| 释义 |
▪ I. gulf, n.|gʌlf|
Forms: 4, 8 golf, 5–6 goulf(e, (6 gowlfe), 5–7 gulfe, (6 gulfre), 6–7 gulphe, 7–9 gulph, 7– gulf.
[ad. OF. and F. golfe (sense 1; in senses 2, 3, and 4 the Fr. word is gouffre), ad. Pr., It., Sp., Pg. golfo, ad. late Gr. κόλϕος, from class. Gr. κόλπος, lit. ‘bosom’, hence ‘bay, gulf’ (= L. sinus), and ‘hollow of the waves, depth of the sea’. Cf. MDu. golf, golve, Du. golf, gulp, MHG., G. golf.]
I.
1. Geog. A portion of the sea partially enclosed by a more or less extensive sweep of the coast; often taking its name from the adjoining land.
The distinction between gulf and bay is not always clearly marked, but in general a bay is wider in proportion to its amount of recession than a gulf; the latter term is applied to long land-locked portions of sea opening through a strait, which are never called bays.
c1400Mandeville (1839) v. 54 The See Adryatyk, that is clept the Goulf of Venyse. c1477Caxton Jason 84 b, Argos hadde brought his ship in this goulf or arme of the See. 1527R. Thorne in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 254 The coast making a gulfe where is the riuer of Ganges. 1553Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 33 He commaunded that certayn shippes should searche the goulfes on euerye syde. 1604E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies iii. iv. 128 The gulph of Yegues or of Mares, is variable, being beaten with divers windes. 1667Milton P.L. xi. 833 Down the great River to the op'ning Gulf. 1766Phil. Trans. LVI. 43, I say nothing of the marine productions of this golf. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xvii. II. 7 They leave on the left a deep gulf, at the bottom of which Nicomedia was seated, the imperial residence of Diocletian. 1840Thirlwall Greece liv. VII. 53 The gulph he had seen appeared to him..important as a naval station. 1868G. Duff Pol. Surv. 171 The gulf which runs so deep into the western side of the island.
II. A deep hollow, chasm, abyss.
2. A profound depth (in a river, the ocean); the deep. poet.
13..E.E. Allit. P. A. 607 Gotez of golf þat neuer charde. 1580Sidney Ps. xviii. v, The gulphes of waters then were through their chanells seen. 1620Granger Div. Logike 155 The heavenly lamps doe fall into the gulfe. 1715–20Pope Iliad xxi. 229 From the bottom of his gulphs profound, Scamander spoke. 1784Cowper Task i. 268 We pass a gulph in which the willows dip their pendent boughs. 1836Johnsoniana i. 44 O'er the ice as o'er pleasure you lightly should glide; Both have gulphs which their flattering surfaces hide. 1846Landor Hellenics Wks. II. 486 Some isle Hath surely risen from the gulphs profound. 1847Emerson Poems (1857) 60 Gulfs of sweetness without bound. 1870Bryant Iliad v. 496 Slippery cliffs arise Close to deep gulfs.
b. transf. with reference to the air.
1712Blackmore Creation i. 92 Nothing check'd their flight, but gulphs of air. 1727Pitt Job xxv. 20 Down thro' the Gulphs of undulating Air. 1863Longfellow Wayside Inn 1. Falcon of Ser Federigo 42 The headlong plunge through eddying gulfs of air.
†c. to shoot the gulf: a phrase used in various figurative applications. (If De Foe's statement be well founded, the phrase must originally have belonged to sense 2.)
c1645Howell Lett. (1650) II. 40 Your last you sent me was from Genoa, where you write that..‘Husbands get their wives with child a hundred miles off’... In Venice..also such things are done by proxy, while the husband is abroad upon the Gallies, ther be others that shoot his gulf at home. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 16 Such a mighty and valuable thing also was the passing this strait (the Straits of Magellan) that Sir Francis Drake's going through it gave birth to that famous old wives' saying viz., that Sir Francis Drake shot the gulf;..as if there had been but one gulf in the world. 1752Young Brothers v. i. 1757 II. 281 For me, it matters not; but oh! the prince—When he had shot the gulph of his despair.
3. An absorbing eddy; a whirlpool. In later use chiefly fig., that which devours or swallows up anything. (Blending with 4 b.)
