| 释义 |
prairie|ˈprɛərɪ|
Also 8, 9 parara, pararie, praira, 9 praire, prairia.
[a. F. prairie = OF. praerie (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.) a tract of meadow land = It. prateˈria, Sp., Pg. pradería:—Romanic type *prātaˈria, f. L. prātum meadow (F. pré): see -ry.]
a. A tract of level or undulating grass-land, without trees, and usually of great extent; applied chiefly to the grassy plains of North America; a savannah, a steppe. Also (U.S. local), a marsh, a swampy pond or lake.
In salt prairie or soda prairie, extended to a level barren tract covered with an efflorescence of natron or soda, as in New Mexico, etc.; in trembling prairie or shaking prairie, to quaking bog-land covered with thin herbage, in Louisiana.
[a1682Sir T. Browne Tracts (1684) 201 The Prerie or large Sea-meadow upon the Coast of Provence.] 1773P. Kennedy Jrnl. in T. Hutchins Descr. Virginia, etc. (1778) 54 The Prairie, or meadow ground on the eastern side, is at least twenty miles wide. Ibid. 55 The lands are much the same as before described, only the Prairies (Meadows) extend further from the river. 1787J. Harmar in E. Denny Milit. Jrnl. (1860) 423 The prairies are very extensive, natural meadows, covered with long grass,..like the ocean, as far as the eye can see, the view is terminated by the horizon. 1791D. Bradley Jrnl. 19 Sept. (1935) 17 A prairia of two or three hundred acres where the grass or wild oats is 8 or 10 feet high and very thick. Ibid. 12 Oct. 22 Struck a large prairia in our course—found it impassable. 1794W. Clark Jrnl. 1 Aug. in Mississippi Valley Hist. Rev. (1914) I. 421 An open..Pararie..handsomly interspersed with Small Copse of Trees. 1795J. Smith in Ohio Archaeol. & Hist. Q. (1907) XVI. 380 We saw several pararas, as they are called. They are large tracts of fine, rich land, without trees and producing as fine grass as the best meadows. 1805Pike Sources Mississ. (1810) 7 Four hundred yards in the rear, there is a small prairie of 8 or 10 acres, which would be a convenient spot for gardens. 1806New Eng. Republican in Massachusetts Spy 16 July 1/5 A venerable Philosopher sitting in the middle of an immense Map, marked with vast praires, huge rivers, and mountains of salt. 1809A. Henry Trav. 264 The Plains, or, as the French denominate them, the Prairies, or Meadows, compose an extensive tract of country. 1815Southey in Q. Rev. XII. 326 A large Oak tree stands alone in a prairie... (Note. If this word be merely a French synonime for savannah, which has long been naturalized, the Americans display little taste in preferring it.) 1819E. Dana Geogr. Sk. Western Country 37 The ore is dug from an open praira. Ibid. 108 There are two kinds of praira, the river and upland. 1834D. Crockett Narr. Life xii. 85, I came to the edge of an open parara, and looking on before my dogs, I saw in and about the biggest bear that ever was seen in America. c1834H. Evans in Chron. Oklahoma (1925) III. 181 We could look and behold..one continual large expanse of Pararie. 1861P. B. Du Chaillu Equat. Afr. xvi. 275 We were troubled..on the prairie by two very savage flies, called by the negroes the boco and the nchouna. 1874Coues Birds N.W. 307 One of the few species not confined to woods, but occurring in open prairie. 1877J. A. Allen Amer. Bison 473 It was..almost exclusively an animal of the prairies and the woodless plains. 1916Dialect Notes IV. 270 Prairie, n., marsh. (Barataria Bay.) 1934Nat. Geogr. Mag. LXV. 601 Shallow ponds, or ‘prairies’, with a tropical tangle of vegetation. 1942M. K. Rawlings Cross Creek 51 We use the word ‘prairie’ in a special sense. We have no open plains, but around most of the larger lakes are wet flat areas thick with water grasses, and these we call our prairies. They are more nearly marshes, yet we save the word ‘marsh’ for the deep mucky edges of lake and river, dense with coontail and lily pads. 1951Collier's 24 Nov. 16/3 The eastern half of the Okefenokee is open. There are ‘prairies’, or great fields of water from one to three feet deep, covered with white or yellow water lilies, purple bladderworts, [etc.]. 1958S. A. Grau Hard Blue Sky iv. 234 ‘And they put the candles on squares of wood..and set 'em adrift... And the candles they draw Anton up from the bottom.’.. ‘Such a big prairie to find a man in.’
