| 释义 |
whitefoot, n. and a.|ˈhwaɪtfʊt|
[Cf. OE. hwítfót adj.]
A. n.
1. Farriery. A white marking on a horse's foot (see quot.); also, a horse with such a mark.
1753Chambers' Cycl. Supp., White-Foot..called in French Balzane, is a white mark that happens in the feet of a great many horses, both before and behind, from the fetlock to the coffin.
2. Collectors' name for a species of moth.
1832Rennie Butterfl. & M. 161 The Whitefoot (S[pilonota] fœnella..). Wings..dusky brown,..with a large medial hook-shaped white band.
3. Hist. A member of a secret society in Ireland who committed murders and outrages about 1832. Pl. whitefeet (also irreg. used attrib.).
1832in G. C. Lewis Local Disturb. Irel. (1836) 107, I find that the Whiteboy system has for the last sixty years continued under different names; as, Peep-o'-day-boys,..Ribbon-men, the Lady Clares, the Terry Alts... Now we have the Whitefeet and Blackfeet. 1832Boston Herald 6 Mar. 2 An armed party of Whitefeet paid the third visit to the house of the long-threatened Jeremiah Farrell. 1833Ibid. 12 Mar. 3/6 James Jackman, a Whitefoot, for attacking the house of one Roche, and killing him, is to be hanged on Monday. 1886Irish Eccles. Gaz. 4 Sept., The massacre of whitefeet men in the last days of that unfortunate secret society in the Queen's County.
B. adj. White-footed. poet.
1867Morris Jason ii. 359 White-foot Ino smiling, sat alone.
So ˈwhite-ˌfooted a., having white feet; white-footed mouse, any of several species of North American mice of the genus Peromyscus, esp. P. maniculatus or P. leucopus; ˈwhitefootism, the practices of Irish whitefeet.
14..Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 602/32 Petulus,..whyt foted et dicitur de equo. 1753Chambers' Cycl. Supp. s.v. Chausse trop-haut, A white-footed horse. 1757in Eliz. Carter's Lett. 29 July (1809) II. 251 One of the prettiest little white⁓footed black cats..you ever saw. 1781Pennant Hist. Quadrup. 91 The white-footed Antelope or Nil-ghau. 1821Scott Kenilw. x, His white-footed nag. 1832in G. C. Lewis Local Disturb. Irel. (1836) 77 If they continue suffering under hardships,..Whitefootism will revive again. 1857Rep. Comm. Patents 1856: Agric. (U.S.) 86 The food of [the Northern shrike]..consists almost wholly of arvicolae and a few white-footed prairie mice. 1869Amer. Naturalist III. 120 When the axe-man struck the tree, a Whitefooted Mouse..rushed from the nest. 1936D. McCowan Animals Canad. Rockies viii. 68 The White-footed mouse is of medium size and has a silky coat that is dark brown above and light on the underparts. 1977J. L. Harper Population Biol. Plants xv. 465 The seed was collected and buried mainly by white-footed mice. |