| 释义 |
▪ I. † prong, prang, n.1 Obs.
In 5 prange, 5–6 pronge, 6 prang.
[Known only from c 1440: app. = MLG. prange a pinching (Franck), Du. prang a pinching, confinement, † prange ‘shackle, neck-iron, horse-muzzle’ (Hexham), † pranghe ‘coarctatio, compressio’ (Kilian); f. OTeut. vbl. stem *prang- to pinch, squeeze: cf. prangle, also next and pang n.1]
1. Urgent distress, anguish; a pang.
c1440Promp. Parv. 493/1 Throwe, womannys pronge (K. sekenes), erumpna. 1447O. Bokenham Seyntys (Roxb.) 151 As thow the prongys of deth dede streyn Here hert root. c1450Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.) 287 These prongys myn herte asondyr thei do rende. c1530Crt. of Love 1150 The prange of loue so straineth them to crie.
2. ? A trick, a prank. rare—1.
Perhaps a different word.
a1518Skelton Magnyf. 501 My frende, where haue ye bene so longe?.. I haue bene about a praty pronge.
▪ II. prong, n.2|prɒŋ|
Forms: α. 5–6 prange, 6 prannge, prang. β. 5–7 pronge, 6 prongue, 7 prung, 6– prong. See also sprong.
[Known only from c 1500; origin and etymology obscure; perh. related to prec.; cf. MLG. prange a pinching, also a pinching instrument, a horse's barnacle (Franck). But in sense more akin to prag n.1, prog n.1, as if a nasalized variant of these.]
1. a. An instrument or implement with two, three, or more piercing points or tines; a forked instrument, a fork. In many specific uses, now chiefly dial.; e.g. a fork to eat with, a table-fork; a long-handled fork for kitchen use; a kind of fire-iron; a rural implement, a pitchfork, hay-fork, dung-fork, digging-fork.
1492Ryman Poems lv. 4 in Archiv. Stud. neu. Spr. LXXXIX. 221 Dethe hathe felde me with his pronge. [Cf. lxxxv. 5 When dredefull deth to the shal come And smyte the with his spronge.] 1501Will of Treffry (Somerset Ho.), A Prange of siluer for grene gynger. 1504Ibid., My best prannge for grene gynger. 1528Lett. & Pap. Hen. VIII, IV. ii. 2227 In casting prangs for to cast fyre and faggott. 1549Acts Privy Council (1890) II. 349 Pronges of yron. 1556Withals Dict. (1568) 19 a/2 A pronge, bidens. 1559–60Will of J. Kighley (Somerset Ho.), A pronge of silver which they eate Sucket withall. 1567Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees) I. 279 An Iron Chimnay, a pair of tongs, a prong vs. 1570Levins Manip. 166/47 A Prongue, hasta furcata. 1621G. Sandys Ovid's Met. viii. (1626) 167 Her husband..Tooke downe a flitch of bacon with a prung, That long had in the smokie chimney hung. 1637Heywood Dial. iv. Wks. 1874 VI. 164 Expell me With forks and prongs, as one insenc'd with ire. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 60 Culinary utensils and Irons that often feele the force of fire, as tongs, fireshovels, prongs and Andirons. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. ii. 487 Be mindful..With Iron Teeth of Rakes and Prongs, to move The crusted Earth. 1706Phillips, Prong, a Pitch-fork. a1742J. Hammond Love Elegies (1745) 211 I'll press the Spade or weild the weighty Prong. 1762Falconer Shipwr. ii. 74 One [fish]..glides unhappy near the triple prong. 1791Cowper Iliad i. 570 Busy with spit and prong. 1813T. Davis Agric. Wilts Gloss., Prong or Pick, a fork for the stable, or for hay-making. 1877Auctioneer's Catalogue (Shropsh.) (E.D.D.), Six superior quality electro-plated dinner prongs. 1881Jefferies Wood Magic I. iii. 48 He wanted a prong, and a stout stick with a fork was cut and pointed for him. 1881Q. Rev. Apr. 332 He shouldered a prong and assisted his haymakers. 1891‘Q’ (Quiller Couch) Noughts & Crosses 79 He..always dined wi' a pistol laid by his plate, alongside the knives an' prongs.
b. Any forked object, appendage, or part.
1846Greener Sc. Gunnery 145 Two iron bars, the one fixed, the other loose. In the latter there is a prong or notch to receive one end. 1905E. Chandler Unveiling of Lhasa vi. 105 The muzzles and prongs of the Tibetan matchlocks.
2. a. Each pointed tine or division of a fork.
