Friends英语赏析【43】施压 lean on somebody

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第四十三篇

Phoebe的新男友Gary是个警察，这天他答应带上Ross, Chandler和Joey一起去开车巡逻办案。

Ross: (to Gary) That was so cool man, the way you leaned on that guy.
Chandler: It is starting to get dark out there.
Ross: (to Gary) He told you everything! I mean you totally cracked him!
Gary: Yeah well, being that he was the victim, they're usually pretty talkative.
Chandler: (laughing) Okay. (Deadpan) But it is officially nighttime.

【世博视角】

当警察免不了会质问嫌疑犯，碰上不合作的有时候还不得不威胁一下，Gary刚才就这么做了，这让在旁边看着的Ross对他大为欣赏，他夸Gary 说：That was so cool man, the way you leaned on that guy. 动词lean本身可以解释为“倾斜”或是“依赖”等，后面常常跟上介词on 或者against, 例如：

He was leaning on the bridge, watching the boats go by.
A huge mirror was leaning against the wall.

但在Ross所说的这句话中，lean on 显然不是“倾斜”或是“依赖”的意思，在口语中，lean on 可以用来表示对某人施压，或是威胁某人，例：

They won't pay unless you lean on them.
The boss is leaning on us to meet the deadline.

你别说有时候lean on somebody这种方法还真是有效，Gary所质问的那个人马上就全招了，就像Ross所说的：He told you everything! I mean you totally cracked him! crack是“挤压”, “使…破裂”的意思，但它经常非正式地用来表示成功地解决了什么问题，如果是对人的话就表示压倒某人，如：

Detectives finally cracked the murder case.
His political enemies have never managed to crack him.

*本篇所讲到的表达法:

lean on somebody
crack