| 释义 |
▪ I. moon, n.1|muːn|
Forms: 1 móna, 2–7 mone, (4 mon, mowne), 4–7 moone; north. 4–6 moyn(e, 5–6 mwne, 8 mune, 8–9 muin, 6– moon.
[Com. Teut.: OE. móna wk. masc. = OFris. môna, OS. mâno masc. (MLG. mâne masc., MDu. mâne masc., fem., Du. maan fem.), OHG. mâno masc. (MHG. mâne, mône, môn masc., rarely fem.; also mânt, mônt, mônde, mod.G. mond masc.), ON. máne masc. (Sw. måne, Da. maane), Goth. mêna masc.:—OTeut. *mǣnon-.
According to Brugmann this form has arisen by substitution of suffix, from the t-stem *mǣnōþ- month, as OTeut. *nefon- nephew from Indogermanic *nepōt- (cf. L. nepōt-em). Cognate words for ‘moon’ and ‘month’ are found in all branches of the Indogermanic family; outside Teut. the following types occur: *mēnā (Gr. µήνη moon), *mēnon- (Lith. mė́nů moon), *mēne-s, -os- (Lith. mė́nesis, dial. mė́nas, month), and with reduced grade of stem-suffix *mēns- (Skr. mās, māsa, Zend månha, OSl. měsęcĭ, moon, month, Gr. µήν, Ion. µείς, L. mēnsis, Irish mī, month). The prevailing view that the root is *mē-, to measure (the moon having, it is supposed, been named from its function as a measurer of time) is plausible, but cannot be considered certainly true.]
1. a. The satellite of the earth; a secondary planet, whose light, derived from the sun, is reflected to the earth and serves to dispel the darkness of night.
The moon's constantly recurring changes and phases (see 1 c and new moon, full moon, half-moon, harvest moon, and cf. crescent, quarter) have caused it to be taken as a common type of changeableness or fickleness. They are popularly supposed to influence the health of body and mind, and to cause lunacy (cf. lunatic). The moon's appearance to the eye of being diversified with light and dark patches gave rise to the fanciful comparison of its disc to a man's face (see 1 f and man-in-the-moon). It has been worshipped as a deity by many races; in classical mythology it was identified with various goddesses (see 1 b). Its white or silvery light is taken as emblematical of coldness or chastity.
The moon's attraction is the chief cause of the tides. The period in which the moon completes her series of changes, or in which her orbital revolution brings her back to the same apparent position with regard to the sun, is called a month; in astronomical use this term is applied in a wider sense (see month n.1 2 a).
c888K. ælfred Boeth. xxi, Sio sunne bringð leohte daᵹas, & se mona liht on niht. c1205Lay. 17861 Þa a þan auen time Þe mone gon to scine. c1250Gen. & Ex. 145 Ðe mones liȝt is moneð met. a1300Cursor M. 17288 + 59 He wald for vus marterd bee, þat time when þe moyn wor ful. c1384Chaucer H. Fame iii. 1026 To wexe and wane..As dooth the faire whyte mone. c1460Towneley Myst. xiv. 177 It gyfys more light..Then any son..Or mone, when he of son has ton his light. 1486Bk. St. Albans c vj, Take hony at the chaungyng of the moon. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 20 Looke that the winde be Westerly, and the moon in the wane. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. iv. iii. 30 The siluer Moone. 1649Fuller Just Man's Funeral 13 The moon would have shined without any spots. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) I. 253 The waters of the sea, running from all parts, to attend the motions of the moon, produce the flowing of the tide. 1850Tennyson In Mem. xxviii, The moon is hid; the night is still. 1873Dawson Earth & Man i. 9 The moon seems to be a body which has had time to complete the whole history of geological change, and to become a dry, dead, and withered world.
b. Since the disappearance of the grammatical genders of OE., in which móna was masc., the feminine pronoun has commonly been used in referring to the moon, even when no personification is intended (the neuter pronoun occurs, but less frequently); in poetry the moon is often personified, always as a female, and sometimes, after classical example, identified with various goddesses, as Cynthia, Diana, Phœbe.
c1290St. Michael 451 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 312 Ase man may bi þe Mone i-seo þe ȝwyle heo is neowe riȝt. 13..E.E. Allit. P. A. 1069 The mone may þer-of acroche no myȝte, To spotty ho is, of body to grym. 1382Wyclif Isa. xiii. 10 The moone shal not shyne in his [1388 hir] lyȝt. ― Matt. xxiv. 29 The sunne schal be maad derk, and the mone schal not ȝyue hir liȝt. 1390Gower Conf. III. 108 Benethe alle othre stant the Mone..: Of flodes hihe and ebbes lowe Upon his change it schal be knowe. 1591Spenser Virg. Gnat 508 And eke the Moone her hastie steedes did stay. 1784Cowper Tiroc. 38 And, when descending he [sc. the sun] resigns the skies, Why takes the gentler moon her turn to rise? 1842Tennyson Love & Duty 22 The Sun will run his orbit, and the Moon Her circle.
c. With reference to the moon's changes or phases, its influences, etc.
c1374Chaucer Compl. Mars 235 He that hath with love to done Hath ofter wo then changed is the mone. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. x. 108 Lunatik lollers and leperes a-boute, And mad as þe mone sitt more oþer lasse. 1509Hawes Past. Pleas. xviii. (Percy Soc.) 83 The minde of men chaungeth as the mone. 1603Shakes. Meas. for M. iii. i. 25 Thou art not certaine, For thy complexion shifts to strange effects, After the Moone. a1668Davenant Law agst. Lovers iii. i, That were a sudden change, and would shew More of the Moon in him, than is in a mad-woman. 1784Cowper Task ii. 599 Our habits..change with ev'ry moon. 1803Med. Jrnl. IX. 138 This periodical increase and decrease of the fever he was inclined to ascribe to the changes of the moon.
d. mean moon (Astr.): an imaginary moon supposed for purposes of calculation to move uniformly in the ecliptic, completing its circuit in the same time as the actual moon. calendar, ecclesiastical moon: an imaginary moon used in determining the date of Easter.
1712Rule for Finding Easter p. vii, In the Year 1664, the Astronomical Moon, viz. the Moon in the Heavens; and the Ecclesiastical one, viz. that found by the Column of Golden Numbers, happening to differ from each other, this Rule became matter of great Dissention. 1877Encycl. Brit. VII. 615/1 This calendar moon is not the moon of the heavens, nor the mean moon of the astronomers. 1878Bk. Com. Prayer acc. to Use Ch. Irel., The Moon referred to in the definition of Easter-Day is not the actual Moon of the Heavens, but the Calendar Moon, or Moon of the Lunar Cycle, which is counted as full on its fourteenth day.
e. Proverb. to believe that the moon is made of († a) green cheese (or cream cheese): to believe an absurdity. Similarly, † to say that the moon is blue. See also cheese n.1 2 a.
1528Roy Rede Me (Arb.) 114 Yf they saye the mone is belewe, We must beleve that it is true. 1529Frith Antith. Wks. (1573) 105/1 They woulde make men beleue..that ye Moone is made of grene chese. 1611,1783[see cheese n.1 2]. 1752C. Lennox Fem. Quix. iv. i, You may as well persuade me the Moon is made of a Cream Cheese, as that [etc.]. 1768–74[see cream-cheese].
f. with allusion to the man-in-the-moon.
a1310in Wright Lyric P. xxxix. 110 This ilke mon upon heh when er he were, wher he were ythe mone boren ant y-fed. c1374Chaucer Troylus i. 1024 Þou hast a ful grete care Lest þat þe Cherl wole falle out of þe mone. c1449Pecock Repr. ii. iv. (Rolls) 155 A man which stale sumtyme a birthan of thornis was sett in to the moone, there forto abide for euere. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 214 Rosa. You tooke the Moone at full, but now shee's changed? Kin. Yet still she is the Moone, and I the Man. 1597Lyly (title) The Woman in the Moone.
