| 释义 |
▪ I. pebble, n.|ˈpɛb(ə)l|
Forms: α. 1 papol-, popel-stán, 6 pipple-, pypple-, pibple-stan(e; also 6 poppell, 7 pipple. β. 4 pobble; 3–6 puble-, 4 pibbil-, 6 pybble-ston; 6 pyble, 6–7 pible, 6–7 (dial. –9) pibble; 6– pebble, (6–7 (dial. –9) peable, peeble, 7–8 peble).
[Existing in many forms, some going back to OE., the phonetic relations of which are obscure, and as yet undetermined.]
1. a. A stone worn and rolled to a rounded form by the action of water; usually applied to one of small or moderate size, less than a boulder or cobble. Also, a stone similarly rounded by attrition of ice or sand. (OE. examples, see pebble-stone.)
c1290S. Eng. Leg., Magdalena 469 Huy i-seiȝen bi þe stronde: a luytel child gon pleye with publes on is honde. 13..E.E. Allit. P. A. 117 For vche a pobble in pole þer pyȝt Watz Emerad, saffer oþer gemme gent. 1542Boorde Dyetary x. (1870) 253 Ryuer or broke water,..ronnyng on pibles and grauayl. 1570Levins Manip. 47/7 A Pebble, stone, calculus. 1624Bp. Hall Serm. at Re-edified Chapell of Earle of Exceter in Var. Treat. (1627) 531 A pibble out of the brook. 1635–56Cowley Davideis i. 677 The chaste stream that 'mong loose peebles fell. 1695Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) III. 515 There being two great guns, they charged them with pibbles instead of bullets. c1760Smollett Ode to Leven-Water 10 With white, round, polish'd pebbles spread. 1774Pennant Tour Scot. in 1772, 22 June, At Feorling another stupendous cairn..formed of rounded stones or pebbles brought from the shore. 1813Bakewell Introd. Geol. ii. 52 Rounded fragments from the magnitude of a pea to that of a melon are generally called pebbles. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 132 [The fragment of rock] may ultimately be rubbed into the form of smooth round pebbles.
†b. (without a) Used collectively, or as a material; a bed, deposit, or heap of pebbles.
1574W. Bourne Regiment for Sea xxii. (1577) 60 You shall finde 38. fadom, and poppell as bigge as beanes. 1588Greene Pandosto (1607) 10 Precious Diamonds are cut.., when despised peable lye safe in the sand. 1592Lyly Gallathea i. i. 13 A heape of small pyble. 1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag. v. xii. 54 The proper Stone for this purpose is Marble, Pibble, Blew hand Stone.
c. fig. slang (chiefly Austral.) A person or animal very hard to deal with. Also, a term of affection (applied to a person or animal). Phr. (as) game as a pebble (see quot. 1959) (obs.).
1829P. Egan Boxiana 2nd Ser. II. 20 Hudson, as game as a pebble, stuck to his man like glue. 1851‘W. T. Moncrieff’ Scamps of London III. i. 56, in Sel. Dram. Wks. I, Now, my pebbles, I'll give you a toast. c1863T. Taylor Ticket-of-Leave Man i. 11 Doctor? Nay; I'm as game as a pebble and as stell as a tree! 1874M. Clarke His Natural Life iv. vii. 415 ‘You're not such a pebble as folks seem to think,’ grinned Frere. 1888‘R. Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms III. ix. 123 Then the Turon favourite—a real game pebble of a little horse—began to show up. 1890― Col. Reformer vi. (1890) 49 He was a regular pebble, and the old cow hadn't been in the yard since he was branded. 1893K. Mackay Out Back 188 Cabbage Tree Ned is as game as a pebble, and may try to dash through in spite of us. 1901E. Dyson in Bulletin Story Bk 134 The Imp.., game as a pebble, despite his age and infirmities. 1918C. Fetherstonhaugh After Many Days 227 Traveller was game as a pebble, and he just passed Quadrant on the post and no more. 1945Baker Austral. Lang. iv. 88 Game as a pebble{ddd}(a pebble is a person, especially a larrikin, or an animal hard to control.). 1959― Drum (1960) 133 Pebble, a person (occasionally a horse) hard to control. Whence, game as a pebble, extremely courageous. 1974D. Stuart Prince of My Country 166 He was as hard as nails and as game as a pebble.
d. Colloq. phr. the only pebble on the beach and varr., the only person or thing to be considered in a particular situation; used spec. (usu. in negative contexts) with reference to an eligible man or woman.
