| 释义 |
toe-curling, a. colloq.
Brit. |ˈtəʊkəːlɪŋ|, U.S. |ˈtoʊˌkərlɪŋ|
[‹ toe n. + curling adj.]
Causing (or liable to cause) the toes to curl as an emotional response, esp. in acute embarrassment or disgust; uncomfortably embarrassing or distasteful. Cf. cringeworthy adj.
[1901G. Ade 40 Mod. Fables 106 When they struck a Barber-Shop Minor they would Dwell until the unhappy Listener felt his Toes curling.] 1976N. Rees in Listener 9 Sept. 304/3 The toe-curling pop proselytising of Pause for Thought. 1985Lit. Rev. Jan. 20/1 She had to die, neglected by herself and eternally unsatisfied, in order to be reborn in a plethora of toe-curling homages. 1992D. F. Wallace Forever Overhead in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (1999) 5 You have awakened through fluttering lids to a rush and a gush and a toe-curling scalp-snapping jolt of feeling from an inside deeper than you knew you had. 1998Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 19 Jan. 12 ‘Getting the shits a lot, being tired, sweating a lot, and subsequently being smelly,’ he continues in toe-curling detail.
Derivatives. toe-curlingly adv.
1984Listener 9 Aug. 39/1 The other week, I scored a letters double I'm still *toe-curlingly pleased about. 2001Daily Tel. 11 June 18/6 [He] may have fit the times when he made his speech as a 16 year old to rapturous applause, although one Tory grandee present at that 1977 party conference remarked, ‘He was toe-curlingly awful.’ |