†g. moon's man: a man who is under the moon's influence. (See also moon-man.) minion of the moon = moon-man 1. moon's minion (pseudo-arch.): a night-watchman.
1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, i. ii. 30 Let vs be Dianaes Forresters, Gentlemen of the Shade, Minions of the Moone. [Cf. i. ii. 15.] Ibid. 35 The fortune of vs that are the Moones men, dooth ebbe and flow like the Sea. 1609[Dekker] Ravens Alm. B, At the beginning of every Almanack, it is the fashion to haue the body of a man..bitten and shot at by wild beasts and monsters. And this fellow, they..call the man of the moon, or the moons man. 1623Camden Rem., Apparel (1636) 237 To what cause our mutability..may be referred, I know not, vnlesse that we..are Lunares or the Moones men. 1827Lytton Pelham xlix, In an instant two of the moon's minions, staffs, lanterns, and all, were measuring their length at the foot of their name⁓sake of royal memory.
h. fig. (esp. associated with the sun or the stars).
c1586Roydon Elegie Sir P. Sidney Spenser's Wks. (Globe) 569/2 Tis likely they acquainted soone; He was a Sun, and she a Moone. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. iv. iii. 230 My Loue (her Mistres) is a gracious Moone, Shee (an attending Starre) scarce seene a light. 1668R. Steele Husbandman's Calling v. (1672) 70 The moon of the world doth interpose and hide from him the sight and beams of the Sun of Righteousness. 1778Johnson 29 Apr. in Boswell, Modern writers are the moons of literature; they shine with reflected light, with light borrowed from the ancients.
2. The moon as visible during one (lunar) month is in popular language spoken of as a distinct object from that of another month; its ‘age’ being the number of days that have elapsed since new moon. Similarly, the n. is used with qualifying words for: The moon as shining or visible at some particular time or place, or as presenting some particular appearance. (See also new moon, full moon, harvest moon, etc.)
there is a moon, there is no moon = the moon is visible (not visible) at the time and in the place indicated or implied. the old moon in the new moon's arms (or lap): the appearance of the moon during the first quarter in which the dark portion of the orb is made faintly luminous by earth-light.
c1000Sax. Leechd. III. 182 On anre nihte ealdne monan. Ibid. 252 Se winterlica mona gæð norðor þonne seo sunne ga on sumera. 1154O.E. Chron. an. 1135 Als it uuare threniht ald mone an sterres abuten him at mid dæi. c1386Chaucer Prol. 403 But of his craft to rekene wel his tydes,.. His herberwe and his moone,..Ther nas noon swich. 1556Withals Dict. (1568) 1/2 The time betweene the olde Moone and the newe. 1602Shakes. Ham. iii. ii. 167 And thirtie dozen Moones with borrowed sheene, About the World haue times twelue thirties beene. 1661Evelyn Tyrannus (ed. 2) 13 When the State it self was as seldome above the Age of a Moon without a new face. 17..Sir Patrick Spens vi, I saw the new moon..Wi' the auld moone in her arme. 1802Coleridge Dejection 13 Lo! the New-moon winter-bright!.. I see the old Moon in her lap, fortelling The coming-on of rain and squally blast. 1820Keats Hyperion i. 83 One moon, with alteration slow, had shed Her silver seasons four upon the night. 1823F. Clissold Ascent Mt. Blanc 22 The sun being now near his setting, and there being no moon. 1837Penny Cycl. IX. 253/1 If the paschal moon fall on a Sunday, the next Sunday is Easter Sunday. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. xxv. 185 The night being without a moon, we carried three lanterns. 1884Harper's Mag. Nov. 906/2 The young moon hung in the west. 1894H. Nisbet Bush Girl's Rom. 17 The moon was divine as it bathed everything with its silver lustre, as only Australian moons can do.
3. a. With reference to the moon's position above the earth, or its conspicuousness in the sky; often quasi-personified, e.g. as the witness of terrestrial doings, the ‘queen of the night’, or the like.
Shakespeare has many passages containing such allusions.
c1220Bestiary 598 He sweren bi ðe rode, bi ðe sunne and bi ðe mone. 1484Caxton Fables of æsop iv. x. (1889) 115 God kepe..the mone fro the wulues. [Cf. Cotgr. s.v. Lune, Garder la lune des loups, and Rabelais i. xi.] 1553Respublica iii. iv. 759, I will couche youe all vp soone, where ye shalnot bee spied neither of Sonne nor Mone. 1597Morley Introd. Mus. 183 Making as little account of them as the moone doth of the barking of a dog. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. v. ii. 119 Pray you no more of this, 'tis like the howling of Irish Wolues against the Moone. 1667Milton P.L. i. 784 While over head the Moon Sits Arbitress. 1807Coleridge To Wordsw. 101 A tranquil sea, Outspread and bright, yet swelling to the moon.
b. Phrases. † under the moon, anunder moon: in this sublunary sphere, on earth; contrariwise † above, beyond the moon. † below the moon: sublunary, earthly. († to praise, boast) above or beyond the moon: extravagantly. † to cast, go beyond the moon: to go to extravagant lengths. to be (or jump) over the moon: to be very happy or delighted.
a1300Cursor M. 15610 Of his soru mai naman tell Þat liues vnder þe mone. 13..E.E. Allit. P. A. 1092 His lyf wer loste an-vnder mone. c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 192 Trewe seruyce of god is lettid & þis veyn knackynge..is preised abouen þe mone. c1425Cast. Persev. 2691 in Macro Plays 154 Mary! þi sone a-bouyn þe mone, as make Mankynde trewe & sad, In grace for to gon. a1518Skelton Magnyf. 226 All is without measure, and fer beyonde the mone. a1533Frith Another Bk. agst. Rastell (1829) 220 Rastell thinketh that I stand well in my own conceit, and boast myself above the moon. 1559, etc. [see cast v. 41]. 1586A. Day Eng. Secretary i. (1625) 80 You reckon too wide, you goe beyond the Moone. 1602Shakes. Ham. iv. vii. 146 All Simples that haue Vertue Vnder the Moone. 1613― Hen. VIII, iii. ii. 134 His Thinkings are below the Moone, not worth His serious considering. 1625Bacon Ess., Ceremonies (Arb.) 27 The Dwelling vpon them, and Exalting them aboue the Moone, is..Tedious. 1724Ramsay Vision xii, Far abuve the mune, We watching beings do convene. [c1765in Oxf. Dict. Nursery Rhymes (1951) 205 High diddle, diddle, The Cat and the Fiddle, The Cow jump'd over the Moon.] 1833S. Smith Life & Writings J. Downing 18, I could have jumped over the moon. 1840T. C. Haliburton Clockmaker 3rd Ser. viii. 109 Ready to jump over the moon for delight. 1936M. Kennedy Together & Apart iii. 189 She didn't know she had a brother and she's over the moon. 1944N. Coward Middle East Diary 116 The Captain..is..absolutely over the moon with pleasure at having this command. 1972J. Brown Chancer iv. 53 He goes back there. She's over the moon, of course, and off they go to parties.
c. Typifying a place impossible to reach or a thing impossible to get. Esp. in phr. to ask (cry, wish) for the moon: to ask or wish for the unattainable.
