每日一词学英语(101): ribbing

英国卫生部门对公众提出预防猪流感的口号：Catch it, Bin it, Kill it，即：打喷嚏或咳嗽要用手或纸巾接住，用过的纸巾要及时仍进垃圾桶，勤用洗手液洗手。30岁的David McCusker在宣传广告中教给大家正确做法。

He said that he has received endless ribbing from unsympathetic friends. 最近他被朋友取笑。为什么呢？

“I was supposed to ‘Catch it, Bin it, Kill it’, but instead I’ve been shivering, shaking and spreading it,” he said. 原来，两周前他因患上猪流感而被隔离。(From The Times, August 7, 2009: Swine flu advert actor David McCusker catches... swine flu)

动词rib: (old-fashioned, informal) to laugh at sb and make jokes about them, but in a friendly way. 同义词：tease（有时是恶意取笑）
*He used to rib her mercilessly about her accent.

ribbing是名词，同样是old-fashioned, informal，不过今天的报纸上还在用。看来，不能因为词典上的说法而轻易把一些词打入冷宫。