| 释义 |
▪ I. owl, n.|aʊl|
Forms: α. 1–3 úle, 4–6 oule, 5–7 owle, (5 owele, 5–6 owll(e, 7 oole), 6– owl. β. 5–6 howle, 5 howylle, 6 houle.
[Com. Teut.: OE. úle wk. fem., = OLG. *ûla (MDu., MLG., LG. ûle, Du. uil):—*ûlôn, from *ûwlôn: cf. OHG. ûwila (MHG. iuwel, iule, Ger. eule, mod.Fl. uwele), ON. ugla. These point back to OTeut. *uwwalâ, *uwwilâ, dim. of an echoic *uwwâ, derived from the voice of the bird. Cf. OHG. hûwo, OLG. hûo, MHG. hûwe, also mod.G. uhu, names of the owl of similar echoic origin; also L. ulula owl, ululāre to howl, and howl, howlet.]
1. a. A nocturnal bird of prey, well known by its doleful ‘hoot’, having a large head, small face, raptorial beak, and large eyes directed forwards, beset by a disk of radiating feathers; feeding on mice, small birds, and the like, which it can approach noiselessly by reason of its soft plumage. The name has app. been applied in English from the beginning to all the native species, esp. the two or three common ones: see b.
c725Corpus Gloss. (O.E.T.) 1382 Noctua, ulula, ule. Ibid. 2150 Ulula, ulae. c1000ælfric Lev. xi. 16 Ne ete ᵹe nan þinᵹ hafoccynnes ne earncynnes: Ne ulan. a1250Owl & Night. 4 Iherde ich holde grete tale Ane ule and one nightegale. c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 2249 Philomene, The oule [v.r. owle]..That prophete is of wo & of myschaunce. c1440Promp. Parv. 374/2 Owle, or howle, byrde, bubo. 1535Coverdale Ps. ci. 6 Like a Pellicane in the wildernes, and like an Oule in a broken wall. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. ii. ii. 6 The clamorous Owle that nightly hoots. 1663Boyle Usef. Exp. Nat. Philos. i. iv. 66 As the eyes of owls are to the splendor of the day. 1714Gay Sheph. Week vi. 53 For Owles, as Swains observe, detest the Light. 1826Disraeli Viv. Grey v. xv, The screech of the waking owl. 1887Ruskin Præterita II. 363 Whatever wise people may say of them, I at least myself have found the owl's cry always prophetic of mischief to me.
b. The common British species are the barn owl (white, silver, yellow, church, hissing, hobby, screech owl); the tawny owl (brown, grey, beech, ferny, hoot, hooting, ivy, wood owl); the long-eared owl or horned owl (long-tufted, mottled-tufted owl).
Less common are the short-eared owl (fern, hawk, october, red, short-horn, woodcock owl), the eagle owl (stock owl of Orkney), little owl (bare-toed, little night owl), snowy owl or great white owl.
1390Gower Conf. II. 265 Sche caste in..A part ek of the horned Oule. 1500–20Dunbar Poems xxxiii. 74 The myttane, and Sanct Martynis fowle, Wend he had bene the hornit howle. 1611Cotgr., Lucheran, a scrich-owle. 1623J. Wodroephe Marrow Fr. Tongue 399/2 With Stockes, Wood, Wolues, and Scrick-Ooles. 1674Ray Collect. Words, Eng. Birds 83 The common gray or Ivy-Owl. 1678― Willughby's Ornith. 101 Our Church Owl and brown Owl..delight in lower and plain countrys. 1770G. White Selborne xxix. 81 To Pennant, I have known a dove-house infested by a pair of white owls, which made great havock among the young pigeons. 1830Tennyson Song Owl 7 Alone and warming his five wits, The white owl in the belfry sits. 1882J. Hardy in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club IX. 428 The horned, white, and brown owls have here an undisturbed refuge. 1882A. Hepburn Ibid. 504 The Long-Eared, Tawny, and Barn Owls, were permanently resident.
c. Ornith. Any bird of the sub-order Striges.
