| 释义 |
▪ I. swath1, swathe|swɔːθ, swɒθ|, |sweɪð|
Forms: 1 swæþ, swaþu, 3 swaðe, (4 swethe ?, 6 swade, suath, 7 swaithe, sweath, 7–9 swaith), 4– swath, swathe.
[OE. swæþ str. n., swaþu str. fem. trace, track, corresp. to MLG. swat, swâde furrow, swath, measure of land (LG. swad, swatt), MDu. swat (-d-), *swâde (Du. zwad, zwade) swath, MG. swade wk. m. swath, piece of flesh torn off longways (G. schwad str. m. and n., schwade wk. m. and f. swath, space covered by the scythe in a swing); Fris., (M)LG., early mod.Du. swade have also the meaning ‘scythe’. The ulterior relations and original meaning of the underlying Teut. root swaþ- are uncertain.
Evidence is not available for determining the date of the appearance of the form with a long vowel typically represented by the spelling swathe, since in the early periods swathe, swathes, are phonetically ambiguous; in modern local use, swathe is characteristic of the northern counties; its use in literature has prob. been furthered by association with swathe n.2]
†1. Track, trace. lit. and fig. Obs.
Chiefly or ? only OE.; quot. c 1250 is dubious.
Beowulf 2098 (Gr.), Hwæþre him sio swiðre swaðe weardade hand on Hiorte. c888ælfred Boeth. xxxix. §1 He..ne forlæt nan swæð ær he ᵹefehð þæt þæt he æfterspyreð. a900O.E. Martyrol. 5 May 74 On Oliuetes dune syndon nu ᵹyt þa swæðe dryhtnes fotlasta..ne mihte seo his swaðu..beon þæm oðrum florum ᵹeonlicod. c900tr. Bæda's Hist. iv. iii. (1899) 350 Þa swaðe awuniað reᵹollices lifes [orig. regularis vitæ vestigia permanent]. c1250Gen. & Ex. 3786 Gret fier..for-brende hem..Oc aaron al hol and fer, Cam him no fieres swaðe ner.
2. a. The space covered by a sweep of the mower's scythe; the width of grass or corn so cut.
c1475Cath. Angl. 373/2 (Addit. MS.), Swathe, orbita falcatoris est. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §23 Take hede that thy mower..mowe his swathe cleane thorowe to that that was laste mowen before. 1664Spelman Gloss. s.v. Dolæ, Illud terræ spacium quod uno falcis ictu messor radit. Angl. swath. c1830Glouc. Farm Rep. 27 in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb. III, The mowing should be so performed, that neither the strokes of the scythe nor the junction of the swaths can be discerned. 1849Thoreau Week Concord Riv. Sat. 41 The great mower Time, who cuts so broad a swathe. 1879J. D. Long æneid ix. 415 While I cut right and left, And mow thee in advance a good wide swath.
b. As a measure of grass land: A longitudinal division of a field, ? orig. reckoned by the breadth of one sweep of the scythe. local.
c1325in Kennett Par. Ant. (1818) I. 573 Duæ Swathes dicti prati jacent ut sequitur. Ibid., Dimidia roda et dimidia Swathe apud Shortedolemede. 1526Lincoln Wills (Linc. Rec. Soc.) V. 166, I bequeth vj swades off medow grounde lyeng att byllesby croffte end for to kepe an obbyt for my soule. 1625Deed in Sheffield Gloss. (1888) s.v., All those foure swathes of land lying and being in Crigleston. 1664N. Riding Rec. Soc. (1886) IV. 162 All those sixteene swaithes of meadowe-ground lyeing etc. within the lord⁓shippe of Cropton. 1787Survey in N.W. Linc. Gloss. (1877) s.v., All the grass lands in the Ings are laid out in Gads or swaths. 1839Stonehouse Axholme 158 Two swathes [of land] in the Ings Meadow.
†c. The extent of sweep of a scythe. Obs. rare.
Misunderstood by R. Holme Armoury iii. 332/2 as ‘the long crooked Staff or Pole’ of a scythe.
