| 释义 |
▪ I. oat, n.|əʊt|
Usually in pl. oats |əʊts|. Forms: sing. 1 áte, ǽte, 4–7 ote, (5 hote), 6–7 oate, 6– Sc. ait, 7 dial. eat, 8– oat. pl. α. 1 átan, 3 aten, 3–4 oten, 4 ooten, 5 otyn. β. 4–7 otes, 5 otys, otis, (hotys), 5–6 ootes, -is, 6 ottes, (wot(t)es), 6–7 oates, 6– oats; Sc. 5 atis, etes, aitis, aittes, 8– aits.
[OE. áte, pl. átan, wk. fem., not found in the cognate langs., and of obscure origin. The general Teutonic name is OTeut. *haƀron- and its representatives: see haver.
Oat differs from other names of cereals, ancient or modern, as wheat, barley (bigg, beer), rye, rice, maize, millet, and from its own synonym haver, in that, while these are (like dust, sand, snow), names of substances or things in the mass, the collective form of which is singular, they having in ordinary language no plural, oat is an individual singular, the collective or mass sense of which has to be expressed by the plural, e.g. ‘Is the crop rye or oats?’, ‘wheat, barley, and oats are cereals’. Comparing this with beans, peasen, potatoes, and other names of similar grammatical form, it may be inferred that primarily oat was not the plant or its produce in the mass, but denoted an individual grain; cf. groat with its collective pl. groats. This may point to oats being eaten originally in the grains, not, like wheat and barley, in the form of meal or flour. But the scanty early evidence is not sufficient to show this.]
1. a. pl. The grains of a hardy cereal (see sense 2) forming an important article of food in many countries for men and also a chief food of horses; usually collectively, as a species of grain.
c1000Sax. Leechd. II. 84 ᵹenim bean mela oþþe ætena, oððe beres. a1100Ibid. III. 292 Nim atena gratan. c1126O.E. Chron. anno 1124 (Laud. MS.) Man sælde..þæt acer sæd aten, þæt is feower sed læpas to feower scillingas. c1205Lay. 29256 Þer biforen he gon ȝeoten draf and chaf and aten. a1225Ancr. R. 312 Me nimeð et vuel dettur oten uor hweate. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. iv. 45 A tayle of Ten quarter oten. 1393Ibid. C. ix. 306 A fewe croddes and creyme, and a cake of otes. c1500Melusine xxi. 127 That ootis shuld be gyuen to the horses. 1508Dunbar Flyting w. Kennedie 133 Thow skaffis and beggis mair beir and aitis. c1530Househ. Acc. Hampton Crt. in Law Hampton C. (1885) I. 367, 4 boshells of wotes at 4d. the boshell. 1601F. Tate Househ. Ord. Edw. II (1876) 14 Hay and otes, litter and shoing and other necessaries for iiij horses. 1732Arbuthnot Rules of Diet in Ailments, etc. i. 251 Oats, cleansing, resolving, and pectoral. 1857E. Acton Eng. Bread-Bk. i. vi. 75 In the south of England oats are not employed for bread, but only for feeding horses. 1900Westm. Gaz. 15 Nov. 2/1 With..two camp kettles and packets of tea and Quaker Oats..we made a great feast of tea and porridge.
b. sing. A single grain of oats. rare.
1677Grew Anat. Fruits iii. i. §11 A Cluster of other little Bags, about the bigness of an Oate. 1780A. Young Tour Irel. I. 288 Nor would the horses touch an oat, while they could get carrots.
2. The cereal plant Avena sativa, which yields this grain, cultivated in numerous varieties in all cool climates.
a. Usually in pl., collectively, as a crop.
1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 10110 Whete corne wyl nat prykke, As otes dowun, or barlykke. c1425Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 664/13 Hec auena, otys. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §14 There be .iii. maner of otes, that is to saye, redde otes, blacke otes, and roughe otes. 1578Lyte Dodoens iv. xiii. 467 The pilde Otes are sowen in the gardens of Herboristes. 1610Shakes. Temp. iv. 61 Ceres..thy riche Leas of Wheate, Rye, Barley, Fetches, Oates and Pease. 1671H. M. tr. Erasm. Colloq. 181 Nor do they sell it [hay] much cheaper than oats itself. 1786Burns Sc. Drink iii, Let..Aits set up their awnie horn. 1843J. A. Smith Product. Farming (ed. 2) 105 Upon the same field which will yield only one harvest of wheat, two successive crops of barley may be raised, and three of oats.
b. The singular, oat, is used either to individualize the plant or a particular variety or sort, or to denote a single plant (but this would ordinarily be called an oat-plant).