b. attrib. and Comb., as prairie country, prairie craft, prairie farm, prairie-fever, prairie fire, prairie flower, prairie fly, prairie hay, prairie hill, prairie knoll, prairie land, prairie madness, prairie plateau, prairie-ranger, prairie steppe, prairie stream, prairie town, etc.; prairie-like adj.; prairie-alligator, a walking-stick insect, esp. Diapheromera femorata; prairie-apple = prairie-turnip (Cent. Dict. 1890); prairie-bean, Phaseolus retusus, of Texas; prairie bitters, a drink made of buffalo-gall and water; prairie bottom, a low-lying expanse of prairie land; prairie-brant = harlequin brant; prairie-breaker, a plough for cutting a wide shallow furrow, and completely inverting the furrow-slice; prairie-breaking, the use of a prairie-breaker; also, an area of land ploughed or broken by this means; prairie buffalo = plains buffalo s.v. plain n.1 10; prairie-burdock, the Rosin-weed, Silphium terebinthaceum (family Compositæ); prairie-buster = prairie-breaker; prairie clipper, a coach traversing the prairies: cf. prairie schooner; prairie clover, a leguminous plant of the genus Petalostemon; prairie coal N. Amer., dried cattle or horse dung used as a fuel; = buffalo-chips s.v. buffalo 5; prairie cock = prairie-chicken or sage-grouse s.v. sage n.1 5 c; prairie cocktail, a raw egg, seasoned, and swallowed in vinegar or spirits (Cent. Dict.); Prairie Cree = Plains Cree; prairie crocus Canada, a blue- or mauve-flowered anemone, Anemone patens, native to northern Europe but naturalized in parts of Canada; prairie-cup, ? a wild flower growing on the prairie; prairie-dock, (a) = prairie-burdock; (b) Parthenium integrifolium (family Compositæ) (Syd. Soc. Lex. 1895); prairie-falcon: see quot.; prairie-formation Geol.: see quot.; prairie-fowl = prairie-chicken; prairie fox = kit-fox (Cent. Dict.); prairie-goose, Bernicla canadensis Hutchinsii, of North America; prairie-grass, (a) any grass growing on the prairies; (b) spec. in Australia, the grass Bromus (Ceratochloa) unioloides; prairie-grouse = prairie-chicken; prairie hare, either of two North American hares, the varying hare, Lepus americanus, or the jack-rabbit, L. townsendii; prairie hawk, the American Sparrow-hawk, Tinnunculus or Falco sparverius; prairie itch, one of various skin affections, characterized by itching and eruption, caused by the fine dust of the prairies (Farmer Amer. 1889); prairie loo: see quot.; prairie marmot = prairie-dog; prairie-mole, a silvery mole, Scalops argentatus, found on the western prairies; prairie owl, either of two North American owls, the burrowing owl, Speotyto cunicularia, or the short-eared owl, Asio flammeus; prairie oyster (a) = prairie cocktail; (b) calves' testicles cooked and eaten as a delicacy; prairie pea, a milk vetch belonging to the genus Astragalus, esp. A. crassicarpus, or its fruit; prairie pigeon, a name given locally in U.S. to (a) the American Golden Plover (Charadrius dominicus); (b) Bartram's Sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda); prairie plough = prairie-breaker; prairie plover = prairie-pigeon b; prairie potato = prairie-turnip; prairie province (also with capital initials) Canad., (a) the province of Manitoba, obs. exc. hist.; (b) pl. the area consisting of the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta; prairie rattler or rattlesnake, one of various rattlesnakes of the prairies, as Sistrurus catenatus or Crotalus confluentus; prairie-renovator: see quot.; prairie rent: see prairie value; prairie rose, Rosa setigera, the American climbing rose; prairie ship = prairie schooner; prairie smoke, a North American name for Anemone patens, a small perennial herb with blue flowers which is widely naturalized in prairie regions; also called prairie crocus or pasque flower; prairie snake, a large harmless N. American snake, Masticophis flavigularis (Webster 1890); prairie snipe = prairie-pigeon b; prairie soil, soil of the kind characteristic of the North American prairies; spec. in Pedology, a soil that is marked by a deep, dark-coloured surface horizon with a high organic content, is subject to moderate leaching, and occurs under long grass in subhumid temperate regions; prairie squint, a squint produced by exposure to the bright light of a prairie; also fig.; prairie-squirrel, a N. American ground-squirrel of the genus Spermophilus, inhabiting the prairies (in quot. 1808 applied to the prairie-dog); Prairie State, the State of Illinois, U.S.; in pl. in more general sense, including Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and States to the south of these; prairie turnip, a hairy herbaceous plant (Psoralea esculenta) of N.W. America, or its edible farinaceous tuber; prairie value Pol. Econ., the rental value of prairie land, or of any waste land; also fig.; prairie wagon = prairie schooner; prairie warbler, a small warbler, Dendrœca discolor, of eastern N. America; prairie wolf = coyote; prairie wool, in Canada, the natural, undisturbed plant cover of prairie land, predominantly composed of grasses. See also prairie-chicken, etc.
1894Scudder in Harper's Mag. Feb. 456 The form..dubbed ‘stick-bogs’ and ‘*prairie alligators’, our Diapheromera femorata.
a1860Scenes Rocky Mts. 133 (Bartlett) *Prairie Bitters, a beverage common among the hunters and mountaineers.
