| 释义 |
▪ I. meadow, n.|ˈmɛdəʊ|
Forms: 1 sing. (oblique cases) mǽdwe, médwa, pl. mǽdwa, 3 meduwe, 3–4 midu, 3–5 medwe, 3–6 medewe, 4–5 medou, medoe, medew, 4–6 medo, 4–7 medow(e, 5 medue, meedewe, mydew(e, 5–6 middow, 6 medoy, me(a)ddowe, myddoe, 6–7 middow, meadowe, 7 Sc. meadou, 6– meadow.
[repr. OE. mǽdwe oblique case of mǽd str. fem. (see mead2):—OTeut. type *mæ̂dwâ:—pre-Teut. *mētwā́, f. root *mē- (whence mow v.).
The precise formal equivalent does not occur in any other Teut. lang., but cognate words of similar meaning are OFris. mêde, ODu. mada (Franck), MDu., MLG. made, early mod.Du. matte (now mat), MHG. mate, matte (mod.G. matte). See also math n.1]
1. a. Originally a piece of land permanently covered with grass which is mown for use as hay. In later use often extended to include any piece of grass land, whether used for cropping or pasture; and in some districts applied esp. to a tract of low well-watered ground, usually near a river.
969Lease in Birch Cartul. Sax. III. 532 An medwa beneoðan þæm hliþe. c1205Lay. 1942 Cornes heo seowen medewen heo meowen. Ibid. 4817 Meduwen and mores & þa hæ ȝe muntes. c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 214/491 A fair Medwe he saiȝ with swete floures. a1300Cursor M. 4573 In þat medu sa lang þai war Þat etten þai had it erthe bare. 13..E.E. Allit. P. B. 1761 Þe myst dryues Þorȝ þe lyst of þe lyfte, bi þe loȝ medoes. 1390Gower Conf. II. 327 Nature..Wole..With herbes and with floures bothe The feldes and the medwes clothe. c1400Song Roland 306 Amonge medos, and moris, & evyll bankis. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xxxiii. 148 All þe tymes of þe ȝere er..þaire mydews grene. c1430Syr Gener. (Roxb.) 5653 Comen was the king of kinges And armed in the middow rode. 1463Bury Wills (Camden) 34 The medwe at Babwelle. 1488Act 4 Hen. VII, c. 15 §2 Divers pastures and medues. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 74 The dayes of this worlde be but transitory, as the floure of y⊇ medowe. 1551Turner Herbal i. B viij, Althea..groweth naturally in watery & marrish myddoes. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 220 Beyng brought foorthe into a meddowe and stripped naked, they were slayne eche one. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 907 Ladie-smockes all siluer white, Do paint the Meadowes with delight. 1589in Exch. Rolls Scotl. XXII. 26 The landis of the Kingis medo besyde Edinburgh. 1611Mure Misc. Poems i. 53 A blooming meadou. 1634W. Tirwhyt tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. I.) 77, I march into a Meddow. 1717Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Abbé Conti 29 May, The rest of our journey was through fine painted meadows. 1846J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 370 The proper grasses which constitute the produce of the richest permanent pastures and meadows.
transf. and fig.1588Shakes. Tit. A. iii. i. 125 Looking all downewards to behold our cheekes How they are stain'd in meadowes, yet not dry With miery slime left on them by a flood. 1777[see meander v. 1 b].
b. Land used for meadows; ‘meadow land’.
c1122O.E. Chron. an. 777 (MS. E), Mid læswe & mid mædwe. c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 75 Alle mad he wasteyn, pastur, medow, & korn. 1532Test. Ebor. (Surtees) VI. 31, 16 acres of meadow in Kellome. 1636Rec. Dedham, Mass. (1892) III. 21 He shall haue for a Fearme..soe much medowe & vpland as shalbe sufficient. 1799J. Robertson Agric. Perth 204 It is perhaps more proper to name all land, from which hay is taken, meadow. 1846McCulloch Acc. Brit. Empire (1854) I. 181 Above 500,000 [sc. acres] are arable, meadow, and pasture.
2. N. Amer.
a. A low level tract of uncultivated grass land, esp. along a river or in marshy regions near the sea.
1670D. Denton Descr. New York (1845) 14 After-skull River puts into the main Land on the West-side,..There is very great Marshes or Medows on both sides of it, excellent good land. 1778T. Hutchins Descr. Virginia, etc. 14 On the North-west and South-east sides of the Ohio..are extensive natural meadows, or Savannahs. 1779D. Livermore Jrnl. in Coll. N. Hampshire Hist. Soc. (1850) VI. 316 The intervale or meadow extends four miles from the banks of the river. 1881E. H. Elwell in Coll. Maine Hist. Soc. (1887) IX. 214 It was the fertility of these meadows which attracted the adventurers of a century ago.
b. beaver meadow: the rich, fertile tract of land left dry above a demolished beaver dam.
