| 释义 |
▪ I. pellet, n.1|ˈpɛlɪt|
Forms: 4–5 pelet, (5 -ette), pelote, (5 -ot), pylote, 6 pellete, -ette, -ot, -otte, -it, -yt, -at, 6– pellet.
[a. F. pelote (11th c.) = Pr., Sp. pelota, Pg. pellota, It. pillotta ‘any round bundle or bal’ (Florio), med.L. pelōta, pilōta, deriv. of It. pila, L. pila ball.]
1. Any globe, ball, or spherical body, usually one of small size; a ball of some plastic or soft substance, esp. of medicine or food, a bolus, a pill.
1390Gower Conf. II. 306 Of pich sche tok him a pelote, The which he scholde into the throte Of Minotaure caste rihte. c1400Lanfranc's Cirurg. 183 Grinde hem & tempere hem vp wiþ ius of iouis barba, & make þerof pelottis. c1430Two Cookery-bks. 39 Take þan þin fleysshe.. make þer-of pelettys, as it were Applys. 1481Caxton Myrr. i. xv. 48 God fourmed the world alle rounde, lyke as is a pelette. 1591Percivall Sp. Dict., Hallulla, pellets to cram pullen. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 419 The little berries or pellets which are within the Pomgranate. 1676Wiseman Chirurg. Treat. (J.), I dressed with little pellets of lint. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 589 We are citizens of the universe, inhabitants of the little corner thereof, the dirty pellet where we are now stationed. 1829Southey All for Love ii. xxxix, As when an electric pellet of light Comes forcibly out at a touch. 1851D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) II. iv. iii. 260 The most primitive of Scottish coinage is the simple gold pellet. 1853A. Soyer Pantroph. 161 The poultry..are made to swallow pellets..composed of two parts of barley flour, and one of maize.
2. spec.
a. A ball, usually of stone, used as a missile during the 14th and 15th centuries, and shot from mangonels, mortars, etc.; a cannon-ball; in later use, a bullet; now applied to small shot.
[1339Peletæ de plumbo: see gun n. 1. c 1370 Pelottes de fer: see gun n. 1.] 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 61 As pale as a pelet in a palesye he seemede. c1384Chaucer H. Fame iii. 553 Thrugh out euery Regioun Went this foule trumpes soun As swifte as pelet out of gonne. a1400Morte Arth. 3037 Thane boldly þay buske, and bendes engynes, Payses in pylotes and proues theire castes. c1440Promp. Parv. 391/1 Pelot, rownde stone of erthe, or other mater (H., P. pelet), pileus, vel piliolus, rudus. 1489Caxton Faytes of A. ii. xx. 135 Dyuers other small gonnes castyng pyllettes of leed and comon stones. 1495Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 274 Pyllettes of lede & dyce of yron. 1497Ibid. 95 Pellettes of leed for Serpentynes. 1555Eden Decades 180 A great and verye rounde pearle,..as bygge as a smaule pellet of a stone bowe, and of the weight of xxvi. carattes. 1577Dee Relat. Spir. i. (1659) 78 An yern, like a pair of tongs; in form of a Mould to cast Pellets in. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 329 To cure a wound made with harquebush-shot... First seek with an instrument whether the pellet remain within or not. a1668Davenant Siege Wks. (1673) 68 These Cannon Pellets will bruise me shrewdly. 1719D'Urfey Pills (1872) V. 137 For these Guns are such pestilent Things, To put a Pellet in one's Brow. 1841Greener Sci. Gunnery vii. 251 There are many parts about the body of a bird, wherein a pellet of No. 7 will affect its vitality equal to a pellet of No. 2. 1880Jefferies Gr. Ferne F. 252 The pellets hissing past his ears.
fig.1523Skelton Garl. Laurel 637 With a pellit of peuisshenes they had suche a stroke, That all the dayes of ther lyfe shall styck by ther rybbis. 1641Milton Animadv. 34 It will stand long enough against the battery of their paper pellets. a1764Lloyd Poet Poems (1790) 185 Around the frequent pellets whistle From Satire, Ode, and pert Epistle. 1862Tyndall Mountaineer i. 7 The heavy rain⁓pellets..rattle with fury against the carriage.
b. A toy bullet of clay, wood, paper, etc., used in sport or play, esp. as the charge of a pop-gun.
1553Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 23 To blowe them oute of a trunke as we doe pellets of claye. c1626Dick of Devon. ii. i. in Bullen O. Pl. II. 26 And my Devonshire blade, honest Dick Pike, Spard not his Sugar pellets among my Spanyards. 1657W. Morice Cœna quasi κοινή xxix. 287 Childrens gunns, to shoot the pellets which they put into them. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. I. vi. 56 Our rifle-balls reverberated from their hides like cork pellets from a pop-gun target.
c. = cast n. 19.
