| 释义 |
eye-wash, eyewash|ˈaɪwɒʃ|
[f. eye n.1 + wash n. 3.]
1. A wash or lotion for the eye.
1866Cornh. Mag. Sept. 361 Not all the hair-pins, and eye-washes, and affectations can equal it.
2. colloq. Something that is intended to obscure or conceal actual facts or motives; humbug, blarney; nonsense; something said or done merely for appearance or effect; spec. in Mil. slang = bull n.4 4.
1884C. T. Buckland Sk. Soc. Life India ii. 45 Most officers of any tact understand the meaning of eye⁓wash. 1889F. A. Guthrie Pariah i. i, He came up to me with some eyewash or other about our being neighbours at Gorsecombe now. 1913Aeroplane 20 Mar. 327/2 Well as this may do as ‘eye wash’, it is not the real thing. 1916C. E. W. Bean Lett. from France (1917) 197 The ignorance which..flies to the conclusion that everything written and spoken about the horrors of this war is humbug, and what the Army calls ‘eyewash’. 1919‘I. Hay’ Last Million ii. 24 The greater the fuss a regiment made about its appearance—‘eye-wash’, we called it—the better its work in the field. 1919War Slang in Athenæum 8 Aug. 728/1 Anything complimentary is termed ‘eyewash’. 1920Blackw. Mag. July 91/2 Kemp went ashore to pay a polite visit to the local Sheikh, as ‘eye-wash’ against our real activities. 1930W. S. Maugham Cakes & Ale xi. 124 What the critics wrote about Edward Driffield was eye-wash. 1939J. Cary Mr. Johnson 208 ‘More eyewash about sanitation,’ he says to Celia, throwing a blue circular on the breakfast table. 1957Economist 28 Sept. 1001/1 This does not mean that the proposals..are so much eyewash.
Hence ˈeyewasher, one who uses ‘eye-wash’; ˈeye-washing vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1920Nat. Rev. Apr. 142 The President..refused to..be humbugged by ‘eyewashers’ who besought him to accept amendments that destroyed his handiwork. 1937L. Housman Unexpected Years 159 The professions of those who offered them, with ‘art for art's sake’ as an eye-washing accompaniment. 1939J. Cary Mr. Johnson 177 Nobody..calls Tring an eyewasher, because he is in fact a highly competent officer... But he..can always catch the right eye at the right time. |
