| 释义 |
croaker|ˈkrəʊkə(r)|
Also 7–8 croker.
[f. croak v. + -er.]
1. An animal that croaks; applied spec. to several North American fishes, also to the Mole Cricket.
1651Ogilby æsop (1665) 11 While the long Vale with big-voiced Croakers [i.e. frogs] rings. 1676T. Glover Virginia in Phil. Trans. XI. 625 In the Creeks are great store of small fish, as Perches, Crokers, Taylors, Eels. 1784Mortimer Carolina ibid. XXXVIII. 315 Perca marina..the Croker. 1868Wood Homes without H. viii. 158 The Mole Cricket, called in some places the Croaker or Churr-worm on account of the peculiar sound which it produces. 1883Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4) 170 Salt-water fishes..Grunts, Croakers, and Drummers..the three last deriving their names from the sounds they utter when caught.
2. transf. One who talks dismally or despondingly, one who forebodes or prophesies evil.
1637Bastwick Litany i. 20 A malignant and corrupt..brood of Crokers. 1771Franklin Autobiog. Wks. 1840 I. 79 There are croakers in every country, always boding its ruin. 1850T. A. Trollope Impress. Wand. v. 57 A few timid croakers shake their heads.
3. slang. (See quot.)
1873Slang Dict., Croaker, a dying person beyond hope; a corpse. 1892Star 28 May 2/7 The cow was a ‘croker’, a beast killed to save it from dying.
4. slang. A doctor, physician; esp. a prison doctor. Now chiefly U.S. Cf. crocus 4.
1859in Hotten Dict. Slang 26. 1889 Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang I. 281/1 One man who had put his name for the ‘butcher’ or croaker, would suddenly find that he had three ounces of bread less to receive. 1931‘Dean Stiff’ Milk & Honey Route vii. 71 Every doctor, known among the hobos as the ‘croaker’ or ‘pill peddler’. a1935D. Runyon More than Somewhat (1937) 12 She..goes..to get a croaker to see if my wounds are fatal. 1946Mezzrow & Wolfe Really Blues vii. 95 The most he needed was some bicarbonate of soda and a physic, not a croaker. |