The young general Bonaparte's pounding of the Paris mob to pieces in1795 called in playful approval by our respectable classes" the whiff of grapeshot". 1795年,年轻的波拿巴将军接连不断地向巴黎民众开炮,我们可敬的上层阶级把这种炮击叫做“一小阵葡萄弹雨”。
My only quarrel with the plot of the novel is that a whiff of grapeshot is more likely to move the electorate in favour of the Government in power than against it, especially if it is a Conservative Government. 我对小说情节的惟一争论是,一阵小弹丸更可能激起选民支持执政的政府,而不是去反对它,对保守党政府尤其如此。
grapeshot
[ noun ] a cluster of small projectiles fired together from a cannon to produce a hail of shot <noun.artifact>
Grapeshot \Grape"shot`\, n. (Mil.) A cluster, usually nine in number, of small iron balls, put together by means of cast-iron circular plates at top and bottom, with two rings, and a central connecting rod, in order to be used as a charge for a cannon. Formerly grapeshot were inclosed in canvas bags.
It is accustomed to the Gary Harts and Joe Bidens, who capitulate the moment they cannot win, or to a Mike Dukakis, who flops around and cashiers his point men at the first whiff of grapeshot.