[1550N. Udall Answer to Commoners of Devonshire & Cornwall in N. Pocock Troubles connected with Prayer Bk. of 1549 (1884) 178 They will cry to have a piece of the moon.] 1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. i. 158 And dogged Yorke, that reaches at the Moone, Whose ouer-weening Arme I haue pluckt back. 1777Priestley Matt. & Spir. (1782) I. Pref. 7 My mind is no more in my body, than it is in the moon. 1813Wellington in Gurw. Desp. (1838) XI. 86 If I had been at any time capable of doing what these gentlemen expected, I should now I believe have been in the Moon. 1847Tennyson Princess iv. 408, I babbled for you, as babies for the moon. 1852Dickens Bleak Ho. vi, He was a mere child in the world, but he didn't cry for the moon. 1860Thackeray Lovel v. (1861) 196, I might as well wish for the moon as hope to get her. 1928E. O. Winstedt tr. Cicero's Lett. to Atticus II. x. 293 You are asking for the moon. 1930J. B. Priestley Angel Pavement vi. 307 That was not asking much, and yet..he could not help thinking it was really like asking for the moon. 1946V. S. Pritchett Living Novel 44 They are grown up. They do not cry for the moon. 1965Listener 16 Sept. 431/1 To turn on the telly every night for a week and expect to see what you yourself would choose to see is little short of asking for the moon. 1972Accountant 5 Oct. 410/1 To hope for equity or justice in any such scheme is to cry for the moon.
†d. In various phrases expressing ineffectual or useless action or attempt. Obs.
a1529Skelton Bouge of Court 383 Thou mayste not studye, or muse on the mone. 1590Sir J. Smyth Disc. Weapons 15 Their bullets doo worke as much effect against the Moone, as against the Enemie that they shoote at. 1655[see bark v.1 2]. 1705tr. Bosman's Guinea 433 To think of forcing any thing from them, is to dispute with the Moon.
e. to shoot († bolt, † shove) the moon (slang): to make a ‘moonlight flit’.
1823Grose's Dict. Vulgar T. (ed. Egan), Shoving the Moon, moving goods by moonlight to prevent their being seized by the landlord. Cant. a1825Universal Songster I. 70 She wish'd to gammon her landlord, and likewise bolt the moon. 1837P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 123 He having just ‘shot the moon’, I had to follow him to a cockloft in St. Giles's. 1892Zangwill Bow Mystery 10 It is well for the landlord to be about his own estate in Bow, where poachers often shoot the moon.
4. An appearance in the sky resembling a moon. (Cf. mock-moon.)
a1123O.E. Chron. an. 1106 (MS. E) On þa niht þe on morᵹen wæs Cena Domini..wæron ᵹesewen tweᵹen monan. 1500–20Dunbar Poems xxxv. 50 Full weill I wist to me wald nevir cum thrift, Quhill that twa monis were sene vp in the lift. 1595Shakes. John iv. ii. 182 They say fiue Moones were seene to night: Foure fixed, and the fift did whirle about The other foure, in wondrous motion. 1784Cowper Task v. 152 A wat'ry light..that seem'd Another moon new risen, or meteor fall'n From heav'n to earth.
5. A figure or representation of the moon, either crescent-shaped (cf. half-moon) or circular (like the full moon); a moon-shaped ornament or vessel.
Specific uses are: (a) a gas-globe (cf. moon-shade); (b) U.S. slang, a large circular biscuit.
1431Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905) 26 A hole vestement of blu veluet with sterres & mones of golde. 1520–1Fabric Rolls York Minster (Surtees) 305 Too corporax casis..the one wth a moone, & the other of cloth of tusshew blake of the owt side. 1594? Peele Alcazar i. i, Our Moores haue seen the siluer moons to wane, In banners brauely spreading ouer the plaine. 1642R. Carpenter Experience v. xix. 326 Your arguments are like your invincible Armado's which in their first appearance make a mighty Moone, but are burnt and confounded in the end. 1821[see Mahomet]. 1832Tennyson Pal. Art 188 And pure quintessences of precious oils In hollow'd moons of gems. 1883‘Mark Twain’ Life on Mississ. lii. 460, I spent my last 10 cts. for 2 moons (large round sea-biscuit) & cheese. 1883B'ham Daily Post 11 Oct., Tumblers and Gas Moons.
b. slang. The buttocks. (Used in sing. and pl.)
1756Life & Mem. E. T. Bates iii. 31 But his Moon shall never be covered by me or Buck..'till they put down the Ready—and no Brummagums. 1922Joyce Ulysses 82 Or their skirt behind, placket unhooked. Glimpses of the moon. 1938S. Beckett Murphy 220 Placing her hands upon her moons, plump and plain.
c. A moon-shaped mark or area; spec. a small area of greater translucency observable by transmitted light in some early porcelains such as Chelsea.
1855Poultry Chron. III. 57 Breast. The best spangled and clearest from tipping with white at the end of the moon. 1865Chambers's Encycl. VII. 535/2 An artificial fly..adorned with two moons from a peacock's tail. 1909Chambers's Jrnl. Sept. 586/2 Chelsea [porcelain]..may be distinguished by..greasy-looking discs known as ‘moons’ in the paste. 1935Amer. Speech X. 159/1 Moons, crescent-shaped nicks which agates [sc. marbles] receive from hard hits. The belief was that soaking an agate in vinegar would take out the moons. 1948W. B. Honey Old Eng. Porc. (new ed.) ii. 53 The exceptionally beautiful porcelain of the red-anchor period has a very soft paste of fine grain, often showing by transmitted light the round spots of higher translucency known to collectors as ‘moons’. 1959G. Savage Antique Collector's Handbk. 79 From 1750 to 1753 a body noted for its ‘moons’, or patches of greater translucency, was employed.
6. The disc, plate, or orifice representing the moon in a clock which exhibits the moon's phases.
1546–7Burgh Rec. Stirling (1887) 45 Ane orlege and mone with all necessaris tharof, kepand just cours fra xij houris to xij houris. 1628Burgh Rec. Glasgow (1876) I. 366 For..vpputting of the horolog brodis, mones, bunkis and roweris. 17..Ferguson in J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic (1825) 493 The plate that carries the moon, that is a round hole m, through which the phase or appearance of the moon is seen on the sun's plate.
7. The satellite of a planet.
1665Phil. Trans. I. 72 If these two Planets have Moons wheeling about them. 1667Milton P.L. viii. 149 And other Suns..With thir attendant Moons. 1784Cowper Tiroc. 634 The moons of Jove. 1838J. P. Nichol Solar Syst. 139 Jupiter has four moons, each larger than ours.
8. a. poet. = moonlight.
1390Gower Conf. I. 327 Piramus cam after sone Unto the welle, and be the Mone He fond hire wimpel blodi there. 1667Milton P.L. i. 440 To whose bright Image nightly by the Moon Sidonian Virgins paid their Vows. 1833Tennyson Lady of Shalott i. 33 And by the moon the reaper weary, Piling sheaves in uplands airy. 1896A. E. Housman Shropshire Lad xxxvi, White in the moon the long road lies.
b. U.S. colloq. = moonshine 4; spec. whisky.
1928Collier's 29 Dec. 8/2 Wherever you go in Colorado a bootlegger..says to you ‘Mister, this is good stuff. It's Leadville ‘moon’.’ Ibid. 8/3 The art of producing sugar ‘moon’ and aging it in charred casks. 1950Sat. Even. Post 27 May 20/1, I would buy a couple of pints of moon.
†9. With ordinal numeral, denoting a particular day after a new moon. Obs.
Cf. L. luna tertia, quarta, etc.
c1000Sax. Leechd. III. 184 Mona se forma on eallum þingum dondum nytlic ys..& blod lætan oððe wanian ealne dæᵹ mona god ys. Ibid., Mona se oðer..Mona se ðridda. 1709Rule for finding Easter 8 By fixing Easter-Day upon the Lord's-Day following the 14th Moon.
