| 释义 |
ˈred-top
1. attrib. Having a red top; red-topped.
c1800T. Gibbs Catal. Seeds, Red-top Turnip. 1840J. Buel Farmer's Companion 331/1 Red-top grass. 1884E. P. Roe in Harper's Mag. July 247/1 They began with red-top clover.
2. N. Amer. One of several pasture grasses, esp. Agrostis stolonifera or one of its varieties. Also attrib. false red-top (see quots.). tall red-top, a tall reddish grass, Triodia cuprea.
1790S. Deane New-England Farmer 115/1 The red top grass is so natural to every soil in this country, that all our old fields..are full of it. 1819Warden United States II. 8 The grasses are: White clover, white top and red top. 1829Loudon Encycl. Plants 65 Tricuspis... This grass is called Red-top in the Southern States of N. America. 1840J. Buel Farmer's Companion 228 Red-top, the herds-grass of the middle and southern States..is indigenous, perennial, and valuable for hay and pasture. 1846–50A. Wood Class-bk. Bot. 613 Tricuspis seslerioides. False Red-top. Ibid. 614 Poa serotina. Meadow Red-top. 1856,1889[see finetop]. 1860Darlington Amer. Weeds, etc. 382 Poa serotina, Late Poa. Fowl Meadow Grass. False Red-top. 1891M. E. Wilkins Humble Romance 92 The whole yard..[was] covered with a tall waving crop of red-top. 1937Range Plant Handbk. (Forest Service, U.S. Dept. Agric.) g8 It seems preferable to use redtop, as a generic name for most of the native range species of Agrostis. 1958J. G. MacGregor North-West of 16 v. 65 In bays, mostly on the west side and shaded from the afternoon sun, grew Red Top, the glory of the wild hay meadows. In places it was six feet high. 1972Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 9 Mar. 5/3 The birds [sc. prairie chickens] would survive when redtop grass was raised, since it was combined in midsummer.
3. A variety of turnip.
c1830Glouc. Farm Rep. 6 in Lib. Usef. Kn., Husb. III, About one-third of the whole crop consists of Swedish turnips,..the remainder of the white Norfolk and the red-tops.
▸ B. n. Brit. A tabloid newspaper.
1995Irish Times 9 May 8/7 He said the fall in sales of Irish newspapers had been matched by the increased sales of British ‘red tops’, the trade name for tabloid newspapers. 1998Daily Tel. 16 Oct. 20/2 Then Diana died, and all the red tops suffered alarming declines. 2006Private Eye 7 July 28/3 If the offences were a bit pettier and had roused the red-tops,..perhaps something would be done.
▸ A. adj. Brit.With allusion to the red background on which the titles of certain British newspapers are printed. Of or relating to a tabloid newspaper.
1996Guardian 19 Aug. (G2 section) 17 (caption) They show all the so-called ‘red-top’ downmarket tabloids..shedding sales year-on-year. 1999Mail on Sunday (Nexis) 7 Mar. 20 Once committed to copious claret and red-top journalism, Campbell renounced both to pursue, with equal zeal, the defence and promotion of his boss. 2007Gay Times Mar. 104/2 It's been left to charities..to fill the ever-increasing gap left behind by the Government as it changes priorities in the redtop wind of tabloid journalism. |