1819T. Say Jrnl. 24 Aug. in E. James Acct. Expedition Rocky Mts. (1823) I. vii. 131 Our party encamped..in a..beautiful and level *prairie bottom. 1834A. Pike Prose Sk. & Poems 12 It is bordered by a strip of timber,..and on the outside of this, a prairie bottom..of exceeding rich land. 1868Rep. Iowa Agric. Soc. 1867 139 On strong prairie-bottom it [sc. the Rio Grande bearded wheat] is liable to get down.
1888Trumbull Names Birds 12 Anser albifrons gambeli... Known in..the West as *Prairie Brant, Speckled Belly, and Speckled Brant,..or Brant simply.
1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. s.v. Breaker, The timber land breaker and *prairie breaker are essentially different.
1861Trans. Illinois Agric. Soc. IV. 37 The plows were running..too deep for ordinary *prairie breaking. 1879Scribner's Monthly Nov. 132/2 It is only by resorting to figures that one can reach a comprehension of the aggregate extent of these long, narrow, black strips of ‘prairie-breaking’. 1886P. G. Ebbutt Emigrant Life Kansas 45 Will Hopkins..used to do a good deal of prairie-breaking, having a twenty-four inch plough and six yoke of oxen.
1806Lewis & Clark Orig. Jrnl. Lewis & Clark Expedition (1905) V. 80 A species of Lizzard called by the French engages *prairie buffalo are natives of these plains as well as those of the Missouri. I have called them the horned Lizzard. 1859H. Y. Hind North-West Territory xii. 105/1 That there are two kinds of buffalo appears to be still a matter of doubt; they are stated to be the prairie buffalo and the buffalo of the woods. 1951F. G. Roe N. Amer. Buffalo iii. 47 The Red River hunt had had to travel increasingly long distances westward to find the ordinary Prairie buffalo.
1866Treas. Bot. 1059/1 Silphium terebinthaceum is sometimes called the *Prairie Burdock, from its rough heart-shaped root-leaves.
1952J. W. Day New Yeomen of Eng. viii. 94 On one tract..which was recently broken up, a very good job was made by a three-furrow *prairie-buster hauled by a tracklayer. 1961Guardian 8 Mar. 5/3 Open land in parks should be under planning control as protection against what are termed ‘prairie busters’.
1870De B. R. Keim Sheridan's Troopers 49 The coaches or ‘*prairie clippers’, as they are called by the denizens of the country, pitched and jolted.
1857A. Gray First Lessons in Botany 95 Petalostemon, *Prairie Clover... Chiefly perennial herbs,..[with] small flowers. 1870Amer. Naturalist IV. 581 The prairie clovers..are among the most interesting of the leguminose species. 1887Nicholson's Dict. Gard., Petalostemon,..Prairie Clover... A genus comprising about fourteen species of pretty, hardy or half-hardy herbs. 1939Nat. Geogr. Mag. Aug. 247/2 Prairie clovers may be white, pink, purple, or violet. 1968Peterson & McKenny Field Guide Wildflowers North-eastern & North-Central N. Amer. 252 Prairie-clovers have pinnate leaves and dense, longish pink or white flower heads on wiry stems.
1939C. L. Douglas Cattle Kings of Texas 324 He could not bring himself to relish food cooked with ‘*prairie coal’. 1948Southwest Rev. Summer 238/1 When the permanent settlers and their families came, this ‘prairie coal’ became the standard fuel. 1972J. Minifie Homesteader vii. 51 As he walked he collected horse-dung for his cook-fire. Weathered ‘prairie coal’ makes a quick, hot fire.
1805Lewis & Clark Orig. Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Expedition (1905) III. xviii. 123 Send out Hunters to shute the *Prairie Cock a large fowl which I have only Seen on this river. 1846J. W. Webb Altowan I. ii. 31 The prairie cock (a large species of grouse, of a pepper-and-salt colour, and long, pointed tail)..rose at their feet. 1876J. Burroughs Winter Sunshine v. 115 The prairie hens or prairie cocks set up that low musical cooing or crowing. 1900H. Garland Eagle's Heart 107 A belated prairie cock began to boom.
1806Deb. Congress U.S. (1852) 9th Congress 2 Sess., App. 1136 The quality of the land is supposed superior to that on Red river, until it ascends to the *prairie country, where the lands on both rivers are probably similar. 1848E. Bryant California iii. 34 Our march was..through an undulating prairie-country. 1853Trans. Lit. & Hist. Soc. Quebec IV. 298 The prairie country of the Saskatchewan is roamed over by countless herds of buffalo, also by the reindeer and the beautiful antelope. 1907W. O. Lillibridge Where Trail Divides 152 The darkness that precedes morning has the prairie country in its grip. 1922Beaver Oct. 15/1 During that time there had been two half-breed rebellions in the prairie country. 1946J. T. Adams Album Amer. Hist. III. 261 Hay Burning Stoves were useful in this prairie country.
1851Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. iii, An insight into many an item of *prairie-craft.
