| 词组 | gambit |
| 释义 | gambit A gambit is a chess opening in which a player risks one or more minor pieces to gain an advantage in position. Some usage writers would like to rein extended uses in as close as possible to the original meaning. Bernstein 1958, Follett 1966, and Bryson 1984 all think that a gambit should involve some sort of concession or sacrifice. When this happens in actual practice, the writer is usually deliberately employing the metaphor of a chess game, and such uses are rare. • Yet it may be that the figure of twelve million was never more than a gambit, advanced in order to win a force that is still too high —New Republic, 2 Nov. 1942 • ... it is clear that the U.S.S.R. was playing a gambit: among the captured Russian material exhibited in Helsinki at the close of the campaign was none of the first-class equipment that the Germans subsequently came up against on the Russian front —Eric Dancy, Foreign Affairs, April 1946 In the evidence we have accumulated, gambit is freely used to mean merely "a calculated move" or "stratagem." Other common meanings are "a remark intended to start a conversation or make a telling point" and "a topic." • Ibsen as we know had a meagre power of invention It is not a gross exaggeration to say that his only gambit is the sudden arrival of a stranger who comes into a stuffy room and opens the windows — W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up, 1938 • ... the Russian gambit which has rarely been beaten.... The man in the government bureau you want to see is not there, is sick, is in hospital, or is away on his vacation —John Steinbeck, A Russian Journal, 1948 • ... the problem of the child confronting the adult world must recall to us how useful this gambit was to Henry James —Elizabeth Janeway, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 25 July 1954 • ... to avoid the multitude of taxes and assessments, the standard gambit of the peasant was to "dress poor" and "talk poor" —Stanley J. Idzerda, Background of the French Revolution, 1959 • ... uses a foxier gambit to achieve his ends. He employs the infantile, or blubber-mouth approach —S. J. Perelman, New Yorker, 9 July 1949 • ... a favorite gambit of reporters who are pressing the President for information is: "There has been a report that you are going to ..." —Newsweek, 26 Sept. 1949 • In desperation one seeks an artificial gambit. I remember one from an English girl: "Oh, I say, are you frightfully keen on cats and dogs?" —George C. McGhee, Saturday Rev., 28 June 1975 • ... always carried turtle eggs in his pockets and bounced them on bars as a conversational gambit — Bergen Evans, Saturday Rev., 26 June 1954 Bryson objects to the phrase opening gambit as a redundancy, but with extended meanings so far removed from the original, the question of redundancy loses whatever importance it might have in more literal contexts: • "How nice of you to come and see an old woman, dear," said Lucilla. This was her usual opening gambit with the young —Elizabeth Goudge, Pilgrim's Inn, 1948 • ... if a stranger just ahead drops a rosary, don't take any notice. That's the opening gambit of the oldest trick in the world —Francis Aldor, The Good Time Guide to London, 1951 If you happen to be criticized for using gambit in a general way, we do not think you should take the criticism too seriously. |
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