| 释义 |
umbrella|ʌmˈbrɛlə|
Also 7 umbrellia, umbrilla. β. 7–9 umbrello (7 vn-), 7 vmbrillo, 8 umbrellow. γ. 7–8 ombrella.
[ad. It. ombrella and ombrello, f. ombra:—L. umbra shade, umbra1. Cf. F. ombrelle, Sp. umbrela (zool.).]
1. a. A light portable screen or shade, usually circular in form and supported on a central stick or staff, used in hot countries as a protection for the head or person against the sun.
α1611Coryat Crudities 111 Many of them doe carry other fine things..which they commonly call in the Italian tongue ‘umbrellaes’... These are made of leather something answerable to the forme of a little caunopy and hooped in the inside with divers little wooden hoopes that extend the umbrella in a pretty large compasse. 1668Davenant Man's the Master ii. i, A very desperate man..coming near so bright a Sun as you are without a Parasol, Umbrellia, or a Bondgrace. 1695Motteux St. Olon's Morocco 148 An Umbrella was carry'd over me, which in some manner defended me from the Heat of the Sun's Rays. 1716Gay Trivia i. 213 Let Persian dames th' umbrella's ribs display, To guard their beauties from the sunny ray. a1739Jarvis Don Quix. i. i. iv, They carried umbrellas, and were attended by four servants on horseback. 1797Holcroft tr. Stolberg's Trav. (ed. 2) III. lxxxix. 479 The heat began so early in the day that, at six o'clock, we were obliged to use our umbrellas. 1832G. Downes Lett. Cont. Countries I. 341 The costume is very picturesque in this part of Tuscany, always excepting the monstrous yellow umbrella, which is part and parcel of it. 1860Emerson Cond. Life, Culture Wks. (Bohn) II. 373 In the city of Palermo, the street was in a blaze with scarlet umbrellas. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 103 He sees the rich man under an umbrella puffing and panting.
β1610W. Strachey in Purchas Pilgrims (1625) IV. 1739 So broad are the leaves [of palms] as an Italian Vmbrello. 1611Cotgr., Ombrelle, an Vmbrello; a (fashion of) round and broad fanne, wherwith the Indians (and from them our great ones) preserue themselues from the heat of a scorching Sunne. 1662J. Davies tr. Mandelslo's Trav. ii. 138 Of the leaves they make sayles;..they make of them likewise Umbrelloes, Fans, Tents, Mats and Hats. 1697W. Dampier Voy. (1699) 407 The Chinese..when they walk abroad..carry a small Umbrello in their Hands, wherewith they fence their Head from the Sun or the Rain. 1697Lady's Trav. Spain (1706) 249 He commanded them to bring Umbrellos to defend us from the Sun. 1753Hanway Trav. ii. xlii. I. 286, I observed that the Persians are not cautious..of the sun in any degree equal to the Portugueze; for the last seldom travel without a cloak and umbrello. 1755Smollett Quix. i. i. iv. I. 21 Six merchants of Toledo..who travelled with umbrelloes.
γc1620Moryson Itin. iv. v. i. (1903) 442 Then followes the Duke in his Robes,..a Scudiero carying his ombrella betweene him and the sunne. 1710C. Shadwell Fair Quaker Deal iv. 40 Your Baubles of China, your Indian Ombrella, your Hair-Ring, and your own Picture.
b. In some Oriental and African countries used as a symbol of rank or state.
α1682Lond. Gaz. No. 1721/4 In the Evening he visited his Highness Prince Rupert, to whom he presented the two great Umbrella's. 1718Entertainer No. 16. 109 To score out a Pattern of Umbrella's for the King of Bantam. 1727A. Hamilton New Acc. E. Ind. II. xxxvi. 45 King of the White Elephant, and of the twenty four Somereroes or Umbrellaes. 1745P. Thomas Jrnl. Anson's Voy. 201 Mandarines..accompanied with all the Officers of their Tribunal, who surround them with Umbrella's and other Marks of their Dignity. 1849Layard Nineveh I. x. 337 He is attended by two eunuchs, one holding the umbrella, the other his quiver and mace. 1888Times 30 Oct. 6/1 The Shereefian Umbrella does not pass necessarily from father to son.
