling in Britain is cosy, and in the U.S. cozy.|ˈkəʊzɪ|
Also 8 Sc. colsie, 8–9 cosie, cozie.
[Orig. Sc. (and perh. north. Eng.): derivation unknown.
Guesses are that it is connected with cosh, or with Gaelic còsagach ‘full of holes or crevices; sheltered, snug, warm’, f. còsag little hole, crevice, dim. of còs hollow, hole. But neither of these seems tenable, the phonetic form and the sense both presenting difficulties. App. the primary sense was of personal condition, not of places or circumstances.]
A. adj.
1. Of persons: Comfortable from being warm and sheltered; snug.
1709W. Guthrie Serm. 24 (Jam.) When Israel was colsie at hame. 1728Ramsay Last Sp. Miser vi, To keep you cosie in a hoord. 1744Mrs. Delany Life & Corr. 311 Where I hope you'll be cosy and free from bustle and fatigue. 1837Dickens Pickw. xxx, After Mr. Bob Sawyer had informed him that he meant to be very cosey. 1865Englishman's Mag. Jan. 7 He lay warm and cozy.
2. Of a place:
a. Sheltered and thus warm; this passes into the sense of
b. Sheltering, keeping warm, in which one is warm and comfortable. Often both notions are involved.
1785Burns To J. Smith xviii, Then cannie, in some cozie place, They close the day. 1796Macneill Will & Jean i. xxii, Firs the high craigs cleading, Raised a' round a cosey screen. 1806Miss Wordsworth Address to Child, Here's a cozie warm house for Edward and me. 1857Kingsley Two Y. Ago II. 219 Frank leaned back in a cosey arm-chair. 1884Queen Victoria More Leaves 105 The rooms so cozy and nice.
3. Of a job: = cushy a.
1915D. O. Barnett Letters 198 That's a particularly cosy job, as he lives at brigade H.Q. and does nothing.
4. Warmly intimate or friendly; sentimental; freq. in pejorative sense: complacent, smug, unadventurous, parochial; = comfortable a. 10 b.
1927Beerbohm Let. 2 Oct. (1964) 266 We liked her very much. She isn't exactly cosy, but she's very spirited. 1943Horizon Mar. 197 Hence arose an interesting theatrical phenomenon—the cult of the Cosy Play. In this type of drama the characters bore a recognizable likeness to the members of the audience..but wiser, more humorous, better-looking. 1958Observer 25 May 16/7 Cosy little murder mystery. 1959Daily Mail 20 Feb. 8/1 It was a cosy chat—Mrs Betjeman..is a cosy person. 1959Times Lit. Suppl. 29 May 318/3 If her tone in discussing the Brontë girls becomes at times a trifle too cosy, where actual research is involved she has shown herself to be commendably austere. 1960C. P. Snow Affair v. 49 It was mildly ironic..to find her set on seeing him a cosy, bourgeois success.
5. cosy corner [cf. cosy n. 3], an upholstered seat which fits into a corner of a room; such a corner, cosily furnished; also attrib. and fig.; cosy stove (proprietary name), a free-standing enclosed stove.
1894Country Gentlemen's Catal. 115/1 Our patent cosy corners. Elegant and comfortable additions to any room. 1898A. Bennett Man from North xvi. 138 The ‘cosy corner’, an angle of the room furnished with painted mirrors and a bark bench of fictitious rusticity. a1899in J. Gloag Victorian Comfort (1961) iii. 73 (Advt.), Handsome Enamelled White or any colour Cosy Corner, complete with drapery of cretonne. 1926–7Army & Navy Stores Catal. 279 The ‘cozy’ stove. Continuous burning. 1950D. Gascoyne Vagrant 8 Lying resigned in cosy-corner crow's-nest. 1955M. Hastings Cork & Serpent viii. 98 There was a cosy stove in the grate. 1956B. Goolden At Foot of Hills vii. 172 In the dining-room the doors of the cosy stove were closed. 1968C. P. Bracken Roman Ring ii. 7 Cosy corner was the correct period terminology for the chintz-covered sofa and low table.
B. n.
†1. (See quot.) Obs.
[1856Engineer I. 117/1 (title) Patent Cosy Express. Mr. H. R. Abraham's Patent Cosy Carriage.] 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Cosy, the name given to a small kind of omnibus recently introduced.
2. A quilted covering placed over a tea-pot to retain the heat; more fully, tea-cosy. A similar covering to keep an egg warm, an egg-cosy.[Known to me about 1848. F. Hall.] 1863Tyndall Heat ix. §342 (1870) 274 It is not unusual to preserve the heat of teapots by a woollen covering, but the ‘cosy’ must fit loosely. 1886Daily News 28 Dec. 7/4 Advt., Cushions, Tea Coseys, Antimacassars, etc.
Comb.1890H. S. Hallett 1000 Miles 250 We carried a cosie-covered Chinese teapot.
3. A cosy seat; spec. a canopied seat for two, occupying a corner of a room. [Called in F. causeuse, which has perhaps suggested cosy in English.]
1876Green Stray Stud. 65 The salon itself..is a pleasant room, gaily painted, with cosies all round it and a huge mass of gorgeous flowers in the centre.
▪ II. cosy, v.|ˈkəʊzɪ|
Also cozie, cozy.
[f. the adj.]
†1. intr. To be comfortable, snug. Obs. dial.
1898Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v. cozie, While topers cozie in the neuk.
2. trans. To comfort, reassure; to delude. Also with along. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
1939C. Morley Kitty Foyle xxvi. 262 But I cosied myself thinking maybe I was shot by too much nerve strain at the office. 1960M. Sharp Something Light xxiv. 212 Her impulse, on purely selfish grounds, was to cosy Mr Clark on every point. 1965Observer 15 Aug. 17/6 The important thing is ‘to cosy along’ the prospective victim for the camera.
3. intr. Colloq. phr. (chiefly U.S.) to cosy up to: to snuggle up to; to become friendly with; to ingratiate oneself with (someone).
1937News-Week 9 Jan. 37 When the New Hampshire native cozies up to the fireplace in his Washington home and decides to talk, he usually talks about one subject: solar engines. 1966D. Skirrow It won't get you Anywhere xxxix. 193 Fluck had cosied right up to Sullivan, hoping to drive Ball mad with jealousy. 1966Observer 13 Feb. 13/4 Civil servants are cosying up to those they think might be their next masters. |