10. a. The period from one new moon to the next; a lunation, lunar month; gen. a month. † twelve moons = twelvemonth. Until recently, common in the ―th (day) of the moon; now chiefly poet. and in renderings of the speech of primitive or uncivilized peoples.
c1375Cursor M. 9152 (Fairf.) Helias þat prophete..þat stint þe rayne þorou his praier, hit lasted vj. mones [Cott. monet, Gött. monethes] & iij. ȝere. a1400Med. Receipts in Rel. Ant. I. 52 The .ix. day in that ilk mone. c1400Destr. Troy 1064 At Mid Aprille, the mone when myrthes begyn. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §20 Terre..neuer dothe appere, tyll the moneth of Iune, and specyallye whanne there is great wete in that mone. 1608Shakes. Per. ii. v. 10 One twelue Moones more shee'le weare Dianas liuerie. 1618J. Dyke Caveat Archippus (1619) 20 Who may not soone be sufficient to reade..the Church-seruice, and once in a Moone to bestow a mornings blessing vpon his people? 1653H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. ii. (1663) 33 The last assault, that was given on the thirteenth day of the Moon. 1716Gay Trivia ii. 360 When hoary Thames..Was three long moons in icy fetters bound. 1756Washington Lett. Writ. 1889 I. 393 They proposed..to stay only one moon, and then to start for their nation. 1822Lamb Elia Ser. i. Roast Pig, A young and tender suckling—under a moon old. 1876Encycl. Brit. IV. 675/1 The 14th of the paschal moon. 1877W. Matthews Ethnogr. Hidatsa 60 A land where the summer was but three moons long. 1901Henley Hawthorn & Lavender 40 This is the moon of roses, The lovely and flowerful time.
b. slang. A month's imprisonment. Freq. with pl. as moon.
1830Moncrieff Hrt. London ii. i. (Farmer), They've lumbered him for a few moons, that's all. 1894A. Morrison Mean Streets 259 So Scuddy's life went on, with occasional misfortunes in the way of a moon, or another drag. 1928E. Wallace Gunner vi. 50 Gunner's got three moon for bein' a suspected. 1936J. Curtis Gilt Kid iv. 39, I was doing nine moon for screwing. 1953K. Tennant Joyful Condemned xviii. 167, I got a twelve moon.
c. = honeymoon.
[1709Mrs. Manley Secret Mem. (1736) I. 28 Tho' it survives not the Hymenæan moon.] 1859G. Meredith R. Feverel xxxii, Where may these lunatics have gone to spend the Moon?
11. The time during which the moon is visible. Obs. or poet.
1375Barbour Bruce iv. 617 And als soyn as the moyn wes past, Hym thoucht weill that he saw a fyre. 1832Tennyson Eleänore 124 The..odorous wind Breathes low between the sunset and the moon.
†12. the moon.
a. Alch. Silver.
b. Her. Argent.
1572J. Bossewell Armorie ii. 119 b, His fielde is Saturne, an hande dextre in fesse, of the moone. 1610B. Jonson Alch. ii. i, The great med'cine! Of which one part proiected on a hundred Of..Venus, or the Moone, Shall turne it to as many of the Sunne. 1651French Distill. vi. 197 It will resolve the bodies of the Sunne, and Moone.
†13. A fit of frenzy; = lune 2. Obs.
1607Tourneur Rev. Trag. ii. E 2, I know 'twas but some peeuish Moone in him. 1642Sir E. Dering Sp. on Relig. 94 A new Moon did take these men, I did begin to finde a different greeting.
14. = moon-eye 1. ? Obs.
1726W. Gibson Diet. Horses (ed. 2) 213 Other Infirmities..such as Moons and Defluxions in the Eyes.
15. attrib. and Comb.
a. Simple attrib. = ‘of or pertaining to the moon, existing in or made by the moon or moonlight’, as moon-base, moon-blasting, moon-cloud, moon-dawn, moon-dew, moon-dust, moon-folk, moon-gleam, moon-glimpse, moon-haze, moon-land, moon-lander, moon-landing, moon-landscape, moon-maid, moon-mist, moon-mountain, moon-path, moon-pull, moon-ray, moon-rising, moon-rock, moon-setting, moon-shadow, moon-sky, moon-stuff, moon-tide, moon-track, moon-wake;
b. objective, as moon-gazing adj.;
c. instrumental or locative = ‘by the moon or moonlight, in the moonlight, under the influence of the moon’, as moon-bathed, moon-blanched, moon-blasted, moon-bright, moon-brightened, moon-chained, moon-charmed, moon-chequered, moon-crazed, moon-dappled, moon-dazzled, moon-drawn, moon-drenched, moon-flecked, moon-flooded, moon-freezing, moon-gathered, moon-glittering, moon-haunted, moon-horned, moon-led, moon-locked, moon-loved, moon-mad, moon-made, moon-mellowed, moon-misted, moon-parched, moon-raised, moon-rich, moon-shadowed, moon-soaked, moon-tanned, moon-taught, moon-trodden, moon-warmed, moon washed, moon-whitened adjs.; also (sense 5) moon-crowned adj.;
d. similative, as moon-arched, moon browed, moon-faced ppl. adjs.; also = ‘moon-shaped’, as moon-head;
e. moon-blue, moon-cold, moon-coloured, moon-cool, moon-grey, moon-pale, moon-white, moon-yellow adjs.
1776Mickle tr. Camoens' Lusiad ii. 77 Stern warriors with the quivering lance, Or *moon-arch'd bow.
1961Economist 18 Nov. 676/2 Commercial services..between New York and *Moonbase Alpha in one day. 1969Guardian 15 July 6/6 One of the things we shall be doing in those early lunar flights is to find a good place for a moon base.
1909Daily Chron. 4 Sept. 7/4 He was looking up at the *moon-bathed cliff with a rapt intense look. 1939Spender & Gili tr. Lorca's Poems 51 To the sound of cold tambourines And moon-bathed cithars.
1852M. Arnold Summer Night 1 In the deserted *moon-blanched street.
1794Coleridge Relig. Musings 338 Ghastlier shapings than surround *Moon-blasted Madness when he yells at midnight.
1642Milton Apol. Smect. Wks. 1851 III. 314 Those thanks in the womans Churching for her delivery from Sunburning and *Moonblasting.
1918D. H. Lawrence New Poems 33 A *moon-blue moth goes flittering by. 1922Joyce Ulysses 438 Her moonblue satin slipper.
1806Moore Epist. i. iv, How we should feel, and gaze with bliss Upon the *moon-bright scenery here!
1911*Moon brightened [see image crowded adj. (image n. 8)].
1855Bailey Mystic, etc. 90 *Moon-browed maids.
1946Dylan Thomas Deaths & Entrances 63 The *moon-chained and water-wound Metropolis of fishes.
1855M. Arnold Southern Night xxx, Down to the brimm'd *moon-charmed Main.
1910W. de la Mare Three Mulla-Mulgars vii. 95 The deep shadows of the *moon-chequered forest.
1813Hogg Queen's Wake ii. Wks. (1876) 19 His cap the *moon⁓clouds silver gray.
1933W. de la Mare Fleeting 119 The autumnal night Hung starry and radiant..O'er *moon-cold hills. 1944E. Sitwell Green Song 1 Till the fire of that sun The heart and the moon-cold bone are one.
1922W. de la Mare Down-adown-Derry 20 A beaming of *moon-coloured light. 1930R. Lehmann Note in Music 98 The grass..foamed with the moon-coloured profusion of the flower which she called milkwort or Star-of-Bethlehem.
1969G. Macbeth War Quartet 29 Staled Of heat, now *moon-cool.
1921W. B. Yeats Four Plays for Dancers 72 The *moon-crazed heron Would be but fishes' diet soon.
1776Mickle tr. Camoens' Lusiad iv. 168 And *moon-crown'd mosques lay smoaking in the dust.
1910W. de la Mare Three Mulla-Mulgars xix. 252 The *moon-dappled forest through which they had so heavily ascended.
