gremlin

FREQ #37158

n. 小鬼, 造成烦的原因

发音

UK /ˈɡɹɛmlɪn/
US /ˈɡɹɛmlən/

词形变化

gremlins 复数 gremlins

释义与例句

n.
  1. 1.

    A contemptible person.

    废旧 航空 商务 工程
  2. 2.

    An imaginary creature reputed to be mischievously inclined, for example, to damage or dismantle machinery.

    葛雷姆林

    航空 商务 工程
  3. 3.

    Any mysterious, unknown source of mischief or trouble, or the problem created thereby.

    引申义

    We rechecked everything, and we suspect gremlins in the database.

  4. 4.

    A young, inexperienced surfer or skateboarder, regarded as a nuisance.

    俚语 体育 引申义
  5. 5.

    A person regarded as similar to a fictional gremlin, in particular: mischievous, troublesome, short, or annoying.

    引申义

词汇关系

名词

同义词 6

elf brownie pixie imp pixy hob

上位词 5

fairy fay sprite faerie faery

下位词 2

leprechaun sandman

词源

Uncertain; the following etymologies have been suggested: * A variant of goblin. * From Irish gruaimín (“gloomy little person”); or from Dutch gremmelen (“to soil, stain; to spoil”), or griemelen, grimmelen (“(obsolete) to abound, teem; to swarm”), but according to the Oxford English Dictionary there is little evidence for such derivations. The word was popularized, especially in the United States, by the children’s novel The Gremlins (1943) by the British author Roald Dahl (1916–1990), in which gremlins sabotage Royal Air Force aircraft in revenge for the destruction of their forest home to make way for an aircraft factory; the creatures later join forces with the British to fight the Nazis.

来源：wiktionary