| 释义 |
▪ I. limber, n.1|ˈlɪmbə(r)|
Forms: 5 lymor(e, 5–6 lymour, 6 lymowr, lym(m)er, Sc. lymnar, 6–7, 9 limmer, 9 limber.
[Of obscure origin. The F. limon = sense 1 below; the derivative limonière means ‘the shafts and connected framework of a vehicle’. If the form lymnar in Douglas be genuine, it may be an adoption of limonière, and perh. the forms lymour, etc., though recorded earlier, may be corruptions of this.]
1. a. The shaft of a cart or carriage. Obs. exc. dial.
1480Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV (1830) 123 A crouper for the lymour, price iiijs. 1501Douglas Pal. Hon. xxxiii, The lymnaris [of the chariot] wer of birneist gold. 1513― æneis ix. vi. 23 The cartis stand with lymowris bendyt strek. 1579–80North Plutarch, Coriol. (1595) 248 They made him carrie a limmer on his shoulders that is fastened to the Axeltree of a couch [= coach]. 1611Florio, Timóne,..the limmer or beame of a Wagon or Waine. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 982 (Pitcoal) The rolley horses have a peculiar kind of shafts, commonly made of iron, named limbers, the purpose of which is to prevent the carriage from overrunning them. 1860Eng. & For. Mining Gloss. (Newcastle Terms), Limmer's, the shafts by which the horses draw.
†b. Short for limber-horse.
1632Sherwood, A limmer, limonier. Voyez a Thill-horse.
2. Mil. (In early use pl.) The detachable fore part of a gun-carriage, consisting of two wheels and an axle, a pole for the horses, and a frame which holds one or two ammunition-chests. It is attached to the trail of the gun-carriage proper by a hook.
Quot. 1628 seems to be an erroneous explanation.
1497Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 84, ij paire lymores with boltes forlokkes kayes lynces and a taile pynne for the said Curtowe. 1578Bourne Invent. & Devices xcvi. 85 The Lymers that the horses doth draw in. 1628R. Norton Gunner lix. 130 The sides and Cheekes [of the Cariage] called Limbers. 1801Wellington in Gurw. Desp. (1837) I. 325 A six-pounder, its carriage and limber, and ammunition in the limber box. 1851Ord. & Regul. R. Engineers xix. 96 Twelve pieces of Field Artillery, with their Carriages and Limbers. 1859F. A. Griffiths Artil. Man. (1862) 103 No. 7 attends the limber and serves ammunition.
3. attrib., as (sense 1 b) † limber croup, † limber hame, limber pillow; limber-box, -chest Mil., the ammunition box carried by a limber; limber-hook (see quot.); limber-horse dial., the horse which is placed between the shafts; † limber-plank Mil. (see quot.); limber-saddle, a cart-saddle.
1801*Limber-box [see sense 2]. 1876J. Grant Hist. India I. xxiv. 129/1 Wood's field-guns had only five rounds left in the limber-boxes.
1888Century Mag. May 103/2 Some of whom [the enemy], springing nimbly on his *limber⁓chests, shot down his horses and then his men.
1483Wardr. Acc. in Grose Antiq. Repert. (1807) I. 47 *Lymour crowps..*Lymour pilows.
1876Voyle Milit. Dict. (ed. 3) s.v. Limber, At the back of the limber is an iron hook or pintle, termed a *limber-hook, to which the trail of the gun carriage is attached... The limber-hook is stated to have been invented..in 1804.
1628R. Norton Gunner lx. 131 The *Limber Planks or sides of the Cariage must be 4 and a halfe, or 5 dyametres broad, one thicke.
1480Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV (1830) 123 For a *lymour sadell price vs.; for a payre *lymour hamys garnissht xviijd. 1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) vi. vii, The flap of a limber saddle rolling up and galling and pinching your calf.
▪ II. limber, n.2 Naut.|ˈlɪmbə(r)|
[? a corruption of F. lumière hole, perforation (lit. ‘light’), used Naut. in the same application.]
1. One of a series of holes cut through the floor-timbers on each side of the keelson to form a passage for water to the pump-well.
