单词 | worse off |
释义 | worse offadv.adj.n. A. adv. Used predicatively: in a less favourable or advantageous situation; esp. less well provided with money or other resources. Π 1729 T. Odell Smugglers i. 2 I'm worse off yet, but we must worry 'em,..for they ne'er think o' paying Folks. 1792 J. W. Newman Lounger’s Common-place Bk. 41 If it is my fate to be cornuted..I am surely no worse off to have it regularly and preconcertedly performed by a well bred man of the town. 1832 G. C. Lewis Let. 7 Nov. (1870) 20 On the whole they are rather worse off than the convicts in the hulks. 1919 W. De Morgan Old Madhouse i. 3 Are we the better or the worse off by the change? 1972 Daily Tel. 21 Nov. 1/8 The idea was to prevent families falling into the ‘poverty trap’—the situation in which a pay rise can mean the poor are worse off because they lose a disproportionate number of State benefits. 2010 Church Times 12 Nov. 14/2 This is the ‘paradox of choice’: the more options people have, the worse off they are. B. adj. In attributive use: less wealthy, poorer. Usually with hyphen. ΘΠ the world > action or operation > adversity > [adjective] > in less fortunate circumstances worseOE worse off1872 1872 Family Treasury 191/1 It appeals to the better-off class of children in favour of the worse-off class. 1886 Victoria (Austral.) Parl. Deb. 51 293/1 Will any one tell the worse-off classes of the country that when they buy blankets they must buy an article composed of nothing but wool? 1906 H. Wrixon Pattern Nation 4 When the worse-off people..do come to govern, they will no longer tolerate a state of things under which they remain poor, while a few are able to get upon their shoulders and become rich. 2000 Econ. & Philos. 16 7 Like leximin, Absolute Priority gives absolute priority to a specified group of worse-off people. C. n. With the and plural agreement. People who are worse off financially, considered as a class. Π 1890 W. W. Hunter et al. State Educ. for People iii. 49 The generosity of the better-off to the worse-off. 1915 Railroad Trainman Mar. 283/2 The better off are never ready for a change of systems until they have failed under the ones they have and join the worse off. 1976 Hansard Commons 9 June 1597 The [licence] fee is a poll tax and it is regressive. It bears very hard on the worse-off. 1996 W. Hutton State we're In (rev. ed.) viii. 199 A scheme which imposes a measure of redistribution from the better-off in work to the worse-off in retirement. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2017; most recently modified version published online December 2021). < |
随便看 |
英语词典包含1132095条英英释义在线翻译词条,基本涵盖了全部常用单词的英英翻译及用法,是英语学习的有利工具。