| 释义 |
ˈwood-nymph
1. A nymph of the woods; a superhuman being imagined as a beautiful maiden inhabiting woods; a dryad or hamadryad.
1577Grange Golden Aphrod. M ij b, The Woodnymphes likewise followed moste nicely tripping. 1634Milton Comus 120 By dimpled Brook, and Fountain brim, The Wood-Nymphs deckt with Daisies trim, Their merry wakes and pastimes keep. 1667― P.L. ix. 386 She..like a Wood-Nymph light Oread or Dryad..Betook her to the Groves. 1794Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xxxvii, Marble statues of wood-nymphs. 1821Scott Kenilw. xxvii, She possessed the form and hue of a wood-nymph, with the beauty of a sylph. 1867Morris Jason i. 92 Then mayst thou find, In some fair grassy place, the wood-nymphs kind.
b. transf. (cf. dryad 2 a, nymph n. 2).
1780H. Cowley Belle's Stratagem ii. i, The maxims you learnt among the wood-nymphs, in Shropshire, won't pass current here.
2. a. Name for certain species of humming-bird, esp. of the genus Thalurania (Gould). b. Collector's name for moths of the genus Eudryas.
1861Gould Trochilidæ II. Plates 99–109. 1885 Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888) II. 462 The beautiful wood-nymph, Eudryas grata. |