β1653H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. xxxiv. 135 Then next to them marches twelve men on horsback, called Peretandas, each of them carrying an Umbrello of carnation Sattin. 1678J. Phillips Tavernier's Trav. ii. ii. viii. 123 Upon each side of the Throne are plac'd two Parasols, or Umbrellos, the handles whereof are about eight foot high. 1688Holme Armory iv. xi. (Roxb.) 431/2 Then 24 Vnbrello's richly adorned and them as carry them 2 and 2 together. 1719J. T. Phillips tr. Thirty-four Confer. 331 Women..attended him with Umbrello's,..and all the other Court Employments within Doors were all done by Women. 1745Eliza Heywood Female Spect. No. 18 (1748) III. 301 Twelve stout Indians carried a canopy of yellow and green silk, under which all the royal family walked:—the rest had umbrelloes, supported by their own particular slaves.
2. A portable protection against bad weather, made of silk or similar material fastened on slender ribs, which are attached radially to a stick and can be readily raised so as to form a circular arched canopy.
α1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 149 A Shagg or Yopangee which riding serues [in Persia] as an Vmbrella against raine. 1716Gay Trivia i. 211 Good houswives..underneath th' umbrella's oily shed, Safe thro' the wet on clinking pattens tread. 1765H. Walpole Let. to J. Chute 3 Oct., Servants..walk about the streets in the rain with umbrellas to avoid putting on their hats. 1787Phil. Trans. LXXVII. 291 If the weather be rainy, an insulated umbrella may be carried in one hand. 1833P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 52 It poured with rain, and my umbrella broke all to pieces. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Manners ⁋6 An Englishman walks in a pouring rain, swinging his closed umbrella like a walking-stick. 1882M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal I. i. 34 She always carried her stout little umbrella, winter or summer.
β1697[see 1 β]. 1704Swift T. Tub xi, A large Skin of Parchment..served him for a Night-cap when he went to Bed, and for an Umbrello in rainy Weather. 1709W. King Art of Love 99, I might have made you such a fellow, As should have carry'd my Umbrello, Or bore a flambeau by my chair. 1731Phil. Trans. XXXVII. 32 An Umbrello, suspended by a Packthread tied to the Handle of it, became strongly Electrical. 1732Inventory Sir R. Sutton's Goods 7 Four Umbrellows.
3. Used in comparisons or similes, esp. with reference to shape.
α1616B. Jonson Devil an Ass iv. iv, I saw i' the Court of Spaine once, A Lady fall i' the Kings sight, along. And there shee lay, flat spred, as an Vmbrella. 1630Drayton Muses Elizium (1892) 15 Doues..Which..shall..like Vmbrellas with their feathers Sheeld you in all sorts of weathers. a1680Butler Rem. (1759) II. 99 Hats..With broad Brims sometimes like Umbrellas, And sometimes narrow as Punchinello's. 1726G. Shelvocke Voy. round World (1757) 66 On this bank, or shoal, we saw great numbers of Clubbers appearing, like the tops of umbrellas. 1726J. Hobson Diary 8 Oct., in Yorks. Diaries (Surtees) 258 Out of all..came pyramidicall streams of light,..forming such a figure as a ladies' umbrella. 1796Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) III. 646 The florets diverging from the centre, spreading outwards and downwards like an umbrella.
β1710Steele Tatler No. 116 ⁋1 An engine of several legs, that could contract or open itself like the top of an umbrello. 1740L. Whyte Dissert. Fashions 66 Erst have I seen a little fellow, With Hat as large as Vmbrellow; It was the Mode for young and old.
†4. fig.
a. A means of shelter or protection.
α1609Donne Lett. (1651) 63 We have an earthly cave, our bodies, to go into by consideration, and cool our selves; and..we have within us a torch, a soul, lighter and warmer than any without: we are therefore our own umbrella's and our own suns. 1624Fletcher Rule a Wife iii. i, Is your heart at rest, Now you have got a shadow, an umbrella To keep the scorching worlds opinion From your fair credit. 1648J. Raymond Il Merc. Ital. Pref. 1 A weather beaten Traveller needs no such Umbrilla as a Patron to shroud under. a1734North Examen i. ii. (1740) 89, I have been, perhaps, too long in exposing the Author for holding up an Umbrella to keep his Earl in a Shade.
