| 释义 |
▪ I. pitfall, n.|ˈpɪtfɔːl|
Forms: 4–5 put-, 4–6 pyt-, etc. (see pit n.1); 4–5 -falle, 6 -faul, 6–8 -fal, 6– -fall.
[app. f. pit n.1 + fall n.2, OE. fealle, Ger. falle a falling trap-door, a trap. In mod. use it is generally taken as a ‘pit into which one may fall’.]
†1. A trap for the capture of birds in which a trap-door or the like falls over a cavity or hollow. Obs.
1382Wyclif Jer. v. 27 As a pit falle [1388 a net, ether a trap] ful of briddes. 1483Cath. Angl. 282/1 A Pittfalle, decipula, auicipula. 1530Palsgr. 254/2 Pytfall for byrdes, trebovchet. 1593Nashe Christ's T. 89 b, Foules of the ayre, though neuer so empty stomackt, flye not for foode into open Pit-fals. 1604W. Terilo Fr. Bacon's Proph. 331 in Hazl. E.P.P. IV. 280 Now pitfalls are so made, That small birdes cannot know them. 1706Phillips, Pit⁓fall, a kind of Gin or Trap to catch Birds.
2. A concealed pit into which animals or men may fall and be captured.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 155 Þe Pictes sodenliche an vnware fel ouer þe hammes into a wonder putfalle. 1398― Barth. De P.R. xviii. xliv. (Bodl. MS.), A caue oþer a dike is made vnder þe erþe as it were a pittefalle in þe Elephauntes waye and vnneware he falleþ þerein. 1555Eden Decades 96 The dogge tyger chaunsed fyrste into this pitfaul. 1579–80North Plutarch (1595) 190 They did hunte wilde beastes, with pittefalles and ditches. 1678Bunyan Pilgr. i. 82 The way was..so full of Pits, Pitfalls, deep holes, and shelvings down there. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. 171, I resolved to try a Pitfall, so I dug several large Pits in the Earth, in Places where I had observed the Goats used to feed, and over these Pits I placed Hurdles. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) IV. 290 These animals are sometimes taken in pit-falls, covered with green branches, laid in those paths which the Rhinoceros makes. 1832Lyell Princ. Geol. (1868) II. iii. xlv. 521 Open fissures often serve as natural pitfalls in which herbivorous animals perish. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) II. 446 Crooked and tortuous paths in which many pitfalls are concealed.
†3. An ambush, or a natural ‘trap’ in which a force may be surrounded and overpowered. Obs.
a1305in Pol. Songs (Camden) 193 Ther hy were knulled y the put-falle, This eorles ant barouns ant huere knyhtes alle.
4. fig.
a. A ‘trap’ or crafty device to catch by surprise the unsuspecting or unwary.
b. Any hidden or unperceived danger or error into which a person is liable to fall unawares.
a1586Sidney Astr. & Stella xi, In her chekes pit thou didst thy pitfall set. 1641Milton Ch. Govt. i. iii. Wks. 1851 III. 111 The Papists,..by this very snare and pitfall of imitating the ceremonial law, fel into that..superstition. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 175 ⁋11 Unless he is taught by timely precepts.., and shewn at distance the pitfals of treachery. 1827Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) III. xvi. 288 We..walk amidst the snares and pitfalls of the law. 1861Sat. Rev. 23 Nov. 533 He may be merely a blundering student, who has tumbled into a theological pitfall in the dark. 1877J. C. Cox Ch. Derbysh. II. Introd. 8 The procuring of a full transcript has saved me from numerous pit-falls.
Hence ˈpitfalled |-fɔːld| a., full of pitfalls.
1826Blackw. Mag. XX. 666/2 The snow deep, wreathed, and pit-falled. 1876S. Lanier Poems (1884) 124 How I crushed Cat-lived rebellions, pitfalled treasons. 1976Evening Post (Nottingham) 17 Dec. 14/2 Sunken and rubble-littered uneven pavements, pitfalled with miniature craters.
▪ II. pitfall, v. rare.|ˈpɪtfɔːl|
[f. prec. n.]
trans. a. To set with traps or pitfalls. b. To entrap, ensnare. Also fig. Hence pitfalling ppl. a.
14..in Hist. Coll. Citizen London (Camden) 4 The bottom of the diche with yn Was pyttefallyd ij fote evyr bytwyn, And every pyttefalle a spere hyghthe That there schulde stonde noo man to fyght. 1643Milton Divorce Introd., Wks. 1851 IV. 10 The waies of the Lord, strait and faithfull as they are, not full of cranks and contradictions, and pit falling dispenses. |