- 1全身而退、沒被處罰。這個 scot 不是蘇格蘭。
If you get off -free, you are not punished, even though many people feel you should have been. You walk away with no fine, no blame that sticks. It is almost always this set phrase: get off -free, or get away -free. Though actually the here is not Scotland and not a Scottish person. Hundreds of years ago, a was a tax or a payment you had to put in. Scot-free first meant you did not have to pay that tax. The old tax-word died; the phrase stayed, and now it is about escaping punishment. A little colourful, fine in speech and in writing.
From the word’s history
From Old English scotfrēo 'exempt from tax'; scot 'payment' + free.
源自古英文 scotfrēo：scot「稅金」加 free「免除」。
組成scot (an old word for a tax or a payment you had to make) + free (not having to pay it). From Old English scotfreo, exempt from that tax. Everyday English kept only this phrase.
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，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。
scot-freeadv/ˌskɒtˈfɹi/
- 1
Without consequences or penalties, free without payment.
- to get off scot-free
- To ſay the Ieſuites are all ſmattred vvith Atheiſme, I vvill not: and to ſay, that any of them all are abſolutely ſcotfree from it, I cannot: it is ſo repugnant from their ovvne principles.
scot-freeadj/ˌskɒtˈfɹi/
- 1
archaicFree of scot, free of tax.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。