These comprise the families Aluconinæ (Strigidæ of Sharpe) and Striginæ or Strigidæ (Bubonidæ of Sharpe), typified respectively by the Screech or Barn Owl (Aluco flammeus Fleming, Strix Linn.), and the Tawny or Brown Owl (S. stridula Linn.); and including, among 19 genera, those typified by the Hawk Owl (Surnia), Snowy Owl (Nyctea) which are diurnal in habit, the Horned or Eared Owls (Asio), Eagle Owl (Bubo), Cue Owl (Scops), Little Owl (Carine noctua), and American Burrowing Owl (Speotyto cunicularia). The known species are about 200.
1706Phillips s.v., In Virginia there is a sort of Owl as big as a Goose, that kills the Poultry in the Night. 1802Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) II. 62 The Great Horned or Eagle Owl..which is common in many parts of Greece, was even considered as a favourite bird of Minerva. 1859Tennent Ceylon II. vii. vii. 257 Across the grey sky the owl flits in pursuit of the night moths. 1869tr. Pouchet's Universe (ed. 11) 219 This species abounds in the Mississippi regions, where it shelters itself in subterranean abodes several yards in depth..It is called the burrowing-owl (Strix cunicularia). 1884–5Stand. Nat. Hist. (1888) IV. 345 The great gray owl, Syrnium cinereum, an extremely rare winter visitor to the northern United States. 1894Newton Dict. Birds 675 Among Owls are found birds which vary in length from 5 inches—as Glaucidium cobanense,..much smaller than a Skylark—to more than 2 feet..[A] characteristic of nearly all Owls is the reversible property of their outer toes. 1896Daily News 6 June 8/1 In Valdivia, Dr. Plate observed the remarkable earth owl, which digs long shafts in the steppes, and is distinguished for its terrible scream.
d. In various proverbial sayings.
(to carry or send owls to Athens, after Gr. γλαῦκ' ἀθήναζε ἄγειν (Aristoph. Birds 301), to ‘carry coals to Newcastle’, to take a commodity where it already abounds; the owl being the emblem of Pallas Athene, the patron goddess of Athens, and represented on Athenian coins, etc.)
1390Gower Conf. I. 299 Bot Oule on Stock and Stock on Oule; The more that a man defoule, Men witen wel which hath the werse. 1590Swinburne Testaments Pref., I may be thought to powre water into the Sea, to carrie owles to Athens, and to trouble the reader with a matter altogether needlesse and superfluous. 1602Shakes. Ham. iv. v. 41 They say the Owle was a Bakers daughter. a1611Beaum. & Fl. Four Plays in one, Induct., Could not you be content To be an owl in such an ivy-bush? 1622Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 426 There is a Custome that no Officer may arrest after Sun set; such therefore as goe abroad but at those times, are said to Fly with the Owle, by a common Prouerbe. 1738–1869 [see ivy-bush]. 1764H. Walpole Let. to Earl of Hertford 15 Feb., The noise, which made me as drunk as an owl. 1787Grose Prov. Gloss. s.v., To take owl, to be offended, to take amiss. 1840Marryat Poor Jack xxxvi, The..men will be as drunk as owls.
2. transf. and fig.
a. Applied to a person in allusion to nocturnal habits, to literal or figurative repugnance to light, to appearance of gravity and wisdom (often with implication of underlying stupidity), etc. Hence = wiseacre, solemn dullard.
1413Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton) i. xxvii. (1859) 31 Peple, whiche the wretchyd horrible owle of helle had drawen out of theyr nest. 1508Kennedie Flyting w. Dunbar 36 Fantastik fule,..Ignorant elf, aip, owll irregular. 1579Fulke Heskins's Parl. 15 The Owles and Battes of our time, either can not, or will not see it. 1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. ii. Imposture 377 In heav'nly things..more blinde then Moals, In earthly, Owls. 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. ii. i. 99, I bad thee vile Owle, goe learne me the tenure of the Proclamation. 1694Echard Plautus 172 But without flattery, I was a great Owl for not falling in love before now. 1847L. Hunt Men, Women, & B. II. ii. 32 It vexes one to see so fine a poet make such an owl of himself.
b. Brown Owl, the name given to the adult leader of a Brownie Guides pack; Tawny Owl, a Brown Owl's assistant.
