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英語の原書を読んで興味を覚えた英単語、慣用句などを収集しています。

hoodwink

bane

Mizuuki Tsujimura の 'Lonely Castle in the Mirror' を読んでいます。


Bang. bang, bang! Open up. It's me, your mother.
The young goats hid from the wolf. As Rion had said, when the Wolf Queen called them Little Red Riding Hoods, she was hoodwinking them all.
The first goat hid under the table.


"hoodwinking" の意味を調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: to trick somebody: She had been hoodwinked into buying a worthless necklace.
・Collins Dictionary: If someone hoodwinks you, they trick or deceive you.: Many people are hoodwinked by the so-called beauty industry.
・Vocabulary.com: To hoodwink someone means to trick or mislead them. Beware of fake ATMs that try to hoodwink you into giving over your bank card and your code, only to keep them both and steal all your money.
An excellent, old-fashioned word is hoodwink, and you’ll be happy you know it when you have to read Victorian novels in which characters are repeatedly hoodwinked. It is an Old English compound which meant "to blindfold" 600 years ago but quickly began to be used figuratively. Think about the expression, to pull the wool over someone's eyes, as having the same image and meaning. Has your big sister ever hoodwinked you into doing her chores for her?


眼隠しをする意味があったのですね。

yada yada yada

bane

Mizuuki Tsujimura の 'Lonely Castle in the Mirror' を読んでいます。


'I probally did...make fun of her.' Kokoro understood. 'And our teachers probably think that's not a good thing to do. Ida called me in and said so. You're pretty mature, he said, and perhaps you look down on the others a bit, but the other girls are trying their best to be friends with you, yada yada yada.'
'Yada yada?' Kokoro said in surprise, and Tojo-san's eyes sparkled mischievously.


"yada yada yada" は日本語の様に聞こえますが、ここではそんな意味のはずはないですね。辞書を見ます。


・Oxford English Dictionary: used when you are talking about something to show that some of the details are not worth saying because they are not important or are boring or obvious: His new girlfriend is attractive, funny, smart, yada yada yada.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: blah blah blah (= a phrase used to represent boring speech)
・Merriam-Webster: boring or empty talk: listening to a lot of yada yada about the economy


"yada yada" は聞いたことはありませんが、"blah blah blah" は実際に何回か聞いたことがあります。

under the wire

bane

Mizuuki Tsujimura の 'Lonely Castle in the Mirror' を読んでいます。


'I think they'll deliver fairly early this morning.'
'OK,' Kokoro said cheerily. The last thing she needed was for her mum to feel suspicious.
But the delivery was not at all early; the delivery man arrived, apologizing for the delay, at three minutes to twelve, so technically still the morning, but just under the wire.


"under the wire" は文脈から、何とかギリギリで間に合ったの意味だと推測できますが、この "wire" はどんなワイヤなのでしょうか?


・Dictionary.com: Barely, scarcely, just within the limit, as in This book will be finished just under the wire. This term comes from horse racing, where the wire marks the finish line.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: If someone does something under the wire, they do it at the last possible moment: They got in under the wire just before the entry requirements for the training program changed.


競馬から来た表現でした。

cubbyhole

bane

Mizuuki Tsujimura の 'Lonely Castle in the Mirror' を読んでいます。


But today, no one was around. And it was another season.
She could hear the sound of lessons taking place inside the school. The sound of teachers lecturing. Not may students speaking, though.
She slipped off her shoes in front of the cubbyholes at the entrance where students stored their outside shoes.
The action was so familiar, but as she located her cubbyhole, an invisible force made her chest tighten.


"cubbyhole" は知らない単語ですが、場面は学校の入り口付近で "cubbyhole" の前で靴を脱いだとあるので、下駄箱(今は誰も下駄を履かないので靴箱か)の事ですね。しかし、英米では学校に靴箱は無いと思うので、 "cubbyhole" が靴箱を指すのか疑問に感じたので、"cubbyhole" の本来の意味を調べます。


・Oxford English Dictionary: a small room or a small space: My office is a cubbyhole in the basement.
・Collins Dictionary: A cubbyhole is a very small room or space for storing things.: It's in the cubbyhole under the stairs.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a very small room or space for storing things: Amy had a fantastic built-in bunk bed with lots of cubbyholes, cupboards and shelving.


狭いスペースと言っても人が入れるほどのスペースの場合があるので文脈でスペースの大きさを推測する必要がありますね。

bided her time

bane

Mizuuki Tsujimura の 'Lonely Castle in the Mirror' を読んでいます。


Kokoro's mother looked momentarily blank, as if time had stopped. But it was only an instant. 'Oh, is that so?' she said.
Kokoro had bided her time, avoiding saying anything until the day before she was due to go in. The evening of the ninth.


"bided her time" の意味が分かりません。 辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: to wait for the right time to do something: He decided to bide his time until he got an opportunity to talk to her alone.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to wait calmly for a good opportunity to do something: She was biding her time until she could get her revenge.
・Collins Dictionary: to wait for a favorable opportunity:He wanted to ask for a raise, but bided his time
・Dictionary.com: Wait for the opportune moment, as in The cat sat in front of the mousehole, biding its time.


Haste makes waste.ですね。反対に善は急げと言うのもありますが、やはりタイミングは重要です。