| 释义 |
ˈnohow, adv. (and a.)
[f. no a. + how adv.; cf. somehow, anyhow.]
1. a. In no manner, by no means; not at all.
1775in Priv. Lett. Ld. Malmesbury (1870) I. 300 A course of habitual improvement which nohow else is to be acquired. 1795Montford Castle II. 42 Edmund..could nohow insert the point of his sword. 1829Landor Imag. Conv., Emp. China & Tsing-Ti, Not being his father, the misfortune could nohow be attributed to me. 1841Herschel Ess. (1857) 212 This is a modification of the idea of cause, which we can no-how bring ourselves to conceive. 1877Mrs. Oliphant Makers Flor. xiv. 348 Genius has strange gifts in it,..knowledge nohow conveyable by teaching of man.
b. In uneducated speech frequently used with another negative. Esp. in phr. no how you (they) can fix it. Cf. fix v. 14 c. Chiefly U.S.
1833J. Hall Harpe's Head 91 (Th.), They don't raise such humans in the Old Dominion, no how. 1835W. G. Simms Partisan 506 It won't be an easy journey, ma'am, no how, I tell you. 1836[see fix v. 14 c]. 1840Knickerbocker XVI. 19, I mean my name ain't G. Washington Mortimer, no how. 1843‘R. Carlton’ New Purchase I. xviii. 141, I..couldn't read a chapter in the Bible no how you could fix it. 1851D. Jerrold St. Giles x. 98 You don't call that justice, no-how, do you? 1863Reade Hard Cash II. 246 That don't dovetail nohow. 1884Harper's Mag. Feb. 410/1 He wouldn't let it stand nohow. 1929H. W. Odum in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 187 Boys jes' natchelly tired an' don't want to work no-how. 1970R. P. Warren Incarnations 48 Did he merely blow, and never Was rightly your husband, no how. 1973C. Williams Man on Leash (1974) x. 146 You won't be thinkin' about yore hairdo nohow.
2. a. In no particular manner or condition; with no distinctive appearance or character.
In quots. 1779 and 1853 with suggestion of b.
1779F. Burney Diary (1842) I. 161, I could not speak a word; and I dare say I looked no-how. 1853Whewell in Mrs. Douglas Life (1881) 430 The air has been filled..with a dense fog, which has made everything look ill, or more properly speaking, look no-how. 1888Freeman in Stephens Life & Lett. (1895) II. 283 New York..is just now nohow, an uninteresting mass of houses.
b. With all: Out of order, out of sorts.
1852Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 174 You were ‘decidedly better’, and now again ‘all nohow’. 1865Dickens Dr. Marigold vii, Ain't Mr. B. so well this morning? You look all nohow.
3. adj. Having no distinctive character. rare.
1828Lady Granville Lett. (1894) II. 29 She is a comfortable, no how, little, good-natured thing.
Hence ˈnohowish a.
1826Disraeli Viv. Grey II. xii. 171, I was altogether no-howish by the time I got home. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 499, No-Howish, qualmy; feeling an approaching ailment without being able to describe the symptoms. a1897[see all A. 10 a]. 1935J. M. Murry Between Two Worlds viii. 110 Within a fortnight I was feeling nohowish. |
