| 释义 |
▪ I. vole, n.1|vəʊl|
Also 7, 9 vol.
[a. F. vole (1642), app. f. voler, ad. L. volāre to fly.]
The winning of all the tricks in certain card-games, as écarté, quadrille, or ombre. Freq. to win the vole.
1679Dryden Limberham iv. i, Pug has sent me to you..to bring you down to Cards again;..She'll never forgive you the last Vol you won. 1712–13Swift Jrnl. to Stella 7 Mar., I..played at ombre..for three hours. There were three voles against me,..but [I] came off for three shillings and sixpence. 1728Vanbr. & Cib. Prov. Husb. v. iii, Unless..sometimes winning a great Stake; laying down a Vole, sans prendre may come up, to the profitable Pleasure you were speaking of. 1741E. Montagu Lett. (1813) II. 111 Many there would have gone twice as far to have saved a vole at quadrille. 1778Camp Guide 12 To win a great—battle—I think from my soul, Is rather more dubious, than Quadrille the vole. 1810Crabbe Borough xvi. 224 Cards answer'd to her call..‘A vole! a vole!’ she cried, ‘t'is fairly won.’ 1861Macm. Mag. Dec. 131 Unless the winners should choose to undertake to make all the ten tricks [in Quadrille], which is called the vole. 1894Wilkins & Vivian Green Bay Tree I. 21 ‘A gentle flutter at ecarté.’ ‘In which you began with King and vol each game, I wager.’
b. to go the vole, to run every risk in the hope of great gain; to try all shifts.
1816Scott Antiq. iv, Who is he?—why, he has gone the vole—has been soldier, ballad-singer, travelling tinker, and is now a beggar. 1827― Jrnl. (1890) II. 62 He thinks Cadell's account must turn up trumps, and is for going the vole. 1895Daily News 27 May 8/3 In the old phrase he ‘went the vole,’ he would be colossal, or a blank failure.
Hence vole v. intr., to win the vole. rare—1.
1735Pope Donne's Sat. iv. 146 Shortly no lad shall chuck, or lady vole, But some excising Courtier will have toll.
▪ II. vole, n.2|vəʊl|
[Orig. vole-mouse, ad. Norw. *vollmus (Icel. vallarmús), f. voll (Icel. völlr, Sw. vall) field + mus mouse.]
One or other of various rat- or mouse-like quadrupeds, esp. the short-tailed field-mouse, Microtus (formerly Arvicola) agrestis; the water-rat, M. amphibius; and the red or bank vole, Evotomys glareolus; also, the genus or genera to which these belong. Also † vole-mouse.
1805Barry Orkney iii. i. 314 The Short-tailed Field Mouse,..which with us has the name of the vole mouse. 1828J. Fleming Brit. Anim. 23 Arvicola. Vole.—No subsidiary incisors. Roots of the grinders simple... Tail round and hairy. 1840Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 114 The Voles..have three grinders above and below. Ibid., The Musk⁓quash,..which is a Vole with semi-palmated hind-feet. c1880Cassell's Nat. Hist. III. 115 The true Voles..number about fifty known species.
attrib.1896Daily News 21 Apr. 6/2 May the vole-plague ravage the land of those who neglect this plain-featured fact! 1906Country-Side 6 Jan. 100/3 A committee of gentlemen who had come specially to investigate the ‘vole’ question.
b. With distinguishing terms (see quots. and prec.; also water-vole).
1840Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 114 The *Alsacian Vole..lives under ground like the Mole.
1843Zoologist I. 72 The *bank vole or bank mouse. 1888Encycl. Brit. XXIV. 278/1 The Bank-Vole (Arvicola glareolus).
1840Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 114 The *Economic Vole..inhabits a sort of oven-shaped chamber.
1828J. Fleming Brit. Anim. 23 The *field vole is most destructive in gardens to seeds. 1864[H. W. Wheelwright] Spring Lapl. 239 Besides these we had another species of field vole (the Lemmus medius, Nilss.) which is peculiar to the north.
1840Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 114 *Meadow Vole..Size of a Mouse, reddish ash-colour.
1896Lydekker Brit. Mammals 308 The *northern Vole (Microtus ratticeps), and the *Siberian Vole (M. gregalis).
1875Encycl. Brit. I. 633/1 Fauna of the Alps..[includes] the *snow-vole (Arvicola nivalis).
Hence ˈvoledom, the world of voles. rare—1.
1892Chambers's Jrnl. 25 June 407/2 The young mice being greedily gulped down by the black bogies, whose appearance must be the prevailing terror of voledom.
▪ III. vole
southern dial. variant of foal.
▪ IV. vole, volee
obs. forms of volley n. |