1784M. Cutler in Life, etc. (1888) I. 100 A swamp, or beaver meadow, in which Ellis river takes its rise. 1836Backwoods of Canada 144 All these are found on the plains and beaver-meadows. Ibid. 239. 1863 E. H. Walshe Cedar Creek xii. 92 Why is that green flat called a beaver meadow?.. Well, they say that long ago beavers dammed up the current in such places as this [etc.].
3. a. ‘An ice-field or floe on which seals herd’. b. ‘A feeding ground of fish’ (Cent. Dict. 1890).
1877Rep. U.S. Fish. Commiss. (1879) 541 The ‘fishing grounds’, ‘cod-meadows’, have an extent of about 200 geographical miles in length, and 67 miles in breadth.
4. attrib. and Comb.
a. Obvious combinations, as meadow-base, meadow-croft, meadow-down, meadow-farmer, meadow-field, meadow-flower, meadow-gale, meadow-hay, meadow-leet, meadow-lot, meadow-man, meadow-road, meadow-side, meadow-swell, meadow-verse, meadow-watering.
1832Tennyson Pal. Art ii, A huge crag-platform,..whose rangèd ramparts bright From great broad *meadow-bases of deep grass Suddenly scaled the light.
1812W. Tennant Anster F. ii. lxvii, Anon uprises..On the green loan and *meadow-crofts around, A town of tents.
1877G. M. Hopkins Poems (1967) 71 *Meadow-down is not distressed For a rainbow footing it.
1742W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman II. iii. 109 There are two Sorts of Farmers, who carry on this Business..viz. the Grass, or *Meadow-farmer, and the Plough-farmer. 1884R. Jefferies Life of Fields 139 The meadow-farmers, dairymen, have not grubbed many hedges.
1822J. Wilson Lights & Shad. Scot. Life 37 Dancing all day like a butterfly in a *meadow-field.
1492Ryman Poems lxxxiv. 2 in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr. LXXXIX. 253 As *medowe floures of swete odoures.
1798Coleridge Anc. Mar. vi. xii, It fann'd my cheek, Like a *meadow-gale of spring.
1733Tull Horse-Hoeing Husb. xiv. 180 If *Meadow-Hay cannot have good Weather to be cut [etc.]. 1856Farmer's Mag. Jan. 36 As much phosphate of lime..as though he consumed meadow-hay.
1877Blackmore Erema II. xl. 288 The *meadow-leet..was dry as usual.
1637Boston Rec. (1877) II. 21 It is agreed that Mr. Atherton Haulgh shall have..the rest of Bretheren's *meadow Lotte there.
1880World 29 Sept. 15 The farmers and *meadow-men seem to entertain no objection to people wandering..amongst the mowing-grass.
1879Geo. Eliot Coll. Breakf. P. 825 Watched with half closed eyes The *meadow-road.
1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. xcviii. 119 They lay alonge by a fayre *medowe syde, and made a great dyke about their host.
1835Browning Paracelsus v. 137 The gulf rolls like a *meadow-swell, o'erstrewn With ravaged boughs.
1648Herrick Hesper., Parting Verse Poems (1869) 149 Herrick shall make the *meddow-verse for you.
1813Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. i. (1814) 24 *Meadow-watering..acts not only by supplying useful moisture to the grass, but [etc.].
b. Prefixed to the names of animals regarded as denizens of meadow land; as meadow ant, the small British ant, Lasias flavus; meadow bird = bobolink (Bartlett Dict. Amer. 1859); meadow brown (butterfly), a common British butterfly, Maniola jurtina; meadow chicken (see quot.); meadow clapper, the salt-water marsh-hen (Cent. Dict. 1890); meadow crake, drake = corn-crake; meadow crane-fly = daddy-long-legs; meadow fly, an American fire-fly; meadow gallinule = corn-crake; meadow-hen (see quot. for meadow-chicken); meadow-lark, (a) = titlark; (b) U.S. the grackle, Sturnella magna or ludoviciana; meadow mouse, any field vole (Arvicola); meadow mussel, a mussel found in American salt meadows, Modiola plicatula (Cent. Dict.); meadow pipit = titlark; † meadow rat, the field vole, Arvicola agrestis; meadow snipe, (a) = grass bird (see grass 13); (b) U.S. the common American snipe, Gallinago Wilsoni; meadow titling = titlark; meadow vole = meadow mouse; meadow worm, the common earthworm, Lumbricus terrestris or Agricola.
