| 释义 |
peacock's tail
1. The tail-coverts of the peacock collectively, which the bird is able to erect in a resplendent vertical circle behind its body.
1570Dee Math. Pref. b j b, As with a Pecockes tayle. 1653Walton Angler v. 117 The Black-fly,..the body made of black wool, and lapped about with the herl of a peacock's tail. 1794Sullivan View Nat. II. 16 The luminous and coloured circle, tinged like the peacock's tail. Mod. Proverb (Sc.), When March comes in with an adder's head, it goes out with a peacock's tail.
2. Hence in various transferred applications:
†a. An old name for the eighth proposition of the third book of Euclid, in reference to the figure.
1570Billingsley Euclid iii. viii. 88 Thys Proposition is called commonly in old bookes amongest the barbarous,..the Peacockes taile.
b. The beautiful seaweed Padina pavonia, having broadly fan-shaped fronds marked with concentric fringed lines.
1857Wood Com. Obj. Sea Shore 50 The name of it is the Peacock's-Tail, deriving its title from its shape. 1866Treas. Bot. 835/1 Padina pavonia, our Turkey-feather Laver or Peacock's Tail, is one of the most remarkable species.
†c. A colour in alchemy. Obs.
1610B. Jonson Alch. ii. ii, Your seuerall colours, sir, Of the pale citron, the greene lyon, the crow, The peacocks taile.
d. (See quot.)
1744–50W. Ellis Mod. Husbandm. VII. i. 84 [Maple] wood is of more value than ordinary woods are, for their diapered knots and curled grain, that have given it the name of the peacock's tail.
e. A kind of pyrotechnic shower.
1799G. Smith Laboratory I. 9 This shower is commonly called the peacock's tail, on account of the various colours that appear in it.
f. peacock's tail (peacock-tail) tarnish: the iridescent lustre found in some ores and metallic products; = pavonine B. 1 (see quots. s.v.). |