- 1
To pussyfoot is to be too careful and too to do the thing that needs doing: to make a firm decision, or to tell someone exactly what you think. You step around the point. You use soft words. You wait. The picture behind the word is a cat putting its feet down lightly, testing the ground, making almost no sound. Though actually, people also pussyfoot when they are being , not only when they are scared — they do not want to be pinned to one side. The verb is informal, and it usually complains: Stop pussyfooting. There is a noun too, for that same careful way of going that will not land, but you will hear the verb more. It is not about feet in a medical sense.
畏首畏尾；做事或說話太小心，不敢表態
組成pussy (a cat) + foot, because of the light and careful tread of cats.
同家族的字
- pussthe old cat-call sitting inside the first half
原始詞典資料5 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。
pussyfootverb/ˈpʊsiˌfʊt/
- 1
To move silently, stealthily, or furtively.
- 2
To act timidly or cautiously.
- — So are you going to practice what you’re preaching and stop pussyfooting around with Faye? — Hey, I’m 0 for 1 when it comes to practicing what I preach. These feet stay pussied for the time being.
- The TSSA union said the Government should "stop pussyfooting around" and place Euston at the heart of the transformative rail project.
- 3
To use euphemistic language or circumlocution.
- "Then you talk up! And plain! What's there to be so pussyfooting about?"
pussyfootnoun/ˈpʊsiˌfʊt/
- 1
datedA teetotaller.
- "We keep off that road like a pussyfoot keeps off whiskey. Get it out of your bean that we're exploring a deserted ruin."
- 2
Synonym of bluemink (“Ageratum houstonianum”).
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。