| 释义 |
▪ I. whitecap, white-cap, n.|ˈhwaɪtkæp|
[cap n.1]
1. Name for several birds having a white or light-coloured patch on the head (see quots.).
1668Charleton Onomast. 78 Passeres..Montanus..the White-Cap. 1874T. Belt Nat. Nicaragua 138 The white⁓cap (Microchera parvirostris, Lawr.), the smallest of thirteen different kinds of humming-birds that I noticed around Santo Domingo. 1885Swainson Prov. Names Birds 13 Redstart... The male is called ‘whitecap’ in Shropshire, from its white forehead. Ibid. 22 Whitethroat..(from its grey head)..Whitecap.
2. pl. Local name for species of mushroom.
1818Withering's Brit. Pl. (ed. 6) IV. 282 Ag[aricus] Georgii... Gathered in abundance for the London markets, where they are sold as Mushrooms, but by the more discriminating country people called White caps. 1866Treas. Bot., White-caps,..Agaricus arvensis..Horse Mushroom.
3. A white-capped or crested wave; a breaker.
1773Phil. Trans. LXIV. 458 None, or very few white-caps (or waves whose tops turn over in foam) appeared. 1838A. Gray Lett. (1893) I. 71 We had a strong head wind..: the surface of the lake was covered with white-caps. 1883Harper's Mag. Aug. 375/1 Numerous reefs..marked by white-caps where the ebb tide rushed over them.
4. A person wearing a white cap; spec. one of a self-constituted body in the United States who commit outrages upon persons under the pretence of regulating public morals.
1891Tablet 13 June 941 The Lynchers in such cases are usually called white-caps, regulators, &c. 1894Westm. Gaz. 23 May 2/3 A White Cap..disguises himself and performs his errands at night.
So ˈwhite-capped |-kæpt| a., wearing a white cap or caps; capped with foam, covered with white-crested waves.
1880‘Ouida’ Moths iii, White-capped old women looked on. 1895Outing (U.S.) XXVI. 447/2 A white-capped sea. 1899Scribner's Mag. XXV. 75 The whitecapped cavalry were caught unawares by French's brigade.
▪ II. ˈwhitecap, v. U.S.
[f. the n., sense 4.]
trans. To commit an outrage upon (a person) in the style of the whitecaps. Chiefly as ˈwhite-capping vbl. n. Also ˈwhitecapper.
1895T. Roosevelt in Century Mag. Nov. 72/2 The law⁓breaker, whether he be lyncher or whitecapper, or merely the liquor-seller who desires to drive an illegal business. 1900M. Nicholson Hoosiers 45 The milder form of out⁓lawry, known as ‘white-capping’, has also been practised in Indiana occasionally. 1904N.Y. Even. Post 28 Jan. 9 The Mississippi has voted Gov. Vardaman a special appropriation to enable him to suppress the ‘white cappers’. 1908D. G. Phillips Old Wives for New iv. 68 If he wasn't such a wonderful doctor he'd have been white-capped long ago—tarred and feathered and railed out of town. 1943A. G. Powell I can go Home Again 167 During the short time I served as county judge, a series of ‘whitecappings’, directed against Negroes, occurred in the lower part of the county. 1970[see Ku-Klux 1 a]. |