| 释义 |
a wake-up
adjective
alert; knowing; wise to AUSTRALIA, 1916
There is some confusion about whether this idiom should be construed nominally with “a” being the article and “wake-up” being a noun, meaning “an alert person, a person who knows what’s what”, or adjectivally as defined here. The earliest evidence (from 1916) supports the noun theory, but since the 1940s it has become impossible to definitely determine the part of speech in print as it is found spelt variously as “a wakeup”, “a wakeup”, “awake up” and “awake-up”. The fact that the plural form “wake-ups” is only attested by a solitary citation from 1943 suggests that it is now conceived of as an adjectival phrase, however it may be spelt.- “So you’re in this, too,” snarled Jim. “I’m a wake-up now.” — Lawson Glassop, We were the Rats, p. 176, 1944
- If Mo can’t understand it, how do you expect the mugs to be a wake-up? — People, p. 35, 15 March 1950
- They’ll be waking up to me soon, sergeant. I think some of them are a wake-up already. — Vince Kelly, The Bogeyman, p. 19, 1956
- He said, “I’m a wake-up to you fellows. I know the full strength of you.” — Vince Kelly, The Bogeyman, p. 174, 1956
- Course they’re awake up, but they don’t seem to mind. Fact, I think Roo likes it. — Ray Lawler, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, 1957
- But be warned – or as we Ordinary Australians say, be a wake-up. — Cyril Pearl, So, You Want to Be an Australian, p. 24, 1959
- Any other guy would have been a wake-up long since. — Robert S. Close, With Hooves of Brass, p. 40, 1961
- My only purpose in writing is to advise I am a “wake up” and that is the only satisfaction I derive. — Flame, p. 22, 1972
- His father would have said he ought to be a “wake-up”, whatever that meant, but he hadn’t been a wake-up, he had happily eaten a sausage sandwich that hadn’t been a sausage sandwich. A piece of shit, they said it was, but how could he know what a piece of shit tasted like, when he had never eaten it before? — Colleen McCullough, Tim, p. 18, 1975
- Then I ended up doing it three or four times a week because the older announcers were a wake-up that it interfered with their time off. — Bert Newton, Bert!, p. 66, 1977
- I got the message. He was a wake up. — Sam Weller, Old Bastards I Have Met, p. 144, 1979
- But Zeca was a wakeup. — B. Selkie, Lime Juice, p. 38, 1995
▶ a wake-up to
aware of a secret plan, trick, deception or the like; aware of a person’s deceitful character or hidden agenda AUSTRALIA- This joker reckons he was in Tobruk, but I’m a wake-up to him. — Lawson Glassop, We were the Rats, p. 273, 1944
- Of course, they had only been having him on – he was a wake-up to that. — Robert S. Close, With Hooves of Brass, p. 113, 1961
- She’s a wake-up to Squid, too – keeps him in if he’s late. — D.E. Charlwood, All the Green Year, p. 90, 1965
- Helen wasn’t awake up to what they’d been doing, she was asking Con all the damn fool questions. — Bluey, Bush Contractors, p. 153, 1975
- They don’t know I’m a bloody wake-up to it all. Nobody fools me. — Derek Maitland, Breaking Out, p. 312, 1979
- Robbo was awake-up to Davo’s form over the years and his naturally cynical nature told him it wouldn’t be beyond him to pull a bit of a scam. — Robert G. Barrett, Davo’s Little Something, p. 162, 1992
|