thousand /ˈθaʊznd/► SEE ALLbat a thousanda hundred/thousand/million and one things/things to do, etc.not a hundred/thousand/million miles away/from herethe sixty-four thousand dollar question●bat a ˈthousand (NAmE, informal) be very successful非常成功；大获成功◆He’s made another sale? He’s really batting a thousand!他又做了一笔买卖？他真的是锐不可当啊！●a hundred/thousand/million and one things/things to do, etc. (informal) very many or too many (things to do, people to see, etc.)非常多；许许多多◆I’m so busy — I’ve got lectures to prepare and a hundred and one letters to write — I just don’t know where to start.我太忙了，不仅得备课，还有一大堆信要写，真不知道从哪儿做起。◆She’s always got a thousand and one excuses for everything.无论什么事她都有一大堆借口。●not a hundred/thousand/million ˈmiles away/from here (humorous) used to identify sb/sth indirectly（用于间接指称某人／某事物）远在天边，近在眼前◆The person I’m talking about is not a hundred miles from here, but I’m not in a position to say who he is.我说的这个人远在天边，近在眼前，但是我不便明说。◆We’re talking about a factory not a million miles away.我们说的这家工厂远在天边，近在眼前。●the sixty-four thousand dollar ˈquestion ( the million dollar ˈquestion) a very important question which is difficult or impossible to answer难以（或不可能）回答的重要问题；重量级难题◆The sixty-four thousand dollar question for modern astronomy is ‘Is there life elsewhere in the universe?’当代天文学中一个重大难题是“宇宙中的其他地方有生命存在吗？”ORIGINThis phrase originated in the 1940s as ‘the sixty-four dollar question’. It came from a popular US radio quiz programme at the time on which the top prize was $64.这个短语源于 20 世纪 40 年代美国一档颇受欢迎的广播问答节目“ 64 美元奖金的问题”，该节目的头等奖是 64 美元。