| 释义 |
ˈmoss-trooper
[moss n.1 1.]
One of a class of marauders who infested the ‘mosses’ of the Scottish Border, in the middle of the seventeenth century; a border freebooter.
1651Whitelocke Mem. 14 Feb. (1853) III. 289 The Scots, in a village called Geddard..set upon captain Dawson as he returned from pursuing some moss-troopers. a1661Fuller Worthies, Northumb. (1662) ii. 303 A sprigg of these Borderers hath lately been revived (disguised under the new name of Moss-Troopers). 1805Scott Last Minstr. i. xix. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 294 A single troop of dragoons..was stationed near Berwick, for the purpose of keeping the peace among the mosstroopers of the border.
b. transf. A bandit or raider.
1701Collier tr. M. Anton. 187 A fourth sort value themselves extremely upon their Hunting the Sarmatian Moss Troopers. 1809W. Irving Knickerb. (1861) 121 These moss-troopers of the east. 1900L. S. Amery Times' Hist. War S. Afr. I. viii. 188 Dr. Jameson and his band of moss⁓troopers.
So ˈmosstroopery, the practices of the moss-troopers; ˈmoss-trooping vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1805Scott Last Minstr. i. xxi, A stark moss-trooping Scott was he. 1845Carlyle Cromwell vi. II. 150 Rebellion..with much mosstroopery and horsestealing. 1881J. Russell Haigs v. 89 A moss-trooping and reiving race. 1884Gardiner Hist. Eng. I. 338 Still, the old mosstrooping spirit was not to be changed in a day. |