1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 41 b, In other places they vse a greater Sythe with a long Suath.
d. A stroke of the scythe in reaping. rare.
a1643W. Cartwright Poems, On Birth Dk. of York 38 A strangled snake, Kill'd before known, perhaps 'mongst Heathen hath Been thought the deed and valour of the Swath. 1874Hardy Far from Madding Crowd II. iii. 30 The hiss of tressy oat-ears rubbing together as their perpendicular stalks of amber-yellow fell heavily to each swath.
3. a. A row or line of grass, corn, or other crop, as it falls or lies when mown or reaped; also collectively, a crop mown and lying on the ground; phr. in (the) swath (cf. LG. in't swatt), lying in this condition.
Sometimes, ‘the quantity falling at one sweep of the scythe’ (Robinson Whitby Gloss. 1876 s.v. Sweeathe).
c1325Gloss. W. de Bibbesw. in Wright Voc. 154 Une andeyne de prée, a swathe [v.r. a swethe of mede]. c1340Nominale (Skeat) 112 M[an] mawith of mede a swath. a1400Morte Arth. 2508 A mede..Mawene and vne-made,..In swathes sweppene downe, fulle of swete floures. 1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 122 Grasse latelie in swathes is hay for an ox. 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. v. 25 The straying Greekes ripe for his edge, Fall downe before him, like the mowers swath. 1614Sylvester Bethulia's Rescue v. 499 Long Swathes of their degraded Grasse, Well show the way their sweeping Scithes did pass. 1616Surfl. & Markh. Country Farm iv. vi. 499 If there be plentie of grasse, and that you see it lye thicke in the swathes. 1622Drayton Poly-olb. xxii. 678 Swaths of new-shorn grass. 1766Goldsm. Vic. W. vi, We turned the swath to the wind. 1766Compl. Farmer, Grips, the swaiths, or small heaps of corn, lying in the field, as it is cut down with the scythe. 1813T. Davis Agric. Wilts Gloss. s.v., Hay [is] in swath when just mowed. 1831Sutherland Farm Rep. 74 in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb. III, That it may come early to the swaith, it is never permitted to eat it down in autumn. 1834Brit. Husb. I. 73 As clover..is rarely tedded, it should be sufficient to leave every tenth swathe for the tithe. 1840Florist's Jrnl. (1846) I. 70 Though the swathe from some grounds is not heavy, the quality will everywhere be very superior. 1857G. M. Musgrave Pilgr. Dauphiné I. xi. 243 The grass had been cut, and left in swaths. 1883Symonds Ital. Byways i. 1 Men..were mowing the frozen grass..and as the swathes fell, they gave a crisp..sound.
b. transf. Applied to growing grass or corn ready for mowing or reaping.
1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 45 b, To the ende the after swath may be mowed in Autume. 1612Drayton Poly-olb. xiv. 100 Whose burden'd pasture bears The most abundant swathe. 1819Keats To Autumn 18 While thy hook Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers. 1846J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 366 In June there was a heavy swath, which was mown for seed. 1868Morris Earthly Par. (1870) I. ii. 592 Within the flowery swathe he heard The sweeping of the scythe.
c. to cut a swath (U.S. slang): to make a pompous display, swagger, ‘cut a dash’. Now freq. to cut a wide swath.
1848Bartlett Dict. Amer. s.v. Cut. 1855 Knickerb. Mag. Dec. 617 [He] might better have cut just as big a swath somewhere else. 1902H. L. Wilson Spenders 348 You folks been cuttin' a pretty wide swath here in New York. 1929Amer. Speech V. 119 [Maine] Someone conceited..‘feels his oats’, ‘cuts a wide swath’, ‘is one of the big bugs’. 1960I. Wallach Absence of Cello (1961) 241 He was determined to cut a wide swath with the girls—no easy trick in Philadelphia.
4. transf. and fig.
a. A broad track, belt, strip, or longitudinal extent of something.
