| 释义 |
▪ I. cuff, n.1|kʌf|
Forms: 4 coffe, 4–7 cuffe, 6 cuyffe, 7 kuff, 7– cuff.
[ME. coffe, cuffe, of uncertain origin.
The word has some similarity of form to ML. cuphia, cuffia, in OE. cuffie, cap, head-covering, F. coiffe, coif; but no connexion of sense appears.]
†1. A mitten or glove. Obs.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 56 He caste on his cloþes, i-clouted and i-hole, His cokeres and his coffus, for colde of his nayles. c1440Promp. Parv. 106 Cuffe, glove, or meteyne, mitta (J. ciroteca). 1467Nottingham Rec. II. 262 Unum par chirotecarum vocatarum cuffes de velwet.
2. a. An ornamental part at the bottom of a sleeve, consisting of a fold of the sleeve itself turned back, a band of linen, lace, etc. sewed on, or the like; also, the corresponding part of a shirt-sleeve, or a separate band of linen or other material worn round the wrist so as to appear under the sleeve.
1522Test. Ebor. (Surtees) V. 154 My velvett jacket, to make his childer patlettes and cuyffes. 1594Nashe Unfort. Trav. 15 Cleane shirts and cuffes. a1613Overbury A Wife (1638) 162 He never weares Cuffes. 1684Wilding in Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) I. 259 For a pair of Kuffs. 1768Sterne Sent. Journ., Remise Door, She laid her hand upon the cuff of my coat. 1838Dickens O. Twist ii, Oliver firmly grasping his [Mr. Bumble's] gold-laced cuff. 1861Wynter Soc. Bees 153 He turned up his cuffs like an expert chemical lecturer.
b. That part of a long glove or gauntlet which covers the wrist or part of the arm.
1860J. Hewitt Anc. Armour II. Descr. Engravings p. vii, The sollerets and the cuffs of the gauntlets.
c. Colloq. phrases: off the cuff (as if from notes made on the shirt-cuff) orig. U.S., extempore, on the spur of the moment, unrehearsed; also attrib. (with hyphens); on the cuff, (a) orig. U.S., on credit; (b) N.Z., beyond what is appropriate or conventional; excessive (phr. a bit on the cuff perh. infl. by rhyming collocation a bit rough); to shoot one's cuffs, see shoot v.
1938New York Panorama (Federal Writers' Project, N.Y.) vi. 157 Double talk is created by mixing plausible-sounding gibberish into ordinary conversation, the speaker keeping a straight face or dead pan and enumerating casually or off the cuff. 1941Time (Air Exp. Ed.) 4 Aug. 1/1 Talking off the cuff to a group of civilian-defense volunteers he made them a little homily. 1944Penguin New Writing XX. 130 In that scene, shot off the cuff in a shockingly bad light, there leapt out of the screen..something of the real human guts and dignity. 1948Economist 3 July 17/2 Mr. Truman's off-the-cuff comment. 1960News Chron. 6 July 7/7 He was infuriated by Mr. Macmillan's refusal to give off-the-cuff answers.
1927K. Nicholson Barker 149 On the cuff, a charged account. 1938F. D. Sharpe Sharpe of Flying Squad 332 On the cuff, payment deferred. 1945B. MacDonald Egg & I (1947) xi. 135 Money was not important at all. All business was transacted on the cuff.
1942in Webber & Colvin Johnny Enzed in Middle East (1946) 8 A bit on the cuff, that sort of thing. 1944J. H. Fullarton Troop Target xi. 85 That's a bit on the cuff, Dig.
d. The turn-up on a trouser leg. Chiefly U.S.
1911T. Eaton & Co. Catal. Spring & Summer 117 Trousers have belt loops, cuff bottoms and full width. 1917Ibid. Fall & Winter 369 Trousers have five pockets, belt loops and finished with cuff. 1931W. Faulkner Sanctuary vi. 52 Scraping at his trouser-cuffs. 1947Book Nine (Caxton Press, N.Z.) 23 He tapped [the cigarette] ash into his trouser cuff. 1968Observer 10 Mar. 25/5 A technique which guarantees there won't be glass fragments (identifiable by spectrography) in the cuffs of the thief's trousers. 1969Catal. J.C. Penney Fall & Winter 561 Slacks... Rugged corduroy fabric. Belt loops and cuffs.
