| 释义 |
spring-cleaning
[f. spring n.1 6 b.]
The general cleaning of a house, etc., usually performed in the spring. Also attrib.
1857E. M. Stone Life J. Howland i. 28 At the annual ‘spring cleaning’, they discovered a bundle of manuscripts. 1873H. Martineau Let. 6 Mar. in Autobiogr. (1897) III. 416 This will be a busy month, with the spring cleaning and whitewashing. 1887J. Ashby-Sterry Lazy Minstrel (1892) 153 Spring Cleaning's a terrible bore! 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 79 Things were in a spring-cleaning confusion.
Hence spring-clean v. trans. and intr. Also transf. and fig., and as n., the act of spring-cleaning; spring-cleaner.
1849C. Brontë Shirley I. xi. 289 Very handsome..these shining brown panels are..but—if you know what a ‘Spring-clean’ is—very execrable and inhuman. 1889Pall Mall G. 15 July 3/1 There are few points of mutual sympathy between the poet and the spring-cleaner. 1894Daily News 21 Apr. 6/6 Houseboat-owners are at present busily engaged in painting and spring cleaning their craft. 1908in Englische Studien (1935) Apr. 119 He was helping his wife to ‘spring-clean’. 1926Socialist Rev. Dec. 14 House to house inspections [should be] made in the worst areas; in fact, a regular spring-clean of the whole town organised. 1957L. Durrell Justine i. 23 It was thrown away by Hamid in the course of a spring-clean. 1961Countryman Autumn 515 The exhausted hound awoke and started a relentless spring-clean of his dusty coat. 1978N. Marsh Grave Mistake i. 36, I was helping springclean at the time. 1979Guardian 19 July 14/5 If, early next week, the Carter White House has truly been spring-cleaned..then the Presidency will be much strengthened. |