1605Drayton Poems Lyr. & Past. Ode vii. B 8 b, Yet many riuers cleere Here glide in siluer swathes, And what of all most deare Buckstons delicious bathes. 1681Grew Musæum iv. ii. 367 The Notch fortify'd with a Swath of split Quill. 1715tr. Gregory's Astron. (1726) I. 256 The..Ecliptic, or rather Zodiac, (for like a Belt or Swath, it is 20 deg. broad). 1818Hogg Brownie of Bodsbeck I. iii. 41, I began to look o'er my shouther, but there was naething there but the swathes o' mist. 1849Cupples Green Hand xiii, Where you saw the water winding about the horizon in long swathes, as it were. 1859Maury Phys. Geog. vi. §339. 105 A breadth or swath of winds in the north-east trades. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Swathe, the entire length of a sea-wave. 1909R. F. Anderson Logie 100 Years Ago 9 An auld wifie laying out a swath of unbleached cotton.
b. Something compared to grass or corn falling before the scythe or sickle; esp. used of troops ‘mown down’ in battle.
1852M. Arnold Human Life 19 As the foaming swath Of torn-up water, on the main, Falls heavily away with long⁓drawn roar. 1856Ruskin Mod. Paint. IV. v. vi. §9. 89 The sound of every drooping swathe of rain. 1873Longfellow Wayside Inn iii. Scanderbeg 19 The rearguard as it fled, Mown down in the bloody swath Of the battle's aftermath. 1895A. I. Shand Life Gen. Sir E. B. Hamley I. iv. 92 We see the dead lying in swathes as they had fallen.
5. attrib. and Comb., as swath-width; swath-board, a slanting board attached to the cutter-bar of a mowing machine, designed to force the cut grass, etc., into a narrower swath; swath(e)-balk, a ridge of grass left unmown between the swaths, or between the sweeps of the scythe; hence swath(e)-balked a.; swath(e)-rake, ‘a wooden rake the breadth of the swath, used to collect the scattered hay or corn’ (E.D.D.); swath-turner, a machine used for turning over swaths of hay.
1691Ray N.C. Words, A *Swathe bauk, a Swarth of new mowen Grass or Corn. 1811Willan in Archaeologia XVII. 160 (W. Riding Words), Swath-Bauks, the edges of grass between the semicircular cuttings of the scythe.
a1800Pegge Suppl. Grose, *Swath-bawk'd, grass that has escaped the scythe. Lanc.
1952J. W. Day New Yeomen of England vii. 87 After mowing, the lucerne is tedded to remove the wad, left by the *swathe board, and is then swept to the tripods and cocked. 1963Listener 28 Mar. 552/1 The swathe-board..of a grass-mower.
1652Inv. in N.W. Linc. Gloss. (1877) s.v., Two yron *swath rakes. 1658R. Hubberthorn Rec. Sufferings for Tythes (MS.) Sweath-rake. 1764Museum Rust. II. 31 The swathe-rake; a rake about two yards long, with iron teeth, and a beam in the middle, to which a man fixes himself with a belt. 1766Compl. Farmer, Swath-rake,..much used in Essex for gathering barley after mowing.
1922Joyce Ulysses 699 Grindstone, clodcrusher, *swatheturner, carriagesack. 1958Times 27 Oct. 15/4 A swath-turner was used to invert the swath and move it onto dry ground.
1778W. H. Marshall Minutes Agric., Observ. 24 In the middles of some of the *swath-widths. 1970G. F. Burnett in H. W. Mulligan African Trypanosomiases xxiv. 506 When treating an area of woodland, the aircraft must pass over it on parallel runs at regularly spaced intervals, each of which is referred to as a ‘swath width’.
▪ II. swath2, swathe
local variant of swarth n.1 (Cf. swad n.1)
1776in Trans. Soc. Arts (1784) II. 68 Holes, which will hold water, and quite spoil the Turf or new Swath. 1826Scott Woodst. xxxiii, I have made him plough in my furrow, when he thought he was turning up his own swathe. 1873Swaledale Gloss., Swath, the skin of bacon. 1877N.W. Linc. Gloss., Swarth, Swath, Sward, Swad, grass-land.
▪ III. swath
obs. form of swathe. |