| 释义 |
‖ ventre à terre, advb. phr.|vɑ̃tr a tɛr|
[Fr., lit. ‘belly to the ground’.]
a. In the posture assumed (esp. in sporting prints) by a horse at full gallop; hence at full speed, ‘all out’. Also attrib.
1847Thackeray Van. Fair (1848) iii. 476, I instantly called for the carriage, and..drove ventre à terre to Nathan's. 1867‘Ouida’ Under Two Flags I. xiii. 302 You know what the Arabs are... They..pick up their sabre from the ground, while their horse is galloping ventre à terre. 1918G. B. Shaw in F. Harris Oscar Wilde II. 28 To be called on to gallop ventre à terre to Erith. 1947J. Stevenson-Hamilton Wild Life S. Afr. xxii. 170 He [sc. a charging lion] goes not in a series of bounds, but at a ventre à terre gallop, and incredibly fast. 1974Country Life 2 May 1059/1 His personal progression from the 19th-century ventre à terre animal motion—à la Herring and Pollard—to the transverse and rotatory images. 1977‘E. Crispin’ Glimpses of Moon xi. 223 Man and horse..went on to gallop almost ventre à terre in the direction of the hedge.
b. Lying on one's stomach, prone.
1960Times 18 July 15/4 Down at the firing point they formed a line ventre à terre. 1968Economist 27 Jan. 4/3 The Cresta, which is run by the St. Moritz Toboggan Club, on which the rider uses a skeleton, or the bob run in which the bobsleigh crew descend either ventre à terre or sitting up. |