3. A fetter for the wrist, a handcuff.
1663Butler Hud. i. ii. 1093 Promises that yoke The Conqueror, are quickly broke, Like Sampson's Cuffs. 1861Thackeray Round. Papers, On being found out (1876) 132 Mr. Bardolph..puts out his hands to the little steel cuffs, and walks away quite meekly.
4. attrib. and Comb. cuff-edge, cuff-link(s).
1883A. Dobson Old World Idylls 17 The shoulder-knot that slept within her cuff-box.
1684Lond. Gaz. No. 1981/4 A Cuff Button with a Diamond of about ten grains.
1922Joyce Ulysses 7 Across the threadbare cuffedge he saw the sea hailed as a great sweet mother.
1897Sears, Roebuck Catal. 425 Solid gold Cuff Links, plain polished and raised ornamentation. 1915‘Bartimeus’ Tall Ship iv. 75 This liberal display of fine linen and flashing cuff-links. 1970A. Cameron et al. Computers & O.E. Concordances 39 We had slugs made for print chains and finally made cuff links out of the slugs. 1971N.Y. Times 21 Feb. 40 (Advt.), Boutique cufflink collection in swivel lucite top cases.
1677Wood Life (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) II. 389 For cuff strings, 8d.
▪ II. cuff, n.2|kʌf|
[Goes with cuff v.1 (q.v.).]
1. A blow with the fist, or with the open hand; a buffet. Cf. fisticuff.
1570Levins Manip. 183/37 A cuffe, colaphus. 1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. iii. ii. 165 This mad-brain'd bridegroome tooke him suche a cuffe, That downe fell Priest and booke. 1635N. R. Camden's Hist. Eliz. iv. 493 She..gave him a cuffe on the ear. 1712Addison Spect. No. 433 ⁋6 Their publick Debates were generally managed with Kicks and Cuffs. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 62/1 Many a cuff did the foreman..give him for absenting himself.
b. Phr. at cuffs: at blows, fighting; to go or fall to cuffs.
1602Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 373 Vnlesse the Poet and the Player went to Cuffes in the Question. 1669Lond. Gaz. No. 386/4 The Contest grew so high, that they began to deside the dispute at Cuffs. 1683Autobiog. Sir J. Bramston 140 Macedo..fell to cuffs with a Frenchman. 1711Swift Lett. (1767) III. 175 He was at cuffs with a brother footman. 1720Humourist 54 Mutatius is generally at Cuffs with himself. a1839Praed Poems (1864) II. 225 And there were kings who never went To cuffs for half-a-crown.
2. transf. A blow or stroke of any kind.
1610Mirr. Mag. 619 (T.) The billows rude..Cuff after cuff, the earth's green banks did batter. 1778F. Burney Diary 23 Aug., In getting out of the coach, she had given her cap some unlucky cuff. 1872Blackie Lays Highl. 34 Granite battlements that..stiffly bear the cuffs and buffet of the strong-armed blast.
▪ III. cuff, n.3 slang.
[Cf. cuffin, chuff1.]
A contemptuous term for an old man; esp. a miserly old fellow.
1616R. C. Times' Whistle iv. 1255 Some rich cuffe. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, A pleasant Old Cuff, a frolicksom old Fellow. 1725Bailey Erasm. Colloq. (1877) 371 (D.) Gi. I boarded with Antronius. Ja. What with that rich old cuff? 1760Colman Polly Honeycombe iii, Ten to one the old cuff may not stay with her.
▪ IV. cuff, n.4
A variant (of Scottish origin) of scuff, scruff, in cuff of the neck, ‘the fleshy part of the neck behind’ (Jam.); also the coat collar.
1740in Inverness Cour. 29 Dec. 1883. 3/1 Mr. M.'s wife was drawn backwards by the cuff of the neck. 1823Galt R. Gilhaize I. 81 (Jam.) Her husband..seizing his Grace by the cuff of the neck, swung him away from her with..vehemence. a1873Lytton Ken. Chillingly iv. x, I took him..by the cuff of the neck. 1876Smiles Sc. Natur. ii. (ed. 4) 29 She took hold of her son by the cuff of the neck.
