| 释义 |
howler|ˈhaʊlə(r)|
[f. howl v. + -er1.]
1. a. An animal that howls.
1859Thomson Land & Bk. i. viii. (1872) 94 To be torn..and dragged about by these hideous howlers [jackals].
b. In full, howler monkey. A South American monkey of the genus Alouatta.
1800G. Shaw Gen. Zool. I. i. 72 The Allouates, or Howlers, inhabit the moist forests, in the neighbourhood of waters and marshes. 1840Penny Cycl. XVI. 37/1 The species are, as the name [Mycetes] implies, Howlers, and the horrible yells sent forth by these animals..are described..as surpassingly distressing and unearthly. 1865Reader No. 121. 457/1 Numerous spider-monkeys, the red howlers. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. i. 5 The chief monkey-furs imported are those obtained from the howlers. 1906E. Ingersoll Life Anim.: Mammals 43 The howlers, arguatos, or alluates are the largest and most powerful of South American apes and the dullest, and are peculiar in having no thumb or only a rudimentary one, and in having the hyoid bones in the throat (of the males only) widely enlarged and cavernous, so as to form a curious hollow organ, by which their voice is so increased as to be audible two miles. 1932S. Zuckerman Soc. Life Monkeys xi. 192 The well-known howler monkeys (genus Alouatta) of the forests of the northern half of South America are usually found in small parties. 1958J. Carew Black Midas ii. 26 A big white devil does sit on a treetop roarin' like a howler baboon. 1964Listener 5 Nov. 710/2 Fighting is rare in wild gibbons and apparently absent in wild howler monkeys. 1967S. A. Altmann Social Communication among Primates xvii, 329 Other groups of howlers avoid areas from which such calls come.
2. a. A person hired to wail at a funeral or the bedside of the dying. b. A wassailer (see quot. 1875). dial.
1844Kinglake Eothen xviii. (1878) 249 The funerals..are attended by howlers. 1875Sussex Gloss., Howlers, boys who in former times went round wassailing the orchards. 1883Pall Mall G. 25 July 2/1 When a man was dying (if his means allowed) professional howlers were employed.
3. slang. Something ‘crying’, ‘clamant’, or excessive; spec. a glaring blunder, esp. in an examination, etc. Cf. howling ppl. a. 3.
1872W. F. Butler Gt. Lone Land xix. (1878) 300 If the hood was fastened down by frozen breath to the opening, then it must be a howler outside. 1875Punch 2 Oct. 136/1 John..having come a howler over the Leger, is stumped. 1882H. C. Merivale Faucit of B. II. ii. ii. 161 He's gone no end of a howler on the turf since. 1890Athenæum 1 Mar. 275/1 In no examination papers..has any examiner met with more monstrous ‘howlers’ than crowd these pages. 1894Month Apr. 464 The specimens of schoolboy blunders which, under the head of ‘Howlers’, are so popular in our journals.
†4. Telephony. A device (used by the exchange) for producing a howling noise in a receiver in order to attract the subscriber's attention. Obs.
1886Jrnl. Soc. Telegr. Engin. XV. 322 We supply what we call a ‘howler’, and whenever a subscriber leaves his tubes hanging this howler is at once put on. 1917G. D. Shepardson Telephone Apparatus viii. 137 For reminding careless subscribers who neglect even to hang up the receiver..the operator..may send out a strong current of comparatively high frequency from the ‘howler’. |