| 释义 |
▪ I. swoop, n.|swuːp|
Forms: 6 soope, 6–7 swoope, 7 swope, swoup, 7– swoop.
[f. next; but the source of sense 1 is not clear.]
†1. A blow, stroke; also fig.; in Fencing, see quot. 1711. Obs.
1544–5Paget in Waters Chesters of Chicheley (1878) I. iv. 33 Some in dede shall wynne by it, who owe more than they have here, but..dyvers others a greate nombre are like to have a great swoope by it [sc. the embargo on English goods] having much here and owing nothing or little. 1589Hay any Work 11, I come vpon you..with 4. or 5. such drie soopes, as Iohn of London with his two hand sword neuer gaue the like. 1711Wylde Eng. Master Defence 26 A Blow I call the Swoop, is made when you lie upon an outside thus, Let your Point drop Hanging-wise, and bring it round the Point of your Opponent's Sword, and Pitch it home to his Face.
†2. An act of sweeping or clearing away; a clearance. Cf. sweep n. 1. Obs. rare.
1612–39Breton Wits Private Wealth Wks. (Grosart) II. 8/2 Death where he commeth, makes a swoope with all persons.
3. The act of swooping down; esp. the sudden pouncing of a bird of prey from a height upon its quarry.
1605[see b]. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 292 Some of them [sc. hawks] in their Swoops are so couragious, as to seize the Heads of Deer or Antelopes. 1795Coleridge To Author of Poems 14 The vapour-poison'd Birds, that fly too low, Fall with dead swoop, and to the bottom go. 1841S. Bamford Life of Radical (1844) 116 Darkness came down like a swoop. 1847Longfellow Ev. i. i. 115 Swift as the swoop of the eagle. 1852R. F. Burton Falconry Valley Indus v. 62 The kite..wriggled out of the way of their swoop.
b. at one (fell, etc.) swoop, at one sudden descent, as of a bird of prey; hence, at a single blow or stroke.
1605Shakes. Macb. iv. iii. 219 Oh Hell-Kite! All? What, All my pretty Chickens, and their Damme At one fell swoope? 1612Webster White Devil i. i. 6 If she [sc. Fortune] give ought, she deales it in smal percels, That she may take away all at one swope. 1692R. L'Estrange Fables lxxii. I. 70 The Eagle..fell into his [sc. the fox's] Quarters and carry'd away a Whole Litter of Cubbs at a Swoop. 1825T. Hook Sayings Ser. ii. Sutherl. (Colburn) 30 That the whole of this detail would probably reach Mr. Lazenby's ears, and destroy, at one fell swoop, all his hopes and expectations. 1847Disraeli Tancred ii. v, The Church Temporalities' Bill in 1833, which at one swoop had suppressed the Irish episcopates. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. i. iv, The huffing of Miss Bella, and the loss of three of her men at a swoop.
c. A sudden descent, as by a body of troops, esp. upon something which it is intended to seize.
1824W. Irving T. Trav. ii. iv. (1848) 108 He made one fell swoop upon purse, watch, and all. 1837― Capt. Bonneville I. xii. 211 A swoop was made through the neighbouring pastures by the Blackfeet, and eighty-six of the finest horses carried off. 1871L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. (1894) xi. 262 Any one..who has trembled at the deadly swoop of the gale. 1885J. Runciman Skippers & Sh. 59 As the ship gave her long swoops down the sides of the seas. 1894J. A. Steuart In Day of Battle xv, It was the pipes that won Waterloo, that saved Lucknow, that broke the Russian swoop at Balaclava. 1895Huxley in Life (1900) II. xxiii. 400 Influenza came down upon me with a swoop.
▪ II. swoop, v.|swuːp|
Forms: 6 swoupe, 6–7 swoope, 7 swoup, 7– swoop; also 6 sooup, 6–7 soup, 7 soupe, soop(e.
[app. a dialectal development of OE. swápan, swope v.1, prob. influenced by Sc. and north. dial. soop v. (a. ON. sópa).]
†1. intr. To move or walk in a stately manner, as with trailing garments; to sweep along. Also with it. Obs.
1566Drant Horace, Sat. i. ii. B j b, He swings and swoupes from streete to streete, with gowne that sweepes the grounde. 1597Bp. Hall Sat. i. iii. 23 Soouping in side robes of Royalty. 1598Marston Sat. iii. viii, O now me thinks I heare swart Martins cry, Souping along in warres fain'd maskerie. 16022nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. v. i. 1965 England affordes those glorious vagabonds,..Coursers to ride on..Sooping it in their glaring Satten Sutes. 1617Bp. Hall Quo Vadis? xii, The persecutors of S. Thomas of Canterbury, whose posteritie (if we believe..Degrassalius) are borne with long and hairie tails souping after them. 1622Drayton Poly-olb. xxviii. 229 And in her winding Banks along my bosome led, As shee goes swooping by.
†2. trans. To sweep up, away, off, etc.; to remove forcibly from its position or out of existence.
