| 释义 |
▪ I. spiel, n.1 Sc.|spiːl|
[See bonspiel.]
A match at curling.
1824Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl. 333 Then curling, and hurling, The channelstane at spiels. 1830M'Diarmid Sk. Nat. 252, I know nothing more exhilarating than a spiel on the ice. 1901R. M. F. Watson Closeburn xiv. 232 In 1838 a spiel had not then been played in the memory of man in Aberdeenshire.
▪ II. spiel, n.2 slang (orig. U.S.).|spiːl, ʃpiːl|
[a. G. spiel play, game; see also spiel v.]
1. Talk, a story; a speech intended to persuade or advertise, patter. Also transf.
1896Ade Artie xi. 100 There was a long spiel by the high guy in the pulpit. 1906Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 25 Jan. 6/1 We appointed him mayor at five minutes' notice and gave him the job of giving the Chinks the right kind of a spiel. 1925Wodehouse Sam the Sudden xiii. 92 He pulled this long spiel about having had a letter from a guy he used to know named Finglass. 1926J. Black You can't Win ii. 9 Your capable beggar on the street does not say ‘please’. He rips off his spiel in such exact and precise language that you get your dime without it. 1931‘D. Stiff’ Milk & Honey Route 189 In the missions, to make him lonely and the more susceptible to the ‘righteous spiel’, they sometimes sing Where is my wandering Boy Tonight? 1937Printers' Ink Monthly May 42/2 Spiel, the advertising copy. 1944D. Burley Orig. Handbk. Harlem Jive 59, I latched on to this hard, mad spiel. 1953H. Miller Plexus I. iii. 137 Flatter the pants off him! Then go into a little spiel—you know what I mean. Give him some pointers on how to launch the magazine. 1959New Statesman 19 Sept. 344/1 At the end of these flights the poor bored hostess is still compelled to repeat her antique spiel; ‘We hope you have enjoyed your flight.’ 1962J. Wain Strike Father Dead 59, I gave her just the Christian name, and she gave me the spiel about never having met anybody called that before, and its being a nice name, and so forth. a1974R. Crossman Diaries (1975) I. 82 Then Callaghan started off with a long spiel which he read aloud from a Treasury brief on pale blue paper, describing the extreme gravity of the economic situation. 1980Listener 13 Nov. 665/3 A long spiel..from a tart about how much horrider Soho has become.
2. A swindle, a dishonest line of business.
1901‘J. Flynt’ World of Graft iv. 169 I've been shut up a number of years..but I didn't mind them as much as you would; I took them as part of the spiel. 1921P. & T. Casey Gay Cat 303/1 ‘What's your spiel?’ asks one hobo of another. 1932W. Hatfield Ginger Murdoch 175, I reckon you were thinking you had shaken me off, and could go about your spiel, whatever it is. 1954T. A. G. Hungerford Sowers of Wind 174 This isn't a spiel, Colonel... I know this bloke, and he's on the level.
▪ III. spiel, v. slang (orig. U.S.).|spiːl, ʃpiːl|
Also † speel, speil.
[ad. G. spielen to play, gamble.]
1. a. intr. To gamble. Also rarely trans.
1859[implied at spieling vbl. n.]. 1882Sydney Slang Dict. 8/1 Speel, to gamble. 1892I. Zangwill Childr. Ghetto I. iv. 124 They played loo, ‘klobbiyos’, napoleon... Old Hyams did not spiel, because he could not afford to. 1931[see half n. 6 i]. 1953W. Mankowitz Bespoke Overcoat xiv. 21 You go to the dog tracks in the evening? Not for me... Horses? No horses, neither. You must spiel something. Poker, shemmy?
b. To play music.
1870Territorial Enterprise (Virginia City, Nevada) 16 July 3/1 The new ‘circus’ is to be seen at the corner of D street and Sutton avenue—down var der orkan goes a spielin'. 1871Nassau Lit. Mag. Feb. 179 Come now, old fellow, ‘speil’. 1947G. S. Perry Cities of Amer. 187 Denver's Symphony chooses to spiel only when winter's winds doth blow.
2. To talk, esp. volubly or glibly; to patter. Also with away.
1894Mid-Winter Appeal (San Francisco) 10 Mar. 1/3 Tell [the barker] to stop spieling now and then. 1904‘O. Henry’ Cabbages & Kings xiii. 220 If you can borrow some gent's hat in the audience, and make a lot of customers for an idle stock of shoes come out of it, you'd better spiel. 1914[see ballyhoo n.]. 1920Wodehouse Coming of Bill i. v. 60 Spiel away, ma'am... The floor's yours. 1946Mezzrow & Wolfe Really Blues (1957) vi. 70 One of the funniest things I ever heard was Mac spieling in Yiddish. 1966R. Sheckley Mindswap vii. 49 Silent and disdainful, scorning to spiel, the little man stood with arms folded as Flynn walked up to the booth.
3. trans. To tell, to reel off; to announce; to perform.
1904‘O. Henry’ Cabbages & Kings iii. 58 I'll come right back and hear you spiel the rest before bedtime. 1936W. A. Gape Half a Million Tramps v. 139 When my turn came I was not ready to ‘spiel’ off the answers. 1962Coast to Coast 1961–62 81 Garish neons had spieled, in Latin letters, the delights of innumerable honkeytonks. 1970A. Toffler Future Shock xviii. 378 Each participant spieled off his reason for attending. 1977Time 28 Nov. 64/1 In a few hours he would be on a..stage singing his songs and spieling his narrative jazz poetry to an audience of college kids.
Hence ˈspieling vbl. n.
1859G. Matsell Vocabulum 84 Speiling, gambling. 1898A. M. Binstead Pink 'Un & Pelican ix. 190 A raid upon a ‘spieling’ club by the police. 1904‘O. Henry’ in McClure's Mag. July 353/2 It was just what Buck wanted—a regular business at a permanent stand, with no open air spieling..on the street corners every evening. 1937G. Frankau More of Us vii. 78 Nor think this spieling shames our British blood. 1959T. H. White Godstone & Blackymor 47 There was no patter now, no fair ground spieling. 1981Observer 9 Aug. 3/2 ‘Pitching’, or spieling, is how traders sell by a kind of inverted auction: prices start out sky-high, and buyers leap into the breach as the pitcher brings them tumbling down.
▪ IV. spiel
variant of speel n. and v.1, v.2 |