| 释义 |
devourer|dɪˈvaʊərə(r)|
Also 5 -our, -ar.
[ME. devourour, a. AF. devorour = OF. devoreor, devoreeur (12th c. in Godef.):—dēvorātōr-em, agent-n. from dēvorāre to devour.]
1. One who devours; one who eats greedily or voraciously.
1382Wyclif Matt. xi. 19 A man deuourer, or glotoun. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. lxvi. (1495) 822 The lyon is a deuourer of meete wythout chewynge. 1399Langl. Rich. Redeles iii. 371 Devourours of vetaile. 1555Eden Decades 48 Men which are deuourers of mans flesshe. 1664Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 209 Earwigs..are cursed Devourers. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. I. 219 They..move slowly, but reluctantly, towards the yawning jaws of their devourers. 1884G. F. Braithwaite Salmonidæ of Westmorland vi. 26 It is a devourer of the spawn of salmon.
2. transf. and fig. One who or that which consumes, destroys, swallows up, or absorbs.
c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 1369 Hypsipyle, Duk Iason Thou sly [v.r. sleer] deuourere..Of tendere wemen. c1470Henry Wallace x. 492 Thou renygat deuorar off thi blud. 1580Baret Alv. D 624 An vnsatiable reader: a deuourer of bookes. 1586T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. i. 622 Achilles offering great injuries to Agamemnon..called him Devourer of the people. 1659Gentl. Calling (1696) 82 Gaming, like a Quick Sand, swallows up a Man in a moment..Hawks, and Hounds and Horses, &c. are somewhat slower devourers. 1698Wanley Wond. Lit. World iii. xliv. §30. 228/1 The Eye that is the devourer of such beautiful Objects. 1890Spectator 7 June 799 The shallowest novel-devourer will find in it excitement enough. |