| 释义 | ˈnest-egg, n.
[f. nest n. + egg n.]
1. a. An egg, natural or artificial, left in a nest to induce the bird to continue to lay in the same place, after the other eggs have been abstracted.
1611Cotgr., Nicheul, a neast-egge. 1614Markham Cheap. Husb. (1623) 139 You shall gather your Egges vp once a day, and leaue in the nest but the nest-Egge, and no more. 1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm III. 1197 A nest-egg should be left in every nest. 1859All Year Round No. 32. 125 If you want to make a farm-yard profitable,..keep no roosters and allow no nest-eggs. 1939–40Army & Navy Stores Catal. 989/2 Poultry nest eggs. 1973Country Life 18 Oct. 1129/3 What happened to the old-fashioned nest-egg, the white pot egg one could once..buy to ensure that hens would lay where they were supposed to lay?
b. In figurative context.
1606Proc. agst. late Traitors 207 [You] endeavoured your best and uttermost to broose the very neast-egge of this royale and hie flying ayerie. a1673G. Swinnock in Spurgeon Treas. David Ps. cxix. 104 A hypocrite ever leaves the devil some nest-egg to sit upon.
2. Something displayed, or serving, as an inducement or decoy.
1678Butler Hud. iii. iii. 625 Books and money laid for shew, Like nest-eggs to make clients lay. 1709Brit. Apollo No. 56. 2/1 Lay Guineas carelesly on your Table for Nest-Eggs. 1796Washington Lett. Writ. 1892 XIII. 227, I should view the residence of the Commissioners..as a nest egg (pardon the expression) which will attract others. 1834Tait's Mag. I. 421/1 Ye must try for grand names, sir, for nest-eggs to begin with. 1884Sharman Hist. Swearing i. 7 It was by the aid of such simple nest-eggs as these that the men managed to establish reputations.
3. a. A sum of money laid or set by as a reserve.
a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew s.v. Egge, To leave a Nest-egg, to have alwaies a Reserve to come again. 1758J. Blake Plan Mar. Syst. 68 The..payments will constitute a bank, or nest egg. 1825Scott 15 Oct. in Fam. Lett. (1894) II. xxiii. 359 You might..lay by the balance, which..will make a tolerable nest-egg. 1860Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. clxi. III. 175 They preserved a nest-egg in the shape of a duty of 8 per cent. on low stuffs. 1876Ruskin Fors Clav. VI. 249 A nice little nest-egg of five hundred pounds in the bank.
attrib.1852R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour xxxii. 194 The Mangeysterne hounds wanted that great ingredient of prosperity, a large nest-egg subscriber.
b. Something kept in reserve.
1837Browning Strafford ii. i, But, brother, where's your word for Strafford's other nest-egg, the Scots war? 1862Bp. Wilberforce in Life (1882) III. ii. 70, I and others kept the Church as his nest-egg when he became a Whig, till it was almost addled.
4. A sum of money serving as a nucleus for the acquisition of more.
1822Galt Provost xxxvii, The laird made him his man of business, and, in a manner, gave him a nest egg. 1857Smiles Stephenson (1859) 51 The first guinea which he had saved..had proved the nest-egg of future guineas. 1968J. R. Ackerley My Father & Myself 41 This nest-egg towards the cost of the farm. 1975Radio Times 24 Apr. 12 (Advt.), Williams & Glyn's Nest Egg is a regular savings plan. |
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