| 释义 |
grampus|ˈgræmpəs|
Forms: 6 graundepose, grampoys, 7 grampas(se, -pisce, -po(i)s, grandpisce, (pl. granspices), 8 grampuss, 7– grampus.
[Early 16th c. graundepose, app. an etymologizing alteration (after grand a.) of the earlier grapeys of the same meaning. Most of the forms of the last syll. are paralleled in the case of porpoise n.; but some show assimilation to L. piscis fish.]
1. The popular name of various delphinoid cetaceans, having a high falcate dorsal fin and a blunt rounded head, and remarkable for the spouting and blowing which accompanies their movements.
In popular use, the name seems to be more frequently applied to the formidable ‘killer’ (Orca gladiator). But it is also applied to an inoffensive cetacean resembling this in size and general appearance, but differing in the smaller size and number of the teeth. For the latter, which Cuvier had placed in the genus Delphinus, the Eng. word grampus was adopted by J. E. Gray, 1846, as a mod.L. generic name; the only species certainly determined is G. griseus, sometimes called cow-fish. According to some authorities, the name is also applied to the pilot- or ca'ing whale (Globicephalus).
a1529Skelton Sp. Parrot 309 With porpose and graundepose he may fede hym fatte. 1593Nashe Christ's T. 15, Sea-monsters, such as the Whale, the Grampoys, the Wasser-man. 1624Capt. Smith Virginia vi. 231 We espied eight or ten Saluages about a dead Grampus. 1634Wood New Eng. Prosp. (1865) 36 The snuffing Grampus. 1655E. Terry Voy. E. India 7 God hath made to take his pastime in the Sea; Granspices, or lesser whales, Sharkes [etc.]. 1674J. Josselyn Voy. New Eng. 10 Here likewise we saw many Grandpisces or Herring-hogs, hunting the scholes of Herrings. 1675Crowne Country Wit ii. Dram. Wks. 1874 III. 39 My master is a leviathan in love, and I am a very grampois. 1686Goad Celest. Bodies ii. viii. 264, I do not add the Legend of Two Grampisces stranded, or taken at Greenwich. 1755T. H. Croker Orl. Fur. vi. xxxvi, The grampus and the monsters of the sea Move on disturbed from their accustom'd sloth. 1776Goldsmith Anim. Nat. VI. 188 The whale or the grampus are terrible at any time; but are fierce and desperate in the defence of their young. 1812S. Rogers Written in Highlands 35 The grampus, half-descried, Black and huge above the tide. 1848Dickens Dombey v, Coughing like a grampus. 1888Strange MS. in Copper Cylinder 12 All around us..grampuses were gambolling.
b. Naut. phr. to blow the grampus (see quots.).
1829Marryat F. Mildmay iv, The buckets of water which were..poured over me by the midshipmen, under the facetious appellation of ‘blowing the grampus’,..could [not] rouse my dormant energies. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 346 Blowing the grampus, sluicing a person with water, especially practised on him who skulks or sleeps on his watch.
c. transf. A person given to puffing and blowing.
1836Dickens Pickw. xxv, ‘The boy breathes so very hard while he's eating, that we found it impossible to sit at table with him’. ‘Young grampus!’ said Mr. Weller. 1851Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. vi. 47 The blustering old grampus of a governor is to honour the ball with his presence.
2. Metallurgy. (See quot.)
1881Raymond Mining Gloss., Grampus (U.S.), the tongs with which bloomary loups and billets are handled.
3. attrib. and Comb., as grampus-oil; also grampus-whale = sense 1.
1883Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 202 *Grampus oil, used for lubricating fine machinery.
1744tr. Boerhaave's Instit. Med. 191 The *Grampus Whale. 1879Daily News 23 Aug. 6/2 A large cetacean called a grampus whale. |