Micawber


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Micawber

(mɪˈkɔːbə)
n
(Literary & Literary Critical Terms) a person who idles and trusts to fortune
[C19: after a character in Charles Dickens' novel David Copperfield (1850)]
Miˈcawberish adj
Miˈcawberism n
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.Micawber - fictional character created by Charles DickensMicawber - fictional character created by Charles Dickens; an eternal optimist
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in classic literature ?
Micawber, 'that your peregrinations in this metropolis have not as yet been extensive, and that you might have some difficulty in penetrating the arcana of the Modern Babylon in the direction of the City Road, - in short,' said Mr.
Micawber, a thin and faded lady, not at all young, who was sitting in the parlour (the first floor was altogether unfurnished, and the blinds were kept down to delude the neighbours), with a baby at her breast.
There were two other children; Master Micawber, aged about four, and Miss Micawber, aged about three.
Micawber, when she came up, twin and all, to show me the apartment, and sat down to take breath, 'before I was married, when I lived with papa and mama, that I should ever find it necessary to take a lodger.
Micawber's difficulties are almost overwhelming just at present,' said Mrs.
Micawber had been an officer in the Marines, or whether I have imagined it.
Micawber's creditors will not give him time,' said Mrs.
Micawber in reference to my age, or whether she was so full of the subject that she would have talked about it to the very twins if there had been nobody else to communicate with, but this was the strain in which she began, and she went on accordingly all the time I knew her.
Micawber! She said she had tried to exert herself, and so, I have no doubt, she had.
Micawber's Boarding Establishment for Young Ladies': but I never found that any young lady had ever been to school there; or that any young lady ever came, or proposed to come; or that the least preparation was ever made to receive any young lady.
Micawber's difficulties were an addition to the distressed state of my mind.
Micawber. The future novelist's schooling was slight and irregular, but as a boy he read much fiction, especially seventeenth and eighteenth century authors, whose influence is apparent in the picaresque lack of structure of his own works.