| 释义 |
fosse|fɒs|
Also 7–9 foss.
[a. F. fosse, ad. L. fossa (see fossa1).]
1. An excavation narrow in proportion to its length; a canal, ditch, or trench; † a cart-rut.
a1440Sir Degrev. 1640 The stede stert over a fosse and strykys astray. 1477Norton Ord. Alch. i. in Ashm. (1652) 19 As water in fosses of the Carte-wheele. 1555Eden Decades 137 Fosses or trenches made of oulde tyme. 1606Holland Sueton. 185 Hee had an intention..from thence by a Fosse to let the Sea into old Rome. 1664Evelyn Sylva (1776) 44 You may plant them in double Fosses. 1806T. S. Surr Winter in Lond. (ed. 3) III. 41, I stripped off several of his garments, which I threw into a fosse. 1853G. Johnston Nat. Hist. E. Bord. I. 254 With mounds and parallel fosses that have evidently an artificial origin.
fig.1549Compl. Scot. i. 19 The diuyne sapiens..garris them fal in the depe fosse of seruitude.
2. esp. in Fortif. and Archæol. A ditch or dike formed to serve as a barrier against an advancing foe, a moat surrounding a fortified place.
c1400Mandeville (1839) iv. 32 There nyghe is the Fosse of Mennon, that is alle round. 1549Compl. Scot. xiv. 113 Thai maid tua lang depe fosses about al the toune. 1678tr. Gaya's Art of War ii. 113 A Trench, a casting up of Earth by way of Parapet, with a Ditch or Foss on the side of the Enemy. 1774Pennant Tour Scotl. in 1772, 95 A round British camp surrounded with two fosses. 1807G. Chalmers Caledonia I. i. iv. 157 It..was defended by three strong ramparts, and two large fosses. 1872Baker Nile Tribut. iv. 51 A deep fosse is a safeguard against a sudden surprise. 1882Swinburne Tristram of Lyonesse 122 What fosse may fence thee round as deep as hate?
transf.1860Motley Netherl. II. ix. 22 [The Meuse] was now..in the power of the Spaniards, The Province of Brabant became thoroughly guarded again by its foss.
b. In full fosse-road. = Fosse-way.
1130–35—a 1450 [in M.E.D.]. 1882Encycl. Brit. XIV. 424/2 The Fosse road from Lincolnshire..passes by Leicester to Watling Street; the Via Devana..joins the Fosse at Leicester on its way to Chester. 1937Collingwood & Myres Roman Brit. (ed. 2) vi. 91 The Fosse begins at Seaton..on the Devonshire coast. 1969C. Cochrane Lost Roads of Wessex i. 14 No Roman way has been listed as located between Salisbury and the southern part of the Fosse. Ibid. vi. 119 For a short distance the Roman quarrystone paving of the Foss was intact.
†3.
a. A deep hole dug in the ground; a pit. Also, a burying-ground, grave. Obs.
1474Caxton Chesse iv. vii, Than he herde a voyce that yssued out of the fosse or pitte of the sacrefises. 1669Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 137 Its usual to apply good Mould..to fill up the Foss after the placing the Tree. 1727Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v., The Foss or Pit for the Bait should be under it as at A.B.C.D. a1777Fawkes Apollonius Rhodius iii. 1277 A deep round foss he made, And on the kindling wood the victim laid. 1855Smedley Occult Sc. 129 Most of the spirits..hover over the foss and its bloody libation.
b. Hist. A pit [= med.Lat. fossa] in which women condemned for felony were drowned.
1825–80Jamieson s.v. Pit & Gallows, In some old deeds..these terms [furca et fossa] are rendered furc and fos.
†4. A waterway or navigable channel. Obs.
1601Holland Pliny I. 117 In the fosse and mouth of this riuer Phasis.
5. An abyss, chasm, or gulf. [transl. It. bolgia.]
1814Cary Dante, Inf. viii. 74 We came within the fosses deep, that moat This region comfortless.
6. Anat. = fossa1.
1730–36Bailey (folio), Foss [with Anatomists] a kind of cavity in a bone, with a large aperture, but no exit or perforation. 1847Johnston in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club II. No. 5. 215 Its origin was marked by a deep incissure or fosse in the back. 1883Knowledge 13 July 22/2 Between the margin and the feelers..there may be a groove or foss.
7. attrib. and Comb., as foss-ditch; foss-work, Hist. (Feudal), work done on the town foss.
1772Burke Corr. (1844) I. 402 The nature of the Turkish frontier provinces, an immense foss-ditch (if I may so call it) of desert, is a defence made..at the expense of mankind. 1775Ash, Foss-work. |