1883E. Petitot in Proc. R. Geogr. Soc. V. 649 They occupied the country between the Savanois Indians on the east and the Grandes-pagnes (also called *Prairie-Crees), on the west. 1913F. W. Hodge Handbk. Indians of Canada (1971) 621/1 (Index) Plain Crees = Paskwawininiwug... Prairie-Crees = Paskwawininiwug.
1922A. J. A. Stringer Prairie Child 304 *Prairie-crocuses [are] soft blue and lavender and sometimes mauve. 1951Chambers's Jrnl. Aug. 505/1 The mauve prairie-crocus, really an anemone, which pushes out of grass knolls as soon as the snow melts, is the first source of pollen. 1969N. W. Parsons Upon Sagebrush Harp iii. 16 The land was..blue with furry pasqueflower, or prairie crocus.
1880J. Hay Pike County Ballads 96 *Prairie-Cups are swinging free To spill their airy wine.
1874Coues Birds N.W. 339 Falco Mexicanus, American Lanier, or *Prairie Falcon. 1893Newton Dict. Birds 238 The Prairie-Falcon of the western plains of North America.
1838H. W. Ellsworth Valley of Upper Wabash v. 49 A late and lamented brother of the writer, who had just finished a *prairie farm. 1884‘Mark Twain’ Huck. Finn vii. 46 Hogs soon went wild in them bottoms after they had got away from the prairie-farms. 1886P. G. Ebbutt Emigrant Life Kansas 198, I don't think Anderson had enough energy in him to start a prairie farm for himself.
1851Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. iii, I had caught the ‘*prairie-fever’!
1824W. Owen in Indiana Hist. Soc. Publ. (1906) IV. i. 83 We then rode on to the prairie and rode twice through the *prairie fire, which..moved very slowly. 1836D. B. Edward Hist. Texas iv. 70 Why should there be any lack of timber, when by planting it.., and preserving it afterwards from the annual prairie fires..it would grow with such rapidity. 1852A. Cary Clovernook 77 Stories of..huge lights made by prairie fires. 1892Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 10 Oct. 9/3 By back-firing, the people..saved their town from being destroyed by the great prairie-fire. 1899Daily News 20 Mar. 8/3 Since ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin’ there has been no such prairie fire in fiction as Mr. Charles M. Sheldon's ‘In His Steps’. The book..has ‘caught on’..like a blaze in dry grass. 1922Beaver Oct. 17/2 One of the most..terrible sights of those early days was a stampede of hundreds of buffalo fleeing before a prairie fire. 1935H. A. L. Fisher Hist. Europe I. xii. 144 The Moslem faith might have spread like a prairie fire through the Balkans. 1959[see back-fire n. 1]. 1963A. Heron Towards Quaker View of Sex iii. 27 ‘The prairie fire’ view of homosexual contact—that..if it were allowed legally and morally everyone would turn to it.
1836J. Hall Statistics of West iv. 56 The *prairie-flower displays its diversified hues. 1873Newton Kansan 22 May 3/2 The wild prairie flowers..are beginning to look beautiful. 1894Harper's Mag. Aug. 422/1 To be sure there were patches of orange prairie flowers all about. 1922H. L. Wilson Merton of Movies 69 Ain't I the little prairie flower, growing wilder every hour?
1836W. Irving Astoria xliv. III 30 Their horses were..rendered almost frantic by the stings of the *prairie flies.
1886A. Winchell Walks Geol. Field 280 The *prairie-formation is a stratified formation of fine clay, sand, and alluvial matter.
1807P. Gass Jrnl. 126 Our hunters killed 5 *prairie fowls. 1893Newton Dict. Birds 4 Sometimes they [air-sacs] form large inflatable sacs on the throat, as, for instance, in the Prairie-fowls.
1839Marryat Diary Amer. 1st Ser. I. xvii. 206 [In statistical table of furs] *Prairie fox..5,000. 1846R. B. Sage Scenes Rocky Mts. xxviii. 241 For several nights I had a constant visitor in the shape of a prairie-fox,—a creature about twice the size of a large red squirrel. 1876J. Burroughs Winter Sunshine iv. 108 The prairie fox, the cross fox, and the black or silver-gray fox, seem only varieties of the red fox. 1948A. L. Rand Mammals E. Rockies 107 Kit Fox. Vulpes velox (Also called Prairie Fox).
1888Trumbull Names Birds 4 Branta canadensis hutchinsii... In..North Carolina, Marsh Goose, and on the coast of Texas, *Prairie Goose.
1812Connecticut Courant 24 Nov. 2/3 In consequence of the Indians setting the *prairie grass on fire. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 267 The prairie-grass of America.
1861G. F. Berkeley Sportsm. W. Prairies xi. 185 Of these beautiful birds of game the *prairie grouse is the largest.
1840E. Emmons Rep. Quadrupeds Mass. 58 Lepus Virginianus. Harlan. *Prairie Hare... This species is common throughout the New England States, and is known generally as the White Rabbit. 1866W. R. King Sportsman & Naturalist in Canada 32 The Prairie Hare..is one of the largest hares of the continent, weighing from seven to eleven pounds, and is of a grey colour tinged with yellow. 1917H. E. Anthony Mammals Amer. 280/1 Although called the Prairie Hare, this species is found also on mountain slopes.
