| 释义 |
ˈwater-ˌcarrier
1. One who transports goods, etc. by water, not by land or railway. In quot. 1764, a barge-master.
1764[J. Burton] Pres. St. Navig. Thames 14 These Water⁓carriers..look upon themselves as Masters and Lords of the River;..refusing Carriage of Goods, but on their own Terms, [etc.]. 1881Chicago Times 17 June, The railroads, in their anxiety to secure employment for their idle rolling-stock, will bid against the water-carriers. 1892Daily News 4 Aug. 3/4 Their [sc. the railway company's] carrying traffic in wool..had suffered..through the competition of a combination of water carriers.
2. A man (or animal) that carries water; esp. in oriental countries, the person who supplies an establishment or a number of troops with water.
1787tr. Volney's Trav. Syria & Egypt (1788) I. 256 note, At Cairo, it is observed, that the water-carriers, continually wet with the fresh water they carry in skins upon their backs, are never subject to the plague. 1824Morier Hajji Baba ix, The muleteer..recommended me strongly to become a saka, or water-carrier. 1855Poultry Chron. III. 374 These bees are water-carriers. 1882F. M. Crawford Mr. Isaacs xi. 231, I told him to send a bhisti, a water-carrier, with his leathern bucket. 1899Atlantic Monthly LXXXIII. 760/1 Some of the burros were water carriers, with great earthen jars swung in pairs against their panting sides.
3. Something that carries water.
a. A tank or other vessel for carrying water. (See also quot. 1875.)
1854Hull Improv. Act 36 A sufficient number of..water⁓carriers, trucks, water-carts. 1875Knight Dict. Mech., Water-carrier, a form of water-elevator in which the bucket lifted from the well or cistern is transported on wires to the house at a considerable distance.
b. dial. An open channel for water, esp. in an irrigated meadow.
1879Jefferies Wild Life 373 The wild duck..swim in the water-carriers in the great irrigated meadows.
c. dial. A rain-cloud.
a1887Jefferies Field & Hedgerow (1889) 16 The water⁓carriers, harnessed to the south and west winds, drilling the long rows of rain like seeds into the earth. |