1626,1711, etc. [see limber-hole, -board in 2]. 1729Capt. W. Wriglesworth MS. Log-bk of the ‘Lyell’ 6 Sept., Cleared the Limbers in the Forehold. c1860H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 63 See the limbers are clear, and limber boards shipped. 1898F. T. Bullen Cruise Cachalot 326 The ship..never made a drop of water more than just sufficient to sweeten the limbers.
2. attrib. in spec. combinations: limber-board (see quots.); limber-chain, a chain used like a limber-rope (Webster, 1864); limber-hole Naut. = sense 1; limber-passage Naut., the passage or channel formed by the limber-strakes on each side of the keelson; limber-rope Naut., a rope passing through the limber-holes, by which they may be cleared of dirt; limber-strake (or -streak) Naut. (see quots. and strake); limber-tar (see quot.).
1711W. Sutherland Shipbuild. Assist. 70 One Strake next the *Limber Boards. 1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1780), Limber-boards, short pieces of plank, which form a part of the ceiling, or lining of a ship's floor, close to the kelson, and immediately above the limbers. They are..removed, when it becomes necessary to..clear the limber⁓holes of any filth,..or gravel, by which they may be clogged. c1860H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 69 The limber boards..cover these channels or ‘limbers’, and serve to keep dirt out, which would soon choke the pumps.
1626Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Seamen 8 Then lay all the Flore timbers, and cut your *Limber holes aboue the keele, to bring the water to the well for the pumpe. 1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1780) s.v. Limbers, Every floor-timber has two limber-holes cut through it, viz. one on each side of the kelson. 1869E. J. Reed Shipbuild. v. 79 The limber-holes in the floor-plates are, as a general rule, cut above the frame angle⁓iron.
c1850Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 129 *Limber-passage, a passage or channel formed throughout the whole length of the floor, on each side of the kelson, for giving water a free communication to the pumps.
1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1780), *Limber-Rope, a long rope, frequently retained in the limber-holes..in order to clear them by pulling the rope backwards and forwards. 1841Dana Seaman's Man. 114.
1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVII. 404/2 The *limber strake. 1841Dana Seaman's Man. 114 Limber⁓streak, the streak of foot-waling nearest the keelson. 1874Thearle Naval Archit. 55 The limber strakes, while constituting a longitudinal tie over the floors, served also to form watercourses on each side of the keel, leading to the pumps.
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Limber Tar, the bilge-water or refuse found in the hold of a ship that imports tar, which has drained from the casks during the voyage.
▪ III. limber, a.|ˈlɪmbə(r)|
Also 6 limmer, lymmer, 6–7 lymber.
[Of obscure origin; Skeat suggests connexion with limp a., which, however, has not been found before 1706; it may perh. be some compound of limb n. (cf. the derivation of leathwake from lith, limb). Cf. also the synonymous limmock dial.]
1. a. Easily bent (without damage to shape or structure); flexible, pliant, supple.
1565Cooper Thesaurus, Lentus, softe, tender, pliant, that boweth easely, limber [etc.]. 1567Turberv. Epit. etc. 87 The Bargeman that doth rowe with long and limber Oare. 1578Lyte Dodoens iv. lxxx. 543 The roote..tough and limmer, and harde to breake. Ibid. v. xxxii. 591 The Gourde hath long limmer stalkes. 1657Austen Fruit Trees i. 50 Do not prune off the side branches, lest the body of the plant be too small and limber to beare his head. 1667Milton P.L. vii. 476 Those wav'd thir limber fans For wings. 1684Boyle Porousn. Anim. & Solid Bod. v. 46 With another piece of the same Bladder, made limber by being a little wetted in common water. 1713Cheselden Anat. i. i. (1726) 12, I..found..in one instance several of the bones as limber as leather. 1738[G. Smith] Curious Relat. II. v. 108 A Sort of Paper..as fine and limber as Silk. 1787J. Farley Lond. Art Cookery (ed. 4) 7 The feet [of a goose] will be limber, if it be fresh, but stiff and dry if old. 1840R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxx. 111 That the [new] ropes might have time to stretch and become limber. 1872Blackie Lays Highl. 73 Ye Norsemen brave That ply the limber oar.
b. Of persons, their bodies, movements, etc.: Bending or moving easily; lithe and nimble.