β1652H. L'Estrange Amer. no Jewes To Rdr., No other dedicatory Umbrello do I seek..to defend this work from the scorch of censure. 1670Philipot Antiq. Hierol. & Gent. Ded., This Treatise implores your Patronage as an Umbrello to over-shadow it. 1690Secr. Hist. Chas. II & Jas. II, 112 The popular gentlemen were only made use of as Umbrello's to shade the conspirators from the scorching heat of the people's discontent.
†b. A screen or disguise. Obs.
1623T. Scott Tongue-Combat 80 Yorke, Patton, and Symple, with many others, who may haue Dispensations for their Oathes, and Vmbrilloes for their humours. 1653Jer. Taylor Serm. for Year i. vi. 77 We shall dishonour the sufferings of our blessed Saviour, if we make them to be a Umbrello to shelter our impious and ungodly living. 1658Osborne Mem. Jas. I, 45 These brainsick fooles as..made Religion an Umbrella to impiety.
5. a. Anything serving as a protection or shelter from the sun, rain, etc.
1654Whitlock Zootomia 403 How do they lessen the stately wonders of the Eye, into Cottages (I may say Snaile-like Umbrellos) meer shades, and Dormitorys. 1674C. F. Wit at a Venture 38 Shroud the Sun, and let each tree To her a kind umbrella be. 1701C. Wolley Jrnl. New York (1860) 25 Nature kindly..shelters it with the umbrella's of all sorts of Trees from pernicious Lakes. 1718Ozell tr. Tournefort's Voy. I. 66 To skreen themselues from the sun, they haue no other way but to make a sort of Umbrella of their Handkerchief. 1838Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. 1, Witches' Frolic (1905) 99 The straggling yew, His leafy umbrella, was wet through and through; Rob was half dead with cold. 1907Westm. Gaz. 9 Feb. 2/2 Here and there a stone-pine with its great umbrella of dark foliage cast a more impenetrable shade.
†b. A sun-blind. Obs.
1687Miége Gt. Fr. Dict. ii. s.v., To have an Umbrello before his Window to keep off the Sun [Fr. un Paillasson]. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Umbrello,..a Wooden Frame cover'd with Cloth or Stuff, to keep off the Sun from a Window. 1709Mrs. Manley Secret Mem. I. 33 The Weather violently Hot, the Umbrelloes were let down from behind the Windows, the Sashes open.
c. A screen of fighter aircraft or a curtain of fire put up as protection against enemy aircraft.
1941[see air umbrella s.v. air n.1 III. 2]. 1942Hutchinson's Pict. Hist. War 18 Mar.–9 June 102 The task of a fleet working in confined waters is a most difficult one. It is eased if long-range fighters or aircraft-carriers..are available to provide a protective umbrella. 1945Sun (Baltimore) 17 Mar. 2-0/5 The giant bombers of the United States 15th Air Force, continuing their methodical pounding of Germany's vital fuel sources, were escorted by an umbrella of fast American fighters. 1946Ibid. 26 June 8/3 Gun crews pumped deadly umbrellas of anti-aircraft fire above the harbor. 1967Electronics 6 Mar. 73 (Advt.), The Army's new Missile Mentors..now provide major U.S. cities with air defense umbrellas.
6. a. A structure resembling in shape an outspread umbrella, or serving for protection against something.