1896H. Braisted (song-title) You're not the only pebble on the beach. Ibid., If you want to win her hand, Let the maiden understand That she's not the only pebble on the beach! 1906E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands x. 128 S' elp me shicker, Twenty, you was the on'y pebble. 1924H. De Sélincourt Cricket Match v. 156 There were other pebbles on the beach beside him. 1927S. Spaeth Weep some more, my Lady x. 259 Another phrase that became a recognized part of the English language was ‘You're not the only pebble on the beach’, made into a song by Harry Braisted and Stanley Carter. 1930M. Kennedy Fool of Family vii. 66, I won't look at your damned things... You think you're the only pebble on the beach. 1933E. O'Neill Ah, Wilderness! i. 19 What do I care for him? He's not the only pebble on the beach. 1933D. L. Sayers Hangman's Holiday 193 The Birmingham–London express reached Rugby at 10.24, departing again at 10.28. But, swift and impressive as it was, it was not the only, or the most important, pebble on the station beach, for over against it upon the down line was the Irish Mail. 1936G. B. Shaw Simpleton ii. 73 The British Empire was not the only pebble on the beach. 1945‘P. Wentworth’ Clock strikes Twelve ii. 15 A heart-to-heart talk with someone who makes me feel I'm the only pebble on the beach. 1977World of Cricket Monthly June 87/1 He was not the only pebble on the Middlesbrough beach.
2. A name for various gems or valuable stones.
†a. Applied to a pearl (quot. 1600).
b. A colourless transparent kind of rock-crystal, used instead of glass in spectacles; a lens made of this.
c. An agate or other gem found as a pebble in streams, esp. in Scotland (Scotch pebble); also, various kinds of agate, as Egyptian pebble, Mocha pebble.
d. Applied rhetorically to the magnetic ‘stone’ or ‘loadstone’ (quot. 1856).
1600Tourneur Transf. Metam. xl, The pearly pibble which the Ocean keepes. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 39/2 The Christal, and Bristow Stone, or Pipple. 1695Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth iv. (1723) 200 Flints, Agates, Onyxes, Pebles, Jaspers, Cornelions. 1774Pennant Tour Scotl. in 1772, 23 June, Sardonyxes; and other beautiful stones, indiscriminately called Scotch pebbles. 1793W. & S. Jones Catal. Optical etc. Instr. 1 Best double-jointed standard gold spectacles with pebbles. 1847–8H. Miller First Impr. xiv. (1857) 233 Like one of our Scotch pebbles, so common..in their rude state. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Ability Wks. (Bohn) II. 37 More than the diamond Koh-i-noor,..they prize that dull pebble..whose poles turn themselves to the poles of the world. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 59 Those spectacle lenses which are said to be made of ‘pebbles’. 1889Cent. Dict. s.v. Brazilian, Brazilian pebbles, lenses for spectacles ground from pure, colorless rock-crystal obtained from Brazil.
e. A kind of earthenware invented by Wedgwood; see pebble-ware in 5 b.
1768Wedgwood Let. to Bentley 21 Nov. in Life (1866) II. 97 We can make things for mounting with great facility and dispatch, and mounting will enhance their value greatly... Pebble will in this way scarcely be discover'd to be counterfeit. 1776― Let. 27 Jan. in Eliza Meteyard Wedgwood & Wks. (1873) 44, I observe what you say about Pebble vases... If we mean the general complexion of the pebble to be light, and they meet with a heavy fire in the biskit oven, the..tints will be many shades darker than intended.
3. a. Short for pebble-leather: see 5 b. Also, the rough irregular grain produced on leather by pebbling: see pebble v. 3.
1875[see pebble v. 3]. 1885C. T. Davis Leather xxix. 500 The waxed or colored split is stained on the flesh side, and it is strictly known as the ‘colored pebble’.
b. Short for pebble-powder: see 5 b.
1880Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9) XI. 328/1 Large cannon powder, such as ‘pebble’..is..enclosed in cases.
4. A collector's name for certain Cuspidate moths (so called from the wavy markings on their wings resembling those of agate).
a. The pebble or pebble prominent, Notodonta ziczac.
b. The pebble hook-tip, Platypteryx falcula.