1895F. M. Crawford Casa Braccio xiii, The *moon-dawn sending up its soft radiance to the sky.
1940C. Day Lewis Poems in Wartime 10 All over the countryside *Moon-dazzled men are peering out for invaders.
1927Joyce Simples in Pomes Penyeach, A *moondew stars her hanging hair.
1844Emerson Essays 2nd Ser. viii. 243 In countless upward-striving waves The *moon-drawn tide-wave strives. 1922Joyce Ulysses 48 A tide westering, moondrawn, in her wake.
1929C. Mackenzie Gallipoli Memories xi. 189 The grillos shrilling far and wide across that *moon-drenched island.
1959Britannica Bk. of Year (U.S.) 753/1 *Moon dust, meteoric particles on the surface of the moon. 1969Guardian 30 July 1/7 The first experiments of exposing germ-free mice to moon dust.
1619Pasquil's Palm. (1877) 131 To comfort *Moone-fac'd Cuckolds, that were sad. 1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life 304 The necessity of borrowing the spectacles of a moon-faced friend. 1855Tennyson Maud i. i. xviii, Maud the beloved of my mother, the moon-faced darling of all.
1913W. de la Mare Peacock Pie 98 Those wallowing, *moon-flecked waves.
1945C. Mann in Murdoch & Drake-Brockman Austral. Short Stories (1951) 262 Nights{ddd}*moon-flooded, starlit.
1901H. G. Wells First Men in Moon xviii. 218 We have shown these *moon folk violence.
1819Shelley Prometh. Unb. i. 32 The spears Of their *moon-freezing crystals.
1834Lytton Pompeii iii. xi, These old hags, with..their *moon-gathered herbs.
1828Lights & Shades II. 274 This ominous ramble of the *moon-gazing ‘thrice illustrious’.
1870–4J. Thomson City Dreadf. Nt. xiv. i, With tinted *moongleams slanting here and there.
1821Shelley Hellas 633 In the faint *moon-glimpse He saw..the Turkish admiral.
1794Coleridge Relig. Musings 274 Where by night,..The lion couches..Or serpent plants his vast *moon⁓glittering bulk.
1927J. Joyce She weeps over Rahoon in Pomes Penyeach, His sad heart has lain Under the *moon⁓grey nettles. 1934L. B. Lyon White Hare 34 The moon⁓grey barn.
1930Blunden Summer's Fancy 42 Whispering their vows below *moon-haunted trees.
1891Kipling Light that Failed (1900) 103 A faint beating like that of a muffled drum came out of the *moon-haze.
1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. iii. vi, The rubicund *moonhead goes wagging; darker beams the copper visage.
1894O. Wilde Sphinx, And did you talk with Thoth, and did you hear the *moon-horned Io weep? 1960T. Hughes Lupercal 60 And has shorn Summarily the moon-horned river From my bed.
1922J. A. Dunn Man Trap xv. 207 Death cold the nights in this dead land that looks like *moonland.
1970Sci. Jrnl. May 7/1 Neil Armstrong climbing down those few fragile steps of his *moonlander's ladder to the craggy lunar surface.
1962Daily Tel. 5 July 26/6 A small *Moon-landing capsule. 1969Guardian 16 July 17/4 An American moon landing does not constitute an unchallenged lead over Russia.
1954Koestler Invisible Writing iii. 43 Certain scenes..have the rugged and hostile greatness of a *moon-landscape.
1832Tennyson Pal. Art 252 A still salt pool..that hears..The plunging seas draw backward from the land Their *moon-led waters white.
1943C. Day Lewis Word over All 42 The earth is buoyed in *Moon-locked oblivion.
1629Milton Hymn Nativ. xxvi, The yellow-skirted Fayes..leaving their *Moon-lov'd maze.
1869W. Barnes Early England & Saxon-English 103/2 *Moon⁓mad. 1920Blunden Waggoner 31 To hear the moon⁓mad gypsy rave.
1880W. Watson Prince's Quest Poems (1905) II. 178 As steals The *moon-made shadow at some traveller's heels.
1928Blunden Retreat 14 Or mist-veil brushed thee, fine as yet was wove For *moonmaid's clothing.
1795Coleridge To Nightingale 10 Within whose mild *moon-mellow'd foliage hid.
1910W. de la Mare Three Mulla-Mulgars i. 4 Mutta-matutta's father died from sleeping in the *moon⁓mist. 1913D. H. Lawrence Love Poems 13 The moon⁓mist is over the village.
1936L. B. Lyon Bright Feather Fading 17 Yet parishes *moon-misted, Yet Avon, Severn, Humber His name remember.
a1821Keats Sonnet: To Nile in Compl. Poetical Wks. (1907) 305 Son of the old *moon-mountains African!
1927F. B. Young Portrait of Clare 129 An orchard..in which *moon-pale apples lay where they had fallen.
1914C. Mackenzie Sinister Street II. iii. vii. 637 Most people..would obtain the finest thrill that Oxford could offer from the sudden sight of..the *moon-parched High Street in frost.
1897Kipling Capt. Cour. iv. 103 She sat down in the *moon⁓path on the water.
1922D. H. Lawrence Fantasia of Unconscious xv. 279 Her [woman's] deep positivity is in the downward flow, the *moon-pull.
1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xxix, Haud your tongue, ye *moon-raised b―!
1844Ld. Houghton Palm Leaves 202 A picture by *moon-rays designed.
1925C. Day Lewis Beechen Vigil 30 In a *moon-rich garden.
1927Observer 11 Sept. 8 A..short interval between successive *moonrisings being favourable for late harvest work.
1969Guardian 15 July 7/2 On July 24, if all goes well, 50 kilogrammes of *moonrock will arrive on earth. 1971New Scientist 24 June 766/1 The exchange in Moscow recently of a minute quantity of Apollo moonrock for an even more minute quantity of Luna 16 moonrock.
1905E. F. Benson Image in Sand xviii. 290 The sublimities of the sun-rises and *moon-settings were gone from her.
1925E., O., & S. Sitwell Poor Young People 28 The *moon-shadows Palely pass and re-pass.
1958J. Betjeman Coll. Poems 270 Near your curious mausoleum *Moonshadowed on the grass.
1934Blunden Choice or Chance 55 To silence too that speaks angelic tongues From *moon-skies and the sun's November gleam.
1892Ld. Lytton King Poppy Epil. 133 Herbs *moon-soak'd on Hecate's altars.
1929E. H. Visiak Medusa (1963) xviii. 226 They are too apt already to be taken with such *moonstuff. 1969New Scientist 18 Dec. 607/1 We should not go ‘up there’..merely to bring back a few pounds of ‘moonstuff’.
1648Herrick Hesper., Oberon's Pal., And now he finds His *Moon-tann'd Mab.
1850Mrs. Browning Sea-side Walk ii, The water grey Swang in its *moon⁓taught way.
― Early Rose xii, Singing gladly all the *moontide Never waiting for the suntide.
1858Lytton What will he do with It? (1859) III. vi. x. 196 They were to his eyes the *moon track in the ocean of history. 1899Kipling Five Nations (1903) 9 The moon-track a-quiver bewilders our eyes.
1865Swinburne Atalanta 41 Making sweet..*moon-trodden ways And breathless gates and extreme hills of heaven.
1876Morris Sigurd ii. 137 The *moonwake over the waters.
1959R. Graves Coll. Poems 316 A *moon-warmed world of discontinuance.
1902W. D. Howells Literature & Life 62 A few *moon-washed stars pierce the vast vault with their keen points. 1967Coast to Coast 1965–66 131 Vicky sat staring into the mysterious moon-washed night.