1680–4Dingley Hist. from Marble (Camden Soc.) p. xxxix, The Umbrello in y⊇ Bath was erected and leaded by Mr. Coo. 1719D'Urfey Pills II. 125 Tho' at Cales they scap'ed our Guns, By strong wall'd umbrello. 1742B. Langley Anc. Archit. Restored Plate xxxi, The work contains several designs for Umbrellos, by which term the author indicates a roofed structure with open sides to be placed at the termination of a walk in a garden. 1844H. H. Wilson Brit. India III. 51 A spire surmounted by a Tee or umbrella of open iron-work. 1883Gresley Gloss. Coal-m. 266 Umbrella [= Bonnet, the overhead cover of a cage or swinging bont]. 1904Daily Chron. 26 Oct. 4/5 It requires a pretty good umbrella of a trench to protect men from this death-shower.
b. Anything which temporarily or permanently has the form of an umbrella.
c1770Art of Angling 48 in Ruddiman Coll. (1773) 277 But mine is not the glory to unfurl The net's umbrello, with Herculean whirl. 1846J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 106 The feathery-like points of the down..uniting together form a kind of inverted umbrella. 1866E. C. Rye Brit. Beetles 225 The larvæ in this family have an ingenious but unpleasant habit of forming their excrement into an umbrella, as in Crioceris. 1885Pall Mall G. 11 Mar. 11/1 The araucaria forests..fringing the tops of the hills..with delicate, long stilted umbrellas.
c. A broad-brimmed hat.
a1803C. L. Lewes in Mem. (1805) I. 25 A large slouched beaver umbrella, that wanted only a crape hatband to sanctify it for a funeral.
d. U.S. Mil. slang. A parachute.
1933C. K. Stewart Speech Amer. Airman 99 Umbrella, parachute. 1980J. Ditton Copley's Hunch ii. i. 117 It takes ages to come down on an umbrella... Then you have to get rid of the chute.
7. a. Bot. A part of a plant resembling an outspread umbrella.
1658Sir T. Browne Gard. Cyrus iii. 47 Elegant clusters of Dragons.. with an umbrella or skreening Leaf about them. 1712tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 6 The Flowers grow in Umbrellos on the Tops of the thick Branches. 1809Naval Chron. XXII. 493 The cap of a mushroom, which M. P...names umbrella.
b. Zool. The gelatinous disk or bell-shaped structure of a jelly-fish.
1834Griffith tr. Cuvier XII. 482 Medusa have a disk more or less convex above, similar to the head of a mushroom, and to which the name of umbrella has been given. 1861J. R. Greene Man. Anim. Kingd., Cœlent. 38 In the umbrella of the Lucernaridæ, both vesicles and pigment-spots seem to become united into a single organ. 1881E. R. Lankester in Jrnl. Microsc. Sci. Jan. 122 The manubrium of Limnocodium is a somewhat quadrangular tube, which depends during life below the margin of the umbrella.
c. Conch. A limpet-like gastropod of the genus Umbrella; also the part of the shell resembling an open umbrella.
1841Penny Cycl. XXI. 217/2 Umbrella with a flattened shell; the disk of the lower surface not radiated. 1861P. P. Carpenter in Rep. Smithsonian Instit. 1860, 230 The shell..entirely covers the animal; which..can move its long neck freely under its large umbrella. Ibid. 234 The Umbrellas are very large creatures, wearing a flat limpet on the middle of the back.
†8. white umbrella, the elder-tree. Obs.—1
1658Sir T. Browne Gard. Cyrus iii. 47 The white umbrella or medicall bush of Elder, is an Epitome of this order.
9. Authority, protection, means of defence; controlling or unifying agency. Freq. in phr. under the umbrella and varr.
1948Hansard Commons 22 Jan. 388 Giving the smaller Powers a chance to evolve, under the umbrella of the Four Powers. 1949Ibid. 24 May 1213, I am not taking away from the occupants of these flats the umbrella which the law intends to give them. 1952Sun (Baltimore) 15 Feb. (B. ed.) 2/6 The big broad budgetary umbrella under which all manner of wasteful sin is committed. 1958Economist 25 Oct. 297/2 The political division of Germany may become once more a looming casus belli, to be contested by the conventional forces that can regain their freedom of action under the atomic umbrella. 1962H. E. Beecheno Introd. Business Stud. xi. 93 What they have done is to bring all the operations, or most of them, under the umbrella of one firm and cut out various ‘middlemen’ as separate concerns. 1965Listener 1 July 7/2 Europe seems unenthusiastic to exchange the American nuclear umbrella for a French one. 1973E. Bullins Theme is Blackness 7 Theater workers and institutions that presently work from under the Black umbrella. 1976Howard Jrnl. XV. i. 55 Many of the former approved schools continue in their former practices, albeit under a new umbrella. 1983Listener 12 May 5/3 The harsh truth is that Sweden is not under the NATO umbrella.