1538Elyot Dict., Gurges, a swallowe or depe pyll in a water, or a goulfe. 1567Turberv. Epit., etc. 26 b, Hast thou not read in Bookes of fell Charybdis Goulfe? 1599Shakes. Hen. V, ii. iv. 10 England his approaches makes as fierce, As Waters to the sucking of a Gulfe. 1612Bp. Hall Serm. 64 The Scribes and Pharisees..devoured but widows houses..; but these gulfs of men, whole Churches. 1627–77Feltham Resolves ii. xlii. 241 He throws his Interest into a Gulph, that trusts it in such hands as have been formerly the Shipwrack of others. 1633Marmion Fine Companion ii. iv. Dram. Wks. (1875) 137 Here is the gulph that swallows all my land: And to this desperate whirlpit am I reeling. 1659R. Brough Pres. Schism 529 To devour all persons and things..in one gulph. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 167 ⁋6 And whirl round the gulph before they sink. 1755H. Walpole Corr. (1837) III. cclxvii. 105 Don't go and imagine that {pstlg}1,200,000 was all sunk in the gulph of Madame Pompadour. 1825Bentham Ration. Rew. 283 Large cities..are the gulphs..in which the population of the country is lost. 1834West Ind. Sketch Bk. I. 248 Whose mind had been wrecked in the gulf of dim oblivion.
b. Often applied to a voracious appetite.
1566W. Adlington Apuleius 51 Whether thou wilt remaine with the serpent and in the ende to be swallowed up into the gowlfe of his bodie. 1579Spenser Sheph. Cal. Sept. 185 A wicked Wolfe, That with many a Lambe had glutted his gulfe. 1605Shakes. Macb. iv. i. 23 Maw and Gulfe Of the rauin'd salt Sea sharke. 1658Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 1077 In a dearth, or rather want of provision, they [Pismires] fight desperately for food,..and the lesser of them will rebell against the greater, (as being the greater gulphs of the Common-wealth.) 1819Shelley Cyclops 343 Your gaping gulf, and your gullet wide.
4. A yawning chasm or abyss; an opening in the earth produced by an earthquake or volcanic action; a vast ravine or gorge. a fiery gulf, gulf of fire: an abyss full of flame.
a1533Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1559) C c, We go suerlie ouer the bridge, and yet we will goe an other waie: and though the same way be sure, yet we will aduenture into the gulfe. 1563Mirr. Mag. Induct. xxxi, A deadly gulfe where nought but rubbishe growes. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. v. 31 They..brought the heavy corse..To yawning gulfe of deepe Avernus hole. 1604E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies i. i. 3 Epicurus..holdeth, that on the other part of the earth, there is nothing but a chaos and infinite gulph. 1607Shakes. Cor. iii. ii. 91 Thou hadst rather Follow thine Enemie in a fierie Gulfe. 1667Milton P.L. vi. 53 The Gulf of Tartarus, which..opens wide His fiery Chaos. 1697Potter Antiq. Greece ii. xv. (1715) 331 A Gulf being open at Rome, Curtius leap'd into it to appease the angry Gods. 1713Young Last Day ii. 106 A yawning gulph, and fiends on every side, Serene they view. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) I. 90 [Volcanoes] A gulph two miles over, and so deep that no bottom can be seen. 1781Cowper Hope 457 In the gulphs of her Cornubian mines. 1814Southey Roderick i. 108 Gulphs of fire opening beneath his feet. 1830Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 334 A gulph opened between the little town of Tripergola..and the baths in its suburbs.
b. fig. (Often coincident with fig. use of 3.)
1581Mulcaster Positions xxxvi. (1887) 135 To haue so many gaping for preferment, as no goulfe hath stoore enough to suffise. 1652C. B. Stapylton Herodian 140 The Globe of Earth and Sea..was not able to fill this Gvlph [a man's ambition or greed]. 1656Sanderson Serm. (1689) 65 The gulph of despair. 1715De Foe Fam. Instruct. i. i. (1841) I. 20 To recover sinful Men from the gulf of death. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 146 ⁋8 Pushing his predecessors into the gulph of obscurity. 1765H. Walpole Otranto i. (1798) 21, I will follow thee to the gulph of perdition. 1780Cowper Table T. 463 They frolic it along..Down to the gulph, from which is no return. 1833L. Ritchie Wand. by Loire 157 Buried ages rise again from the gulf of time. 1868Farrar Silence & V. i. (1875) 16 The whole universe becomes a gulf of silence. 1894Athenæum 14 Apr. 471/3 A sum insufficient to fill up the gulf of his debts.
c. (After Luke xvi. 26.) A wide interval, an impassable gap, serving as a means of eternal separation.
1557N. T. (Genev.) Luke xvi. 26 Betwene you and vs there is a great gulfe [χάσµα] set. 1774Fletcher Ess. Truth Wks. 1795 IV. 106 An immense gulph is fixed between them, and the Christian faith. 1849Robertson Serm. Ser. i. xii. (1866) 197 The Advent of Christ is the gulf which separates ancient from modern history. 1881Bp. A. P. Forbes Explan. 39 Art. i. (ed. 4) 12 Between such a God and an Infinite Intelligence there is a gulph fixed.