1879Lubbock Sci. Lect. iv. 136 The yellow *meadow-ant keeps the underground kinds [of Aphides].
1720E. Albin Nat. Hist. Insects 53 On the 11th of June came the *Meadow Brown Butterfly. 1819G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 396 Meadow brown butterfly, Hipparchia Janira. 1930Times Educ. Suppl. 4 Oct. p. iv/4 The meadow-brown's heavy, indolent flight. 1974Lady 1 Aug. 169/1 Butterflies abound..from the innumerable brown ringlets, ‘gate-keepers’, speckled woods and meadow browns, to various beauties like the common blues.
1893Newton Dict. Birds 539 *Meadow-chicken and Meadow-hen, names given in North America to more than one species of Rail or Coot.
1833Selby Illustr. Brit. Ornith. II. 177 The *Meadow Crake..affecting rich meadows [etc.]. 1847Tennyson Princess iv. 105 Marsh-divers, rather, maid, Shall croak thee sister, or the meadow-crake Grate her harsh kindred in the grass.
1802Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) III. 310 The *Meadow Crane-fly, or Long-legs.
1867Emerson Lett. & Soc. Aims vii. (1875) 180 Fresh and delicate as the bonfires of the *meadow-flies.
1843Yarrell Brit. Birds I. p. xxiii, *Meadow Gallinule.
a1841W. P. Hawes Sporting Scenes (1842) I. 18 The principal inhabitants are gulls, and *meadow-hens. 1863‘G. Hamilton’ Gala-Days 97 You know you didn't scare a little meadow-hen.
1611Cotgr., Alouette de pré, the chit, or small *meddow-larke. 1775B. Romans Conc. Nat. Hist. E. & W. Florida 114 Meadow larks, fieldfares, rice birds, &c. are very frequently had. 1863Longfellow Wayside Inn i. Birds Killingw. 142 Is this more pleasant to you than the whirr Of meadow-lark and her sweet roundelay? 1893Newton Dict. Birds 512 The Meadow-Lark of America..is an Icterus. 1948H. Jacobs We chose Country 161 Birds were everywhere, first killdeers, making a din in the fields at dusk, then meadowlarks, caroling in the morning sun. 1963G. H. Thomson Crocus Country xx. 131 The bird we loved most..was the meadow lark. 1969N. W. Parsons Upon Sagebrush Harp viii. 42 There were many birds, but the meadowlark moved me most.
1801Shaw Zool. II. i. 81 *Meadow Mouse. 187.Cassell's Nat. Hist. III. 117 The most abundant North American species is the Meadow-mouse (Arvicola riparius). 1893Leaflets Board of Agric. (1894) 35 Arvicola agrestis. Locally known as..Meadow Mouse.
1825Selby Illustr. Brit. Ornith. I. 216 *Meadow Pipit or Tit.
1781Pennant Hist. Quadrup. II. 460 *Meadow [Rat]. Mus agrestis.
1828Fleming Hist. Brit. Anim. 75 A[nthus] pratensis. *Meadow Titling.
1863C. St. John Nat. Hist. Moray Index, Arvicola riparia. *Meadow vole.
1787Best Angling (ed. 2) 16 Marsh, or *Meadow-worm.
c. Prefixed to names of plants, to denote varieties or species growing in meadows: often in book-names as a rendering of the Latin specific name pratensis, -ense, as in meadow barley, meadow clover, meadow crane's bill, meadow dock, meadow pea, meadow sage, meadow trefoil, meadow vetchling; also in meadow beauty (see quot.); meadow-bell, the harebell; meadow campion, the Ragged Robin, Lychnis Flos-cuculi (Britten & Holland 1886); meadow cress (see cress 1 b); meadow crocus = meadow saffron (Britten & Holland); meadow fern, a North American shrub, Myrica Comptonia (Cent. Dict. 1890); meadow fescue (see fescue 4); meadow gowan = marsh mallow (Britten & Holland); meadow grass, any one of the grasses of the genus Poa, esp. P. pratensis; meadow lily, a common lily of the eastern U.S., Lilium canadense; also, formerly used for lily-of-the-valley, Convallaria majalis; meadow mushroom, Agaricus campestris; meadow orchis, Orchis Morio; meadow parsnip (see parsnip 2); meadow pine, Pinus cubensis (of the southern U.S.); meadow pink, (a) = ragged robin; (b) = maiden pink (see maiden 10 b); meadow('s) queen = meadow-sweet (cf. queen of the meadow(s, queen n. 6 b); meadow rhubarb, rue, Thalictrum flavum (Britten & Holland); also alpine meadow rue = feathered columbine (see columbine n.2 3); meadow saffron, Colchicum autumnale; meadow (pepper) saxifrage (see saxifrage).
