【字面理解】某人的一磅肉
【英文解析】to insist cruelly on repayment of what was borrowed
【中文解析】全部債務(wù);所欠的東西
【典型例句】① My business is closed and my wife has cancer, and still the bank wants its pound of flesh. They’ll take my house if I can’t pay back what I borrowed for my wife’s hospital bills.我的企業(yè)倒閉了,我妻子又得了癌癥,而 銀行卻還要不合情理地催逼債務(wù)。如果我不能償還我 為付妻子的醫(yī)療費(fèi)而借的款項(xiàng),他們就要沒收我的房 子。
② I didn’t realize working here was going to be such hard work. They really demand their pound of flesh,don’t they?我不知道在這里工作這么辛苦,他們簡直不顧 別人死活,是不是?
【注釋】源自莎士比亞的戲劇《威尼斯商人》:高利貸商 人夏洛克(Shylock)痛恨安東尼奧(Antonio),但卻 借給他一大筆錢,條件是要是不能按期償還就要割下 安東尼奧身上的一磅肉作為代價。因而產(chǎn)生了這個 習(xí)語,用來形容以借款人的慘重?fù)p失和痛苦為代價的 債務(wù),也可以說是合法卻極不合理的要求。常用在 have, demand, exact, want, ask for 等之后。