1832Rennie Conspectus Butterfl. & M. 33 The Pebble (N. ziczac). 1869Newman Brit. Moths 231 The Pebble Prominent. Ibid. 207 The Pebble Hook-tip.
5. attrib. and Comb.
a. simple attrib. Of or pertaining to a pebble or pebbles; made or consisting of pebbles, or of agate or ‘Scotch pebble’, as pebble brooch; made of thick glass, so as to appear almost opaque, as pebble (eye)glasses, pebble lens, pebble spectacles.
1818M. Edgeworth Let. 21 Dec. (1971) 150 This little *pebble brooch will reach you I hope just in time for you to give it..to Harriette for a Christmas box. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair lviii, Her mamma's..large pebble brooch.
1933C. St. J. Sprigg Fatality in Fleet Street i. 14 His beady eyes regarded the Chief coldly behind his pebble *eye⁓glasses.
1818Keats Endym. ii. 112 My veined *pebble floor.
1938E. Ambler Cause for Alarm xvi. 206 The pair of thick *pebble glasses..rendered me practically blind. 1958P. Mortimer Daddy's gone a-Hunting ii. 11 A stern little girl in thick pebble glasses. 1972M. Woodhouse Mama Doll ii. 4 A short fat man with mad bushy hair and pebble glasses. 1977J. Aiken Last Movement i. 14 His eyes myopic behind thick pebble glasses.
1796W. Combe Boydell's Thames II. 279 Four large stones..which seem to be of the *pebble kind.
1955H. Spring These Lovers fled Away 437 The spectacles now had *pebble lenses. 1958Spectator 30 May 687/3 The sadistic young slug of a lodger with dirty finger⁓nails and pebble-lens spectacles. 1964R. Church Voyage Home viii. 166 Thick, pebble lenses, flashed at me like headlamps.
1955H. Spring These Lovers fled Away 142 He was a dark, robust-looking youth, with flaring nostrils and *pebble spectacles. 1976‘W. Trevor’ Children of Dynmouth v. 115 He wore thick pebble spectacles, behind which his eyes were unnaturally magnified.
1725Ramsay Gent. Sheph. iii. i, Round the figur'd green and *pebble walks.
b. Comb., as pebble-beach, pebble-bead, pebble-bed, pebble-crystal, pebble-paving, pebble-ridge; pebble-covered, pebble-lensed, pebble-like, pebble-paved (poet. pebble-paven), pebble-strewn adjs.; pebble-beached a. slang, (a) penniless, destitute; (b) dazed, absent-minded; pebble-bed, (a) Geol., a conglomerate that contains pebbles, esp. one from which they readily work loose with weathering; (b) Nuclear Sci., used attrib. to designate a nuclear reactor in which the fuel elements are in the form of pellets having an outer layer of moderator; pebble-cast, the casting or throwing of a pebble or pebbles, or a mass of pebbles cast up, e.g. by the sea; pebble chopper Archæol., a primitive chopping tool made from a pebble (see pebble tool below); pebble culture, name given to a culture which uses pebbles as materials for tools, identified orig. in Africa but now known to have existed also in America, Asia, and Europe; pebble-dashed a., treated with pebble-dash or -dashing, i.e. mortar with pebbles incorporated in it; pebble grain, a patterned grain produced by pebbling (see pebble v. 3); pebble-grained adj., (a) having a pattern produced by pebbling; (b) of lenses etc., having the appearance of pebble (see sense 2 b above); pebble-hearted, a., hard-hearted, stony-hearted; pebble-leather, pebbled leather (see pebble v. 3); pebble powder, a slow-burning gunpowder prepared in the form of cubes or prisms of the size of pebbles; pebble tool Archæol., a primitive tool made by chipping and shaping pebbles, thought to be the earliest use of stone tools by man; pebble-vetch, a cultivated variety of Vicia sativa (Britten & Holl.); pebble-ware, a kind of Wedgwood ware in which clays of different colours are incorporated in the paste; pebble weave, a weave producing a rough surface. Also pebble-stone.
1890in Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang II. 120/2 He had arrived at a crisis of impecuniosity compared to which the small circumstance of being *pebble-beached and stony⁓broke might be described as comparative affluence. 1897Sporting Times 3 July 1/4 She was absolutely stony, pebble-beached to all the world. 1934Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves xvii. 216 Gussie..switched on that pebble⁓beached smile again and tacked down to the edge of the platform.
