| 释义 |
summer bird
1. A bird that makes its appearance in summer, a summer migrant; locally applied spec. (see quots.). Also fig. (cf. summer n.1 4 e).
1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iv. iv. 91 O Westmerland, thou art a Summer Bird, Which euer in the haunch of Winter sings The lifting vp of day. 1607― Timon iii. vi. 34, 2 [Att.] The Swallow followes not Summer more willing, then we your Lordship. Tim. Nor more willingly leaues Winter, such Summer Birds are men. 1784Cowper Task vi. 921 He cannot skim the ground like summer birds Pursuing gilded flies. 1821Shelley Epipsych. 208 The singing of the summer-birds. 1885Swainson Prov. Names Birds 103 Wryneck..Summer bird (Northumberland). 1895Morris Austral Engl., Summer-bird, the Old-Colonists' name for the Wood-swallows [Artamus sordidus, Lath.]. In Tasmania it is applied to a species of Shrike, Graucalus melanops, Lath. 1913Melbourne Argus 27 Dec. 5 The bee martin or summer bird.
†2. With allusion to the cuckoo as the ‘summer bird’: A cuckold. Also summer's bird. Obs.
Cf. Shakes. Merry W. ii. i. 127, L.L.L. v. ii. 911.
1560Scholeh. Women (1572) B ij, Some other knaue Shall dub her husband a summer bird. a1600Sack-full of Newes (1864) 171 The poore man was cruelly beaten, and made a Summers Bird. |