10. attrib. and Comb.
a. umbrella-case, umbrella-cover, umbrella covering, umbrella frame, umbrella-silk, umbrella-stand, umbrella-stick, umbrella-trade; umbrella-bearer, umbrella-maker, umbrella-mender; umbrella-shaped, umbrella-topped adjs.; umbrella-wise adv.; (sense 5 c) umbrella barrage; (sense 9) umbrella basis, umbrella policy.
1852Bonomi Nineveh & Palaces (1853) 176 The king..is accompanied by his charioteer and *umbrella-bearer. 1891Kinns Graven in Rock xvi. 599 In the left hand of the umbrella-bearer is an object like a fan or fly-trap.
1850Thackeray Pendennis lvii, His despatch-boxes and *umbrella-cases, his guide-books, passports, maps, and other elaborate necessaries of the English traveller.
1944T. H. Wisdom Triumph over Tunisia 134 There was..an intense *umbrella barrage over the two Tunisian ports.
1961Wall St. Jrnl. 30 Nov. 19/3 Companies with assembly plants, warehouses and other properties in 15 countries, for example, are realizing it is to their advantage to write insurance on an ‘*umbrella’ basis.
1888Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 723/1 In 1848 William Sangster patented the use of alpaca as an *umbrella covering material.
1837L. Hebert Engin. & Mech. Encycl. II. 829 *Umbrella frames of the usual construction.
1793–4Matthews's Bristol Directory, Ashbury, William, *Umbrella-maker, Hope Square, Hotwells. 1813Examiner 31 May 350/2 She has given ‘mirth’ to nobody except it be the ducks and the umbrella-makers. 1884Harper's Mag. Feb. 375/1 An umbrella-maker had established his open-air shop.
1848Dickens Dombey iii, The summer sun..came with the water-carts and the old clothes-men,..and the *umbrella-mender.
1963Daily Tel. 23 Sept. 21/6 Miss Hawkes said that CND's ‘*umbrella policy’ of accepting any group simply because it had pacifist aims, was not acceptable to her.
1796Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) I. 387 Capsule cylindrical, sitting on a hollow nearly globular or *umbrella-shaped receptacle. 1837P. Keith Bot. Lex. 298 The pileus or cap is the conical or umbrella-shaped organ that surmounts the stipe of the Agarics. 1862Ansted Channel Isl. ii. ix. (ed. 2) 239 The umbrella-shaped body of this animal.
1888Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 723/1 *Umbrella silk is principally made at Lyons and Crefeld.
1837Dickens Pickw. xxxiv. 378 A mahogany *umbrella stand. 1862Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit. II. No. 6061, Fenders, fire-irons, hat and umbrella stands. 1879Meredith Egoist xxv, He stepped to the umbrella-stand. There was then a general question whether Clara had taken her umbrella.
1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2679/1 In preparing an ordinary *umbrella-stick, it passes through 19 separate processes or movements.
1850R. G. Cumming Hunter's Life S. Afr. (1902) 61/1 Some friendly grove of *umbrella-topped mimosas.
1835Penny Cycl. IV. 446/1 The *umbrella trade arose from the demand for the brass furniture of these useful contrivances.
1725Fam. Dict. s.v. Elder-Tree, Its Flowers grow somewhat like Roses at the Tops of the Branches *Umbrella or Parasole-wise.
b. In names of plants or trees, denoting ‘shaped like, resembling, an umbrella’, as umbrella acacia, umbrella bush, umbrella fern, umbrella-fir, umbrella grass, umbrella leaf, umbrella palm, umbrella-pine, umbrella-plant, umbrella-wort.
1882Garden 11 March 166/3 The *Umbrella Acacia..forms a dense globular head, which is certainly very conspicuous.
1889J. H. Maiden Useful Pl. 363 Acacia Oswaldi,..often called *Umbrella Bush, as it is a capital shade-tree.