5. University slang.
a. Cambridge. The position of those candidates for mathematical honours who fail to obtain a place in the list, but are allowed the ordinary degree.
b. Oxford. The list of those who fail to obtain honours, yet are allowed to take a ‘pass’.
1827Seven Yrs. at Cambridge II. 60 The determination I had now formed of cutting honours, by quietly sitting down in the Gulph. 1852Bristed Five Yrs. in Eng. Univ. (ed. 2) 205 Some ten or fifteen men just on the line..are put into the ‘gulf’, as it is popularly called (the Examiners' phrase is ‘Degrees allowed’).
†6. [f. gulf v.]
a. An act of swallowing. lit. and fig.
b. What is gulfed or swallowed; a draught. (Cf. gulp n.1)
1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 323 Their mouths are very wide, at one gulph able to swallow horse or man. 1667Dryden Temp. iii. iii, Element! meer Element! as I live. It was a cold Gulph, such as this, which kill'd my famous Predecessor. 1771Smollett Humph. Cl. 28 Apr., It..requires a strong gulph of faith to make it go down.
7. Mining. A large deposit of ore in a lode.
1778Pryce Min. Cornub. 322 Gulph of Ore. Where a Lode throws up very great quantities of Ore and proves lasting and good in depth they say, ‘They have a Gulph of Ore’. 1849in Weale's Dict. Terms.
III. 8. attrib. and Comb., as gulf-fishery, gulf-tide; gulf-encrimsoning, gulf-indented adjs.; gulf-wards adv.; also † gulf-breasted a., having a breast or mind as deep as a gulf; gulf-dream, a dream of drowning in, or falling into, a gulf; † gulf-eating a., full of eddies; gulf-separation, a separation as if by a gulf; Gulf State, one of the States on the Gulf of Mexico; † gulf-stomached a., (of a river) having deep eddies. Also Gulf Stream, gulf-weed.
1598E. Guilpin Skial. (1878) 52 *Gulfe-brested is he, silent, and profound.
1813Shelley Q. Mab ix. 175 The transient *gulph-dream of a startling sleep.
c1611Chapman Iliad xxi. 2 The goodly swelling channel of the flood, *Gulf-eating Xanthus [ξάνθου δινήεντος].
1847Emerson Poems (1857) 45 The *gulf-encrimsoning shells.
1883L. Z. Joncas Fish. Canada 20 (Fish. Exhib. Publ.) They..have almost a monopoly of the *gulf fishery trade.
1808J. Barlow Columb. i. 313 Sultry Mobile's *gulph-indented shore.
1871R. B. Vaughan Thomas of Aquin II. 855 This *gulf separation..and this intimate connection in the creative act.
1863W. Phillips Speeches xvii. 389 The *Gulf States will monopolize all the offices.
c1611Chapman Iliad xxi. 311 Afraid lest that *gulf-stomach'd Flood [ποταµὸς βαθυδίνης] would satiate his desire On great Achilles.
1897Outing (U.S.) XXIX. 440/1 A..sluggish stream, flowing up or down, according to the governing *gulf-tide.
1855Bailey Mystic 114 He who, where Hidekkel *gulfwards darts, Ruled with an absolute crown.
Add:[III.] [8.] Gulf War, a military conflict involving states bordering the Persian Gulf, spec.: (a) the war of 1980–9 between Iran and Iraq; (b) the war between Iraq and a multinational force which followed Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990.
[1980Washington Post 11 Feb. a1/5 (heading) Role of U.S. allies in a Persian Gulf War is uncertain.] 1981Defense & Foreign Affairs IX. (Cairo special ed.) p. ii, The *Gulf War passed its first anniversary with a major escalation of fighting. 1991Toronto Star 18 Jan. b1/4 Investors hoping to make a killing on the stock market during the gulf war should tread carefully.
▸ Gulf State n. (also with lower-case initial(s)) any of the countries which surround the Persian Gulf (in quot. 1954, spec. each of those formerly protectorates of Britain); freq. in pl.
1954Geogr. Jrnl. 120441 Many of them [sc. islands in the Persian Gulf] are subject to dispute, either between a Gulf State on the one hand and Saudi Arabia or Persia on the other, or between the Gulf States themselves. 1957Internat. Affairs 33 54 The only Gulf State possessed at that time of strong naval resources, the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman. 1968Washington Post 22 Feb. k1/7 There is the fear that the revolutionary movement may spread around the Arabian coast from Southern Yemen into the Gulf states. 2002Time 25 Feb. 48/2 In the West End of London, rich playboys from the gulf states are staples of the clubbing scene.