1817E. P. Fordham Jrnl. 17 Dec. in Personal Narr. Trav. (1906) viii. 143 Saw some *prairie hawks, blue bodies, ash coloured belly and wings, tipped with black. 1856Bryant Prairies 17 The prairie-hawk that, poised on high, Flaps his broad wings, yet moves not. 1898H. S. Canfield Maid of Frontier 201 With a swoop like the swoop of the prairie hawk down swooping for the quail, the Paint Horse was away. 1907W. O. Lillibridge Where Trail Divides 259 Swift as the swoop of a prairie hawk..the man's arms were about her.
1835A. Brunson Jrnl. 28 Oct. in Wisconsin State Hist. Soc. Coll. (1900) XV. 283 Here I fed myself, but could get nothing but *Prairie hay & pumpkins for my horse. 1845Cultivator II. 93 Without any kind of..comfort, except what they may gather from a poor supply of prairie hay. 1867Harper's Mag. July 138/2 A little stable, near which were great stacks of prairie hay. 1878J. H. Beadle Western Wilds xxviii. 433 First rate prairie hay, on which stock will keep fat all winter. 1880D. Currie Lett. of Rusticus 6/2 They [sc. horses] are being fed with prairie hay. 1949Daily Oklahoman 13 Feb. d. 4/4 More than 2,500 tons of the prairie hay used in the recent haylift operations to save icebound livestock in the western states were supplied by hay growers around Vinita, Okla.
1808Pike Sources Mississ. ii. (1810) App. 4 The..river is bounded here in a narrow bed of *prairie hills.
1844G. A. McCall Lett. fr. Frontiers (1868) 418 The abrupt *prairie knolls,..seem in the distance to elevate their rocky summits.
1807P. Gass Jrnl. 34 There is handsome *prairie land on the south.
1837H. Martineau Soc. Amer. II. 21 The green, *prairie-like, Canada shore.
1835C. F. Hoffman Winter in West I. 264, I was contented to wrap myself as closely as possible in my buffalo robe, and join him in a game of *prairie loo... The game consists merely in betting upon the number of wild animals seen by either party, towards the side of the vehicle on which he is.
1912J. Sandilands Western Canad. Dict. 35 *Prairie madness, the melancholia which attacks the lonely homesteader. 1973H. Robertson Grass Roots iii. 53 The loneliness and isolation which contributed to emotional breakdowns known in the West as ‘prairie madness’.
1826J. D. Godman Amer. Nat. Hist. II. 114 The *Prairie Marmot... Commonly called Prairie-dog. 1883Chambers' Encycl. VII. 737/1 Prairie dog..about the size of a squirrel or large rat... A more correct name would be Barking Marmot, or Prairie Marmot. 1888Ipswich (Mass.) Chron. 15 Sept. 2/4 Usually a country that is inhabited by prairie dogs, or more properly by prairie marmots, has a dry, thin atmosphere. 1979Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts CXXVII. 171/2 The prairie marmot at Whipsnade has been seen elsewhere in the downs.
1808Pike Sources Mississ. 31 Caught a curious little animal on the prairie, which my Frenchman termed a *prairie mole.
1846R. B. Sage Scenes Rocky Mts. xii. 110 The *prairie-owl and rattlesnake maintain friendly relations with these inoffensive villagers [sc. prairie-dogs]. 1860C. W. Wilson Mapping Frontier (1970) ii. 108 Nothing to disturb me but the melancholy note of the prairie owl. 1907W. O. Lillibridge Where Trail Divides 13 He would have watched the movement of a coyote or a prairie owl, for the simple reason that it was the only visible object endowed with life. 1917T. G. Pearson Birds Amer. II. 101 Short-eared Owl... Other Names.—Marsh Owl; Swamp Owl; Prairie Owl. 1958Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xxx. 9 Prairie Owl and prairie dog owl, equally frequent names for the burrowing owl,..are expressions used by 23% of the Nebraska informants.
1883J. F. T. Keane On Blue-Water xii. 167 We all jumped up and agreed unanimously to propose the last toast at once in the shape of a *prairie oyster—an egg broken into a cup without smashing the yolk, the toast poured in on the top of it, and the whole taken at a swallow. 1907Daily Chron. 4 Feb. 4/7 A wistful pet name for an egg, duly seasoned and to be swallowed whole—the ‘prairie oyster’. 1912‘Saki’ Chron. Clovis 275 He hurriedly ordered another prairie oyster. 1920[see bromo-seltzer s.v. bromo-]. 1939C. Isherwood Goodbye to Berlin 51 Would you like a Prairie Oyster? 1941Amer. Speech XVI. 181 English slang metaphor also has its place, as..prairie oyster for the testicles of a steer, a food morsel considered dainty. 1955W. Foster-Harris Look of Old West viii. 234 Prairie or mountain oysters were an unmentionable part of a male animal. 1960Spectator 25 Nov. 878 A Prairie Oyster, which is the raw yolk of an egg slipped whole into a glass containing a tablespoon of Worcester Sauce and a dash of sherry, with a flick of red pepper. 1979A. Jute Reverse Negative 26 His eyes were bloodshot. His prairie oysters must have lost their potency.