1600Holland Livy v. xiii. 189 The forraiers..encountred the residue..of this battaile..and swoopt them up cleane. 1609― Amm. Marcell. xvi. iv. 61 A rich patrimonie..he swoopt away. 1611Beaum. & Fl. Philaster v. iii, Like a wild overflow, that soops before him A golden Stack, and with it shakes down Bridges. 1615T. Adams White Devil 26 A starre placed high in the orbe of the Church, thogh swooped downe with the Dragons taile because not fixed. 1623T. Godwin Rom. Antiq. ii. iii. xiii. (1658) 117 Look who threw an Ace and Sice together, for every Dye he staked and laid to stake a Denere; which he took up and swooped all clean. 1625Lisle Du Bartas, Noe 24 Make haste and soop the wat'r away That hides the land from Heav'n. 1634Ford Perkin Warbeck i. ii. B iij b, So Pasture fields Neighbouring too neere the Ocean, are soopd vp And knowne no more. c1685Lintoun Green (1817) 165 They Donald gar'd their victuals dress, Knives clean,..And swoop dirt pulverized Ilk morning gray. 1791J. Learmont Poems 180 Doctors, wi' hocus-pocus faith Gie poison, an swoop aff your waith. 1819W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd i. (1827) 6 The whirlwind's blast, That..swoops the hay⁓cocks aff the lea. 1888Child Ballads III. 103/1 Robin swoops off Red Roger's head.
†b. To utter forcibly. Obs. rare.
1605Camden Rem., Languages 23 The Northerne Nations of the world, who are noted to soupe their words out of the throat with fat and full spirits.
†c. To drink off or swallow down quickly the contents of; = sweep v. 6 b. Obs.
1648G. Daniel Eclog iii. 138 With bended knee, Swoope of a vessel bigger then all three. 1654Gayton Pleas. Notes iii. vi. 103 A thorough..draining, and swooping the whole vessell.
†3. To pounce upon, as a bird of prey; to seize, catch up with a sweeping movement. Also fig.
1638Wilkins New World i. xiv. (1640) 238 If there bee such a great Ruck in Madagascar..which can soope up a horse and his rider, or an elephant, as our kites doe a mouse. 1649G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. V, lxviii, As ore a Hill, Where lanke-wing'd Puttocks hope to catch their Prey They hover, till it Stirre, and Swoop't away. a1653― Idyll. iv. 32 Though Tyranny, (big-Swolne, in all formes, Vulture or Moll) doe Swoop, or hunt out wormes. 1661Glanvill Van. Dogm. 247 The Physitian looks with another Eye on the Medicinal hearb, then the grazing Oxe, which swoops it in with the common grass. 1670Dryden 1st Pt. Conq. Granada i. i, Till now at last you came to swoop it all. 1672Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 35 He [sc. the pope] would have swoop'd up the Patriarchate of Lambeth to his Mornings-draught, like an egg in Muscadine. 1678Otway Friendship in F. v, Thou shalt every morning swoop the Exchange in triumph to see what gaudy bauble thou canst first grow fond of. 1688Bunyan Jerus. Sinner Saved (1886) 78 Why the text swoops you all... It has a particular message to the biggest sinner. I say, it swoops you all. 1818Milman Samor iv. 681 To grapple with these vultures, whose broad vans..would swoop us. 1822Byron Werner iii. i. 157 'Tis but a snare he winds about us both, To swoop the sire and son at once.
4. intr. To make a rapid sweeping descent through the air upon its prey, as a bird.
1837W. Irving Capt. Bonneville I. xiii. 222 Like a hawk in a cage, who hears his late companions swooping and screaming in wild liberty above him. 1852R. F. Burton Falconry Valley Indus vi. 68 Jerking the prey out of her reach as she swoops at it. 1873Black Pr. Thule xxvii. 454 Sea⁓gulls were swooping down and around the tall masts. 1894S. Weyman Under Red Robe vii. (1897) 178 The frogs croaked in the pool and a bat swooped round us in circles.
5. To come down upon suddenly with a sweeping movement, esp. with the intention of seizing, as a body of troops.
1797Mrs. Radcliffe Italian xiii, Those Carmelites may swoop upon us all of a sudden, before we can help ourselves. 1859Masson Brit. Novelists i. 71 Turning over the leaves of the large folio, and swooping down on the text here and there. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. iii. 30 At other times a breeze would swoop down upon us. 1873Dixon Two Queens I. viii. vii. 95 Descending from Pamplona, he could swoop on either Zaragoza or Valladolid. 1874Burnand My Time xv. 130 She swooped down before the fire. 1884Mahaffy in Contemp. Rev. July 89 The wild mountaineers, who used to swoop down on the rich trading cities of the coast.
Hence ˈswooper, a person or thing that swoops.
a1849J. C. Mangan Poems, The Diver, What in Charybdis's caverns dwells No chronicle..tells;..the shattered masts and the drifting keel Alone tell the tale of the swooper's prey. 1880Libr. Univ. Knowl. (N.Y.) X. 496 Classification [of birds] based on Cuvier [etc.]... 1. Robbers. a. Swoopers. Eagles, hawks, vultures. b. Stealers. |