| 释义 |
▪ I. meuse, muse, n. Now dial.|mjuːs, mjuːz|
Forms: 6– muce, muse, 8 mewse, 8–9 mews, 7– meuse; also 6 mows, meuze, 7 muise, 8 muish, 9 muese, meesh.
[a. OF. muce, musse, mouce, mod. dial. muche hiding-place, hole in a hedge, f. musser, muchier to hide (whence mitch v.). Cf. the synonymous muset.]
1. An opening or gap in a fence or hedge through which game, esp. hares, habitually pass, and through which they run, when hunted, for ‘relief’.
1523Skelton Garl. Laurel 1384 He wrate of a muse [ed. 1568 mows] throw a mud wall; How a do cam trippyng in at the rere warde. 1575Turberv. Venerie 164 She..will all the daye long holde the same wayes..and passe through the same muses untill hir death or escape. 1578Lyte Dodoens v. xlviii. 612 This herbe is founde in this Countrie in the Meuze of Corne feeldes. 1599Harsnet Agst. Darell 140 But the Fox was neare driuen when he took this muce and hee ferreted out of it by verie pregnant depositions. 1623Scot Highw. God 55 A Hare started before Greyhounds will haue her accustomed way and muse, or die for it. 1754Cowper Ep. to R. Lloyd 52 The virtuoso..The gilded butterfly pursues O'er hedge and ditch, through gaps and mews. 1756Gentl. Mag. XXVI. 180 The most effectual method of destroying hares is by laying snares..in the muishes of hedges, dykes, and other fences. 1805R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 1206 A sort of small trap door, to which they are led by a narrow track or meuse. The rabbits, being thus taken [etc.]. 1821Blackw. Mag. VIII. 531 It is doubted whether the stoutest March hare will have sufficient vivacity to carry him to his muese. 1884Upton-on-Severn Gloss. s.v. Muse, Them Welshmen [Welsh sheep]'d go through a rabbit run or a har' muce. 1886Barnes Dorset Gloss., Meesh, the run or lair of a hare. 1895Athenæum 2 Mar. 285/3 In a stone-wall country you will not find a hare close to the lee side..because of the concentrated wind which whistles through every ‘meuse’.
b. transf. and fig. A loophole or means of escape; a device for, or way of, getting out of a difficulty.
a1529Skelton Replyc. 212 How..ye had..deuyllysshely deuysed The people to seduce, And chace them thorowe the muse Of your noughty counsell. 1606Warner Alb. Eng. xvi. cii. (1612) 404 When desprate Ruffins fraught with faults finde readily a Meuse. 1647N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. i. lix. (1739) 115 In this Tragedy the Pope observing how the English Bishops had forsaken their Archbishops, espied a muse through which all the game of the Popedom might soon escape. 1655Sir R. Fanshawe tr. Camoens' Lusiad iii. lxxix, Stopt is each Meuse, and guarded in each part. 1858R. S. Surtees Ask Mamma xxix. 116 The Major, after trying every meuse, and every twist, and every turn..was at length obliged to whip off.
2. The ‘form’ of a hare.
[1597: see meaze.] 1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. vi. vii. (1623) 69 Like to fearfull Hares..who no sooner shall heare the cry of their pursuit, but their Muise or Fortresse will be left. 1890Gloucestersh. Gloss., Mews, a hare's form.
Hence meuse v. intr., to go through a ‘meuse’; meusing (meshing) vbl. n. (also attrib.).
1666Voy. Emp. China in Misc. Cur. (1708) III. 196 They Locked themselves together so closely, that they left no meshing Place for them to make their Escape by. 1681Relig. Clerici 55 Their [the Romanists'] boldest champions, to avoid the danger of a close pursuit, muce nimbly, and sculk in the subterfuges of this thorny wilderness. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Musing..among Hunters, the passing of a Hare thro' a Hedge. 1827Sporting Mag. XX. 201 note, In counties so close as Yorkshire, hounds must occasionally meuse, when smaller hounds have advantage.
▪ II. meuse, meute
obs. forms of mews, mute n. |