1885W. B. Yeats Island of Statues i. ii, in Dublin Univ. Rev. May 82/2 Some say that all who touch the island lone Are changed for ever into *moon⁓white stone. 1916Blunden Harbingers 5 Through the moonwhite sea. 1957C. Day Lewis Pegasus 12 O moon⁓white brow and milky way of flesh! a1963S. Plath Crossing Water (1971) 38 The moth-face of her husband, moonwhite and ill, Circles her like a prey.
1892Ld. Lytton King Poppy vii. 187 Their *moon-whiten'd wings.
1961R. Graves More Poems 29 And in my dreams went chasing here and there A fugitive beacon—your *moon-yellow hair.
16. Special combinations: moon-blink (see quot.); moon-blow, injury to the body produced by the moon's rays; moon-born ppl. a., (a) born under the moon's influence; (b) born in the moon; moon-bounce, the use of the moon as a reflector of radio waves (chiefly in the UHF band) aimed at it from one ground station and detected by another; moonbound a. (orig. U.S.), directed or moving towards the moon; moon-bow, a lunar rainbow; moon-box, a device for exhibiting the moon on the stage of a theatre (Cent. Dict.); moonbug colloq., a lunar module; moon buggy = moon-car; † moon-burnt ppl. a., moonstruck; moon-cake, a round Chinese cake eaten during mid-Autumn festivities; moon-car, a vehicle designed for use on the moon; moon-clock, a clock showing the changes and phases of the moon; † moon-clover = moon-trefoil; mooncraft, a spacecraft for travel to the moon; also = moon-car; moon crawler = moon-car; moon-creeper = moon-flower 2 (Cent. Dict.); moon-culminating ppl. a., applied to such stars (used in calculating longitude) as culminate with the moon and are near its parallel of declination; so moon-culmination, the culmination of certain stars with the moon (Cent. Dict.); moon-culminator, a moon-culminating star; moon-cutter, one who cuts gas globes (see sense 5); moon-daisy, the ox-eye daisy, Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum; moon-dog, a dog that bays the moon; † in early use = mooner 1; moon-down N. Amer., the time when the moon goes down or sets; † moon-drake (fancifully modelled on fire-drake), a fiery moon; moon-face, a moon-shaped face; spec. a rounded swollen face characteristic of individuals with excessive amounts of glucocorticoids in the body, e.g. in cases of Cushing's syndrome; † moon-flaw, a defect attributed to the moon's influence; moon-flight, a flight to the moon; moon-glade U.S., the track made by moonlight on water; moonglow, glowing moonlight; moon-god, the god of the moon; a deity associated with the moon; so moon-goddess; moon-knife, a crescent-shaped knife used by leather-workers; moon-lily = moon-flower 2; moon-madness, lunacy (cf. sense 1 c); moonmark (see quots.); moon milk = milk of the moon (see milk n. 6); moon-month, a lunar month (Ogilvie 1882); moon-penny, Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum (Treas. Bot. 1866); moon-plant, the plant soma; moonport [after airport], (a) a place from which rockets are launched to the moon; (b) a landing-place for rockets on the moon; moon probe Astronautics, an exploratory space flight made towards the moon by an unmanned vehicle; also, the vehicle itself; moon-proof a., proof against the moon's light or influence; moon race, competition between nations to be the first to effect a landing on the moon; moon-rainbow, a lunar rainbow; moon-rocket, (a) a ride at a fun-fair consisting of rocket-shaped cars travelling round an inclined circular track; (b) a rocket designed for flight to the moon; moon-sail, -sheered ppl. a. (see quots.); moon-shaft, a ray of moonlight; moon-ship, a spaceship designed to travel to or towards the moon; moon-shoot = moon-shot n.; moon-shooter slang, one who makes a ‘moonlight flit’; moon-shot (orig. U.S.), the launching of a spacecraft to or towards the moon; moon-shot ppl. a., accompanied by fitful moonlight; moon-slave poet., applied to the tide as dependent upon the moon; moon-sted ppl. a., ? occupied by the moon; moon-suit, a suit designed to be worn on the moon; moon-trefoil, Medicago arborea; moon-walk, the action of walking on the moon; so as v. intr., to walk on the moon; moonwalker, one who walks on the moon (see also quot. 1950); so moon-walking vbl. n.; moon-wise a., learned in the moon's movements, etc.; † moon-wiser, an instrument for finding the position of the moon; † moon-work (see quot.); moon-year [cf. G. mondjahr], a lunar year (Webster 1864).
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Moon-blink, a temporary evening blindness occasioned by sleeping in the moonshine in tropical climates.
1851R. F. Burton Scinde I. ii. 12 It took his countenance a year or two to recover from the effects of the *moonblow.
1691Dryden K. Arthur ii. i, A *moon-born elf. 1857W. Smith Thorndale iv. ii, There would be no end to the astonishment of your moon-born traveller. 1892Ld. Lytton King Poppy vii. 69 The moon⁓born music of the nightingale.
1960Aeroplane XCVIII. 320/1 The *Moon-bounce technique was a form of long-distance radio communication which could be carried out on wavelengths which were not susceptible to ionospheric or other terrestrial disturbances. 1968Radio Communication Handbk. (ed. 4) xii. 20/2 Typical ground station equipment for moonbounce requires a transmitter output power exceeding 100 watts, net aerial gains of the order of 15–20 db, and receivers of 500 c/s bandwidth. 1975Nature 4 Sept. 36/1 On July 7, 1974 while using a Moon Bounce technique on 1,296 MHz I observed the appearance of strange, delayed echoes.
1965NASA Facts III. i. 4 The *moonbound Apollo's space navigation system includes two relatively conventional units. 1968Guardian 23 Dec. 1 The world last night saw..life on board the moonbound capsule.
1871G. Macdonald Ode to Light in Organ Songs, All the colours..In rainbow, *moon⁓bow, or in opal gem.
1963Britannica Bk. of Year (U.S.) 856/1 *Moon bug, the LEM [i.e. lunar excursion module]. 1969Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 10 Jan. 21 (caption) Parent spacecraft (command and service modules) separates leaving lunar module (‘moonbug’) attached to rocket stage.
1971Guardian 23 July 11 The astronauts will have a powered *moon buggy called Rover.
c1560A. Scott Poems (S.T.S.) iv. 65 Sum *monebrunt madynis myld, At nonetyd of the nicht, Ar chappit vp with chyld.
1938Chiang Yee Silent Traveller in London 38 At this time [sc. mid-September] all the sweet-shops produce a great variety of seasonable cakes, which we call ‘*Moon-Cake’, and those especially which are made in Canton in South China are very famous. 1952D. Yen Hung Feng Joy Chinese Cooking xii. 211 Moon cakes are seldom made at home, for the genuine type are difficult to make and require a long list of hard-to-prepare ingredients as well as special wooden forms and cooking implements. 1966‘Han Suyin’ Mortal Flower viii. 174 In all the markets, the mooncakes..parade their roundness in all the foodshops, light, feathery, moon-white. 1971Nat. Geographic Oct. 556 (caption) Golden yolks,..salted and dried in the sun..are steamed with rice or cooked in Cantonese moon cakes, served at festival time.
1965Sci. World 28 Oct. 8 Would a sticky coating of dust block the window of an astronaut's ‘*moon car’? 1973Daily Tel. 13 Mar. 19/4 The Lunokhod 2 robot mooncar has..resumed studies of Moon soil and rock and taking photographs.
1800Gentl. Mag. 1226/2 Under the West tower is a *moon-clock.
1713J. Petiver in Phil. Trans. XXVIII. 47 Camerarius his *Moon Claver.
1962F. I. Ordway et al. Basic Astronautics v. 216 Evidence derived from stationary and mobile *mooncraft will doubtless support the belief that any manned bases or outposts on the Moon will have to be underground. 1963Times 31 May 19/7 Two gigantic crawler transport vehicles for use in the Apollo mooncraft launching. 1971Daily Tel. 3 Aug. 1/6 Falcon, the Apollo 15 mooncraft, blasted off yesterday from the lunar surface.
