| 释义 |
triffid|ˈtrɪfɪd|
Also Triffid.
[f. tri-, prob. after trifid a., as the plant was supported on ‘three bluntly-tapered projections extending from the lower part’ of the body.]
In the science-fiction novel The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham (1903–69), one of a race of menacing plants, possessed of locomotor ability and a poisonous sting, which threaten to overrun the world. Hence used allusively of vigorous plants, or transf. of anything invasive or rapid in development.
1951‘J. Wyndham’ Day of Triffids ii. 46 A catchy little name originating in some newspaper office as a handy label for an oddity—but destined one day to be associated with pain, fear and misery—triffid. Ibid. 54 He had also established that the infertility rate of triffid seeds was something like ninety-five per cent. 1965New Scientist 11 Mar. 619/3 Ninety per cent of British households have television..and neither bindweed, triffids, nor dragon's teeth grew more rapidly than the angular aerial. 1972S. Hughes in M. Bygrave et al. Time Out's Bk. of London ix. 90/1 The south is sprouting with tall dark buildings like triffids. 1977Times 10 Feb. 5/2 Roots and suckers started appearing all over our gardens... They were like ‘Triffids’. 1978R. H. Lewis Antiquarian Bks. iv. 86 Books ‘taking over’ in Triffid style is a common experience.
Hence triˈffidian a.; ˈtriffid-like a. and quasi-adv.
1951‘J. Wyndham’ Day of Triffids ii. 49 It was assumed..that their characteristic of suddenly losing their immobility and rattling a rapid tattoo against the main stem was some strange form of triffidian amatory exuberance. 1971Daily Tel. 16 Jan. 10/6 This cactus had run wild and, Triffid-like, had taken over thousands of square miles of good agricultural land. 1971New Scientist 9 Sept. 589/3 Even the departure of four million..inhabitants..did not appear to check the spread of the Triffid-like condition. |