- 1
When you call someone an out-and-out liar, or something an out-and-out disaster, you mean they are that thing all the way through — no half, no mix, no polite . It is a way of stressing the label. You put it before a noun: "an out-and-out cheat," "out-and-out nonsense." It is informal to neutral, still very much alive, with a slightly old, lively flavour. You would not usually say "he is out-and-out" on its own; it wants a noun after it. People also write it with spaces (out and out); it is the same phrase.
徹頭徹尾的、十足的(強調「完完全全就是那種人/那種東西」)
組成out + and + out. Saying "out" twice, with "and" in the middle, is an old English way of meaning "completely, in every direction."
同家族的字
- outthe same out, said twice to mean 'completely'
原始詞典資料2 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。
out-and-outadj
- 1
Complete, utter.
- He is an out-and-out idiot.
- an out-and-out lie
- 2
Thoroughly cross-bred; a breeding strategy esp. with poultry where new roosters are circulated yearly to maintain a mongrel flock.
- For my own part I would sooner eat bread-and-cheese and know myself the possessor of an out-and-out horse, than sell him for the privilege of dining with the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen every day in the year.
資料來源:英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary(CC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。