▪ V. cuff, v.1|kʌf|
[Of uncertain origin: cf. G. Rogues' cant kuffen to thrash (‘perh. of Hebraic origin’, Sievers); also Sw. kuffa to thrust, push.]
1. trans. To strike with the fist, or with the open hand; to buffet.
1530Palsgr. 502/2, I cuffe one, I pomell hym about the heed, Je torche. 1570Levins Manip. 184/3 To cuffe, colaphizare. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, i. iii. 48 Priest, beware your Beard, I meane to tugge it, and to cuffe you soundly. 1676D'Urfey Mad. Fickle v. ii, Sirra you shall be hufft and cufft, and flip'd and kick'd. 1781F. Burney Diary 25 Aug., I think a man deserves to be cuffed for saying any lady will marry him. 1872W. Black Adv. Phaeton iv. 42 She ran out..and cuffed the boys' ears.
b. transf. To beat, strike, buffet.
c1611Chapman Iliad xv. 575 Like a wave..that..down doth come And cuff a ship. a1649Drummond of Hawthornden Poems Wks. (1711) 43 The angry winds not ay Do cuff the roaring deep. 1855Tennyson Maud i. vi. i, The budded peaks of the wood..Caught and cuff'd by the gale.
†c. To vanquish in fight, ‘beat’, ‘lick’. Obs.
a1653G. Daniel Idyll i. 32 The fabled Monsters, wch Sr Bevis oft Vanquisht in fight, and our St George has Cufft. 1769Johnson 26 Oct. in Boswell, I'll take you five children from London, who shall cuff five Highland children.
†2. Of birds: To strike or buffet with the wings, as in fighting. (Also absol.) Obs.
1621G. Sandys Ovid's Met. xiii. 270 [They] Their opposites with beake and tallons rend; Cuffe with their wings. 1647N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. lvii. 171 He hawked at all manner of game..till at length being well cuft and plumed, he was fain to yoke his lawless will under the Grand Charter. 1682Otway Venice Pres. ii. ii. 1687Dryden Hind & P. iii. 1224 The Pigeons..with their quills..cuffed the tender chickens from their food. 1725Pope Odyss ii. 179 They [two eagles] cuff, they tear; their cheeks and necks they rend.
3. absol. or intr. To deal or exchange blows; to fight, scuffle.
1611[see cuffle]. 1675Cotton Poet. Wks. (1765) 223 I'll cuff with thee for twenty Pound. Ibid. 224 To prate, And cuff it out at Billingsgate. 1693Dryden Juv. (J.), While the peers cuff to make the rabble sport. 1812Sporting Mag. XXXIX. 153 All those who choose..in a ring with him to cuff. 1886J. K. Jerome Idle Thoughts (ed. 58) 128 Shrill-voiced women cuff, and curse, and nag.
4. trans. To discuss, talk over (a tale, matter); also, to tell (a tale). dial.
1746P. Lock Exmoor Scolding (1879) 56 Oll vor..cuffing a tale. 1854A. E. Baker Northants Words I. 165 The personal appearance and behaviour of Miss H ― was cuffed over at the ball. 1867W. F. Rock Jim an' Nell (1896) cx, Let's cuff another tale. 1891R. P. Chope Dial. Hartland 39 Cuff over, to talk over, discuss. ‘Let's ha' a pipe an' cuff it auver.’
Hence ˈcuffing vbl. n. and ppl. a. (In quot. 1609 fig. = contending, opposing.)
1609Jas. I Sp. at Whitehall in Harl. Misc. I. 12 There are divers crosse and cuffing statutes, and some are penned as they may be taken in divers, yea, contrary sences. a1680Butler Rem. (1759) II. 32 In Cuffing, all Blows are aimed at the Face. 1741Richardson Pamela II. 257, I have but just escaped a good Cuffing. 1886Burton Arab. Nts. I. 325 Give her a sound cuffing.
▪ VI. cuff, v.2 rare.|kʌf|
[f. cuff n.1]
trans. To put cuffs on; to handcuff; see cuff n.1 3.
1693Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) III. 1 He was cuff'd and shackled with irons, and committed to Newgate. 1851Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. I. 555 Taken prisoner, cuffed and stripped. |