1918R. S. S. Baden-Powell Girl Guiding i. ii. 17 The Brown Owl (that is, the leader of the Pack) takes her place by the toadstool. Ibid. 21 Each Pack is under the charge of a grown-up leader—the Brown Owl. 1921in ― Brownies (ed. 2) 60 A Brownie Pack consists of not less than two Sixes..under a Brownie Guider, who is called the Brown Owl, and her assistant the Tawny Owl. 1932[see pack n.1 3 d]. 1950Oxf. Jun. Encycl. IX. 254/1 Brownies are divided into ‘Packs’ of 18–24 children, under the leadership of two adult leaders, known to the Brownies as ‘Brown Owl’ and ‘Tawny Owl’. 1968M. Finch Eye with Mascara xiv. 149 She sounded like Brown Owl chivvying her Brownies. 1973Brownie 10 Jan. 7/1 Our Pack has a membership of 20 keen Brownies... Our meetings are held at Brown Owl's house... Tawny Owl is a Sister at Hetune and walks all the way to our meetings. 1977Guider July 331/2 She was a Guider in this Company, a Brown Owl of the 1st Teignmouth Pack, a Sea Ranger Skipper and a District Commissioner.
3. a. A name for the Lump Fish, more fully sea owl. b. A variety of Ray, the owl-ray.
1601Holland Pliny II. 428 The Lompe, Paddle or sea-Owle. 1862Couch Brit. Fishes I. 115 Sandy Ray, Owl, Raia circularis. Ibid. II. 183 Sea Owl, the Lumpfish. 1863Kingsley Water Bab. iv, Where the great owl-rays leap and flap, like giant bats, upon the tide.
4. A fancy variety of the domestic pigeon distinguished by its owl-like head and prominent ruff; also called owl-pigeon.
1725Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Pigeon, There are..many sorts of pigeons, such as..Petits, Owls, Spots, Trumpeters, Shakers, &c. 1765Treat. Dom. Pigeons 125 The owl is..a small Pigeon, very little larger than a jacobine. 1899Q. Rev. Oct. 415 He crossed a white fantail cock with the offspring of an owl and an archangel.
5. A local name (in South Eng.) of certain moths.
1853W. D. Cooper Sussex Gloss. 1883Hampsh. Gloss., Owl..(1) The tiger-moth...(2) Any small white moth.
†6. Name of some game. Obs.
1653Urquhart Rabelais i. xxii. 95 There he played..At the billiards, At bob and hit, At the owle [Fr. au hybou]. 1660Howell Lexicon xxviii, To play at the Owl, alla civetta; a la chouëtte.
7. attrib. and Comb., as owl barn, owl belfry, owl-cote, owl-down, owl flight, owl-hoot, owl-light, owl-time; owl-eye, owl-hole, owl-shooter, owl-sight; owl's head, owl wing, etc.; instrumental, as owl-frequented, owl-haunted adjs.; parasynthetic and similative, as owl-dark, owl-downy, owl-dusk, owl-dusked, owl-eyed, owl-faced, owl-headed, owl-sighted owl-soft, owl-winged, owl-wise adjs.; also owl-like; owl-wise adv.; † owl-blasted a., bewitched; owl bus N. Amer., a bus running during the night; owl car N. Amer., a tramcar running during the night; owl-catchers, gloves of stout leather; owl jug, a porcelain jug shaped like an owl; owl-train (U.S.), a train running during the night; owl trolley = owl car.
1603Harsnet Pop. Impost. xxi. 137 No doubt but mother Nobs is the witch, the young girle is *owleblasted and possessed.
1947Sun (Baltimore) 24 June 10/2 Operators of all other all-night busses and trolleys have been directed to connect with the *owl bus, just as they did with the..owl trolley. 1975Washington Post 26 Dec. A 22/3 Chances are the owl bus riders will..simply fade away.., just another segment of the population abandoned by the Metro system.
1889Farmer Americanisms 405/2 *Owl-Car, a tram-car plying late into the night. 1904N.Y. Even. Post 7 May 1 The driver of an ‘owl car’ that rattled eastward on Spring street. 1911Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 21 Apr. 12/7 An ‘owl car’ service has been inaugurated by the B.C.E.R. Company at Vancouver. 1947Sun (Baltimore) 24 June 10/2 The No. 17 owl or all-night car has been supplanted by a No. 28 bus.
1879Jefferies Amateur Poacher, A pair of ‘*owl-catchers’, gloves of stout white leather.
