| 释义 |
three-cornered, a.
(ˈθriːˈkɔːnəd: str. var.)
1. a. Having three corners or angles; triangular (in plan or in cross-section).
c1400Mandeville iii. 15 Costantynoble..is iij cornered. c1400Lanfranc's Cirurg. 36 Haue a nedle þre cornerid. 1594Blundevil Exerc. iii. i. (1636) 274 Of Triangles or three-cornerd figures. 1668Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. i. xviii. 49 Somtimes they are three-corner'd, seldom round. 1833T. Hook Parson's Dau. ii. i, Immediately following..came a three-cornered note from Lady Gorgon. 1855O. W. Holmes Poems 86 The old three-cornered hat.
b. transf. Applied to a constituency represented by three members.
Such constituencies were a feature of the electoral system for the House of Commons from 1867 to 1885; each elector having the right to vote for not more than two candidates, which enabled a strong minority to elect one of the representatives.
1882Ogilvie, Three-cornered constituency. 1883Manch. Guard. 22 Oct. 5/2 What shall be done with the three-cornered constituencies?
c. Applied to a contest, discussion, or the like, between three persons.
1891Kipling Light that Failed xii. (1900) 197 Let us rather..consider whether Torp's three-cornered ministrations are exactly what Dick needs just now. 1894H. H. Gardener Unoff. Patriot 59 They had a three-cornered fight with Bradley's mulatto, Ned. Mod. The election in Kilmarnock Burghs was a three-cornered fight.
2. a. Of a horse: Awkwardly shaped. colloq.
1861G. J. Whyte-Melville Mkt. Harb. iv. 28 The grey..and the bay, with a little three-cornered jumping hack. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 386 And the horses? Sell every three-cornered wretch of 'em.
b. fig. Awkward, cross-grained, peevish; cf. angular a. 4. (Also quasi-adv.)
c1850E. Farmer Scrap Bk. (1869) 96 Matters run three-cornered. 1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. xxxiii, A three-cornered, impracticable fellow. 1879F. W. Robinson Coward Consc. iii. xviii, This hard, three-cornered family.
3. three-cornered jack Austral., the spiny burr of the annual weed, Emex australis.
1953A. Upfield Murder must Wait xxv. 223 ‘You lie there.’.. ‘But not on the three-cornered jacks.’.. Her husband..swept the place clean of the skin-piercing burrs.
Hence ˈthree-ˈcorneredness, triangularity; ˈthree-ˈcorneredwise adv., triangularly.
1682T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 68 (1713) II. 169 A Place in Egypt, call'd Delta, from the Three-corner'dness of its Shape. 1580Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Triangulaire, three cornerdwise, or after three corners. |