| 释义 |
germinate, v.|ˈdʒɜːmɪneɪt|
[f. ppl. stem of L. germināre, f. germin-, germen: see germ n.]
1. intr. To sprout, put forth shoots, begin to vegetate. Said properly of a seed or of a spore; hence, also, of a plant: To bud and develop shoots and branches.
1663Bullokar, Germinate, to bud out. 1667Phil. Trans. II. 424 Whether seeds..will germinate and thrive in the exhausted Receiver. 1671Grew Anat. Plants i. i. §39 'Tis now time for the Plume to rouze out of its Cloysters, and germinate too. a1687H. More Def. Philos. Cabbala App. xi. (1713) 196 God caused the Trees to germinate out of the Earth. 1707Curios. in Husb. & Gard. 157 There is in one single Grain of Corn, that has throughly germinated, wherewith to feed the five Thousand Men. 1846J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 107 When the agriculturist wishes his seeds to germinate, he should not bury them very deep. 1866Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xxii. 572 A kind of cloth woven of hair was used for drying the malt after it had been made to germinate. 1874Cooke Fungi 27 The spores which produce spermatia are not at all apt to germinate. 1875Bennett & Dyer Sachs' Bot. 138 The persistent buds of many trees (Aesculus), bulbs (Tulip), and corms (Crocus, &c.), formed in the summer and germinating in the spring after long rest in winter.
b. fig.
1647H. More Poems 267 Lust and Vengeance..from one seed do germinate. 1660Jer. Taylor Duct. Dubit. i. iv. rule x. §2 (1676) 124 The Church was then a garden of the fairest flowers, it did daily germinate with blessings from Heaven, and Saints sprung up. 1758–65Goldsm. Ess., Cultiv. Taste Wks. (Globe) 319/1 The preceptor will sow the seeds of that taste which will soon germinate, rise, blossom, and produce perfect fruit. 1849Robertson Serm. Ser. i. iii. (1866) 56 The soul requires room to germinate. 1849H. Coleridge in Encycl. Metrop. 3 From the first, or initiative Idea, as from a seed, successive Ideas germinate. 1862H. Spencer First Princ. i. i. §5 (1875) 18 The sciences..severally germinate out of the experiences of daily life. 1889Jessopp Coming of Friars vi. 282 A wise man acts upon a hint, and it germinates.
2. trans. To cause to shoot or sprout.
1610D. Price Creat. Prince E ij, In this Paradise is..the tree of goodnesse which is..watered by grace, germinated by godlines, will waxe greene by hope [etc.]. 1803Edwin III. 264 The gentle influence of Spring began to spread the verdant carpet of Nature, and germinate the bursting buds. 1870Disraeli Lothair xii, The impassioned eloquence of that lady germinated the seed which the Cardinal had seemed so carelessly to scatter.
b. fig. To cause to issue or develop, to produce.
1796Burney Metastasio II. 245 Some new composition flatters my vanity in fulfilling my predictions, and germinating fresh hopes of your future poetical fame. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. III. iv. i, Several French departments germinate a set of rebellious paper-leaves, named Proclamations. 1849Cobden Speeches 32 Those boundary questions which, we were assured, were to germinate a war for a quarter of a century. 1892Hall Caine in Times 19 Sept. 4/1 A crowd of people gathered in the Street and germinated alarming rumours.
3. intr. Of a salt, etc.: To effloresce. ? Obs.
1626Bacon Sylva §696 The Chalcites, which hath a Spirit that will put forth and germinate, as we see in Chymicall Trialls. 1774Brownrigg in Phil. Trans. LXIV. 482 Which salt also germinates in great abundance in the same colliery. Ibid. 490 The stone on which the native alum..germinates is black and shining. 1796Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) II. 9 It [Glauber's Salt] also, not unfrequently, germinates from, and adheres to, the walls of recent buildings.
Hence ˈgerminating vbl. n. (attrib.) and ppl. a.
1751N. Cotton Vis. viii. 40 Infant roses, ere they blow, In germinating clusters grow. 1845Darwin Voy. Nat. xx. (1873) 454 The seeds retain their germinating power. 1854Gilfillan Life Blair in B.'s Wks. 128 Books..full of suggestive and germinating thought. 1863F. A. Kemble Resid. in Georgia 87 A young shoot is produced at the germinating season. 1884Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 198 The root of the germinating seed. |