1848E. Bryant California ii. 28, I observed, also, a plant producing a fruit of the size of the walnut, called the *prairie-pea. 1870Amer. Naturalist III. 162 One of the earliest flowers [of the Kansas plains] is the Prairie-pea. 1943B. A. De Voto Year of Decision 155 They..made spiced pickles of the ‘prairie peas’.
1874Coues Birds N.W. 503 In most parts of the West, between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, this Tattler, commonly known as the ‘*Prairie Pigeon’, is exceedingly abundant. 1937Nat. Geogr. Mag. Aug. 200/1 The Eskimo curlew, or ‘dough bird’ or ‘prairie pigeon’, as it was called by the gunners, apparently rivaled the passenger pigeon in numbers prior to 1885.
1831W. Sewall Diary 50 Apr. (1930) 136 Sat off with the team, and a *prairie plow which came on late last night with instructions, to commence breaking prairie. 1840Cultivator VII. 33/1 It may be amusing to eastern readers, to hear a description of a ‘prairie plow’. 1861Trans. Illinois Agric. Soc. IV. 392 The sod should be broken with a prairie plow. 1875Knight Dict. Mech. 1782/1 Prairie-plow, a large plow supported in front on wheels, and adapted to pare and overturn a very broad but shallow furrow-slice.
1851W. Kelly Excursion to California I. v. 83 A stand of *prairie plover most opportunely made their appearance as we pulled up. 1888Trumbull Names Birds 173 Bartramia longicauda... In Southern Wisconsin,..in 1851 this bird..was known as the Prairie Plover, and also as the Prairie Snipe. 1940E. T. Seton Trail of Artist-Naturalist xxxii. 299 The white-tailed longspurs, the prairie plover, were all gone, wholly routed by the plough.
1828J. C. Beltrami Pilgrimage in Europe & Amer. II. xvii. 321 Everything appeared to me delicious, even some roots which they call *prairie-potatoes, and which I had before thought detestable. 1848E. Bryant California iv. 54 A root or tuber, of an oval shape, about one and one-half-inch in length..is called the prairie potato. 1891Canadian Indian Mar. 168 The prairie potato..yields when dry a light, starchy flour, and is often cut into thin slices and dried for winter. 1917H. Kephart Camping & Woodcraft II. xxi. 379 Potato, Prairie. Prairie turnip... Palatable in any form.
1876J. C. Hamilton (title) The *Prairie Province: sketches of travel from Lake Ontario to Lake Winnipeg. 1881Progress (Rat Portage, Ontario) 12 Nov. 4/1 The editor of the Woodstock (Ont.) Sentinel-Review, proposes..to get up a huge excursion of marriageable girls in Ontario to proceed early next spring to the prairie province. 1908M. A. Brown My Lady of Snows 221 The majority ruled, but the minority clamored from the prairie provinces. 1916O. D. Skelton Day of Sir W. Laurier 97 The Winnipeg Board of Trade denounced the policy of ‘crushing and trampling upon one hundred thousand struggling pioneers of the prairie province to secure a purely imaginary financial gain to one soulless corporation’. 1952D. F. Putnam Canad. Regions 340/1 Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta are known as the ‘Prairie Provinces’ because they include the Canadian section of the vast grass-covered interior plains of North America. 1959Manch. Guardian 5 Aug. 4/4 Some of his [sc. Mr. John Diefenbaker's] friends in the prairie provinces think he has been clever to keep the Easterners out. 1965Globe & Mail (Toronto) 5 Jan. b 5/1 All three Prairie provinces are particularly unhappy about the special incentives being offered to attract industrial enterprises. 1965R. M. Hamilton Canad. Quotations & Phrases 130/2 The Prairie Province. From the title of the book which gave the phrase general circulation; after 1905 it was extended to include Saskatchewan and Alberta in ‘The Prairie Provinces’. 1973Fisheries Fact Sheet (Environment Canada Fisheries & Marine Service) No. 1. 4/3 The larger bodies of water in the Prairie Provinces. 1977D. MacKenzie Raven & Kamikaze xi. 132 She'd come to England straight from a prairie-province university... Her father [was] a veterinarian in Saskatoon.
1878J. H. Beadle Western Wilds 133 The only dangerous snakes are the little *prairie rattlers, seldom over two feet long. 1948Chicago Tribune 30 May 14 A prairie rattler coils to strike; its prey is a rabbit. 1977New Yorker 6 June 47/2 One..took up pentecostalism and died from shock while caressing a prairie rattler at a revival meeting back east in Tennessee.
