thumb nose: 藐视；嘲笑
[ 2006-04-13 08:40 ]
在逃42年的意大利头号通缉犯、黑手党教父贝尔纳多·普罗文扎诺于4月11日在西西里岛被警方逮捕。普罗文扎诺是个颇具传奇色彩的人物，他在上世纪90年代黑手党遭重创后,开始接管黑手党老大职位，
长期以来一直藐视意大利当局。
请看外电相关报道：Italy's reputed Mafia boss, Bernardo Provenzano,
who had been on the run since 1963, was captured without resistance Tuesday at a
farmhouse near Corleone, Sicily. The No. 1 fugitive practically thumbed his nose
at authorities
for more than 40 years.
报道中的thumb (one's) nose是个固定搭配，其字面意思是“把拇指放在鼻子上以示不满、蔑视或嘲笑”，用英语可以解释为：“to express
discontent, scorn or ridicule by placing the thumb on the nose”。举两个例子：
He thumbed his nose at the world and often complained.（他愤世嫉俗，常常满腹牢骚。）
You thumb your nose at the big things, yet you take the trivial things so
seriously . This contradiction is hilarious!（你正事儿上吊儿郎当，在小节上却特较真儿，真是矛盾得可笑。）
另外，别小瞧了thumb，它可是大有学问！比如：thumb down和thumb up是一对反义词组，分别表示“反对”或“支持”；而be all
thumbs则用来形容“笨手笨脚表示”。
如果看到under one's thumb，您可否发挥点想象力、想一想如来佛的手掌呢？如：She's got her husband under her
thumb.对了，under one's thumb表示“受制于某人”，这句话可翻译为：她丈夫始终逃不了她的管制。
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