| 释义 |
watch-tower
[watch n.]
1. A tower or station from which observation is kept of the approach of danger; a look-out station.
1544in Rymer Foedera (1713) XV. 52 Huberdyn was Slaine with a halfe Haache out of the Wache Tour, as he and his Men went to vue the same. 1578–9Reg. Privy Council Scot. III. 81 The wache toure upoun Trailtrow,..mon be mendit of the litill diffaceing the Englische army maid of it. 1616Chapman tr. Musæus C 4, A Tower, that Sestian Hero once did make Her Watch-Tower. 1699W. Dampier Voy. II. ii. 13 West from Rio de la Gartos, there is a Look-out or Watch-tower, called Selam. 1794Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xliii, To the left..was seen a ruined watch-tower, standing on a point of rock near the sea. 1813Scott Trierm. i. xiii, Upon the watch-tower's airy round No warder stood his horn to sound. 1829W. Irving Granada (1850) 21 Every peak had its atalaya or watchtower, ready to make its fire by night or to send up its column of smoke by day, a signal of invasion. 1852Grote Greece ii. lxxvii. X. 197 The besieged, detecting from their watch-towers the negligence of the guards, chose a favorable opportunity and made a vigorous sally. 1869H. F. Tozer Highl. Turkey I. 361 This place..was the watch-tower that commanded the passes of the Scardus.
b. fig.
1561T. Norton Calvin's Inst. iii. xxii. (1634) 458 We must needs come to that lesser people, which Paul in another place said to have been foreknowne to God: not in such sort as these men imagine, to foreknow out of an idle watch-toure the things that hee worketh not: but [etc.]. 1571Golding Calvin on Ps. lix. 10 David mounted up intoo the watch tower of fayth, from whence he loketh downe without feare. 1639Rouse Heav. Univ. ix. (1702) 122 Then stand on thy watch-tower and hear what he teacheth thee. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 19 The true philosopher..considers himself as placed upon some watch tower, there to sit a careful spectator of the earth. 1821Shelley Adonais xiv, Morning sought Her eastern watch-tower. 1912E. Russell Maitland of Lethington iii. 72 Knox clung to St. Giles; he could have no better watch-tower.
c. transf. (See quot.)
1864–5J. G. Wood Homes without H. vi. (1868) 113 To enable the spider to see objects in its front a sort of little turret rises from the cephalothorax and on its summit are placed the eyes. Naturalists familiarly call this projection the ‘watch-tower’.
†2. A pharos or lighthouse. Obs.
1601Holland Pliny xxxvi. xii. II. 578 The use of this watch-tower, is to shew light as a lanthorne, and give direction in the night season to ships, for to enter the haven, and where they shall avoid barrs and shelves. 1632Lithgow Trav. vii. 324 For the commodity of Saylers the..King builded a watch-towre of white Marble. 1757W. Wilkie Epigoniad vi. 186 As when a watch tower's light, Seen thro' the gloom of some tempestuous night, Glads the wet mariner. 1804W. L. Bowles Spir. Discov. ii. 233 Strangers..whose bark Has foundered nigh, where the red watch-tower glares Through darkness. |