1818Keats Endym. ii. 149 Free from the smallest *pebble-bead of doubt.
1851Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc. VII. 77 The valley is..so encumbered with detritus of the overlying and reaggregated *pebble beds, that except at the town of Vichy it is almost impossible to make good observations. 1914J. Park Text-bk. Geol. xxviii. 377 The three main divisions of the Trias recognised in the British Isles are:—3. Rhætic... 2. Keuper... 1. Bunter... The Bunter consists of red and variously hued sandstones and conglomerates or pebble beds of fluviatile or fluvio-lacustrine origin. 1961New Scientist 16 Mar. 695/1 W. Germany is to have what is probably the first operational ‘pebble-bed’ reactor... The fuel elements are balls of graphite with centres of uranium carbide. 1969Financial Times 9 Jan. 7/6 The experimental ‘pebble bed’ reactor at Juelich more closely approaches the idea of a nuclear system into which fuel is simply shovelled. 1969Bennison & Wright Geol. Hist. Brit. Isles xii. 274 The Bunter Pebble Beds characteristically occur in the Midlands... The name Pebble Beds is a descriptive term and the formation comprises sandstone with pebbles.
1868Fitzgerald tr. Omar (ed. 2) xlvii, As the Sea's self should heed a *pebble-cast.
1959J. D. Clark Prehist. S. Afr. v. 115 Some of these flakes were struck from cores and were not simply the waste flakes removed in preparing the *pebble⁓chopper. 1964Jennings & Norbeck Prehist. Man in New World 164 At the basal level Butler places the Congdon I complex—peripherally flaked pebble choppers. 1974Encycl. Brit. Micropædia VII. 825/3 Pebble chopper, or pebble tool, primordial cutting tool, examples of which have been dated at over 2,500 years BC.
a1728Woodward Nat. Hist. Fossils of Eng. (1729) I. 32 A Peble, about the bigness of a Wallnut. 'Tis wholly pellucid... This kind the Lapidaries call *Peble-Crystal.
1931J. D. Solomon in L. S. B. Leakey Stone Age Cultures Kenya Colony 264 Mr. C. van Riet Lowe..has studied the terraces of the Vaal River, and finds... (i) High terrace, with coarse gravel containing what may be a *pebble-culture. 1955Sci. Amer. Aug. 50/2 He has found two teeth of the man-ape in a deposit together with crudely chipped stone tools of the ‘pebble culture’. 1970J. D. Clark Prehist. Afr. ii. 68 It is a common misconception that the Oldowan tools were made from pebbles and the term ‘Pebble Culture’ has been used as synonymous with Oldowan.
1902Ann. Rep. Board of Regents Smithsonian Inst. 1901 106 A cheap frame construction was used, the sides of which were treated with *pebble-dash and the roof made of asphalted felt covered with crushed slag. 1911Encycl. Brit. XXI. 785/1 Rough-cast or Pebble-dash plastering is a rough form of external plastering in much use for country houses. 1960[see God-wottery]. 1973G. Moffat Deviant Death iv. 54 A dull collection of pebble dash houses and wood trim in cardinal colours.
1899Sir E. Burne-Jones in Mackail W. Morris I. 51 Tumbly old buildings, gable-roofed and *pebble-dashed.
1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 621/1 *Pebble-dashing (Plast.), a rough finish given to a wall by coating it with plaster, on to which, while it is still soft, small stones and liquid lime are thrown. 1978Lancashire Life Sept. 3/2 (Advt.), A detached house.., built approximately 1938 of brick with pebbledashing to most elevations.
1897Sears, Roebuck Catal. 194/3 Child's *pebble grain school shoe. 1931W. Faulkner Sanctuary xv. 133 Disembodied voices blaring from imitation wood cabinets or pebble⁓grain horn-mouths above the rapt faces. 1969R. T. Wilcox Dict. Costume (1970) 263/2 Pebble grain,..a leather, imitation leather or fabric given a grained surface by running it between rollers under pressure.
1971‘O. Bleeck’ Thief who painted Sunlight (1972) xiv. 123 His black, *pebble-grained loafers were burnished and gleaming. 1973W. M. Duncan Big Timer i. 10 Pale blue eyes which stared myopically from behind thick pebble-grained glasses.
