| 释义 |
frog-spawn, frogs' spawn
1. The ova, spawn, or young of frogs.
1621Burton Anat. Mel. i. iii. ii. ii. (1651) 200 He had..swallowed frogs-spawn. 1718Quincy Compl. Disp. 228 Frog's Spawn. 1833J. Rennie Alph. Angling 11 Carp..will devour small eels, frog-spawn, and the roe or the young of fishes. 1885Syd. Soc. Lex., Frog's spawn, the ova of the common frog..Once used in medicine.
attrib.1710Steele Tatler No. 245 ⁋2 A Collection of Receipts to make..Frog Spawn Water.
2. a. The popular name for certain freshwater algæ, which form green and slimy masses floating on the surface of ponds and ditches.
1864Realm 15 June 546 Cities to which Genoa is a cob⁓web on a wall and Venice mere frog-spawn in a puddle. 1884Public Opinion 5 Sept. 299/1 Slime and frog-spawn are the chief products of these holes.
fig.1895J. Smith Message of Exodus xix. 297 God in whom his fathers trusted was different from the frog-spawn of superstition.
b. colloq. Tapioca or sago pudding.
1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. ix. 163 Tapioca or sago is.., very commonly, ‘frog spawn’. 1963New Society 22 Aug. 5/1 The well-known fly cemetery and frogspawn are still o.k.-descriptions of currant puddings and tapioca.
3. Sugar-manuf. A fungus destructive to saccharine solutions.
1887tr. De Bary's Fungi 469 Leuconostoc mesenterioides, the ‘frog-spawn’ of sugar-factories. |