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. xvii. (Tollem. MS.) Ote is an herbe, and þe seed þerof acordeþ to use of men and of hors. c1440Promp. Parv. 372/2 Ote, or havur corne, Avena. 1620Venner Via Recta ii. 40 It receiueth a singular cooling qualitie from the Oate. 1741Compl. Fam.-Piece iii. 423 There are two sorts, the white or Polish Oat..and the black Oat. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. i. 17 The oat is the hardiest of all cereal plants.
3. sing. and collect. pl. Applied to wild species of Avena (called also oat-grass), several of which are indigenous to the British Isles; esp. the wild oat, Avena fatua, a tall grass resembling the cultivated oat (of which it is perhaps the wild original), a frequent weed in cornfields, and noted for its long twisted awn, which makes an excellent hygrometer; false oat, the Oat-like Grass, Arrhenatherum.
a700Epinal Gloss. 599 Lolium, atae. a1100Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 480/28 Zizania, atan, oððe lasor. c1475Pict. Voc. ibid. 785/13 Hec avicula, wild hote. 1551Turner Herbal i. E vj, Ther are ij. kyndes of otes: the one is called in English comonly, otes: and the other..wild otes. 1578Lyte Dodoens iv. xiii. 467 Also there is a barren Ote, of some called the purre Otes, of others wilde Otes..The Purwottes or wilde Otes, commeth vp in many places amongst wheate and without sowing. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 229 And oats unblest, and darnel domineers. 1785Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xiii. (1794) 141 Bearded Oat grass, vulgarly called Wild Oats. 1806J. Galpine Brit. Bot. 40 Wild oat or haver. 1835Hooker Brit. Flora 53 A. fatua, wild Oat..A. strigosa, bristle-pointed Oat.
attrib.1676Phil. Trans. XI. 651 The commodiousness of this kind of Hygroscope in comparison of those made of wild Oat-beards. a1774Goldsm. Surv. Exp. Philos. (1776) II. 30 An easier and still a cheaper [hygrometer]..may be made by a wild oat-beard, which lengthens with dry weather and contracts with moisture.
4. a. Phr. to sow one's wild oats: to commit youthful excesses or follies; to spend early life in dissipation or dissolute courses (usually implying subsequent reform). (In reference to the folly and mischief of sowing wild oats instead of good grain.)
1576Newton Lemnie's Complex. ii. 99 That wilfull and vnruly age, which lacketh rypenes and discretion, and (as wee saye) hath not sowed all theyr wyeld Oates. 1583T. Watson Centurie of Love lxxxvii, I finde that all my wildest Oates are sowne. 1604Dekker Honest Wh. Wks. 1873 II. 9 You ha travelled enough now..to sowe your wilde oates. 1720De Foe Capt. Singleton ix. (1840) 169 Thus ended my first harvest of wild oats. 1849Robertson Serm. Ser. i. vii. (1866) 125 A leniency which often talks thus:..A young man must sow his wild oats and reform. 1892Pall Mall G. 12 Nov. 2/3 The wild oats, fully sown, are a veritable road to ruin.
†b. Hence wild oats, a name for a dissipated or dissolute young fellow; a ‘wild’ young man. Obs.
a1564Becon Nosegay Wks. (1843) 204 The foolish desire of certain light brains and wild oats, which are altogether given to newfangleness. 1602How Chuse Good Wife (N.), Well, go to, wild oats! spendthrift! prodigal! 1605Lond. Prodigal ii. i, For this wild oats here, young Flowerdale, I will not judge.
c. attrib. Pertaining to the ‘sowing of wild oats’.
1881Pop. Sci. Monthly XIX. 153 Girls, it seems, have to pass through a millinery climacteric, as their brothers through a wild-oats period.
d. to feel one's oats, to be lively; to feel important, to display one's self-importance. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
1831Boston Even. Transcript 22 Dec. 1/1 Whether the pony felt his oats,..He took a frightful canter. 1833A. Lawrence Diary & Corr. (1855) 126 We both ‘feel our oats’ and our youth. 1843T. C. Haliburton Attaché 1st Ser. II. 157 You know that, and you feel your oats, too, as well as any one. 1869P. T. Barnum Struggles & Triumphs i. 33 My father..installed me as clerk in this country store. Of course I ‘felt my oats’. 1897C. M. Flandrau Harvard Episodes 85, I suppose he was feeling his oats when he captained his class eleven. 1959Listener 5 Nov. 770/1 The new influences and pressures within a colony that was ‘feeling its oats’. 1971D. Lees Rainbow Conspiracy i. 17 The Manchester circulation is nudging the one and a half million a day mark and they are beginning to feel their oats.
e. off one's oats colloq., off one's food.
