| 释义 |
DictionarySeebolta bolt from the blue
a bolt from the blueSomething unexpected or surprising. We always thought of Michael as a life-long bachelor, so it certainly was a bolt from the blue when he returned from his vacation sporting a wedding ring!See also: blue, boltbolt from the blueFig. a sudden surprise. (Alludes to a stroke of lightning from a cloudless sky.) Joe's return to Springfield was a bolt from the blue. The news that Mr. and Mrs. King were getting a divorce struck all their friends as a bolt from the blue.See also: blue, boltbolt from the blue, aAlso, a bolt out of the blue. A sudden, unexpected event. For example, Bill's dropping his life insurance was a bolt from the blue for his wife. This metaphoric term alludes to totally unforeseen lightning or thunder from a cloudless (blue) sky. [First half of 1800s] See also: bolta bolt from the blue COMMON If an event or a piece of news is, or comes like, a bolt from the blue, it is completely unexpected. A Foreign Office spokesman had described the coup as `a bolt from the blue'. Note: You can also say that something is, or comes like, a bolt out of the blue. Mrs Thomas says the arrest had come `like a bolt out of the blue'. Note: This expression usually describes unpleasant events or pieces of news. Note: This expression compares an unexpected event to a bolt of lightning from a blue sky. The expressions `out of a clear blue sky' and `out of the blue' are based on a similar idea. See also: blue, bolta bolt from the blue a sudden and unexpected event or piece of news. The phrase refers to the unlikelihood of a thunderbolt coming out of a clear blue sky.See also: blue, bolta ˌbolt from the ˈblue an event or a piece of news which is sudden and unexpected; a complete surprise: She had given us no warning she was going to leave; it came as a complete bolt from the blue.This refers to a flash of lightning (= a bolt) coming from a clear blue sky.See also: blue, bolt bolt from the blue A sudden, shocking surprise or turn of events.See also: blue, boltbolt from the blue, aA sudden, unexpected event, usually of a catastrophic nature. The term refers to a bolt of lightning or thunder that comes from a blue (cloudless) sky and hence is not anticipated. Although “blue” was a poetic allusion to the sky by 1700, the precise expression dates from the early nineteenth century. It appears in Thomas Carlyle’s description of chaotic events of the French Revolution: “Arrestment, sudden really as a bolt out of the blue, has hit strange victims” (1837). See also: boltFinancialSeeBolt |