| 释义 |
unˈmentionable, a. and n.
[un-1 7 b.]
a. That cannot or should not be mentioned.
1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. i. i. iii, The..whole posthumous hope of Jesuitism now hangs by the apron of this same unmentionable Woman. 1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xiii, Rows of shining tin, suggestive of unmentionable good things to the appetite. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 422 If any citizen be found guilty of any great or unmentionable wrong.
absol.1848Mrs. Carlyle in New Lett. & Mem. (1903) I. 242 Her tendency towards the unmentionable is too strong for me to stay it.
b. n. pl. Trousers. (Cf. inexpressible B. 2.) Also, underpants, and (chiefly joc.) underwear, esp. women's.
1823London Mag. Oct. 433/2 Liston, in a pair of unmentionables coming half-way down his legs. 1830in Thornton Amer. Gloss. (1912) I. 478 The waist bands of his unmentionables. 1836–7Dickens Sk. Boz, Shabby-Genteel People, The knees of the unmentionables..began to get alarmingly white. 1883S. C. Hall Retrospect II. 318 The priest's unmentionables drying on a hedge. 1910O. Johnson Varmint 221 Each [boy] was required to don upper and lower unmentionables. 1930Amer. Speech V. 497 Silk nighties, panties, and undies in general..these articles were consistently grouped in the common speech as ‘unmentionables’. 1972Daily News-Miner (Fairbanks, Alaska) 3 Nov. 1/7 The Russians..'d buy up perfume, wrist watches and ladies' unmentionables. 1974Times 5 Jan. 10/6 Fear of being ambulanced away to a place where nurses will..snigger at your frayed unmentionables.
c. n. A person or thing not to be mentioned (by name). Chiefly pl.
1928Public Opinion 8 June 547/3 If you pinched a penny of his pay you passed beyond the pale, you became an unmentionable, you ceased to be a comrade. 1939F. Thompson Lark Rise iii. 51 Those parts of the human body then known as ‘the unmentionables’. 1975Nature 17 Jan. 149/3 The lowest grade, dirty, wet mixtures of plastic, paper and other organic unmentionables could at least provide heat, if distilled in a pyrolysis plant set up on a wasteplex site. 1976Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 30 Oct. 24/2 Feijoada, a Brazilian mix of rice, beans, and pork unmentionables. 1981Times 6 Mar. 6/5 Already the unmentionables have been mentioned and the unpublishables published in the main..weeklies. 1982‘P. Loraine’ Sea-Change iii. vii. 168 The whole plan was based upon unmentionables.
Hence unˈmentionableness; unˈmentionably adv.
1870R. Broughton Red as Rose I. 157 At the rate of purity at which we are advancing, ‘legs’ will soon walk off into the limbo of silence and unmentionableness. 1879W. Collins Rogue's Life ii, He asserted, with an unmentionably vulgar oath, his resolution to turn me out of doors. |
