| 释义 |
low-country
1. A region or district whose level is lower than that of the surrounding country.
1530Palsgr. 241/1 Lowe countree, plat pais. 1797Last Advice of C. Pettigrew to Sons (MS.) (D.A.E.), You may think it best to sell your possessions in this low country, and to move westwardly. 1823E. James Acct. Expedition Rocky Mts. I. 38 Here commences the low country, which extends west to the Mississippi. 1828W. Carr Dial. Craven (ed. 2) I. 302 Low-country, East Riding of Yorkshire, being, in general flat, particularly when contrasted with this mountainous district. 1874‘H. Churton’ Toinette x. 114 He came from somewhere down in the low country. 1963R. I. McDavid Mencken's Amer. Lang. vi. 299 Low Country, especially in the South, denotes the Coastal Plain of South Carolina and Georgia, as distinquished from the Piedmont or Up Country. 1974State (Columbia, S. Carolina) 15 Feb. 17-A/8 Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., said Thursday arrangements have been made for an additional 1.4 million gallons of gasoline for the South Carolina Low-country.
attrib.1837J. R. McCulloch Statist. Acc. Brit. Empire II. 54 The webs manufactured in North Wales are..strong, or high country, cloth, and small, or low country, ditto. 1886Stevenson Kidnapped 172 You Low-country bodies have no clear idea of what's right and wrong. 1899West. Gaz. 14 Apr. 3/2 On a low-country shooting, which has no house attached to it, a bag of mixed game generally costs at least five shillings a head.
2. a. pl. Low Countries, the district now forming the kingdoms of Holland and Belgium, and the grand-duchy of Luxembourg.
[a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VII 32 b, To all the cytyes of the Gaule Belgique or lowe countrey.] a1548Ibid., Hen. VIII 136 The lowe countreis, of Brabant, Flaunders, and Zealande. 1592Nashe P. Penilesse 21 b, It would not conuert clubs and clowted shoone from the flesh pots of Egipt, to the Prouant of the Lowe countreyes. 1656–9B. Harris Parival's Iron Age 43 The war was..hot in the Low-Countries. 1858Longfellow M. Standish, etc. Pref., The career of poor but daring spirits in the age of Elizabeth was often sought in the Low Countries. 1887M. Morris Claverhouse v. (1888) 80 He had served his apprenticeship to the trade of war in the Low Countries.
b. attrib., quasi-adj. Belonging to the Low Countries. In 17th c. often of soldiers: Having served in the Low Countries.
1625Bacon Ess., Seditions (Arb.) 407 The Low-Countrey-Men, who haue the best Mines, aboue ground, in the World. 1678Butler Hud. iii. i. 1440 But I have sent him for a Token To your Low-Countrey Hogen Mogen. 1889Corbett Monk ii. 15 The plain Low Country officer. 1889Doyle Micah Clarke 34 Baggy low-country knee-breeches.
3. S. Afr. = lowveld. Cf. bushveld b.
1879[see bushveld]. 1929D. Reitz Commando xiv. 126 Our road ran through the Sabi low country teeming with big game of all descriptions. 1930Official Year Bk. S. Afr. No. 11. 18 The Low Country stretches from the Limpopo valley behind the escarpment past the eastern end of Zoutpansberg southwards to meet the South-Eastern region below the escarpment east of Carolina. 1947J. Stevenson-Hamilton Wild Life S. Afr. xxiii. 189, I have weighed a good number of low-country leopards immediately after death. |