| 释义 |
peacock's feather, peacock feather
1. A feather of the peacock; spec. one of the long feathers forming the tail coverts, adorned with iridescent ocelli or ‘eyes’, and used for various ornamental purposes. Hence,
b. Taken as a symbol of vainglory, or a decoration of rank or station;
c. (in reference to the fable of the jay decked with peacock's feathers) A ‘borrowed plume’; a borrowed ornament of style or passage in a literary composition.
c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xxiii. 106 Made of gold and precious stanes and pacok fethers. 1500–20Dunbar Poems lxviii. 8 The sasoun soft and fair, Come in als fresche as pacok feddir. 1545R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 129 At a short but,..ye Pecock fether doth seldome kepe vp ye shaft eyther ryght or leuel. 1560Pilkington Exp. Aggeus (1562) 167 It woulde make our proude peacockes feathers too fall. 1575–85Abp. Sandys Serm. vii. §37 If wee did looke upon our blacke feete, our faire Peacocke fethers would soone fall downe. 1837Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 17/2 We meet with a peacock's feather of some length in the following passage. 1848Thackeray Bk. Snobs xx, All these people might be so happy, and easy, and friendly,..but for an unhappy passion for peacocks' feathers in England.
2. Name for a small moth, Yponomeuta comptella.
1832Rennie Consp. Butterfl. & Moths 198.
Hence ˈpeacock-ˌfeathered a., fitted or adorned with peacock's feathers.
1429Test. Ebor. (Surtees) I. 419 Pakok-federid arrows. 1896Westm. Gaz. 16 Nov. 2/1 The famous peacock-feathered cap began to show above the floor of the platform. |