| 释义 |
ˈredbreast
1. a. The robin (see also Robin redbreast).
c1401Lydg. Flower Courtesy 58 The sely wrenne, the titmose also, The litel redbrest. c1440Promp. Parv. 426/2 Redbreste, byrde, rubellus. 1530Palsgr. 261/2 Reed breest a byrde, rovgegorge. 1604Drayton Owle 87 Covering with Mosse the deads unclosed eye, The little Red-brest teacheth Charitie. 1647Ward Simp. Cobler 74 Should I heare..a Horse whistle like a Red-breast, it would scare me. 1708Prior Turtle & Sparrow 18 Ye pious Redbreasts, deck his Hearse. 1750Gray Elegy 119 The Redbreast loves to build and warble there. 1847Lytton Lucretia (1853) 300 The spray of the willow trembles with the wing of the redbreast. 1894Newton Dict. Birds 771 Even those Redbreasts which stay in Britain during the winter are subject to a migratory movement.
attrib. and Comb.1576Gascoigne Philomene (Arb.) 110 As the red breast byrds, Whome prettie Merlynes hold. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. i. 265 'Tis the next way to turne Taylor, or be Redbrest teacher. 1783Wolcott (P. Pindar) Odes to R. A.'s i. 29 May some good Christian Bard..Turn Redbreast kind, and with the sweetest song Bewail our hapless fate with watry eye! 1876T. Hardy Ethelberta (1890) 115 Bright auburn, several shades nearer to redbreast-red than was Ethelberta's hair.
b. Applied to other red-breasted birds, esp. U.S. to the migratory thrush (also called robin).
1775Clayton in Phil. Trans. LXVI. 105 Of small birds there are several sorts; the red breast, speckled on the back like a partridge [etc.]. 1828–32in Webster.
2. transf. (See quots.)
1862Dickens Lett. 18 Apr. (1880) II. 178 The Bow Street runners..had no other uniform than a blue dress-coat, brass buttons..and a bright red cloth waistcoat. The waistcoat was indispensible, and the slang name for them was ‘red⁓breasts’ in consequence. 1899London Letter 10 Nov. 701/2 The ‘Redbreasts’, or New South Wales Lancers, who have been at Aldershot for a year.
3. U.S. The long-eared sunfish, Lepomis megalotis.
1888G. B. Goode Amer. Fishes 66 In Pennsylvania it [sc. the long-eared sun-fish] is called ‘Sun Perch’ and ‘Red Headed Bream’, elsewhere it is the ‘Red Breast’. 1948New Hanover Fishing Club Prize List 30 Annual prizes for freshwater fish..Red Breast. |