1970Guardian 18 Nov. 1/2 Russia is likely to try to bring its *moon crawler Lunokod-I back to earth.
1827Philos. Mag. I. 47 A List of *Moon-culminating Stars for 1827.
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Moon-culminators, certain stars near the same parallel of declination as the moon [etc.].
1883B'ham Daily Post 11 Oct., Flint⁓glass Trade.—*Moon Cutter wanted.
1855Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. (1861) III. 311 Ox-eye or *Moon Daisy. a1887Jefferies Toilers of Field (1892) 310 The broad moon⁓daisies stand in the grass.
1668Evelyn Corr. 24 June, Let the *Moon-dogs bark on, 'till their throats are drie. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 184/1 The Mooner, or Moon-Dog which continually is Barking at the Moon. 1832J. Bree St. Herbert's Isle 163 'Tween the screech of the owl and the moon dog's moan.
1797B. Hawkins Let. 23 Dec. in Georgia Hist. Soc. Coll. (1916) IX. 276 Last evening, just before *moon down, his camp had been fired on. 1863W. B. Cheadle Jrnl. Trip across Canada (1931) 125 Camp at moondown in wood close to our lake. 1938C. H. Matschat Suwanee River 68 Five hours till moondown.
a1635Corbet A non sequitur Poems (1807) 218 See where a *moon-drake 'gins to rise.
1855Thackeray Newcomes liii, He..surveyed the beauties of his time as the Caliph the *moonfaces of his harem. 1944J. Hoffman Female Endocrinology xxxv. 574 The facial adiposity may materially alter the normal features and is responsible for the ‘moon face’ and ‘pig-eyed’ expression of the classical case. 1958Spectator 11 July 60/3 Swelling of the face—‘moon-face’ after cortisone. 1959J. Fleming Miss Bones xii. 136 Her large moon-face remained quite expressionless.
a1652Brome Queen & Conc. iv. vii, I fear she has a *Moonflaw in her brains.
1963Daily Tel. 28 Oct. 12 The Soviet Union, he says, is planning no manned *moon-flights. 1975S. Johnson Urbane Guerilla v. 182 The famous moonflight of Apollo 11.
1866Lowell Biglow P. Ser. ii. Introd., *Moonglade: a beautiful word: for the track of moonlight on the water. 1893Westm. Gaz. 8 Nov. 3/1 The gondolas and launches pass like dark shadows in a moon-glade.
1926Blackw. Mag. Oct. 530/2 She could no longer see the moving shape presently lost among the vague masses of *moonglow and darkling shadow which veiled the moor. 1934W. Hudson et al. (song-title) Moonglow. 1965M. West Ambassador viii. 181, I..woke..to a room full of moonglow.
1862Rawlinson Anc. Mon., Chald. viii. I. 200 The temple at Mugheir was built in honour of the *moon⁓god, Sin or Hurki.
1831Keightley Myth. Gr. & It. 194 From their confounding her with their own Artemis, it would seem that they regarded her as the *moon-goddess.
1882J. Paton in Encycl. Brit. XIV. 389/2 The dyed leather is.. grounded with a curious *moon knife.
1888Clark Russell Death Ship III. 129 The *moon-lily when it hangs down its white beauty and contracts its milky petals.
1817Shelley Rev. Islam vi. xvii. 2 Want, and *Moon-madness, and the pest's swift Bane.
1879G. M. Hopkins Poems (1967) 80 Only I'll Have an eye to the sakes of him, quaint *moonmarks, to his pelted plumage under Wings. 1879― Lett. to R. Bridges (1955) 83 By moonmarks I mean crescent shaped markings on the quill-feathers, either in the colouring of the feather or made by the overlapping of one on another.
1885Encycl. Dict., *Moon-milk. 1965New Scientist 3 June 666/2 These crystals form a colloid in water to give the substance that, in British caves, is called moonmilk. 1973P. O'Donnell Silver Mistress ix. 161 They reached a huge stalactite chamber. Around the perimeter shimmered white patches of the calcite deposit called moonmilk.
1866Lindley & Moore Treas. Bot. II. 754/1 *Moon-penny. Chrysanthemum leucanthemum. 1940F. Kitchen Brother to Ox ix. 152 The grass-reaper..cuts through life, sweeping down the slender moon-pennies and toppling them over.
a1843Southey Comm.-pl. Bk. IV. 634 A seller of *moonplant. 1862R. H. Patterson Ess. Hist. & Art 475 The soma or moon-plant is a round smooth twining plant, peculiar to the Aravalli Hills [etc.].
1963New Scientist 18 Apr. 138/3 NASA has acquired 87,000 acres just north of Cape Canaveral, Florida, as the site for its ‘*Moonport’. 1965New Statesman 16 July 74/1 To have two Moonports is extravagance enough. 1967Britannica Bk. of Year (U.S.) 803/3 Moonport, a place on the surface of the earth equipped for sending spacecraft to the moon.
1958Oxford Mail 16 Aug. 1/8 Engineers are making final checks on the multiple rocket which is expected to be launched tomorrow on America's first ‘*Moon probe’. 1972Guardian 22 Feb. 2/4 The unmanned Soviet moon probe Luna 20 made a soft landing on the moon's surface last night.
1616B. Jonson Masque of Oberon Wks. 979 Be your eyes, yet *Moone-proofe? 1817Shelley Rev. Islam vi. xxvii. 9 A hanging dome of leaves, a canopy moon-proof. 1835J. P. Kennedy Horse Shoe R. vi, Your thick skull is moon-proof.
1963Guardian 17 July 1/5 It is now intended to have the whole question of the ‘*moon race’ brought up in the International Astronomical Union. 1971S. Cavell World Viewed 63 We lash ourselves to these ideas with burning coils of containment, massive retaliation, moon races, yellow perils.
1850Browning Christmas Eve vi. 11 'Twas a *moon-rainbow, vast and perfect.
1946G. Tyrwhitt-Drake English Circus & Fair Ground xvii. 202 There were many..rides, such as Airways, Autodrome Aeroplanes, and *Moon Rocket. 1953Pohl & Kornbluth Space Merchants (1955) i. 5 The slim V-2s and stubby Moon rockets of the past. 1954‘R. Crompton’ William & Moon Rocket i. 20 A fair ain't a fair these days without a Moon Rocket.
1841R. H. Dana Seaman's Man. 116 *Moon-sail, a small sail sometimes carried in light winds, above a skysail.
1896E. Phillpotts Down Dartmoor Way 201 They turned intu the black wudes all laced wi' *mune-shafts. 1930E. Pound XXX Cantos xxi. 98 Yellow wing, pale in the moon shaft.
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Moon⁓sheered, a ship the upper works of which rise very high, fore and aft.
1949*Moonship [see gravity 5]. 1963Wall St. Jrnl. 19 Aug. 20 North American Aviation awarded $934.4 million job... Order is for Apollo Moonship. 1970Universe 30 Jan. 9/5 The horror of some future manned moonship being marooned in space is something we don't like to think about.
1958Oxford Mail 14 Aug. 1/9 The United States first ‘*moon-shoot’ has about a one-in-ten chance of success.
1892Globe 2 Apr. 1/5 The *moon-shooters sometimes have lodgers in their abodes.
1958Washington Post 18 Aug. A. 8/4 Yesterday's *moon shot blew up 50,000 feet and 77 seconds after the launching at Cape Canaveral. 1969New Scientist 9 Jan. 56/3 Much heartened by the success of the three-man Moon shot, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is unveiling ambitious plans for the mid-1970s. 1971R. Nesbitt Evolution & Existence of God 10 If the Universe were in fact a chaos, Apollo moonshots would be inconceivable.