1802G. Montagu Ornith. Dict. I. s.v. Owl, White. Their food is chiefly mice, which they swallow whole, and..eject the bones and fur in large pellets, which are termed castings. 1834R. Mudie Feathered Tribes Brit. Islands I. 141 Mice are preferred to birds, the feathers being more untractable than the fur, both in swallowing, and in casting pellets or quids. 1895U.S. Dept. Agric. Yearbk. 1894 217 These masses, known as ‘pellets’ are regurgitated before fresh food is taken. 1905Daily News 5 Jan. 4/3 The brown owl's pellet very rarely contains the remains of shrews. 1948Brit. Birds XLI. 290, I found a secluded coomb..which, judging by the quantity of droppings and pellets below the ledges, had been used as a roosting place by a number of Ravens. 1964A. L. Thomson New Dict. Birds 608/2 Pellets are best known in respect of birds-of-prey, but..birds of very widely differing species regularly eject pellets. 1971S. Hill Strange Meeting i. 31 The small, bleached bones from the owls' pellets.
d. The droppings of various small animals, esp. the rabbit, which reingests some of them.
1919‘W. N. P. Barbellion’ Diary 14 Apr. (1920) 129 Those sand dunes! Their characteristic feature was rabbits' skulls..and the little round dry pellets of rabbits, more numberless than the snail shells. 1939Nature 10 June 982/2 Numerous coccidial oocysts were also found in the stomach pellets of the control rabbit..which appeared to prove the fæcal origin of the pellets. 1956Thompson & Worden Rabbit iii. 27 A blinded rabbit took pellets direct from its anus. 1964R. M. Lockley Private Life Rabbit ii. 32 At night their pellets were dropped along the boundary fence. 1972R. Adams Watership Down I. 405 Under snow they [sc. rabbits] may stay underground for days at a time, feeding only by chewing pellets.
3. Her. A roundel sable: = gunstone 2.
[1562Leigh Armorie 150 b, He beareth Or, iii Ogresses in Fesses. These are Pellettes of gunnes, and are neuer other colour, then Sable.] 1572J. Bossewell Armorie ii. 81 b, Th' Ogresse is the same that we call a Pellet of a gonne. a1661Fuller Worthies, Northampton. ii. (1662) 299 This Sir John bare, for his paternal Coat, Argent on a Bend Gules, three Swans proper, between as many Pellets. 1766Porny Heraldry (1777) Dict., Pellets, the name given to the Black Roundlets, by English Heralds alone. 1864Boutell Her. Hist. & Pop. xv. §15 (ed. 3) 203 Lord Latymer charges a pellet upon his silver saltire. 1971Country Life 27 May 1303/2 A purely secular goblet..its date 1664, its so-far unidentified maker's mark ‘P.D.’ with three pellets above, a cinquefoil below.
4. A circular boss or raised part, rounded or flat, in coins or decorative work.
1842Francis Dict. Arts etc., Pellet, a Gothic architectural ornament, consisting of plain, flat, circular pieces or pellets, arranged along a fascia or band, at equal distances. 1864J. Evans Coins Anc. Britons iii. 45 When a central pellet is surrounded by a circle of smaller pellets or ovals, I have called it a ‘rosette’ or ‘star of pellets’. 1875Fortnum Maiolica xv. 168 The shallow bowl..marked at the back with the crossed circle, having a pellet in one of the quarters.
5. attrib. and Comb., as pellet ornamentation (see 4), pellet system; pellet-like adj.; pellet bomb, a type of anti-personnel bomb; pellet bow: see quot. 1852; pellet mill, an apparatus for pelleting powders; pellet moulding Arch., a moulding consisting of a flat band on which are circular flat disks (Gwilt Archit. Gloss. 1876); pellet powder, gunpowder compressed in moulds into pellets of defined quantity and form.
1970Guardian 10 Mar. 12 Anti-personnel bombs..the same *pellet bombs which figured so prominently in North Vietnamese protests. They are dropped in canisters..the bomblets, each a bit bigger than a man's fist, might go on exploding for two days. 1970Peace News 3 Apr. 5/3 An unexploded pellet bomb she had touched while digging in the fields.
1816Sporting Mag. XLVIII. 244 Killing fourteen pheasants with a *pellet bow or air gun. 1852R. F. Burton Falconry in Valley Indus i. 7 The pellet-bow..is made of a slip of bamboo, bent in the shape of our ancient weapon;..it has two strings stretched parallel to each other from horn to horn. About the centre a bit of canvas or coarse cloth, an inch or an inch and a half in length, is sewn tightly to the two cords, and against it the pellet, a lump of hard clay, about the size of a ‘taw’, is firmly held by the thumb and forefinger, which draw the bow.
1860Tyndall Glac. i. x. 65 All the way home we were battered by this *pellet-like rain.
1950J. H. Perry Chem. Engineers' Handbk. (ed. 3) 1189/1 *Pellet mills are designed to agglomerate permeable free-flowing materials into pellet form. 1971Power Farming Mar. 22/1 Demand for cubed and pelleted feed has led to the development of the Cubamix single unit mobile feed plant... The equipment comprises the grinding and mixing section as already used on the company's Grindamix model and a separately driven Simon Barron pellet mill.