1817S. R. Brown Western Gazetteer 31 The only venomous serpents, are the common and *prairie rattlesnake, and copper-heads. 1843[see Missisauga 2]. 1853Baird & Girard Catal. N. Amer. Reptiles i. 14 Crotalophorus tergeminus..Prairie Rattlesnake, Massasanga. 1873‘Mark Twain’ & Warner Gilded Age 125 Prairie-rattlesnakes..never strike above the knee. 1948Natural Hist. Apr. 187/1 An extensive campaign was waged against the prairie rattlesnake. 1961C. H. Pope Giant Snakes (1962) 152 In the northern United States the prairie rattlesnake may not give first birth until it is four or even five years old.
1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., *Prairie Renovator, an implement with tearing harrow teeth, drawn over the surface of grass land to loosen the roots and the soil,..and break up the matted vegetation.
1895M. Davitt in Westm. Gaz. 25 Mar. 3/3 The annual value of such land, in its original or pre-reclaimed condition, would be its ‘*prairie rent’.
1822J. Woods Two Years' Residence Eng. Prairie 303 The *prairie-roses, balm..and sassafras-wood..have all powerful scents. 1862Ripley & Dana Amer. Cycl. XIV. 180/1 The climbing rose (R. setigera)..sending up shoots 10 to 20 feet high in a season; from it have originated numerous beautiful double-flowered varieties known in gardens as prairie roses. 1888Century Mag. Mar. 662/2 The carpet of prairie roses, whose short stalks lift the beautiful blossoms but a few inches from the ground. 1946E. B. Thompson Amer. Daughter 36 We gazed in awe upon the prairie rose, a delicate pink flower growing close to the ground, whose thorny stem belied its tender beauty. 1963Canad. Geogr. Jrnl. Aug. 54/2 Later the hardy prairie rose makes its appearance and fills the air with its sweet scent.
1851Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. iii, To see the long caravan of waggons, the ‘*prairie ships’, deployed over the plain.
1893Jrnl. Amer. Folk-Lore VI. 136 Anemone patens, var. Nuttalliana{ddd}gosling, *prairie smoke, crocus. 1952Sun (Baltimore) 26 Feb. 10/7 The Pasqueflower..is a bluish open bell shaped wild flower of the prairies... Patches of the flower at a distance give the impression of a bluish haze. This gives rise to its more familiar name ‘prairie smoke’. 1958Weekend Mag. (Montreal) 7 June 38/1 Earliest of spring flowers, Manitoba's crocus grows so profusely in places that it looks like a low-lying mist. Hence its nickname: the ‘Prairie smoke’.
1845J. C. Frémont Rep. Exploring Expedition 12 A large *prairie snake..was occupied in eating the young birds.
1851W. Kelly Excursion to California I. v. 80, I shot a brace of *prairie snipe. 1917T. G. Pearson Birds Amer. I. 247 Upland Plover. Bartramia longicauda... [Also called] Prairie Snipe.
1817S. R. Brown Western Gazetteer 66 The common field near the town contains nearly 5000 acres, of excellent *prairie soil. 1876Trans. Illinois Dept. Agric. XIII. 288 The prairie soils are usually darker, more crude, coarser and wetter than the woodland. 1910C. G. Hopkins Soil Fertility vi. 79 The undulating prairie soils vary from a gray silt loam on light clay in the older areas, to a dark brown silt loam, in the later formations, and the common flat prairie soils vary with age from drab silt loam to black clay loam. 1928C. F. Marbut in Proc. & Papers 1st Internat. Congr. Soil Sci. IV. 21 The podsolic and lateritic soils of category VI have been subdivided into 8 sub-groups consisting of Tundra, Podsols, Brown Forest soils, Red soils, Yellow soils, Prairie soils (dark colored humid soils), Laterites and Ferruginous Laterites. 1974E. A. Fitzpatrick Introd. Soil Sci. vii. 116 In the U.S.A. and elsewhere there are prairie soils or brunizems which are similar to chernozems but they have a middle horizon with a clay maximum and are slightly less fertile.
1946Auden Under Which Lyre in Harvard Alumni Bull. 15 June 707/1 The sophomoric Who face the future's darkest hints With giggles or with *prairie squints As stout as Cortez. 1963R. D. Symons Many Trails ix. 92 He wears a grey felt hat, beneath which his tanned face is puckered in the ‘prairie squint’.
1808Pike Sources Mississ. ii. (1810) 155 We..killed some *prairie squirrels, or wishtonwishes [cf. quot. 1808 in prairie-dog]. 1860Bartlett Dict. Amer. s.v., Spermophilus..with great propriety called ‘Prairie-Squirrels’, for their true home is on the prairie.