1863‘G. Hamilton’ Gala-Days 107 For the substantial stone city..turns out to be a miserable little dirty, hutty, smutty, stagnant *owl-cote.
1920E. Sitwell Wooden Pegasus 41 In *owl-dark garments goes the Rain.
1924― Sleeping Beauty ii. 18 Smoothing the dusky dawn's *owl-down.
a1849Poe Enigma, Petrarch. stuff Poems (1859) 79 *Owl-downy nonsense.
1928E. Sitwell Five Poems 18 That sang sweet country songs in owl-dusked leaves:..but time drifts *owl-dusk o'er the brightest eyes.
1868Browning Ring & Bk. vi. 1786 With a wink of the *owl-eyes of you.
1640Sir E. Dering Carmelite (1641) 16 Others of your bent who are..*owle-eyed in Sunshine. 1843Carlyle Past & Pr. ii. xvii, Valiant Wisdom..escorted by owl-eyed Pedantry. 1925F. Scott Fitzgerald Great Gatsby iii. 45 A..man, with enormous owl-eyed spectacles.
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 309 b, To begette suche foule babies & *oule faced doudes.
a1529Skelton Dk. Albany 312 He ran away by nyght In the *owle flyght Lyke a cowarde knyght.
a1839Praed Poems (1865) II. 38 Things hid In *owl-frequented pyramid.
c1795Young in Ann. Agric. XXIII. 376 Wool on the cheeks and throat (but not to the degree they term *owl-headed) [sheep]. 1960Auden Homage to Clio 55 Steatopygous, sow-dugged and owl-headed. 1968Listener 11 July 59/2 A Chou Dynasty bronze bell with tiger-handle and an owl-headed drinking vessel.
1898Board of Agric. Leaflet No. 51 In many old barns..there are *owl-holes just under the eaves, formed with ledges specially made for ingress and egress.
1938W. de la Mare Memory 11 Came *owl-hoot From the thicket.
1925B. Rackham tr. E. Hannover's Pott. & Porc. I. 554 The origin of the faïence owls..is fully discussed..by Walter Stengel..in the Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft for 1924, p. 26. He gives good reason for regarding these *owl-jugs,..as being of Nuremberg origin. 1936[see double eagle 2]. 1960R. G. Haggar Conc. Encycl. Cont. Pott. & Porc. 339/1 Faience owl jugs were made at Nuremberg in Germany... Specimens dating between 1540 and 1560 are recorded by Rackham.
1934*Owl light [see moth-light s.v. moth n.1 3]. 1936Dylan Thomas Twenty-Five Poems 42 Altarwise by owl-light in the halfway-house The gentleman lay graveward with his furies.
a1618Sylvester Maiden's Blush 1063 *Owl-like in a Cloud involv'd. 1844H. Rogers Ess. I. ii. 84 The owl-like gravity of thousands of common readers.
1530Palsgr. 250/1 *Oules heed, hure. [Littré: hure, tête hérissée et en désordre.]
1596C. Fitzgeffrey Sir F. Drake (1881) 31 *Oule-sighted eies, that dazled are with light, But see acutelie in the darksome night.
1924E. Sitwell Sleeping Beauty xvi. 59 An *owl-soft shadow falling over folly. 1953W. de la Mare O Lovely England 32 Owl-soft his wings.
1871Browning Pr. Hohenst. 188 An outspread providential hand Above the *owl's-wing aigrette.
1972R. Adams Watership Down xxiii. 159 By *owl-time Bigwig and his helpers had scratched out a kind of lobby inside the entrance to one of the runs leading down from the wood.
1856N.Y. Herald 8 Jan. 1/2 The ‘*Owl Train’, due at Jersey City at five o'clock yesterday morning, did not arrive until afternoon. 1876S. & A. Warner Gold of Chickaree 248 Must take the morning train. It's not quite an ‘owl train’—but comes along, I believe, by eight o'clock. 1882McCabe New York 190 (Farmer) The Third avenue line runs its trains all night... These are the owl-trains. 1910N.Y. Even. Post 22 Dec. 3 The engine of the ‘owl train’—for by this term the one leaving New York after midnight is called..went off the track. 1947Los Angeles Times 18 Jan. 1/1 (heading) 7 killed and 86 hurt in wreck of owl train.
