| 释义 |
sunbeam|ˈsʌnbiːm|
[OE. sun(n)béam, also sunne béam: see sun n.1 and beam n.1 The form sunnëbeme was current until c 1430; sunbeme became frequent from 1300, first in northern texts.]
1. a. A beam of sunlight.
c1000ælfric Saints' Lives iv. 275 Hwæt fremað þam blindan seo beorhta sun-beam? c1121O.E. Chron. an. 678 (Laud MS.) Her ateowede cometa se steorra on Auguste, & scan .iii. monðas ælce morᵹen swilce sunne beam. c1200Ormin 18979 All all swa summ þe sŭnebæm Bishineþþ all þe blinde. c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 480 He saiȝh hire neb, and turnde aȝein so briȝht so sonne-bem. a1300Cursor M. 11228 Þe sun beme Gais thoru þe glas. c1300Havelok 592 Of hise mouth it stod a stem, Als it were a sunne⁓bem. 1426Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 16212 Lyke vn-to the Sonne Bemys, Shynynge most hoote, the Sommerys day. 1540–1Elyot Image Gov. 69 High trees..did cast..a pleasant..shadowe, and defended theim..from the vehement heate of the sunne beames. 1589Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 23 The Mermaides..drying their waterie tresses in the Sunne beames. 1625N. Carpenter Geog. Del. i. ii. (1635) 39 The quiuering light which is spread by the refraction of the Sun-beames in the water. 1632Milton Penseroso 8 The gay motes that people the Sun Beams. 1706Pope Let. to Wycherley 10 Apr., Some [verses] I have contracted, as we do Sun-beams, to improve their..Force. 1840Dickens Old C. Shop xv, Sparkling sunbeams dancing on chamber windows. 1843Ruskin Mod. Paint. I. ii. iii. i. §13 Where a sunbeam enters, every particle of dust becomes visible.
b. fig.
c1200Ormin 7278 Crist iss ec soþ sunnebæm Þatt all þiss werelld lihhteþþ. c1450Godstow Reg. 16 Now helpe us, good lady!.. Of the blessid sonne-beem ȝeue us summe light. 1624Sir J. Davies Ps. xxi, The sunn-beames of Thy face will cheare his hart. 1807–8W. Irving Salmag. xv. (1824) 278 [They] were delighted to see the sun-beams once more play in his Countenance.
c. (written) with a sunbeam or in sunbeams: in bright conspicuous characters.
a1770Jortin Serm. (1771) I. i. 12 The great duties of life are written with a Sun-beam. 1891Farrar Darkn. & Dawn xlvi, Such words fall too often on our cold and careless ears with the triteness of long familiarity; but to Octavia..they seemed to be written in sunbeams.
d. Someone, esp. a woman or girl, who enlivens or cheers another. Cf. (little) ray of sunshine s.v. ray n.1 1 a.
1886C. M. Yonge Chantry House II. xxi. 190 She was always a sunbeam, with her ever ready attention. 1900C. H. Chambers Tyranny of Tears iv. 128 We're all very sorry you're going—particularly cook. Cook's very strong in her attachments... Cook's words was, ‘This'll be a dull 'ouse when the little sunbeam's gone.’ 1943F. Thompson Candleford Green viii. 133 Girls..of the type then called ‘sunbeams in the home’: good, affectionate, home-loving girls. 1970G. Heyer Charity Girl x. 150 She couldn't conceive how she had ever contrived to exist without ‘our sweet little sunbeam’.
2. Used as a literal rendering of a native word applied to a radiant-coloured humming-bird.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage viii. ii. 615 The Brasilians called it Ourissia, which signifieth the Sun-beame. 1681Grew Musæum i. iv. i. 61 The Huming Bird. By the Brasilians, called Guanumbi. By Clusius, Ourissia, i.e. a Sun-beam. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. xiii. 297/1 This [Humming] Bird by the Brasilians is also called..Guara-cyaba, that is a Sun-beam Bird, and Guara-cigaba, the hair of the Sun. 1870Gillmore tr. Figuier's Reptiles & Birds 466 The Indians call these darlings Sun-beams.
3. Comb., as sunbeam-proof adj.
1820Shelley Cloud 65 Over a torrent sea, Sunbeam⁓proof, I hang like a roof.
Hence † ˈsunbeamed, ˈsunbeamy (? U.S.) adjs., bright as a sunbeam; genial.
1588Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 168 To behold with your *Sunne beamed eyes.
a1849J. C. Mangan Poems (1859) 292 That *sunbeamy standard that shone..To illumine our way. 1890‘Annie Thomas’ Love of Lady I. ix. 160 Her sunbeamy nature. 1897Pall Mall Mag. Dec. 444 [Her hair hung] in soft, golden, sunbeamy masses down her back. |