1890Kipling in Lippincott's Monthly Mag. Aug. 254 I'm a bit restless and off my oats. 1898Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Dec. (Red Page), The horse is a power in Australia, and a few choice expressions spring from horses..out of collar aptly describes out of work; off his oats, sickness or state of offishness. 1930Wodehouse Very Good, Jeeves! iv. 98 The poor kid, who's quite off her oats about him. 1949D. M. Davin Roads from Home ii. ii. 99 What's the matter, John? Off your oats this morning? 1977J. Fleming Every Inch a Lady i. i. 5 It's not like to put me off me oats..but it's been a nasty day.
f. one's oats, sexual gratification. slang.
1923J. Manchon Le Slang 209 To have one's oats, faire des bêtises avec une femme, courir la gueuse. 1941Baker Austral. Slang 50 Oats from (a woman), get one's, to coit with a woman. 1961X. Herbert Soldiers' Women 265 There's nothing makes a hot-shot sheik like that so mad as being asked to pay for his oats. 1965W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 188, I was kissing her excitedly and passionately. You're doin' O.K., Cookie, you're gonna get your oats tonight for sure, I thought to myself. 1968A. Diment Bang Bang Birds v. 65 Despite her lovely body it was her face that had me hooked... I like to watch something pretty..when collecting my oats. 1976P. Hill Hunters vii. 90 She wouldn't let you have your oats... You wanted to go to bed with her..she wouldn't have it. 1978J. Wainwright Jury People xxxvi. 108 This wife he was lumbered with. Okay—he loved her... But, even he wanted his oats, occasionally. He was human.
5. transf. (poetic). A pipe made of an oaten straw, as a pastoral instrument of music. [After L. avena.]
1637Milton Lycidas 88 That strain I heard was of a higher mood: But now my Oate proceeds. 1648Herrick Hesper., Beucolick, That thou shalt swear, my pipe do's raigne Over thine oat, as soveraigne. a1876M. Collins Greek Idyl iv. Poems (1886) 82 While an old shepherd with his oat Pipes to the autumn breezes.
6. oats and chaff Rhyming slang, a footpath.
1857‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 14 Oats and chaff,..footpath. 1935A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 82/1 Oats and chaff, footpath.
7. Comb.
a. General combinations: simple attrib., as oat-beard (see beard n. 6), oat-bran, oat-dust, oat-grain, oat-hull (see hull n.1 1), oat-husk, oat-stalk, oat-straw, oat stubble; made from oat-grains, as oat-ale, oat-beer, oat-bread, oat-flour, -groats, oat-malt; containing or carrying oats, as oat-bag, oat-cart, oat-field; objective and obj. gen., as oat-bruiser, oat-consumer, oat-eater, oat-importer, oat-sheller, oat-tying; oat-bearing, oat-growing, oat-producing adjs.; instrumental, as oat(s)-fed adj.; similative, as oat-shaped adj.
1693Humours Town 5, I had rather a' been drinking *Oat-Ale at a Cake-house. 1886C. E. Doble Hearne's Collect. (O.H.S.) II. 449 A draught of oat-ale.
1851A. O. Hall Manhattaner 5 It was a modest commercial plain..with..bits of machinery, and ploughs, and *oat bags, and hay bales. 1882Rogers Agric. & Prices III. 565/4, 2 canvas *oat bags at /3½.
1676,a1774*Oat-beard [see sense 3].
1893Duke of Argyll Unseen Found. Soc. xi. 337 Piece of *oat-bearing land.
1705Hearne Collect. 13 Oct. (O.H.S.) I. 55 He mentions Malt & *Oat Beer.
1900Daily News 26 Apr. 5/6 Porridge made from *oat-bran husks.
1579Langham Gard. Health (1633) 456 *Otebread nourisheth but little, and is not very agreable to mankind. 1780A. Young Tour Irel. I. 213 Their diet is milk, potatoes, and oat bread. 1822–34Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 216 Attached to toast and water, which he made with oat-bread boiled in the water.
1898Daily News 8 Feb. 3/5, I saw a bean crusher, a chaff cutter and an *oat bruiser.
1812P. Hawker Diary (1893) I. 45 We observed his people at *oat cart.
1805Forsyth Beauties Scotl. III. 348 *Oat-dust from the mill..makes part of the mixture.
a1668Davenant Vacation Lond. Poems (1673) 291 And white *Oate-eater that does dwell; In Stable small at Sign of Bell.