1882T. H. Potts Out in Open 53 There Cunningham's Gleichenia grows marvellously robust, its stiff many-branched fronds rise, tier above tier, in curved fan-like form—which habit, doubtless, induced settlers to call this species the ‘*umbrella fern’. 1959A. McLintock Descr. Atlas N.Z. 30 Where the forest has been cleared and burnt, the resulting cover is all too often low scrub, rushes, and umbrella fern.
1884Miller Plant-n. 247/2 Sciadopitys, *Umbrella-, or Parasol-, Pine or Fir.
Ibid. 58/1 *Umbrella Grass. Fuirena squarrosa and Panicum decompositum. 1898Morris Austral Eng. 487/1 It is called Umbrella-grass, from the shape of the branches at the top of the stem representing the ribs of an open umbrella.
1866Treas. Bot. 412/1 The only species, Diphylleia cymosa, a native of Japan, and of the southern United States, is there called the *Umbrella Leaf.
1798Nemnich Allg. Polyglotten-Lex. II. 928 *Umbrella palm. Corypha umbraculifera. 1884Miller Plant-n. 210/1 Kentia Canterburyana, Umbrella Palm.
1873Hemsley Handbk. Trees & Shrubs 435 Sciadopitys verticillata, *Umbrella-Pine. A large evergreen tree from 50 to 150 feet high. 1893G. Allen Scallywag I. 141 Among the rosemary bushes and the scanty umbrella-pines.
1874Treas. Bot. Suppl. 1350/1 *Umbrella-plant, Saxifraga peltata.
1829Loudon Encycl. Plants (1836) 36 Calymenia. *Umbrella-Wort. 1852Johnson Cottage Gard. Dict. 671/2 Oxybaphus, Umbrella-wort.
c. In names of birds, etc., as umbrella-ant, umbrella-bird, umbrella chatterer, umbrella shell, umbrella snake.
1883W. Farren White Ants vi. 61 In some ant colonies more than two distinct forms of workers are found. I may instance the Sauba, or *Umbrella ant of Brazil. 1891Cent. Dict., Umbrella-ant, a parasol-ant or leaf-carrying ant.
1850A. R. Wallace in Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (1851) Ser. ii. VIII. 429 The *Umbrella Bird is about the size of a crow. 1863Bates Nat. Amazon II. iv. 283 The rare and curious Umbrella bird (Cephalopterus ornatus);..decorated with a crest of long, curved, hairy feathers having long bare quills, which, when raised, spread themselves out in the form of a fringed sun-shade over the head.
Ibid. II. vi. 387 Birds and monkeys, in this glorious forest, were very abundant,..the *Umbrella Chatterer and curl-crested Toucans amongst the most beautiful of the birds.
1861P. P. Carpenter in Rep. Smithsonian Instit. 1860. 234 Family Umbrellidæ. (Chinese *Umbrella Shells.) 1881Cassell's Nat. Hist. V. 226 The ‘Chinese Umbrella-shell’ has a small depressed Limpet-like shell, marked by concentric lines of growth.
1904Westm. Gaz. 23 April 2/3 The natives call it Mtaba, or the *umbrella snake.
11. Special Combs., as umbrella bridge, a temporary raised traffic lane with ramp approaches, in use while building work is conducted below; umbrella defence, in Amer. football, an alignment of the backs resembling the shape of an open umbrella; umbrella field Cricket, an arrangement of close fieldsmen (esp. in the slips) spread in a cordon about the batsman; umbrella gingham, gingham employed for covering umbrellas; umbrella hat, a hat similar in size or shape to an umbrella; umbrella man, (a) one who mends or sells umbrellas; (b) a street-vendor who displays his wares in an inverted open umbrella; umbrella organization, an organization which represents and protects separate member bodies; umbrella print-seller, = umbrella man (b); umbrella roof, an arched roof resembling an umbrella; umbrella sail, a sail constructed partly on the principle of an umbrella; umbrella tent, a tent made on the umbrella principle; umbrella type, used (freq., with hyphen, attrib.) to denote any structure which resembles (part of) an umbrella in shape; umbrella warping Naut. (see quot.).