▸ Gulf War Syndrome n. (a) any of various political or economic phenomena thought to be associated with the Gulf War of 1991; (b) (any of) a range of symptoms reported by veterans of the Gulf War and including skin disorders, headaches, fatigue, respiratory difficulties, and congenital defects in their children; also called Desert Storm syndrome.
1991Financial Times 6 Feb. 8/6 Fears also exist that a ‘*Gulf war syndrome’ in the US might be used by supporters of protectionist barriers to bolster their case. 1992Washington Post (Nexis) 16 Aug. c2 Having killed off the Vietnam Syndrome, Bush now seems haunted by a Gulf War syndrome. 1992USA Today 9 Sept. 2 a/2 Dubbed ‘gulf war syndrome’, symptoms range from hair loss, fatigue and muscle aches to dizzy spells and shortness of breath. 1994Guardian 6 Aug. 14/7 One theory is that Gulf War Syndrome is caused by pyridostigmine, a controversial ‘pre-treatment’ given to Gulf war troops to protect them from Iraqi nerve gas attacks. 1999Express 10 June 23/4 Animals are dipped in organophosphate pesticides or synthetic pyrethroids, triggering symptoms similar to Gulf War syndrome in humans.
▪ II. gulf, v.|gʌlf|
Also 6–9 gulph, (6 golph).
[f. gulf n.]
†1. intr. To rush along like a gulf or whirlpool; to eddy, swirl. Obs.
1538Leland Itin. V. 80 It standeth as it were betwixt to pointing Hillettes betwene the wich the Severn Se gulfith. 1549Cheke Hurt Sedit. (1569) D ij, Doe ye not see how many bottomlesse whirlepooles of mischiefe ye be golpht withal? 1591Spenser Virg. Gnat 542 Deep Charybdis gulphing in and out. 1658Franck North. Mem. (1694) 91 A rapid and peremptory River, that gulphs forth of the Bowels of Loemon, replenished with Trout.
2. trans. To swallow like a gulf, or as in a gulf; to engulf. Also with down, in, up. lit. and fig.
1807J. Hall Trav. Scot. I. 306 Some little birds were flying after a cuckoo and gulphing up his faeces as it dropped from him. 1817Byron Manfred i. ii. 6 It hath no power upon the past, and for The future, till the past be gulf'd in darkness. 1818Keats Endym. iii. 351 Some friendly monster..Has div'd to its foundations, gulph'd it down. 1822Shelley To Jane, Recoll. v, Each [pool] seemed as 'twere a little sky Gulphed in a world below. 1877Tennyson Harold ii. ii, Why, let the earth rive, gulf in These cursed Normans. 1879Stevenson Trav. Cevennes (1895) 221 A yawning valley, gulfed in blackness.
3. In various nonce-uses:
a. To plunge (oneself) into as into a gulf; to precipitate oneself, rush headlong.
b. To form gulfs or indentations in.
c. To separate from by a gulf or chasm.
1680Hickeringill Meroz 8 Like men in a Shipwrack..that leap into the Sea for fear of Drowning, we gulf'd our selves into more Arbitrary Government, Tyranny and Popery. 1808J. Barlow Columb. i. 551 And hoarse resounding, gulphing wide the shore, Dread Laurence labors with tremendous roar. 1891C. T. C. James Rom. Rigmarole 121 The week gulfing me from meeting her again.
4. University slang.
a. trans. To place the name of (an undergraduate) in the ‘gulf’ (see gulf n. 5).
b. intr. to gulf it: to get or be contented with a place in the ‘gulf’.
1827Seven Yrs. at Cambridge II. 61, I therefore ‘Gulphed it’. 1831Darwin in Life & Lett. (1887) I. 184 Cameron is gulfed, together with other three Trinity scholars. 1857‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green iii. xi, I am not going to let them gulph me a second time. 1876Trevelyan Macaulay ii. (1881) 61 His name did not grace the list. In short..Macaulay was gulfed. 1895L. J. Trotter Life Marq. Dalhousie i. 10 Instead of ‘gulfing’ him with the herd of mere passmen, they marked their sense of his merits by granting him an honorary fourth class.
¶5. Used for gulp v. (Cf. gulf n. 6.)
1650Bulwer Anthropomet. xi. 114, I saw a Porter..drink..without ever so much as once gulphing. Ibid., He had been among the Malabars, where if he should have gulphed or have drunk any otherwise, he might have had his throat cut.
Hence gulfed |gʌlft| ppl. a. (see sense 4 a).
1852Bristed Five Yrs. in Eng. Univ. (ed. 2) 205 A gulfed Scholar of Trinity did not lose his Scholarship. |