polly-foxとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

Attested since 1860s. Unknown etymology - a column in a 1921 issue of The Weekly Review speculated it might be an eponym.

動詞

pollyfox (third-person singular simple present pollyfoxes, present participle pollyfoxing, simple past and past participle pollyfoxed)

1. (dialect, obsolete) To equivocate; to dodge the issue.

   Synonym: pussyfoot

   • 1866 January 20, New York Clipper 1866-01-20: Vol 13 Iss 41‎:

     Considerable time was taken up in skirmishing and pollyfoxing to secure the advantage in the start.

   • 1891 September 3, Rushville Republican (1891-09-03)‎:

     […] whose patience had been worn out by the swiftly-lengthening roll of crime and the pollyfoxing of courts.

   • 1897 July 24, Congressional Record July 2-24, 1897: Vol 30‎:

     That signifies nothing. There is more pollyfoxing and more attempt to evade the question.

   • 1903 February 17, Lima Times Democrat (1903-02-17)‎:

     The present congress has had ample time and opportunity to do everything that should have been done, and it has chosen to dally and "pollyfox" with public questions in view of the dangerous records that might be made for the coming presidential campaign.

   • 1909 March 24, Puck 1909-03-24: Vol 65 Iss 1673‎:

     We ain't got no time to polly-fox; we gotter dig!

   • 1917, The American Dialect Society, Dialect Notes‎:

     Judge Stewart calls the lawyers down when they pollyfox in a case.

   • 1928 January 30, Congressional Record January 9-31, 1928: Vol 69‎:

     […] candidates who had hoped to gum shoe, soft pedal, side-step, pussy foot, and polly fox their way to the presidential chair.

   • 1946, White, William Allen, The Autobiography of William Allen White‎:

     The bank had for its President a shrewd old polly-foxing politician who had financed too many statesmen in Kansas

   • 1970, Ervin, Janet Halliday, More than Halfway There‎:

     Glumly, Albert sat down on a bench near the soap kettle and waited for Abe to quit polly-foxing around with the ladies.

   • 1975, Sampson, Anthony, The Seven Sisters : the Great Oil Companies and the World They Made‎:

     […] Ickes maintained that Texaco was 'pollyfoxing' him while lobbying behind the scenes […]

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