【字面理解】馬廄里的狗
【英文解析】a person who prevents others from enjoying something that is useless to himself; a churlish fellow who will neither use a thing himself nor let others use it
【中文解析】占著茅坑不拉屎的人;自私自利的人;一毛不 拔的人
【典型例句】① He borrowed a lot of books from the library but he didn’t read any of them. He was really a dog in the manger.他從圖書館借了很多書,但一本也沒有看 過(guò),真是損人不利己。
② Don’t be such a dog in the manger. Lend your bicycle to him since you will not go out this afternoon.別這么不夠 朋友,既然你今天下午不出去,就把自行車借給他用一用。
【注釋】出自《伊索寓言狗占馬廄》Aesop’s Fables: A Dog in the Manger)。這則故事說(shuō)的是一只狗躺在堆 滿稻草的馬廄里,狗是不吃草的動(dòng)物,而當(dāng)馬或牛一 走近稻草時(shí),這只狗卻朝著馬、??裣粶?zhǔn)它們享 用。因此,“狗占馬廄”就成了一個(gè)家喻戶曉的習(xí)語(yǔ), 用來(lái)諷剌那些占據(jù)職位或某些物品卻不做事的人。變 體:dog-in-the-manger (作為復(fù)合形容詞),如a dog-in-the-manger attitude(占著茅坑不拉屎的態(tài)度)。