| 释义 |
ˈfire-drake
[OE. fýr-draca, f. fýr, fire n. + draca dragon.]
1. A ‘fiery dragon’: a mythical creature belonging to Germanic superstition.
Beowulf 5371 Þa wæs..frecne fyr-draca, fæhða ᵹemyndiᵹ. 1393Gower Conf. III. 95 Sometime the fire-drake it semeth. 1522Skelton Why not to Court 978 That he wolde than make The devyls to quake Lyke a fyerdrake. 1683Crowne City Politiques ii. i, Were not your writings like so many Fire-drakes?..no person [would] come near 'em. 1865Kingsley Herew. xiii, He expected the enchanter to enter on a fire drake. 1883Longm. Mag. Sept. 517 Woodcuts, representing..fire-drakes, and other fearful wild-fowl.
†2.
a. A fiery meteor.
b. A will-o'-the-wisp.
1563W. Fulke Meteors (1640) 10 Flying Dragons, or as Englishmen call them, fire Drakes, be caused in this maner. 1607G. Wilkins Miseries Enforced Marr. in Hazl. Dodsley IX. 572 Who should be lamps to comfort out our way, And not like firedrakes to lead men astray. 1631Chapman Cæsar & Pompey Wks. 1873 III. 159 So have I seen a firedrake glide at midnight Before a dying man to point his grave. 1851Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. I. 127 He deals in signs, portents, fire-drakes..armies fighting in clouds.
†3. A kind of firework. Obs.
1607Middleton Five Gallants iii. ii. 82 But, like fire-drakes, Mounted a little, gave a crack, and fell. 1634J. Bate Myst. Nat. & Art 80 How to make fire Drakes. 1706in Phillips (ed. Kersey).
†4. transf.
a. An alchemist's assistant.
b. A man with a fiery nose.
c. One who is fond of fighting; = fire-eater 2.
d. A fire-man.
e. = fireship 2.
1610B. Jonson Alch. ii. i, That's his fire-drake, His lungs, his Zephyrus, he that puffes his coales. 1613Shakes. Hen. VIII, v. iv. 45 Twenty of the Dog-dayes now reigne in 's Nose..that Fire-drake did I hit three times on the head. c1626Dick of Devon. i. ii. in Bullen O. Pl. II. 14 Our shipps Carrying such firedrakes in them that [etc.]. a1670Hacket Abp. Williams ii. (1692) 146 It is not strange that such fire-drakes as he writes of could not forbear to threaten the nation. 1631Dekker Match mee i. Wks. 1873 IV. 140 Another Fire-drake! More Salamanders! a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Fire-drakes, Men with a Phenix for their Badge, in Livery, and Pay from the Insurance-Office, to extinguish Fires. 1710Brit. Apollo II. Q. No. 3. 7/1 A Fire-drake of Spain [might]..put you in the same Plight. |