| 单词 | weasel word |
| 释义 | > as lemmasweasel word weasel word n. originally U.S. an equivocating or ambiguous word which takes away the force or meaning of the concept being expressed. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > equivocal quality, ambiguity > [noun] > deliberate > instance collusion1581 weasel word1900 weasel1959 1900 S. Chaplin in Cent. Mag. June 306/2 ‘The public should be protected—’ ‘Duly protected,’ said Gamage, ‘That's always a good weasel word.’ 1916 N.Y. Times 1 June 1/2 Colonel Roosevelt began the day's speechmaking by opening his guns upon President Wilson... He accused Mr. Wilson of using ‘weaselwords’ in advocating universal military training, but ‘only the compulsion of the spirit of America’. A weasel, the Colonel explained, would suck all the meat out of an egg and leave it an empty shell. 1939 Florida: Guide to Southernmost State (Federal Writers' Project) i. 125 There were no ‘weasel word’ qualifications, such as ‘it is alleged’. 1952 G. Sarton Hist. Sci. I. xvi. 404 It is perhaps a little ambiguous to call them idealists. [Note] The weasel word idealist is sometimes understood as the opposite of realist. 1977 P. Johnson Enemies of Society viii. 108 Whereas in the spheres of advertising, education and economics the use of weasel words tends to be towards gross overstatement, in the field of killing and mass destruction, the tendency is to understate and minimize. < as lemmas |
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