1816Scott in Q. Rev. Oct. 198 Like Lance's *pebble-hearted cur. 1887F. T. Marzials Dickens v. 64, I am afraid I must be rather pebble-hearted.
1885C. T. Davis Leather xviii. 357 In the manufacture of *pebble and grain leathers.
1968F. Mullally Munich Involvement iii. 21 The woman..hesitated, blinking at Sullivan through *pebble-lensed glasses. 1975D. Pitts This City is Ours xix. 65 [He] peered..through heavy, pebble⁓lensed glasses. 1977‘E. Crispin’ Glimpses of Moon xiii. 284 Long-haired, pebble-lensed cissies in white coats.
1924W. de la Mare Ding Dong Bell 56 The *pebble-like tattling of a robin. 1960C. Day Lewis Buried Day 220 His stony eyes behind pebble-like glasses.
1841Bryant Poems 41 The rush of the *pebble-paved river.
1821Shelley Epipsych. 546 The *pebble-paven shore.
1838Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 391/2 Constant repairs being required to the *pebble paving of the stables. 1875Knight Dict. Mech., Pebble-paving, pavement laid with pebbles from 3 to 4 inches deep. When larger stones are used, it is known as bowlder-paving.
1871E. Cardwell in Daily News 3 Jan., We..set to work to adapt our machinery for the use of *pebble powder. 1880Times 27 Dec. 9/4 The powder charge..consists of 425 lb. of pebble, or 450 lb. of prismatic powder.
1931J. D. Solomon in L. S. B. Leakey Stone Age Cultures Kenya Colony 263 We thus seem to have the following succession of events in East Africa during the Pleistocene: (i) Wet period..which coincided with the epoch of the man who made *pebble-tools (Kafuan). 1959J. D. Clark Prehist. S. Afr. iv. 74 It is an open question whether Australopithecus could have made pebble-tools, the earliest examples of intentionally made implements known. 1961Times 5 Sept. 13/5 In fact..Australopithecinae had been found at four or five sites in association with pebble-tools. 1973B. J. Williams Evolution & Human Origins ix. 148/2 These are often referred to as ‘pebble-tools’, as they usually represent river pebbles that have been fractured in such a way that a cutting edge is produced.
a1722Lisle Observ. Husb. (1757) 125 The *pebble-vetch is a summer-vetch, different from the goar-vetch and not so big; they call it also the rath-ripe vetch. 1763Mills Pract. Husb. I. 475 The small black-seeded vetch, which some call rathripe, and others pebble, or summer vetch.
1941Archit. Rev. LXXXIX. 40 The floor is close-carpeted with a grey ‘*pebble-weave’ material. 1958Woman's Jrnl. Mar. 3 (Advt.), Classic casual in pebbleweave. 1969R. T. Wilcox Dict. Costume (1970) 263/2 Pebble weave, a rough-surfaced fabric produced by weaving together shrunken, twisted yarns.
Hence pebbleless a.
1894Naturalist 297 The unaltered pebbleless laminated shale below.
▪ II. ˈpebble, v.
[f. prec. n.]
1. trans. To pelt with (or as with) pebbles.
1605B. Jonson, etc. Eastw. Hoe iii. i, We'd so pebble them with snowballs as they come from Church! 1816Scott Antiq. xviii, The peasants..betook themselves to stones, and having pebbled the priest pretty handsomely, they drove him out of the parish. 1818― Hrt. Midl. iv, When we had..parliament men o' our ain, we could aye peeble them wi' stanes when they werena gude bairns.
2. To pave with pebbles.
1835Beckford Recoll. 9 For the wise purpose of pebbling alleys in quaint Mosaic patterns.
3. Leather Manuf. To produce a rough or indented surface, such as might be produced by the pressure of pebbles, upon (leather), by a special kind of graining, done by means of a roller having a pattern upon it. Hence pebbling vbl. n.; also attrib., as pebbling-machine.
1875Knight Dict. Mech. 1646/2 Pebbling, an operation to bring out the grain of leather and give it a roughened or ribbed appearance... In the pebbling-machine, the skin is subjected to the action of a roller with a surface the reverse of the grain or pebble to be produced. 1885C. T. Davis Leather xxvi. 454 In currying it [Martin's Machine] will ‘set out’, pebble, ‘stone out’..entirely without hand labour. Ibid. 467 Patents..for Pebbling Leather. |