1697Lond. Gaz. No. 3287/4, 4 Forks with 3 Prongs. 1729Swift Let. to Gay 19 Mar., I dine with forks that have but two prongs. 1763Smollett Trav. (1766) I. v. 62 The poorest tradesman in Boulogne has..silver forks with four prongs. 1879G. Meredith Egoist xxx, You were lean as a fork with the wind whistling through the prongs.
b. Any slender stabbing or piercing instrument, or projecting part of a machine or apparatus.
1649G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. V ccii, The Stronger Squadron of the french fell in Vpon the goreing stakes;..'mongst these officious prongs Surpriz'd; their horse entangled, plunge their way Through many wounds, to Death. 1875[see prong-chuck in 4].
c. A projecting spur of any natural object (esp. of one with several such), as a tooth, a deer's horn, a rock, etc. In Southern U.S., ‘a branch or arm of a creek or inlet’ (Bartlett Dict. Amer. 1860).
1725in Amer. Speech (1940) XV. 300 To a Gum on the sound side of the north prong of the Spring Swamp. 1784G. Washington Diary 25 Sept. (1925) II. 311 Carpenters Creek, a branch of Jackson's..which is the principal prong of James River. 1802Med. Jrnl. VIII. 120 If Mr. Reece's descriptive state of the prongs or stumps [of teeth] was correct. 1834Penny Cycl. II. 71/1 The prong or antler [of the prongbuck]..is short and compressed, points forwards and a little outwards. 1834J. M. Peck Gazetteer Illinois iii. 217 It [sc. Crawford's Creek] enters the south prong of Bear creek. 1843A. White in Zoologist I. 29 The antennae are monstrously developed..emitting from each ‘prong’ a part of a distinct antennule. 1855Ecclesiologist XVI. 82 The castle stands upon a narrow prong of the hill. 1858N. York Tribune 9 Mar. 6/3 A..man who lives on a prong of Middle Creek [Kansas]. 1886C. Rossetti Songs for Strangers Poems (1904) 134/2 Fair its floating moon with her prongs. 1899Baring-Gould Bk. of West I. xii. 214 Strike for some prongs of rock that appear south-east.
3. ? A prawn.
a1820J. R. Drake Culprit Fay (1836) 19 Some are rapidly borne along On the mailed shrimp or the prickly prong.
4. Comb., as prong-like adj., prong-maker; prong-chuck (see quot.); prong-fork, a large fork for agricultural purposes; prong-hoe n., an agricultural implement with two curving prongs, used like a hoe; = hack n.1 1; hence prong-hoe v. trans., to break up or dig with a prong-hoe; prong-pin, a hairpin with two prongs; prong-staff (pl. -staves), the handle of a prong-fork.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Prong-chuck, a burnishing chuck with a steel prong.
1765Museum Rust. IV. lviii. 245 The use of the *prong-fork that I have done my land with.
1733Tull Horse-Hoeing Husb. x. 47 'Tis very profitable to Hoe that little with a Bidens, called here a *Prong-Hoe. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., The prong-hoe consists of two hooked points of six or seven inches long, and when struck into the ground will..answer both the ends of cutting up the weeds and opening the land. 1765Museum Rust. IV. lviii. 245 A prong-hoe, which is used in hop⁓grounds.
1892Board of Agric. Circular conc. Raspberry Moth, Soot, lime ashes..might be forked or *prong-hoed into the ground.
1848J. Bishop tr. Otto's Violin App. v. (1875) 85 The three *prong-like portions of the mute.
1733Tull Horse-Hoeing Husb. xxiii. 376 Made perfectly round, and of equal Diameter from one End to the other, by the *Prong-Maker.
1902Daily Chron. 19 July 8/3 Tortoise⁓shell..is..in great request for the *prong pins that girls stick in the thick coil of hair behind their ears.
a1722Lisle Husb. II. 256 Another part of the ash may serve for *prong-staves, rake-staves, and rath-pins for waggons.
Add:[2.] d. The penis. coarse slang.
1969P. Roth Portnoy's Complaint 133 What I am standing there making with her hand on my prong is in all probability my future! 1974G. F. Newman Price v. 170 Feeling via his prong stimulated his central nervous system, precipitating orgasm. 1984M. Amis Money 22 This old prong has been sutured and stitched together in a state-of-the-art cosmetics lab.
▪ III. prong, v.
[f. prec. n.]
1. trans. To pierce or stab with a prong; to turn up the soil with a ‘prong’ or fork; to fork.
1840Cottager's Man. 45 in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb. III, Improved by deep pronging or mattocking between the rows. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair li, Silver forks with which they prong all those who have not the right of the entrée. 1852R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour (1893) 174 ‘No, sir, no’, he continued, pronging another onion.
2. To furnish with prongs, or prong-like points.
1874T. Hardy Far from Madding Crowd xi, The indistinct summit of the facade was notched and pronged by chimneys. |