1870R. Broughton Red as Rose I. 190 A young *oats-fed mare.
1900Daily News 4 May 5/4 A glance at these rations shows the important part which *oat flour plays in all of them.
1881Darwin Veg. Mould ii. 115 In one of the chambers there was a decayed *oat-grain, with its husk.
c1420Liber Cocorum (1862) 20 Bray þen with wyne, With *ote grotis, and whyte brede eke.
1892E. Reeves Homeward Bound 82 Invercargill..is our chief *oat-growing country.
1607Markham Caval. v. (1617) 11 A fewe Pease or Beanes mixt with *oate-hulls, which are taken from oates when you make Oate-meale.
1830M. Donovan Dom. Econ. I. 253 The worts were allowed to filter through the stratum of *oat-husks and heath.
1707Mortimer Husb. (J.), In Kent they brew with one half *oatmalt and the other half barleymalt.
1893Duke of Argyll Unseen Found. Soc. xi. 337 *Oat-producing acres.
1845Athenæum 1 Mar. 222 The *oat-shaped or nucleated body. 1879St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 372 Stone..very small and flat, about ½ inch long, oat-shaped. 1897Outing (U.S.) XXIX. 554/1 Black oat⁓shaped worms.
1723Lond. Gaz. No. 6222/10 Robert Wadford, late of Preston..*Oat-Shiller.
1887Bowen Virg. Ecl. v. 34 The unfruitful darnel, the *oatstalks barren.
a1650D. Calderwood Hist. Kirk (1842–9) VI. 27 A scheaffe of *oat straw was sold for fourtie shillings in Edinburgh. 1850Rep. Comm. Patents: Agric. 1849 (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 380 Getting no other food in winter but a scanty supply of oat-straw. 1859A. Cary Pict. Country Life i. 7 [He] lay..with a bundle of oat⁓straw for his pillow. 1884T. Speedy Sport Highl. iii. 29 Their bed..should consist of clean oat-straw.
1807Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 168 The *oat-stubbles are cleaned immediately after harvest.
b. Special combinations: oat burner N. Amer. colloq., a horse; oat cell Med., a small oval cell with little cytoplasm and an oval, densely staining nucleus which is characteristic of a type of carcinoma of the lung (formerly regarded as a sarcoma); freq. attrib. in oat-cell carcinoma, oat cell tumour, etc.; hence oat-celled a., containing such cells; oat-fowl, a local name of the Snow Bunting; oat-grass, a grass of the genus Avena; sometimes also applied to those of some allied genera, as Arrhenatherum, Bromus; oat-hair, the hairs or villi of the grain of the oat; oat-hay = oaten hay: see oaten 3; oatland, land on which oats are grown; oat-like a., like or resembling an oat; oat-like grass, Arrhenatherum avenaceum, considered by Linnæus an Avena; oat-mill, a mill for grinding oats (in quot. 1837 humorously applied to a horse's mouth); † oatmonger, a dealer in oats; oat(s opera = oater; oat-pipe, oat-reed, a musical instrument made of an oat-straw; oat-ridder, a sieve or riddle for sifting oats; oat-seed, † (a) the season for sowing oats (obs.); (b) the seed or grain of the oat; hence oat-seed bird, a local name of the Grey Wagtail; oat-stone (see quot.); oat-thistle, Turner's name for the cotton-thistle, Onopordum Acanthium.
1941Sun (Baltimore) 21 July 11/4 There isn't a galloper in the lot who can say ‘I'm the boss’, so your milkman's *oat burner might do just as well as any of 'em. 1952Daily News (N.Y.) 20 Aug. C 11/4 When the time comes..that even an oat-burner must sport a tax stamp on its stem or stern. 1973B. Broadfoot Ten Lost Years v. 50 Them oatburners never broke down.
1903W. S. L. Barlow Elem. Path. Anat. & Histol. i. ix. 190 (heading) *Oat cell Sarcoma. 1926Jrnl. Path. & Bacteriol. XXIX. 244 In obvious carcinomata of the lung ‘oat cells’ have been found in addition to the more readily recognisable carcinoma cells. 1956Mayer & Maier Pulmonary Carcinoma iv. 96 Among anaplastic tumors belong the ‘oat cell’ carcinomas, called ‘reserve cell’ by some. 1957A. I. Spriggs Cytol. of Effusions vi. 24 One of the most characteristic types of malignant cell is the oat-cell, so named after its appearance in histological sections. 1966Wright & Symmers Systemic Path. I. x. 418/1 The finding of tubules in ‘oat-cell’ tumours..should not affect the histological diagnosis. 1972Brit. Jrnl. Dis. Chest LXVI. 164 Oat cell carcinomas have a more sinister prognosis.