1866Treas. Bot. 727/1 *Meadow Beauty, an American name for Rhexia. Ibid. 972/2 Commonly called Deer-grass, or Meadow-beauty.
1827G. Darley Sylvia 136 Like soft winds jangling *meadow-bells.
c1275Luue Ron 16 in O.E. Misc. 93 Vnder molde hi liggeþ colde and faleweþ so doþ *medewe gres. 13..Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. xxxvii. 537 Þe eorþe ȝeldeþ not fruit as hit wont was, Of corn of þe feld ne of þe medewe-gras. 1597Gerarde Herbal i. i. 1 Common Medow grasse hath very small tufts of rootes. 1840J. Buel Farmer's Comp. 232 The red meadow-grass (Poa aquatica).
1832W. D. Williamson Hist. State Maine I. 125 [We have] two varieties of *meadow-lilies,..May-lily, or ‘lily of the valley’; and nodding-lily. 1894Jrnl. Amer. Folk-Lore VII. 102 Lilium Canadense,..meadow lily, nodding lily. 1946E. Hodgins Mr. Blandings builds his Dream House (1947) viii. 104 When the bluebells and the columbine faded, the meadow lilies and the wild geranium took up the torch... August was well along.
1884Leisure Hour Nov. 703/2 The popular name of the common edible agaric is everywhere ‘the *meadow mushroom’.
1866Treas. Bot., *Meadow-orchis. 1882Garden 4 Feb. 81/1 The common Meadow Orchis..is not to be found wild everywhere.
1896G. Henslow How to Study Wild Flowers 98 Lathyrus pratensis, *Meadow Pea. This genus resembles vetches, but has fewer leaflets. 1960Oxf. Bk. Wild Flowers 22/2 Meadow Vetchling or Meadow Pea (Lathyrus pratensis). Although this Pea has thin, rather weak stems, it may reach up to 3 feet in height by scrambling over other plants.
1884Sargent Rep. Forests N. Amer. (10th Census IX.) 202 Pinus Cubensis..Slash Pine... *Meadow Pine.
1785Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xix. (1794) 276 *Meadow Pink. Lychnis flos cuculi.
1625B. Jonson Pan's Annivers., Star'd with yellow-golds, and *Meadowes Queene.
1668Wilkins Real Char. ii. iv. §4. 83 *Meadow Rue. 1863Baring-Gould Iceland 190 The tremulous dancing flowers of the Alpine meadow rue. 1884Gardening Illustr. 8 Nov. 425/2 Allied to Columbines are the Meadow Rues.
1578Lyte Dodoens iii. xxxv. 367 *Medowe Saffron..is found..about Bath in Englande. 1878tr. H. von Ziemssen's Cycl. Med. XVII. 734 Some seed-capsules of the meadow-saffron.
1629J. Parkinson Parad. i. lxxix. 341 The Medica's are generally thought to feede cattell fat much more then the *Medow Trefoile, or Clauer grasse. 1686Plot Staffordsh. 356 Produces the Meddow-trefoile.
d. Special Comb.: meadow green (see quot.); meadow ground, (a) ground laid down in meadow; (b) prairie land; meadow land = meadow ground; meadow-ore, bog iron ore (cf. limonite); meadow thatch, coarse grass or rush used for thatching.
1794Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 28 *Meadow green—lively green, in which however the yellow predominates.
1523Fitzherb. Surv. 2 b, Lowe groundes *medowe groundes and marsshe groundes for hey. 1667Milton P.L. xi. 644 A Band..drives A herd of Beeves..From a fat Meddow ground. 1802Wordsw. Sonn. ‘Here, on our native soil’, Those boys who in yon meadow-ground In white-sleeved shirts are playing.
1653Early Rec. Lancaster, Mass. (1884) 29 Wee Covenant to lay out *Meddow Lands. 1844Disraeli Coningsby iv. iii, A broad meadow land.
1817Thomson Syst. Chem. (ed. 5) III. 478 *Meadow Ore.
1430–31Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 231 Empcio tignorum, straminis, et *Medewthak.
▪ II. meadow, v.|ˈmɛdəʊ|
[f. prec.]
trans. To devote (land) to the production of grass.
1768[W. Donaldson] Life Sir B. Sapskull II. xxiv. 191 By meadowing a great deal, and feeding a little, they impoverish the land. 1865Trollope Belton Est. iii, I didn't know you ever meadowed the park. 1885Law Times 28 Mar. 384/2 During this period they [grass lands] were neither meadowed, grazed, nor cropped. |