释义 |
▪ I. ˈmouse-hunt1 Obs. exc. dial. Also 5 muse-hont. [a. MDu. muushont weasel (mod.Du. muishond), f. muus mouse + hont dog (see hound n.); there may also have been a native word, f. mouse n. + hunt n.1] a. A weasel. b. gen. An animal that hunts mice. Halliwell (1847) gives ‘Mouse-hound, a weasel, East’. In S. African Du. muishond is a synonym of meerkat, whence the use in quot. 1850.
1481Caxton Reynard (Arb.) 79 The squyrel, the musehont [printed -hout], the fychews. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iv. iv. 11, I haue watcht ere now All night for lesse[r] cause, and nere beene sicke. La. I you haue bin a Mouse-hunt in your time. 1611Cotgr. s.v. Geline, Qui naist de geline il aime a grater: Prov. Cat after kind good Mouse-hunt. 1641Milton Reform. i. Wks. 1851 III. 31 Many of those that pretend to be great Rabbies in these studies..have bin but the Ferrets and Moushunts of an Index. [1850R. G. Cumming Hunter's Life S. Afr. (ed. 2) I. 102 The whole ground was undermined with the holes of colonies of meercat or mouse-hunts.] ▪ II. mouse-hunt2 [hunt n.2] A hunt for mice.
1828–32in Webster. 1975Country Life 27 Mar. 761/1 Our adopted cat..no longer seems to want to be off on a nocturnal mousehunt. |