| 释义 |
post and rail
Also hyphenated and in pl.
1. An open wooden fence, consisting of posts and rails only; a post and rail fence. Also, materials for post and rail fencing. Cf. post and railing s.v. post n.1 8 c.
[1641Rec. Colony & Plantation New Haven (1857) 54 Fencing with..strong and substantiall posts and rales..nott above 18d.] 1778‘J. H. St. John de Crèvecœur’ Sk. 18th-Cent. Amer. (1925) 81 Our present modes of making fences are very bad... I have often observed whole lengths of posts and rails raised from the ground in the spring, and the labours of weeks thus destroyed. 1797H. Newdigate Let. 13 July in A. E. Newdigate-Newdegate Cheverels (1898) xiii. 184 As far as y⊇ Road is near the Cliff..there is a strong post & Rail all y⊇ Way. 1823Byron Juan viii. lv. 138 So was his blood stirred..As is the hunter's at the five-bar gate, Or double post and rail. 1865Dickson Poems 98 He had fifty acres cleared, all fenced with post and rail. 1936‘J. Tey’ Shilling for Candles vii. 85 Flight fell with me at a post-and-rails last winter. 1959J. Verney Friday's Tunnel xxxi. 292 The lane ended at the wood's edge in a broken post and rails.
2. Austral. slang.
a. A wooden match.
a1890D. Sladen in Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang (1890) II. 147/1 ‘Alf,’ said a great friend of mine to a companion who was engaged with us on a shooting expedition down in Bulu-Bulu, one of the eastern provinces of Victoria, ‘Have you got a match?’ ‘Only a post-and-rails,’ was the deprecating reply, responded to with a patronising ‘Never mind.’ 1941Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 56 Post-and-rails,{ddd}(2) Wooden matches.
b. = post-and-rail tea.
1899W. T. Goodge Hits! Skits! & Jingles! 75 There is ‘post and rails’ and ‘brownie’ For yer breakfast now, yer know. 1904T. Petrie Reminisc. Early Queensland ii. iv. 241 The tea then was all green tea, and very coarse, like bits of stick—indeed it was christened ‘post and rails’. 1934Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Sept. 9/2 A ‘bark hut or log cabin will be erected’ so that royalty may not get sunstroke while sipping his ‘post-and-rail’. 1966Baker Austral. Lang. (ed. 2) iv. 85 Three old expressions are ration tea,..post-and-rails (also called post-and-rail tea) and jack the painter; the second is derived from the pieces of stalk and leaf floating on top.
c. [Rhyming slang for ‘fairy tale’.] A lie.
1945Baker Austral. Lang. xv. 271 Post-and-rail, a lie (by rhyme on ‘fairytale’).
3. attrib. (sense 1), as post-and-rail fence, post and rail fencing, post and rail paddock.
1684Public Rec. Colony of Connecticut (1859) III. 512 Great parte of my post and rayle fences being feched and burnt by the sowders. 1765G. Washington Diary 6 Nov. (1925) I. 216 Sowing..19 Bushls. in ye large cut within the Post and Rail fence. 1850H. C. Watson Camp-Fires of Revolution 43 A party of our men..pulled up a post-and-rail fence. 1914Conrad Chance i. ii. 40 She had taken the trouble to climb over two post-and-rail fences only for the fun of being reckless. 1944M. Morris in Coast to Coast 1943 85 Bare paddocks tufted with winter-whitened grass and endless post-and-rail fences regular as printed staves of music. 1973E. Egleton Seven Days to Killing xx. 210 The post-and-rail fence at the bottom of the yard.
1786G. Washington Diary 18 Mar. (1925) III. 30 Post and rail fencing lately erected as yards for my Stud horses. 1944E. Dithmack in Coast to Coast 1943 26 Inside the post-and-rail paddock the leaves of the box-trees glittered. 1976Horse & Hound 3 Dec. 70/4 (Advt.), Good stabling, grazing in post-and-rail paddocks in exclusive parkland setting.
b. Special Combs., as post-and-rail tea Austral., strong, roughy made tea with stalks, etc., floating on the top.
1851Australasian 298 (Farmer) Hyson-skin and post-and-rail tea have been superseded by Mocha, claret, and cognac. 1887All Year Round 30 July 66 The tea so made [in a billy can] is naturally of rather a rough and ready description, and when the stalks and coarse particles of the fragrant leaf float thickly thereon, it is sometimes graphically styled ‘post-and-rails’ tea. 1898‘R. Boldrewood’ Rom. Canvas Town 33 He..couldn't stand the rations—bad flour—post-and-rail tea and..old ewe mutton. 1936A. Russell Gone Nomad iv. 24 Flour, ‘post and rail’ tea (the cheapest kind), black sugar, salt and meat, were the only rations provided. 1959H. P. Tritton Time means Tucker i. 10/2 We got the jobs,..at a pound a week and tucker,..the tucker being mutton and damper, post-and-rail tea and brown sugar. |