| 释义 |
▪ I. loam, n.|ləʊm|
Forms: 1 lám, (laam), 3–4 lam, 3–5, 6–9 Sc. lame, 5–8 lome, (4 in comb. lom-), 6–8 loame, 6–7 Sc. and north. leame, 7 leem, 8–9 loom, (9 laem), 6– loam.
[OE. lám neut. = MDu., Du. leem, MLG. lêm, whence mod.G. lehm masc.; with different declension the word is found as OHG. leimo masc. (MHG. leime, mod.HG. dial. leimen); the OTeut. forms *laimo-, *laimon- are from the root *lai- (:*lī̆-) to be sticky, occurring also in lair n.2; for cognates in other ablaut-grades see lime n.1]
†1.
a. Clay, clayey earth, mud; occas. ‘earth’ or ‘clay’ as the material of the human body. Obs.
c725Ags. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 6/38 Argella, laam. c1000ælfric Gen. ii. 7 God ᵹesceop eornostlice man of þære eorðan lame. c1175Cott. Hom. 221 And god þa ȝeworhte ænne man of lame. a1225Leg. Kath. 991 Ȝe! ne makede he mon of lam to his ilicnesse? a1300Cursor M. 11985 And o lame o þaa lakes selue Wit handes made he sparus tuelue. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints ix. (Bartholomaeus) 135 Adame, Þat wrocht wes of vmwemmyt lame. 1593Shakes. Rich. II, i. i. 179 The purest treasure mortall times afford Is spotlesse reputation: that away, Men are but gilded loame, or painted clay. 1600Holland Livy 1376 The name [Argiletus] it taketh of a kind of clay or lome, where of there is plentie in that place. 1610Healey St. Aug. Citie of God xiii. xxiv. (1620) 467 This man therefore being framed of dust or lome [L. de terræ pulvere sive limo] (for lome is moystned dust). a1633Austin Medit. (1635) 289 My Fathers House is Earth where I must lye: A House of Clay best fits a Guest of Lome. 1655Culpepper Riverius ix. iii. 257 Some [sc. depraved appetites] desire Clay, Coals, Earth, Loam, Chalk and the like.
fig.1645G. Daniel Poems Wks. 1878 II. 72 See to the Politicke Is not Hee partly Sicke? Are his Designes vnmixt with Drosse and Loame? a1657Lovelace Poems (1864) 192 Thou art become Slave to the spawn of mud and lome.
b. Used loosely for: Earth, ground soil. arch.
a1300Cursor M. 193 Þar sal ȝe find..O lazar ded laid vnder lam. c1440York Myst. xxxix. 5 Maria. In lame is it loken all my light, For-thy on grounde on-glad I goo. 1616Barbour's Bruce xix. 256 (ed. Hart) That time Edward of Carnauerane The King, was dead, and laide in Lame [MSS. stane]. 1867G. Macdonald Poems 160, I'll see the corpse, ere he's laid in the loam. 1871Joaquin Miller Songs of Italy (1878) 12 These skies are Rome! The very loam Lifts up and speaks in Roman pride.
2. Clay moistened with water so as to form a paste capable of being moulded into any shape; spec. a composition of moistened clay and sand with an admixture of horse-dung, chopped straw, or the like, used in making bricks and casting-moulds, plastering walls, grafting, etc.
1480Ward. Acc. Edw. IV (1830) 127 Payed..for borde naill and lome for cering and amending of his chambre flore. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 56/2 In nowyse gyue nomore chaf to the peple forto make lome and claye. 1577Harrison England ii. xii. (1877) i. 234 The claie wherewith our houses are impanelled, is either white, red, or blue,..the second is called lome. 1587L. Mascall Govt. Cattle (1627) 40 Ye may giue him lome of a wall mixt with vrine. 1602Shakes. Ham. v. i. 233. 1626 Bacon Sylva §427 You may take off the Barke of any Bough..and couer the bare Place..with Loame well tempered with Horse-dung, binding it fast downe. 1683Moxon Mech. Exerc. 11 Make a Loam of three parts Clay and one part Horse-dung. 1684Ibid. 57 By covering Steel [in annealing] with a course Powder of Cow-Horns,..and so inclosing it in a Loam. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 86/2 Lome, a kind of Clay to put about Grafts, made of Clay and Horse-dung. 1694Dryden Love Triumph. iv. i. 65 The Lodging Rooms are furnisht with Loam. c1710C. Fiennes Diary (1888) 116 Their buildings are of timber of Loame and Lathes. 1759Ellis in Phil. Trans. LI. 208 A cake of plaisterers stiff loam, or such as the brewers use to stop their beer barrels. 1789P. Smyth tr. Aldrich's Archit. (1818) 80 The loom during the winter should be kept steeped, and made into bricks in the spring. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 518–19 [Founding.] Over the brick dome a pasty layer of loam is applied..; this surface is then coated with a much smoother loam. 1883T. D. West Amer. Foundry Pract. (ed. 2) 184 In some places a natural loam can be obtained—but this is rare; most shops have to make their loam of different proportions of sharp and loam sands.
Proverb. phr.1586Hooker Serm. ii. §19 Wks. (1888) III. 504 But we wash a wall of loam; we labour in vain.
3. A soil of great fertility composed chiefly of clay and sand with an admixture of decomposed vegetable matter.
It is called clay loam or sandy loam according as the clay or sand preponderates.
