| 单词 | throw out a tub to the whale |
| 释义 | > as lemmas(to throw out) a tub to the whale b. (to throw out) a tub to the whale, to create a diversion, esp. in order to escape a threatened danger. ΚΠ 1704 J. Swift Tale of Tub Pref. 14 Sea-men have a Custom when they meet a Whale, to fling him out an empty Tub,..to divert him from laying violent Hands upon the Ship... It was decreed, that in order to prevent these Leviathans from tossing and sporting with the Commonwealth, (which of it self is too apt to fluctuate) they should be diverted..by a Tale of a Tub. 1730 Fog's Weekly Jrnl. 29 Aug. 1/1 It has been common to throw out something to divert and amuse the People, such as a Plot, a Conspiracy, or an Enquiry about Nothing,..which Method of proceeding, by a very apt Metaphor, is call'd throwing out the Tub. 1748 S. Richardson Clarissa III. x. 77 When a man talks to a lady upon such subjects,..'tis strange, if he cannot throw out a tub to the whale. 1768 Earl of Malmesbury Diaries & Corr. I. 23 We find it a mere tub to amuse the whale. 1826 J. Doyle Ess. Catholic Claims 248 Some tub for a whale of prejudice to knash its teeth against. 1912 Nation 29 June 465/2 He throws a tub to the High Church whale. (to throw out) a tub to the whale a. Prov. phr. (to throw out) a tub to the whale: see tub n.1 9b very like a whale (after Shakespeare Hamlet iii. ii. 398): see quot. 1859. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > belief > uncertainty, doubt, hesitation > improbability, unlikeliness > [adjective] > extremely very like a whale1859 the mind > mental capacity > expectation > feeling of wonder, astonishment > quality of inspiring wonder > [adjective] > with quality of strangeness selcouthc888 uncouthc900 sellya1000 ferly?c1225 strangec1374 nicec1395 ferlifula1400 monsterfulc1460 portentous1553 miraculous1569 vengible1594 strangefula1618 phenomenous1743 phenomenala1850 very like a whale1859 weird and wonderful1859 fourth-dimensional1902 out of this world1941 unreal1965 1591 Troublesome Raigne Iohn i. sig. D The marriner, Spying the hugie Whale, whose monstrous bulke Doth beare the waues like mountaines fore the winde, That throwes out emptie vessells, so to stay His furie.] < as lemmas |
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