| 释义 |
peep of day
[See peep n.2 1 b.]
1. The first appearance of daylight, the earliest dawn.
[1530: see peep n.2 1 b.] 1577–87Holinshed Chron. III. 1138/1 The morrow.., by the peepe of daie, all the batteries began. 1882J. Parker Apost. Life I. 118 The first sacrifice was offered at the very peep of day.
fig.a1836Mrs. T. Mortimer (title) The Peep of Day; or a Series of the earliest religious Instruction the Infant Mind is capable of receiving.
attrib.1852Smedley L. Arundel 612 Always supposing our peep-of-day amusement goes as it should do.
2. peep-of-day boys, a Protestant organization in the North of Ireland (c 1784–95), whose members visited the houses of their Roman Catholic opponents (see defender 1 d) at daybreak in search of arms. So peep-of-day clergyman, peep of day principle; also peep-o'-dayism. Also transf.
1780A. Young Tour in Ireland ii. vi. 30 In England we have heard much of whiteboys, steelboys, oakboys, peep-of-day-boys, &c... All but the whiteboys were among the manufacturing protestants in the north. 1807Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 468 The insurgent banditti of Tories, Hearts of Steel, Peep-o'day Boys, White Boys, &c. 1825C. M. Westmacott English Spy I. 267 [He] joined the peep of day boys in full cry. 1845Syd. Smith Fragm. Irish Rom. Cath. Ch. Wks. 1859 II. 340/2 A peep-of-day clergyman will no longer preach to a peep-of-day congregation. 1890Lecky Eng. in 18th C. xxvi. VII. 20 A corps of volunteers which had been originally raised on Peep of Day principles. 1922Joyce Ulysses 44 Raw facebones under his peep of day boy's hat.
3. A local name of the plant Star of Bethlehem, Ornithogalum umbellatum (Shropsh. Wordbk. 1879). |