1582Stanyhurst æneis iv. (Arb.) 100 Limber in her whisking..shee soars vp nimblye toe skyward. 1603Drayton Bar. Wars vi. xxxviii, In Postures strange, their limber Bodies bending. 1605B. Jonson Volpone iii. i, I could skip Out of my skin, now, like a subtill snake, I am so limber. 1635Foxe & James Voy. N.W. (Hakluyt Soc.) II. 378 The sunne shone, and thawed our men and made them more limber. 1694Crowne Married Beau ii. 20 Methinks you are As limber in your tongue as in your hams. 1736Carte Ormonde II. 549 At getting up, he took notice..that his legs were more limber and bended with greater ease. 1751Smollett Per. Pic. (1779) II. xliv. 71 The Italian..a thin limber creature. 1817Coleridge Christabel ii. 1 A little child, a limber elf. 1844Disraeli Coningsby i. i, A limber and graceful figure. 1859Wraxall tr. R. Houdin iii. 27 The fingers remaining perfectly free and limber. 1885–94R. Bridges Eros & Psyche Mar. xiv, Her comely boy, The limber scion of the God of War.
†c. In unfavourable sense, of things which are properly firm or crisp: Limp, flaccid, flabby.
1592Warner Alb. Eng. vii. xxxvii. (1612) 182 My limber wings were Leather-like vnplum'de. 1602Middleton Blurt ii. i, Limber like the skin of a white pudding when the meat is out. 1658tr. Porta's Nat. Magic i. xv. 20 Flowers are..to be gathered..before they wax limber. 1736Bailey Housh. Dict. 195 Observe to clap very quick and very hard, for if you let them dry they will be limber. 1747H. Glasse Cookery (1767) 323 A rabbit, if stale, will be limber and slimy; if new, white and stiff.
2. fig.
1602Marston Ant. & Mel. i. Wks. 1856 I. 11 Confusion to these limber sycophants. 1611Shakes. Wint. T. i. ii. 47 You put me off with limber Vowes. a1639Wotton in Gutch Coll. Cur. I. 219 He had tryed and found him a Prince of limber virtues. 1695Remarks Late Serm. (ed. 2) 2 Men of limber and pliable Consciences can easily do this. 1719D'Urfey Pills (1872) II. 244 Tho' both in his sense, and his Loyalty limber. 1858Bushnell Serm. New Life 250 His whole nature becomes limber and quick to his love. 1887M. B. Betham-Edwards Next of Kin wanted I. xx. 272 [He] proved limber as a withy in her hands.
†3. quasi-n. Limber quality, limberness. Obs.
1786A. M. Bennett Juvenile Indiscretions I. 12 The whole depth of his talents laying in the mere limber of his tongue.
4. Comb., as limber-backed, limber-footed, limber-legged adjs.; limber-neck, a kind of botulism affecting poultry, caused by the toxin produced by a type of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum.
1601Holland Pliny I. 96 The Himantopodes be some of them limber legged and tender. 1720Humourist 162 A poor limber-back'd Beau. 1747H. Glasse Cookery (1767) 322 The duck..if new, limber-footed; if stale, dry-footed. 1904Westm. Gaz. 8 May 14/2 Here leaps the limber-footed, listening hare. 1910C. S. Valentine How to keep Hens for Profit 271 The disease called ‘*limberneck’, in which the affected bird is unable to control the head, which droops to the ground, is said by many who have had large experience with it to be the result of stomach irritation brought on by eating maggots. 1927E. T. Brown ‘How to do it’ Poultry Bk. xxiii. 242 Limberneck or false cholera..is due entirely to a form of poisoning. 1931Dickinson & Lewis Poultry Enterprises ix. 216 When flies and maggots infest putrid meat and other spoiled feeds, fowls eating them are likely to show symptoms of limber neck disease. 1964M. Hynes Med. Bacteriol. (ed. 8) xx. 296 These types [of botulism toxin] are also most often responsible for ‘limber-neck’ of chickens and ducks.
