1887 in figurative sense of "useless person or thing," originally American English, from dead (adj.) + wood (n.). Dead wood in a forest is useful as firewood; perhaps the reference here is to the dried up parts of plants grown for commercial production of flowers or fruit.
雙語(yǔ)例句
1. At last I had the deadwood on the Red Pony.
最后我終于制服了那匹紅馬駒.
來(lái)自互聯(lián)網(wǎng)
2. The Methods: Used have helped enormously in cutting out deadwood.
這些方法在廢物利用方面起了相當(dāng)大的作用.
來(lái)自互聯(lián)網(wǎng)
3. The remainder are standing deadwood, still valuable to the forest because of the life they support.