【字面理解】不能為某人舉蠟燭
【英文解析】to be far less competent or have far less skills than someone else
【中文解析】遠遠不如;不能與……媲美
例句】① The Beatles were fantastic. Their music is still popular now. They were the greatest! Nobody has come along afterwards who can hold a candle to them.甲殼蟲 樂隊實在棒極了。他們的樂曲至今仍然流行。他們 是登峰造極的,后來一直沒人能跟他們媲美。
② Michael Jordan, who played for the Chicago Bulls, set all sorts of records and won four world titles. Nobody can hold a candle to him.邁克爾?務丹,以前效力于芝加 哥公牛隊。他創(chuàng)下了各種各樣的記錄,并且?guī)ьI(lǐng)球隊 四次奪取世界冠軍。任何人跟他相比都望塵莫及。
【注釋】在莎士比亞的時代,路燈還沒有出現(xiàn),從酒館或 劇院回家的人們由手持蠟燭或火炬的linkboy (亦作 linkman,是舊時受雇為人在黑夜照明引路的執(zhí)火把 者)陪同,這些linkboy的地位很低,所以Tom couldn’t hold a candle to Harry 意思是 Tom was very much inferior toHany,即湯姆不能跟Harry相比的意思。