1. 1

    An oaf is a , slow, or foolish person, almost always a man when people use the word. It is the sort who knocks the table and then says the wrong thing. It is an insult, though sometimes a soft one, the way you might call a friend a big oaf when they have been , not cruel. It is informal, and a little old; you would not put it in a school report. Stories often picture an oaf as large, but the word is about the , blunt manner, not about size as a fact. Though actually, it probably comes from Old Norse álfr, “elf”. In old belief a dull or child might be explained as a changeling left by elves. So oaf and elf are, surprisingly, from the same root. Most people who say oaf are not thinking of elves at all.

    笨蛋、蠢漢(口語罵人,帶笨手笨腳、粗線條;有時是半開玩笑)

    例句逐字對照、搭配詞、易混淆字

    這一義的完整解析還沒打開。訂閱後可以看到例句怎麼拆、常跟哪些字一起出現, 以及容易跟它搞混的字。

    看看訂閱內容

組成Variant of older English awf / aufe, probably from Old Norse álfr (“elf”). Doublet of elf (and of the rare word alf): same old root, different path into English.

同家族的字

  • elfoaf and elf are doublets: both go back to the old word for ‘elf’
  • oafishthe adjective, “like an oaf”

原始詞典資料3 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法,原文照列,我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的;有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

oafnoun/əʊf/

  • 1

    derogatoryA person, especially a large male, who is clumsy or a simpleton.

    • Ouch! You dropped that box on my feet, you lumbering oaf!
  • 2

    derogatorydatedAn ill-mannered person; a boor.

    • I hope you haven't been thinking me an awful oaf for not writing to thank you for so many jolly games after I left Tapsfield?
  • 3

    obsoleteAn elf's child; a changeling left by fairies or goblins, hence, a deformed or foolish child.

資料來源:英文維基詞典 English WiktionaryCC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。