| 释义 |
ˈeyestring
[f. eye n.1 + string n.]
In pl. The strings (i.e. muscles, nerves, or tendons) of the eye. (The ‘eyestrings’ were formerly supposed to break or crack at death or loss of sight.)
1601B. Jonson Poetaster Induct., Crack, eye-strings..let me be ever blind. 1607Beaum. & Fl. Woman-hater ii. i, The last words that my dying father spake, Before his eye-strings brake. 1611Shakes. Cymb. i. iii. 17, I would haue broke mine eye-strings; crack'd them, but To looke vpon him. 1639Fuller Holy War ii. xxxix. (1647) 96 When once those eye-strings begin to break, the heart⁓strings hold not out long after. 1675Hobbes Odyssey (1677) 108 All his eye-strings with the fire did strut. 1682Otway Venice Preserved ii. i, Gaze on thee 'till my Eye⁓strings crackt with Love. 1707Mortimer Husb. 178 See..that their [sheep's] Gums be red..the Eye-strings ruddy. 1776Toplady Bk. Praise 159 When my eyestrings break in death. 1778Arminian Mag. I. 268 His Eye-strings were broke, his Speech entirely gone. |