1842People's Advocate (Carrollton, Illinois) 6 Aug. 4/5 Federal Coon Whiggery extinct in the *Prairie State! 1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's Cabin II. xlv. 316 Farmers of rich and joyous Ohio, and ye of the wide prairie states. 1861O. J. Victor Hist. Southern Rebellion I. 166 Illinois, the ‘Prairie State’, then proved that she was as rich in her patriotism as in her soil and exhaustless resources. 1868Rep. U.S. Comm. Agric. 127 Permitting the unparalleled soil of our prairie States to grow less and less productive. 1868Harper's Mag. June 123/2 When he pronounced ‘good-by’ to the Prairie State, at the State line, he said, ‘Behind the cloud the sun is shining still.’ 1949J. Monaghan This is Illinois 138 The nation began to hum the wonders of the Prairie State. 1963R. I. McDavid Mencken's Amer. Lang. 691 Illinois has had many nicknames..but Prairie State and Sucker State are the only ones surviving. 1970Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 24 May 4/1 Illinois is the Prairie state.
1855A. M. Murray Let. 5 Sept. (1856) II. 290 About forty miles from Chicago we passed the first *prairie town of Joliet. 1867Atlantic Monthly Mar. 326/1 Chicago, for fifteen years after it began its rapid increase, was perhaps of all prairie towns the most repulsive to every human sense. 1908Kipling in Collier's 28 Mar. 11/1 ‘If you go as far as Winnipeg, you'll see the finest hotel in all the world.’ ‘Nonsense!’ he said. ‘You're pulling my leg! Winnipeg's a prairie-town.’ 1977H. Osborne White Poppy viii. 68 A prairie town in a cowboy film.
1814Brackenridge Jrnl. in Views Louisiana 249 The *prairie turnip is a root very common in the prairies, with something of the taste of turnip, but more dry. 1857J. Palliser Jrnls. (1863) 38 The root..receives the name of the Prairie Turnip by the half-breeds, who, with Indians, use it as food. 1941D. McCowan Naturalist in Canada 246 The Crees and the Blackfeet were glad to make a meal from the edible root of the Prairie Turnip. 1956D. Leechman Native Tribes Canada 110 The Prairie Indians also ate service berries, wild cherries, red willow berries, prairie turnips, bitter root, and wild rose haws.
1851Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. xxxv, A life spent beneath the blue heaven of the *prairie-uplands and the mountain ‘parks’.
1884Contemp. Rev. Feb. 185 The..doctrine of ‘*prairie value’, which has been held up to the Irish peasantry as the standard by which rent ought to be measured. 1893Ld. Rosebery in Daily News 2 Mar. 6/2 We took our Colonies at prairie value, and have made them what they are. 1898Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 825 Refusing to go beyond the bare etymology—‘the prairie value’—of the name.
1856*Prairie wagon [see ambulance 3]. 1867W. H. Dixon New Amer. I. iii. 37 We find that our big Concord coach has been exchanged for a light prairie waggon. 1948Chicago Daily News 10 Apr. 6/2, I have an idea that too much of the squirrel rifle and prairie wagon tradition still runs in the bloodstream of most Americans.
1811A. Wilson Amer. Ornithol. III. 87 [The] *Prairie Warbler..I first discovered in that singular tract of country in Kentucky, commonly called the Barrens. 1868Wood Homes without H. xiii. 248 Another pensile species is the Prairie Warbler (Sylvia minuta). 1874Coues Birds N.W. 63 Dendrœca discolor... Prairie Warbler. 1917T. G. Pearson Birds Amer. III. 150/1 The Prairie Warbler is not very common on the prairies. 1960R. T. Peterson Field Guide Birds of Texas 217 Prairie Warbler... This warbler wags its tail.
1804Lewis & Clark Orig. Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Expedition (1904) I. ii. 108 A *Prarie Wolf come [sic] near the bank and Barked at us this evening. 1807P. Gass Jrnl. 40 One of our men caught a beaver, and killed a prairie wolf. 1858E. J. Lewis in Youatt Dog i. 18 The Canis Latrans, or prairie wolf, who whines and barks in a manner so similar to the smaller varieties of dogs. 1898H. S. Canfield Maid of Frontier 39 The long howl of the prairie wolf rose on the air and hung tremulant. 1948Daily Ardmoreite (Ardmore, Okla.) 18 Apr. 14/7 There are practically only two distinct kinds of wolves in America—the large gray timber wolf and the coyote or prairie wolf. 1963R. D. Symons Many Trails 121 The grey jackal of the plains..we call in English the prairie wolf, but more often in corruption of its Aztec name, coyote.
1934G. Bettany Valley of Lost Gold 284 She loved..every blade of *prairie wool. 1953Canad. Geogr. Jrnl. June 245/1 The sheep crop the ‘prairie wool’—that excellent hard forage composed of spear-grass, bunch-grass and buffalo-grass. 1970[see June grass]. 1973R. D. Symons Where Wagon Led i. i. 13 The prairie grass was curled and dimpled—that's why they call it ‘prairie wool’.
Hence ˈprairied a., containing or characterized by prairies; ˈprairiedom, the prairie region.
1845(title) Prairiedom: Rambles and Scrambles in Texas or New Estrémadura. 1849Whittier Our State i, The South land boasts its teeming cane, The prairied West its heavy grain. 1851Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. vi, (Santa Fè) The metropolis of all prairiedom. 1930H. N. Spalding From Youth to Age 58 The happy cornlands of the prairied West. |