Hence ˈlimberness.
1565Cooper Thesaurus, Lentitia, softenesse, pliantnesse, limbernesse. 1669Boyle Contn. New Exp. i. 160 The limberness of them [the sides of a bladder] would permit the Air to accommodate it self and the Bladder to the Figure of a Cylindrical vessel. 1743Lond. & Country Brew. iv. (ed. 2) 278 In this [trough] oaken Planks are laid for the confin'd Steam of hot Water..to impregnate and reduce them to a Limberness. 1835M. Scott in Blackw. Mag. XXXVII. 460 The extreme pliancy and eel-like limberness, if I may so speak, of the whole body. 1889F. M. Crawford Greifenstein I. viii, 236 He has the most surprising limberness of wrist.
Add:[4.] limber pine, a North American mountain pine, Pinus flexilis, with a short, stout trunk and short, flexible branches.
1901A. Rehder in L. H. Bailey Cycl. Amer. Hort. III. 1351/1 [Pinus] flexilis, James. *Limber Pine... Seems to be best adapted for ornamental planting on rocky slopes. 1961R. M. Patterson Buffalo Head iv. 138 Away out on this point stood a very old limber pine. 1991Montana June 79/3 The drama is heightened by the bizarre shapes of gale-battered limberpine and whitebark pine clinging tenaciously to exposed slopes and ridges.
▪ IV. limber, v.1|ˈlɪmbə(r)|
[f. limber a.]
trans. To make limber, pliant, or supple. Also with up, and intr. Hence ˈlimbering ppl. a. and vbl. n., limbering-up vbl. n.
1748Richardson Clarissa III. 356 Her stiff hams..are now limbered into courtesies three deep at every word. 1753Ess. Celibacy 39 They exempt themselves from the free and limbering situations and circumstances of action. 1872O. W. Holmes Poet Breakf.-t. iii. (1885) 60 She worked her wrists..to limber 'em. 1883F. M. Crawford Mr. Isaacs viii. 164 The stiffest arms can be limbered. 1901Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 8 Oct. 3/2 When her machinery is limbered up after it has been used a while she will do much better. 1921Ibid. 5 Apr. 10/2 During the recent fine weather several of the [tennis club] members have been out limbering up after the inactivities of the Winter months. 1921Blackw. Mag. Aug. 262/1 Dempsey had passed the afternoon in a ‘limbering-up hike’. 1927Dancing Times Dec. 301/1 Most dance students know that limbering is the basis for every kind of dance work. 1929Wodehouse Mr. Mulliner Speaking ii. 64 He waggled his right leg for a moment to limber it up, backed a pace or two and crept forward. 1957Oxf. Pocket Bk. Athletic Training (ed. 2) 27 An athlete who fails to limber-up properly deliberately handicaps himself. 1962Listener 29 March 566/1 As images and figures in compositions..they limber or stretch or occasionally pose. 1963H. Garner in R. Weaver Canad. Short Stories (1968) 2nd Ser. 23 The limbering up we were getting from our work. 1971R. Dentry Encounter at Kharmel i. 1 He did twenty four half knee-bends to limber up.
▪ V. limber, v.2 Mil.|ˈlɪmbə(r)|
[f. limber n.1]
trans. To attach the limber to (a gun). Hence absol. to fasten together the two parts of a gun-carriage, as a preparation for moving away. Usually to limber up.
1843Lever J. Hinton vi. (1878) 34 The heavy artillery was seen to limber up, and move slowly across the field. 1851Ord. & Regul. R. Engineers xix. 95 Breadth of Shed, Guns limbered up..40 ft. 0 in. 1861Man. Field Exercise Artillery 50 Limbering is always done at a trot. 1868Kinglake Crimea (1877) III. i. 278 The guns of Turner's battery were limbered up and pushed forward. |