| 释义 |
wallaby|ˈwɒlabɪ|
Also -bi(e, -bee, walloby, whallabee. Pl. wallabies, † -bys.
[Native Australian: spelt wal-li-bah by D. Collins Acc. Eng. Colony N.S. Wales 614, 1798. Morris suggests derivation from walla to leap.]
1. a. A kangaroo belonging to any of the small species of the genus Macropus, formerly grouped as the sub-genus Halmaturus, or of the genera Onychogale (‘Nail-tailed Wallaby’), Petrogale (‘Rock Wallaby’), Lagorchestes (‘Hare Wallaby’), Lagostrophus (‘Banded Wallaby’), Wallabia or Thylogale. All the species are confined to Australia and the neighbouring islands.
The sing. form is used in sporting language as collective plural.
1826J. Atkinson Agric. & Grazing N.S.W. ii. 24 The wallabee and padgy mellon..inhabit brushes, and afford good sport in the chase. 1828P. Cunningham N.S. Wales (ed. 3) I. 289 The wallabee and paddymalla grow to about sixty pounds each. 1830R. Dawson Pres. State Australia iii. (1831) 111 A species of small kangaroo..which the natives call the ‘Walloby’. 1832J. Bischoff Van Diemen's Land II. 28 The wallabee is not very common. 1843J. E. Gray List Specim. Mammalia Brit. Mus. 89 The Whallabee. Halmaturus Ualabatus [etc.]. 1845J. O. Balfour Sk. N.S. Wales 25 The wallaby, or rock kangaroo, is of a dark-grey colour [etc.]. Ibid., The wallabys are to be seen only on the hottest days. 1846J. L. Stokes Discov. in Australia I. ix. 267 The Wallaby are numerous on this part of the island [Tasmania]. 1860G. Bennett Gather. Naturalist xiv. 286 A species of Wallaby Kangaroo was found about the rocky ranges at the Nepean. 1867W. Richardson Tasmanian Poems 18 Go to the country a week to shoot wallaby. 1884‘R. Boldrewood’ Melbourne Mem. iii. 24 Violet was so fast that she could catch the brush kangaroo (the wallaby) within sight. 1893Mrs. C. Praed Outlaw & Lawmaker II. 35 The scared rock wallabies darted out of their holes.
b. pl. (With capital initial.) The name of the Australian international rugby football team.
1908Daily Chron. 28 Sept. 4/6 The ‘Wallabies’, as the Australian football players..have christened themselves. 1945Baker Austral. Lang. ix. 178 Just as New Zealand football representatives acquired the names All Blacks, Fernleaves, and Kiwis, so did Australian representatives become known as Kangaroos, Wallabies and Waratahs. 1975Country Life 4 Dec. 1528/1 The Wallabies are about to play the first international of their tour against Scotland.
2. on the wallaby track, hence shortened on the wallaby: on tramp; wandering about on foot, whether in search of work or aimlessly as a vagrant.
1865E. J. Overbury Wallaby Track in Stewart & Keesing Old Bush Songs (1957) 233 There are others who stick during sheaving, Then shoulder their swags on their back; For the rest of the year they'll be steering On their well-beloved Wallaby Track. 1869Marcus Clarke Peripatetic Philosopher 41 (Morris) An old bush ditty, which I have heard sung when I was on the ‘Wallaby’. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer ix, What is the meaning of ‘out on the wallaby’?..It's bush slang, sir, for men just as you or I might be now, looking for work or something to eat. Ibid. xxvii, He wanted a summer on the wallaby track to open his mind. 1896Kipling Seven Seas, Lost Legion ii, And some of us hunt on the Oil Coast, And some on—the Wallaby track.
3. attrib., as in wallaby skin, wallaby tail; wallaby (-proof) fence, a fence intended to keep out wallabies; wallaby-grass, an Australian grass, Danthonia penicillata.
1852Mundy Antipodes ii. 43, I found myself..swallowing with relish, a plate of wallabi-tail soup. 1881Gentl. Mag. Jan. 56 A portion of this station was fenced with wallaby-proof fence—a high, close paling, reminding one of an English park. 1890Melbourne Argus 13 June 6/2 A wallaby-skin rug. 1897Outing XXX. 138/2 Down the wallaby fence..the emus turned at a hurricane gait. |