| 释义 |
kex Obs. exc. dial.|kɛks|
Forms: α. 4– kex, 6–7 kexe, 6 keckes, 8 kecks, (9 dial. kesk, kesh). β. 4–6 kyx, 6–8 kix(e, (6 kickes, kykkes, 9 dial. gix, gicks, kish). See also keck, kecksy, casshe.
[Origin unknown; W. cecys pl., sometimes cited as the source, is no doubt from Eng.]
1. The dry, usually hollow, stem of various herbaceous plants, esp. of large umbelliferous plants, such as Cow Parsnip, Wild Chervil, and Marsh Angelica.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xvii. 219 Glowande gledes gladieth nouȝte þis werkmen..As doth a kex [C. xx. 185 kyx] or a candel þat cauȝte hath fyre & blaseth. c1440Promp. Parv. 277/2 Kyx, or bunne, or drye weed, calamus. 1530Palsgr. 235/2 Keckes of humblockes, tviav. Ibid. 236/1 Kickes the drie stalke of humlockes or burres, tvyav. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 177 b, Take a peece of a reede or a kex. 1589Pappe w. Hatchet C iv, Elders they may bee, which being fullest of spungie pith, proue euer the driest kixes. 1672J. Josselyn New Eng. Rarities 74 The Stalkes are as hollow as a Kix, and so are the Roots. 1723J. Nott Confectioner's Dict. Pref., Upon the Battlements of the Castle [of pastry] were planted Guns made of Kexes. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 596 Taking for our support a withered kecks instead of the staff of life. 1842Akerman Wiltsh. Gloss., Gix, the dry stalks of hemlock. 1891T. Hardy Tess (1892) 139, I should be as dry as a kex wi' travelling so far.
†b. Without a: collectively, or as a material.
In some cases perh. taken as pl. of keck, a form which was prob. evolved from this collective sense.
1562J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 106 Of kyks for cage woorke, to builde thy house hie. 1597Gerarde Herbal ii. xvii. §1. 199 The stalke is rounde, smooth and hollow, like to Kexe or Casshes. 1607Wilkins Miseries enforced Marriage iv. in Hazl. Dodsley IX. 534 Ilf. Dost not know me, butler? But. For kex, dried kex. 1725Bailey Erasm. Colloq. 7 You're so thin, a Body may see through you, and as dry as Kecks.
2. An umbelliferous plant with a hollow stalk.
1578Lyte Dodoens iii. xxiii. 306 Sagapenum is the sap or gumme of a kinde of Ferula or kix. 1658Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 1003 They are commonly found in Kexes, or Asse Parsly in the summer time. 1755Gentl. Mag. XXV. 29 Cicuta. Common Hemlock, or Kex. 1784Twamley Dairying 118 Kex, or water-parsnip,..grows in rivers and fens, is very noxious to cattle; also the lesser Kex called upright water-parsnip, in rivers and ditches. 1847Tennyson Princ. iv. 59 Tho' the rough kex break The starr'd mosaic. 1880Jefferies Gt. Estate vii. 136 Cutting a dry ‘gicks’ so that it should be open at either end, like a tube.
†3. The husk, sheath, or hard case of a chrysalis.
c1600Holland, When the kex, or husk, is broken, he proveth a fair flying butterfly. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 371/1 Kex, or husk of Worms.
†4. fig. A dried-up sapless person. Obs.
1611Beaum. & Fl. King & No King v. ii, I'le make these withered kexes bear my body two hours together above ground. 1659Lady Alimony ii. v. in Hazl. Dodsley XIV. 309 Flo. The issue madam? Med. None; nor ever shall With that sear, suckless kex. 1709Brit. Apollo II. No. 54. 3/2 If a weighty Boss She, And a slender Kecks He. a1711Ken Edmund Poet. Wks. 1721 II. 360 I'll follow glorious Edmund to his Urn, The Embers of his Fire this Kix will burn. |