| 词源 |
knock the spots off. The origins of this Americanism for “to defeat decisively” are not clear, but some word sleuths believe it is from the world of boxing, reasoning that the expression is first recorded in a sports story and—admittedly reaching on this one—speculating that the spots in question were freckles figuratively knocked off the face of a badly beaten fighter. How- ever, the expression could have its roots in the sharpshooting of 19th-century American marksmen, who could shoot the pips (or spots) out of a playing card nailed to a tree a considerable distance away. |