| 释义 |
‖ rictus|ˈrɪktəs|
[L. rictus open mouth or jaws, f. ppl. stem of ringī to open the mouth wide.]
1. Bot. The orifice or throat of a bilabiate corolla.
1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. iii. xxii. (1765) 228 Rictus..is the Gap or Opening between the two Lips of the Corolla. 1832Lindley Introd. Bot. i. ii. 118 In ringent and personate corollas the orifice is sometimes named the rictus; but this term is superfluous and little used. 1849Balfour Man. Bot. §381 When the lower lip is pressed against the upper, so as to leave only a chink or rictus between them, the corolla is said to be personate or masked.
2. a. Of persons: The expanse or gape of the mouth. Also transf. and fig.
1829Med. Rev. X. 132 As it were, a double head, formed by an immense secretion of osseous and cartilaginous substance, the rictus of the mouth intervening. 1871Morley Crit. Misc. 138 That frightful rictus running from ear to ear. 1894Gosse in Contemp. Rev. Dec. 808 No one could quite tell whether Pater's strange rictus was closer to laughter than tears. 1912R. B. C. Graham Charity 12 A skin like parchment, which gave her face, when worked upon by a slight rictus in the nose she suffered from, a look, as of a horse about to kick. 1957L. Durrell Justine ii. 107 This ghastly rictus gouged out in his taut cheeks. a1963S. Plath Crossing Water (1971) 21 Under the eyes of the stars and the moon's rictus He [sc. an insomniac] suffers his desert pillow. 1969Listener 2 Jan. 27/3 To the comedians I like I find I go more than half-way. I find myself sitting with a rictus of amused incredulity and surprise. 1974R. Adams Shardik xlix. 397 A child with a continuous twitching of the head gazed up wide-eyed, his mouth gaping in a kind of rictus of startled alarm. 1977‘M. Innes’ Honeybath's Haven iv. 38 The muscular effort required..had the effect of contorting his features into a ferocious rictus.
b. Similarly of birds or fishes.
1827Vigors & Horsfield in Linn. Soc. Trans. XV. 225 The rictus of the bill partially beset with bristles. 1844–8Sir J. Richardson Ichthyology 35/2 The transverse or slightly arched rictus. 1872Coues Birds N.W. 29 When the bill is opened there is a cleft, or fissure between them [sc. mandibles]; this is the gape or rictus. |