| 释义 |
depasture, v.|dɪˈpɑːstjʊə(r), -æ-|
[f. de- I. 1 + pasture v.; cf., for sense, OF. depaistre (Cotgr. desp-), ad. L. dēpāscĕre to eat down, consume.]
1. trans. Of cattle: To consume the produce of (land) by grazing upon it; to use for pasturage.
1596Spenser State Irel. Wks. (Globe ed.) 630/1 To keepe theyr cattell..pasturing upon the mountayn..and removing still to fresh land, as they have depastured the former. a1796Vancouver in A. Young Ess. Agric. (1813) II. 284 The sheep and cow cattle, with which the primest of the grass lands through the country are generally depastured. 1799J. Robertson Agric. Perth 303 The cows are fed in summer on cut clover, without allowing them to depasture it. 1858Carlyle Fredk. Gt. (1865) II. vii. iii. 264 Clayey country, dirty-greenish, as if depastured partly by geese.
transf. and fig.1610G. Fletcher Christ's Vict. xl, Nor Hibla, though his thyme depastured, As fast againe with honie blossomed. 1864Sat. Rev. XVIII. 381/1 If Austria is forced to depasture the land with hordes of soldiery.
2. intr. To graze.
1586Wills & Inv. N.C. ii. Surtees (1860) 131 My cattell shall remayne and depasture, uppon my groundes..as they are at this instante. 1628Coke On Litt. 96 a, To sheere all the sheep depasturing within the manor. 1785Paley Mor. Philos. (1818) I. 114 Whilst his flocks depastured upon a neighbouring hill. 1840Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. I. iii. 263 Over this vast open field..no cattle can depasture.
fig.1600Fairfax Tasso xiii. lxxix. 250 The bait and food, Whereon his strange disease depastred long.
3. trans. To put (cattle) to graze; to pasture or feed (cattle).
1713Derham Phys. Theol. v. i. 307 Depasturing their Cattel in the Desarts and uncultivated World. 1809Nat. Hist. in Ann. Reg. 799/2 The country on which the sheep are depastured..is set out into divisions. 1844Williams Real Prop. (1877) 324 A right of depasturing cattle on the land of another.
fig.1859I. Taylor Logic in Theol. 240 The human spirit..depasturing itself in the fat levels of the Greek literature. 1865Alex. Smith Summ. Skye II. 147 We could pleasantly depasture our eyes on the cultivated ground.
4. Of land: To furnish pasturage to (cattle).
1805J. Luccock Nat. Wool 196 This part of the county..now..depastures flocks in whose frame and fleece are visible some strong symptoms of a more fashionable breed. 1844Port Phillip (Austral.) Patriot 22 July 3/6 The run will depasture about 4000 sheep.
Hence deˈpastured ppl. a.; deˈpasturing vbl. n. and ppl. a.; also deˈpasturable a., capable of being depastured; depastuˈration, depasture n., depasturing.
1794T. Gisborne Walks Forest v. (1796) 85 The bare worn track, and close-depastured plain. 1807Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 282 The depasturable parts of the forest. 1823Surtees Durham III. 239 note, Bees were of so much importance that..the depasturing of bees was one article of a solemn concordat between two religious houses. 1841Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. II. ii. 216 It [the winter tare] is sometimes resorted to for depasturation in the spring. 1846J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 380 Mowing and depasturing are modes of cropping, comprehended in the term management of meadows. 1856Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XVII. i. 282 If you watch cows on depasture, you observe them select their own food. 1858Carlyle Fredk. Gt. II. vii. iii. 183 This is memorable ground..little as the idle tourists think, or the depasturing geese, who happen to be there. |