1664Evelyn Kal. Hort., May (1706) 57 A natural Earth, with an Eye of Loam in it (such as is proper for most Flowers). 1727Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Flower, Where the Ground is too stiff, and that you desire a natural Mixture to bring it to the State of Loam, you must add to it a sufficient Quantity of dry or Sea Sand. 1765A. Dickson Treat. Agric. (ed. 2) 458 Loam, it is probable, is not an original soil, but the earth of rotten vegetables. 1767A. Young Farmer's Lett. People 119 The soil is an exceeding light sandy loam. 1806Gazetteer Scotl. (ed. 2) 16 The soil..consisting of clay and sand, and in some places of a loam. 1830Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 268 Cliffs, composed..of alternating strata of blue clay, gravel, loam, and fine sand. 1879Jefferies Wild Life in S. Co. 376 The loam discolours the water during a storm for several yards out to sea. 1887T. Hardy Woodlanders II. xii. 228 The fruity district of deep loam.
4. attrib. passing into adj. Made of or consisting of loam.
1536Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) I. 108 In Fyndoure..wes found ane anciant sepulture, in quhilk were ii lame piggis, craftely maid. 1563Davidson Confut. Kennedy in Wodr. Soc. Misc. (1844) 214 The leame pote that contenis the medicine. 1606W. Birnie Kirk-Buriall (1833) 2 Cælo tegitur qui non habet urnam... And heauens will cover when leame tombes cannot do'ide. 1623Goad Dolef. Euen-Song 13 They with their Kniues opened the Loame-wall next vnto them. 1637Rutherford Lett. (1664) 66 Are we not Gods leem vessels? 1637–50Row Hist. Kirk (1842) 260 He dreamed that he was a lame pig. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. x. vi. §31 To cut their passage out of a lome wall into the next chamber. 1663Inv. Ld. J. Gordon's Furniture, A lame pot for watering chamberes. 1703Lond. Gaz. No. 3953/1 A Manufacture of Lame, Purslaine and Earthen Ware. 1824Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl. s.v. Aschet, Ashets seem to have been the first things of lame ware. 1884Cassell's Fam. Mag. Feb. 140 Our loam-heap should be free from all vermin.
5. attrib. and Comb., spec. in Founding, Brickmaking and Bricklaying, as loam brick, loam cake, loam casting, loam lute, loam mould, loam work; loam-beater, loam-board, loam-foot, loam-hook, loam-mill, loam-moulder, loam-moulding; loam-salts, ? land composed of loam impregnated with salt.
1888Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin., *Loam Board, a board having an edge cut to the outline of the sectional shape of the work which it is intended to strike up.
1881C. Wylie Iron Founding 15 Dried loam off castings..is only used for making *loam bricks for cores.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Loam-cake.
1881C. Wylie Iron Founding 49 *Loam castings, as a rule, do not contract so much as sand castings.
1940T. S. Eliot East Coker i. 8 Lifting heavy feet in clumsy shoes Earth feet, *loam feet, lifted in country mirth. 1955D. Davie Brides of Reason 28 Come with me by the self-consuming north (The North is spirit), to the loam-foot west And opulent departures of the south.
1700Moxon Mech. Exerc., Bricklayers-Wks. 14 A *Loame-hook, Beater, Shovel, Pick-Ax, Basket and Hod, which commonly belong to Bricklaiers Labourers, and may be called the Labourers Tools.
1839Ure Dict. Arts 1057 It [sc. a stoneware pipe] is..secured at the joints with *loam-lute.
Ibid. 518 The mould is formed of a pasty mixture of clay, water, sand, and cow's hair..kneaded together in what is called the *loam mill.
Ibid. *Loam moulds.
1881C. Wylie Iron Founding 98 No doubt Hiram, in Solomon's time, was a thorough *loam-moulder.
Ibid., *Loam moulding stands distinctly apart from either green-sand or dry-sand moulding.
1852J. Wiggins Embanking 100 A piece of silty *loam-salts, near Fossdyke.
18..Archit. Publ. Soc. Dict. s.v., Early *loam work [sc. in building] is often stamped in patterns. 1881C. Wylie Iron Founding 50 In large loam castings this occurs to a greater extent than in small or light loam work.
▪ II. loam, v.|ləʊm|
[f. loam n.]
1. trans. To cover or plaster with loam. ? Obs.
1600Surflet Country Farme iii. xviii. 460 After..loming the ioints and seames very well with gum and wax mixt together. 1630Capt. Smith Trav. & Adv. 25 With the ashes of bones tempered with oile, Camels haire, and a clay they have; they lome them so well, that no weather will pierce them. 1671J. Webster Metallogr. xi. 157 They diligently lome or daub up the pots with clay, or lute. 1703Moxon Mech. Exerc. 264 Girders which lye in the Walls, must be Loamed all over, to preserve them from the corroding of the Morter.
2. To dress with loam.
1842E. J. Lance Cottage Farmer 12 They are grown in the deep sands which have been loamed.
3. Austral. intr. and trans. To search (a region) for gold by washing the loam from a hill's base until the increasing number of gold grains leads to the lode. So ˈloaming vbl. n.
1916R. MacKay Recoll. Early Gippsland Goldfields vi. 29/2 The science of loaming was either then unknown, or known to very few. Ibid. 30/1 The loaming system will tire the strongest and most wiry man that every swung a pick. 1935Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Feb. 21/1 He'll be loaming up a hill and following a trace, Until he gets above the gold. 1953People (Austral.) 23 Sept. 39/1 Loaming for gold he explains, entails, roughly, taking samples of loam from the topsoil, washing it in a dish, counting the colors and following them in intensity until a likely spot to sink a shaft is found. 1966‘J. Hackston’ Father clears Out 50 Old Tom was to make himself useful about the plant, and loam the surrounding country for the reef. |