1947*Owl trolley [see owl bus above].
a1822Shelley Def. Poetry Pr. Wks. 1888 II. 32 Those eternal regions where the *owl-winged faculty of calculation dare not soar.
1906Kipling in Tribune 16 Jan. 4/3 Jimmy..rolled his congested eye-balls, *owl-wise. 1912W. Deeping Sincerity xxxviii. 276 His round, lard-coloured, mildly owl-wise face. 1939Joyce Finnegans Wake i. 78 The eternals were owlwise on their side every time.
b. esp. in names of animals, as owl-butterfly, a large South American butterfly (Caligo eurylochus) with large ocelli, likened to owls' eyes, on the posterior wings; owl-faced bat, the bat Chilonycteris Macleayii, a native of Cuba and Jamaica; owl-faced monkey = owl-monkey; owl-fly, (a) an angler's name for Sialia lutaria; (b) = owl midge; owl-gazelle, Sœmmering's Gazelle, the native name of which is aoul; owl-gnat, a gnat of the tribe Noctuiformes, family Psychodidæ; owl midge = moth-fly (moth n. 3); owl-monkey, a South American monkey of the genus Nyctipithecus; owl-moth, a very large Brazilian moth (Erebus strix) resembling an owl in its colouring and in the appearance of its hind wings; owl-parrot = kakapo; owl-pigeon: see 4; owl-ray: see 3; owl-swallow, a bird of the family Podargidæ, akin to the night-jars.
1884Stand. Nat. Hist. (1888) II. 489 C. eurylochus or the ‘*owl-butterfly’..being common throughout South America.
1863Bates Nat. Amazon II. 102 The nocturnal, *owl-faced monkey (Nyctipithecus trivirgatus).
1676Cotton Angler ii. 335 Late at night is taken the *Owl-fly. 1799G. Smith Laboratory II. 298 The yellow-miller, or owl fly. 1932Riley & Johannsen Med. Entomol. xiv. 195 The Psychodidae, popularly known as moth flies, owl flies, sand flies, or papataci, are minute dark-coloured insects whose body and wings are densely covered with hairs.
1951Colyer & Hammond Flies Brit. Isles 84 The *Owl Midges or Hairy Moth-flies are easily recognisable; they may often be seen on windows, where they either run actively with a curious, jerky gait or remain perfectly still. 1962Gordon & Lavoipierre Entomol. for Students of Med. xx. 131 Flies belonging to the other three subfamilies [of Psychodidae]..are known as moth flies or owl midges.
1862T. W. Harris Insects injur. Veget. (ed. 3) v. 338 The *owl-moth (Erebus Strix) has wings which, though not so broad, expand eleven inches.
1880–1Libr. Univ. Knowl. (U.S.) XI. 141 *Owl-parrot..in New Zealand, the kakapo or night-parrot. 1890W. P. Ball Effects of Use & Disuse 69 The rudimentary keel of the sternum in the owl-parrot of New Zealand.
1869–73Cassell's Bk. Birds II. 136 The *Owl Swallows (Podargi).
c. Also owl's crown, a composite plant Filago germanica; (? erroneously) Wood Cudweed (Gnaphalium sylvaticum).
1787W. Marshall Norfolk Gloss., Owlscrown,..gnaphalium sylvaticum, wood cudweed. 1880Britten & Holland Plant-n., Owl's Crown, Filago germanica.
▪ II. owl, v.1
[f. owl n.]
intr. To behave, hoot, look, or go about like an owl; to pry about, prowl, esp. in the dark. Now chiefly dial.
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 248 By reason of an oule, breakyng his slepe..with hir oughlyng. 1656Hobbes Six Lessons Wks. 1845 VII. 278 Is it not therefore..well owled of you, to teach the contrary? 1778Wolcott (P. Pindar) Ep. to Reviewers xxviii, Mousing for faults or, if you'll have it, owling. 1893Wilts. Gloss., Owl about, to moon about out of doors in the dark.
▪ III. † owl, v.2 Obs.
[app. a back-formation from owler, owling.]
trans. To smuggle (wool or sheep) out of England; to carry on the trade of an owler.
1738Obs. British Wool Title-p., A Scheme for preventing our Wool from being Owled Abroad for the future, if put in Practice. |