1902Contemp. Rev. Dec. 842 The gusty *moon-shot night.
1839Bailey Festus viii. (1852) 93 Where tide, the *moonslave, sleeps.
1591Troub. Raigne K. John ii. (1611) 75 Could I..Remoue the Sunne from our Meridian, Vnto the *moonested circle of th' antipodes.
1953Pohl & Kornbluth Space Merchants (1955) xii. 131 *Moon suits rented ‘50 Years Without a Blowout’.
1731Miller Gard. Dict., Medicago; *Moon-Trefoil... It hath..a..Fruit, shap'd somewhat like a Half-Moon.
1966Webster Add., *Moonwalk, Moonwalker. 1969Daily Tel. 16 July 22/2 While on the moon, the astronauts will..only moon-walk for about 3½ to four hours. 1969Observer 20 July 1/2 Hints that the ‘moonwalk’ will also be brought forward were strengthened when the astronauts' physician, Dr Charles Berry, said that he did not now expect the two men to go to sleep on the moon. 1971New Scientist 11 Feb. 286/2 Physical activity exacerbated this condition and contributed to the unusually high heart-rates seen on the moonwalk. 1973J. Wainwright Touch of Malice 31 It was a little like a moon-walk. A slow deliberate progression from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’.
1950Webster Add., Moonwalking, sleepwalking outdoors in bright moonlight.—*Moonwalker. 1969Times 3 June (Suppl.) p. iii/1 The two moon-walkers will be in the lunar module's upper, or ascent stage.
1966Punch 31 Aug. 336/3 Machines with metal boots are being constructed for *moon-walking.
1582Stanyhurst æneis iii. (Arb.) 74 And *moonewise Coribants on brasse their od harmonie tinckling.
1674Flamsteed in Phil. Trans. IX. 219, I fell to peruse Mr. Street's Discourse, and to consider the Contrivance of his *Moon-wiser.
1679C. Nesse Antichrist 201 His work is Idolatry, a work of darkness, *moon or night-work.
Add:[16.] Moon Festival, in China and Hong Kong and in Chinese communities elsewhere, a festival celebrated in mid-Autumn, on the fifteenth night of the eighth moon of the Chinese year (cf. moon-cake above), orig. a family gathering after completion of the harvest.
[1892J. D. Ball Things Chinese 13 The Full Moon Festival, when..moon cakes are seen at every confectioner's stall and shop, is kept gaily. ] Ibid. 114 The *Moon Festival on the 15th day of the 8th moon, in September or October.1962F. D. Ommanney Fragrant Harbour iv. 83 Chinese shops become illuminated caves of colour on the Moon Festival. 1987Atlantic Apr. t32/1 When candles are placed inside three pagodas on the main lake, as they are for the Moon Festival, the light shining from the small round windows gives an effect as if there were 15 reflections of the moon on the water.
moon flask, a type of Chinese ceramic bottle with a flattened circular body and a rounded handle on either side of the neck, first made in the 15th century.
1974Times 26 Oct. 16/4 A fifteenth-century Chinese blue and white *moon flask, just under 10 in high, was sold for {pstlg}165,757..yesterday. 1989Independent 18 Jan. 3/4 Top price was {pstlg}294,607..for a 10 in early Ming dynasty..double-gourd moon flask.
▪ II. moon, v.|muːn|
[f. moon n.1]
1. In various nonce-uses.
a. trans. To expose to the rays of the moon; refl. to ‘bask’ in the moonlight (cf. sun v.); to give out (a light) as a moon.
b. intr. To shine as a moon; to move as a satellite.
1601Holland Pliny II. 96 If they would haue it [sc. wax] to be exceeding white indeed, they seeth it yet once more, after it hath bin thus sunned and mooned. a1850Mrs. Browning Night & Merry Man i, Where be all thy laughters clear?.. Where thy festive companies, Mooned o'er with ladies' eyes? 1854De Quincey Autobiog. Sk. vi. Wks. II. 337 The huge man..not sunning, but mooning himself—apricating himself in the occasional moonbeams. 1871G. Macdonald Wks. Fancy & Imag. IV. Parables, Love's Ordeal, An earthen lamp whose faint light Mooned out a tiny halo. 1886R. F. Burton Arab. Nts. (abr. ed.) III. 99 White as a full moon when it mooneth on its fourteenth night. a1903H. S. Merriman Tommaso's Fortune, etc. (1904) 64 The more curious of the President's guests, who were now mooning innocently around them as they sat.
c. intr. and trans. To expose one's buttocks to (someone). Cf. moon n.1 5 b. slang.
1968–70Current Slang (Univ. S. Dakota) III–IV. 84 Moon,..to display one's bare buttocks as a taunt. 1974News & Reporter (Chester, S. Carolina) 24 Apr. 3-A/1 The convention..was to last through Saturday afternoon, and we imagine that it did although we did hear a wild rumor that a cut-up named Fannie might pull her own version of ‘the streak’ during the Sunday breakfast..just to get the Sunday session off to a good start if the session started getting dull. But, Fannie has assured us that she didn't ‘moon’ anybody.
2. intr. To move or look listlessly or aimlessly (as if moonstruck); to go about, along, around (etc.) in a moonstruck or listless manner. colloq.
1848Alb. Smith Idler upon Town 46 A mooner is an individual who moons about without any object, half absent, half contemplative. 1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. i, I mooned up and down the High-street, staring at all the young faces. 1867M. E. Braddon Run to Earth I. ii. 40 ‘What are you standing mooning there for?’ asked the man. ‘Why don't you go to bed?’ 1886J. K. Jerome Idle Thoughts (1889) 44, I..did nothing whatever, except moon about the house and gardens.
b. trans. To pass away (the time) in an aimless or listless manner; also occas. to utter mooningly.
1836T. Hook G. Gurney III. 179, I ‘mooned’ out, that my sympathetic ignorance of the object of our dialogue had wounded her feelings. 1876Besant & Rice Gold. Butterfly xvi, I might have mooned away the afternoon in the Park. 1878W. C. Smith Hilda among Broken Gods (1879) 235 Why had I mooned away the night, when there was that to do Which still might heal our sorrow?
3. To hunt by moonlight.
1898Encycl. Sport II. 64 All the excitement of the expedition may be said..to lie in this ‘mooning’. If the dark object which the hunter fondly imagines to be an opossum lie higher than the line of the moon, he must perforce fix his eyes on it and walk steadily backwards until the moon is directly behind it... The beast can obviously be mooned from one spot only at any given moment.
Add:[2.] c. intr. To dream, to indulge in sentimental reverie about; to yearn sentimentally over, to gaze adoringly at; also without const. Also (rare), to pine or long for.
1901M. Franklin My Brilliant Career vii. 51 It was daily dinned into my ears that the little things of life were the noblest, and that all the great people I mooned about said the same. 1929E. O'Neill Dynamo i. ii. 27 Mrs. Fife (Mooning at him with adoring eyes). 1929D. H. Lawrence Pansies 151 It's no good mooning for sloppy ease When they're holding out the thunderbolt For you to take. 1949Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch 19 May 11/8 There aren't any pictures of muscular pin-up boys to moon over. 1964I. Wallace Man (1965) vi. 442 When she had not been working, she was mooning and wanting to get back to George and marriage. 1968T. Roethke Coll. Poems 24 Boys moon at girls with last year's fatuous faces. 1971‘A. Burgess’ MF xvi. 177 She was merely kindly leaving an engaged couple to kiss and cuddle and moon about sunnier delights to come. 1988R. Christiansen Romantic Affinities i. 34 He..mooned over his ‘standard of female excellence’ Mary Evans.
▪ III. moon
rare obs. f. man n.1; obs. f. moan. |