1838Parker Gloss. Archit. (ed. 2), *Pellet Moulding, an ornament in Norman architecture.
1870Engineer 16 Sept. 184/1 *Pellet powder was recommended for..adoption with heavy guns by the Gunpowder Committee of 1866.
▪ II. † ˈpellet, n.2 Obs.
Forms: 5 pilet, pylet, pellet, 6 pellot.
[a. OF. pelete, -ette, pellete, -ette, dim. of pel:—L. pell-em skin.]
1. A pellicle, a thin or fine skin or membrane.
c1420Pallad. on Husb. i. 590 And other while an hen wul ha the pippe, A whit pilet that wul the tonge enrounde. Ibid. vi. 144 Oon of hem chese, Or that pellet that closith euery half The chike and pyiouncrawe, hool either half.
2. The pelt or skin of a sheep or other animal.
[1298Bolton Priory Compotus lf. 21 De lana domus..De lokettis et pelettis.] c1440Lydg. Hors, Shepe & G. 358 (MS. Lansd.) Of sheepe al-so comyth pilet [MSS. Harl. & Lamb. pelt, Caxton pellet] & eke fell,..Caried ovir see where men may it sell. c1440Promp. Parv. 398/2 Pylet, skyn, pellis (P. cutis). c1470Henryson Mor. Fab. ix. (Wolf & Fox) xviii, Thair sall na pedder..pyke your pellet fra me; I sall of it mak mittenis to my lufis. 1583Leg. Bp. St. Androis 12 Plucking the pellotis or euer the scheip be slane.
▪ III. ˈpellet, v.
Pples. pelleted, -eting (occas. incorrectly -etting).
[f. pellet n.1: cf. F. peloter.]
trans. a. To send as a pellet (obs.); to form or shape into pellets; esp. to coat (plant seed) with soluble nutritive and protective substances to facilitate handling and promote growth. b. To hit with (paper) pellets, small shot, etc.
1597Shakes. Lover's Compl. 18 Laundring the silken figures in the brine That seasoned woe had pelleted in teares. 1606― Ant. & Cl. iii. xiii. 165 Till by degrees the memory of my wombe,..By the discandering of this pelleted storme, Lye grauelesse. 1870Pall Mall G. 7 Nov. 7 A newspaper correspondent, who, treating himself to a battue in the Emperor's preserves, delivered an erratic charge and pelleted a beater's finger. 1891G. Meredith One of our Conq. xxxvi, The English kick at the insolence, when they are not in the mood for pelleting themselves. 1936L. M. T. Bell Making & Moulding of Plastics xi. 185 For convenience and ease in the handling of the powdered compounds.., the compounds are frequently pelleted cold prior to moulding. 1944Sugar Beet Jrnl. Jan. 41 A process of ‘pelleting’ sugar beet seed segments..has been developed. The new process coats the rough segments with a water-soluble layer of beneficial and inert material, making the seed pieces smooth, spherical, and about the size of small seed peas. 1949Chem. Abstr. XLIII. 2154 The app[aratus] is particularly adapted to pelletting Pb alloys into uniform fine shot. 1950J. H. Perry Chem. Engineers' Handbk. (ed. 3) 1189/1 Although originally designed for pelleting animal feeds, it is now being adapted to the handling of many other products. 1958Times 24 Nov. 15/3 These low seed rates can be achieved..in the case of timothy, by using seed pelleted with basic slag. 1970Country Life 17–24 Dec. 1187/1 Pelletting hay has been tried without more than local acceptance. 1973Daily Tel. 30 June 8/5 (Advt.), Seed pelleter with sufficient Seedex Plant Food Compound to pellet hundreds of seeds. 1974Nature 22 Nov. 327/1 After incubation for 30 min at 37°, the microsomes were pelleted by centrifugation and the DNA reisolated and purified.
Hence ˈpelleting vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1936L. M. T. Bell Making & Moulding of Plastics xi. 185 Figure 36 shows a crank pelleting machine..with the powder hopper removed. 1944Business Week 26 Aug. 52/2 Western companies still regard the process as experimental, one question being whether the pelleting material, which easily melts from around the seed in damp midwestern soils, and thus permits emergence of the seedling, may not have more restraint in the dry western soils. 1945A. T. Birkby Phenolic Plastics vii. 78 In the Plas[t]ics industry the term tabletting means the compression of moulding powder into a variety of small, easily-handled blocks, each of a pre-determined weight. Two other terms often used for this process are ‘preforming’ and ‘pelletting’. 1950J. H. Perry Chem. Engineers' Handbk. (ed. 3) 1189/1 Pelleting of dusts, fumes,..and the like can be accomplished in a rotating-drum device known as the Dwight-Lloyd Segregating Pelletizer. 1963P. Finn-Kelcey in A. N. Duckham Farming III. xi. 404 Pelleting machines introduced in recent years are already proving popular with farmers who compound their own stock rations. |