1962Daily Tel. 14 Sept. 15/7 Supports will be sunk to take a steel ‘*umbrella’ road bridge while the Oxford Circus underground station is rebuilt. 1973Times 24 Mar. 2/8 A temporary ‘umbrella’ bridge is to be erected in the Charring Cross railway station forecourt.
1950Sun (Baltimore) 23 Oct. 17/3 An *umbrella backfield defense..had no special name. It was..a formation to provide width and depth for pass defence. It has the general shape of an umbrella. 1972J. Mosedale Football x. 145 Owen installed what was called ‘the umbrella defense’, so-called because the alignment of the defensive backfield resembled an open umbrella.
1954Miller & Whitington Gods or Flannelled Fools? vi. 225 Hassett had been loath to set the..‘*Umbrella’ field..with eight men stationed in an inner arc behind the batsman from backward point to square-leg. 1963Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 21 Nov. 17/1 The conversation..consisted of snippets like..‘in an umbrella field’.
1834Tait's Mag. I. 72/2 *Umbrella ginghams have remained steady for some time.
1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. (1907) II. 150 Dutch women with large *umbrella hats shooting out half a yard before them.
1851Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 303 I learned from one ‘*umbrella man’ that, six or seven years previously, he used to sell more portraits of ‘Mr. Edmund Kean, as Richard III.’, than of anything else. 1889Belgravia Sept. 333 The umbrella-man..stopped beside a stile and put down his bundle of umbrellas.
1950Times 8 May 2/7 The domestic poultry-keepers could also win independence, and it is doubtful whether either group needs an ‘*umbrella’ organization set up at the Ministry of Agriculture. 1983Out of Town Dec. 17/1 They [sc. naturalist rectors] showed an equally native disposition to flourish best as part of an amiable, protective institution. Today the bbc has replaced the Church as the umbrella organisation.
1851Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 303 Sometimes, too, an ‘*umbrella print-seller’ will have a few ‘pictures in frames’, on a sort of stand alongside the umbrella.
1847J. Leitch tr. C. O. Müller's Anc. Art §106 (1850) 74 The Odeion also, a smaller theatre with an *umbrella roof, received its form at Athens.
1900Pearson's Mag. Aug. 143 The *umbrella sail can be set or furled in a minute; it does not close up as does an umbrella, but each side shuts up like a fan.
1895Army & Navy Co-op. Soc. Price List 15 Sept. Index p. lxxv, *Umbrella Tents. Ibid. 449 The Umbrella Garden Tent with Sloping Walls.
1913Wireless World June 210/1 M. V...asks..whether the ‘*umbrella type’ of aerial would be most suitable, or whether the use of another mast, 10 feet high,..would improve matters. 1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 876/1 Umbrella-type alternator.., a vertical-shaft alternator,..in which the field system is overhung and revolves around the stationary armature. 1962Daily Tel. 4 Dec. 15/3 An open market..has been replaced by a modern covered market. It has an attractive umbrella-type roof. 1963Guardian 27 Feb. 5/2 Why on a semisports car should the handbrake be of the ‘umbrella’ type? 1971Jamaican Weekly Gleaner 17 Nov. 9/1 The promenade..would contain umbrella type shops and stalls to accommodate the present proliferation of peddlers.
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 705 *Umbrella-warping, a contrivance similar to an umbrella, by which ships in a calm can be warped ahead.
12. attrib. passing into adj. Of words, names, etc.: covering a number of meanings or associated terms; general, catch-all.
1949G. Ryle Concept of Mind vi. 198 The range of higher order acts and attitudes, which are apt to be inadequately covered by the umbrella-title ‘self-consciousness’. 1957Listener 8 Aug. 201/1 Cancer is one of the umbrella words. It covers a number of disease conditions. 1974Country Life 5 Dec. 1723/1 The numerous [Ilex] hybrids which are gathered beneath the umbrella name of I. × altaclarensis. 1977Times Lit. Suppl. 29 Apr. 530/3 Any one of half a dozen umbrella titles would equally well match the variety of the contents of this military miscellany, War and Society. |