1926Jrnl. Path. & Bacteriol. XXIX. 244 The so-called ‘*oat-celled Sarcoma’ of the posterior mediastinum is a medullary carcinoma of the bronchi. 1948R. A. Willis Path. Tumours xix. 369 ‘Oat-celled’ or spindle-celled structure..is common in bronchial carcinoma.
1793Statist. Acc. Scot. VII. 461 A small bird, rather less than a sparrow, resorts here in winter..and is called by the people here *oat-fowls, because they prey on the oats. 1885Swainson Prov. Names Birds 72 Snow bunting..Oatfowl.
1742Cole Eng.-Lat. Dict., *Oat⁓gavel, avenae vectigales.
1578Lyte Dodoens iv. xlvi. 505 Bycause of the likenesse it hath with Otes..we may call it in Englishe, Hauer, or *Ote grasse. 1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 320 Oat-grass, Bromus. 1832Tennyson May Queen ii. vii, The summer airs blow cool On the oat-grass and the sword-grass, and the bulrush in the pool. 1866Treas. Bot. 93 The tall Oat-grass, A[rrhenatherum] avenaceum..in many instances forms a very considerable portion of good meadows and pastures.
1847Wilson Rural Cycl. I. 623 Other kinds of intestinal calculi..consist principally of the filamentous portion of the grain of oats..and are sometimes known by the popular designation of *oat-hair calculi.
1892Cradock (S. Afr.) Register 4 Mar. 2 *Oathay, {per} 100 lbs., 3s. 6d. to 5s. 6d. 1899[see oaten 3].
1706Phillips, Oat-thistle or *Oatland-thistle. 1821Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 104 Multitudes of crowding beans; And flighty oatlands of a lighter hue.
1835Hooker Brit. Flora I. 42 Arrhenatherum, *Oat-like grass.
1686Plot Staffordsh. 337, I was shewed an *Oat-Mill, that husk't the Oats and winnow'd them, and then ground them to meal. 1837–40Haliburton Clockm. (1862) 497 Hold up your old oatmill, and see if you can snuff the stable at minister's.
1327in Riley Mem. (1868) 167 Denis le *Otemonger.
1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §608/9 Western picture,..*oats opera. 1947Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch 2 May 10/1 Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and other oat opera stars.
1586W. Webbe Eng. Poetrie (Arb.) 73 All in a fine *oate pipe these sweete songs lustilie chaunting.
1513Douglas æneis i. Prol. 511, I the ylk wmquhile that in the small *ait reid Tonit my sang.
1743Lond. & Country Brew. iv. (ed. 2) 254 Some Maltsters, to improve the small Sort of Welch Coal, sift it thro' an *Oat-Ridder.
1637–50J. Row Hist. Kirk (1842) p. xxv, The journay was farr, and it wes the haitt of thair *eat-seid. 1900Daily News 4 July 5/6 Distribution of oatseeds for stable forage.
1864Atkinson Prov. Names Birds, *Oat-seed-bird, Ray's wagtail. 1885Swainson Prov. Names Birds 44 Grey wagtail (Motacilla melanope)..Oat seed bird (Yorkshire).
1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 855 These concretions comprise the ‘*oat-stones’ or avenoliths, which are composed of the indigestible fragments of oat-meal.
1548Turner Names of Herbes 8 Acanthium..maye be called in englishe *otethistle, because the seedes are lyke vnto rough otes.
▪ II. oat, v. U.S.|əʊt|
[f. prec. n.: cf. corn v. 6.]
trans. To feed (a horse) with oats. Also absol.
1732B. Lynde Diary 9 May (1880) 26 Next morning..dined at Hampton;..thence to Greenland, where oated, and for 2 horses and drink, 2s. 1741Ibid. 27 Oct. 121 Breakfasted and oated our 3 horses, at Deacon Tucker's. 1751MacSparran Diary (1899) 51 Got up early, set out, oated at Peirce's. 1770J. Adams Diary Wks. 1850 II. 240 Oated my horse at Newbury. 1787M. Cutler in Life, etc. (1888) I. 290 Stopped at a miserable hut of a tavern and oated my horse. 1788Ibid. 402 Made a stage at Jennison's..only to oat. Ibid., After oating, we went on to Martin's. 1855P. T. Barnum Life 70 Old ‘Bob’ was duly oated and watered. |