| 释义 |
ˈflying ˈfox
[f. flying ppl. a. + fox.]
1. A member of the genus Pteropus of fruit-eating bats, found in India, Madagascar, south-east Asia, and Australia.
1759Hirst in Duncombe's Lett. (1773) III. 95 They have heads like foxes, and..are covered with hair of a reddish hue; for which reason they are generally called ‘flying foxes’. 1827P. Cunningham 2 Years N.S. Wales (1828) I. 294 Our flying fox is an immense bat. 1859Tennent Ceylon (1860) I. 135 The Roussette of Ceylon (the Flying-Fox as it is usually called by Europeans). 1877W. S. Dallas in Cassell's Nat. Hist. I. 268 The Flying Fox drinks by lapping. 1910Encycl. Brit. X. 586/1 The flying-foxes are the largest of the bats. 1965D. Morris Mammals 98 The largest bats of this group are the Flying Foxes of the Pacific region. 1969E. C. Rolls They all ran Wild xvii. 390 The party shot fifty-five flying-foxes.
2. A carrier operated by cables across a gorge, etc. Austral. and N.Z.
1936F. Clune Roaming round Darling vii. 64 The mountain-sides near by are vast stores of black marble which is quarried out and brought down by flying foxes (buckets run on overhead wires). 1948Partridge Dict. Forces' Slang, Flying Fox, a device used by the Australians in the Pacific to speed up the advance by slinging heavy equipment across rivers and other obstacles by ropes. 1965G. J. Williams Econ. Geol. N.Z. x. 157/1 A certain amount of serpentinous rather than nephritic material had been brought down by flying-fox and cut into slabs. 1969Landfall XXIII. 59 Adam had rigged up two flying-foxes—two long wires across the valleys on which he sent the hay flying across to the ferny slopes on the other side where they fed the cattle. |