Beat one’s gums 嘮叨，廢話連篇

在beat one’s gums這個(gè)習(xí)慣用語(yǔ)里，gum這個(gè)詞有完全不同的含義。它指的是人的牙齦。Beat one’s gums，是從五十多年前第二次世界大戰(zhàn)期間開(kāi)始流傳的俚語(yǔ)。意思是嘮嘮叨叨、沒(méi)完沒(méi)了地抱怨。這往往出于習(xí)慣，或者只是沒(méi)話找話說(shuō)。

例句 If I didn’t hear my men beating their gums about how bad the chow was, or how hard they worked, I worried. When they were too quiet, I was afraid they were losing their fighting spirit.

要是我聽(tīng)不到我的部下沒(méi)完沒(méi)了地抱怨伙食有多差勁，或者他們干活有多辛苦，那我就得擔(dān)心了。當(dāng)他們過(guò)于沉默的時(shí)候，我害怕他們的斗志消沉了。

嘮叨抱怨也許是人所難免的行為，但是要是做得太過(guò)火，就會(huì)成了問(wèn)題，令人生厭。在下面例子里，名叫Oscar的家伙就是這樣一個(gè)人。說(shuō)話的人是在給一位新同事一點(diǎn)忠告。

例句 Look, you don’t want to get a desk anywhere close to that guy Oscar. He’ll drive you crazy - he loves to beat his gums anytime he has anybody close enough to be an audience for him.

喂，你可千萬(wàn)別靠近Oscar那家伙的辦公桌，他會(huì)把你煩死了。任何時(shí)候只要附近有任何人能聽(tīng)他說(shuō)話，他就會(huì)羅嗦個(gè)沒(méi)完沒(méi)了。