| 释义 |
▪ I. beaver, n.1|ˈbiːvə(r)|
Forms: 1 beofor, befor, (byfor, befer), 2–7 beuer, 4–8 bever, 5 bevere, -yr, 6 beauer, 7 beavor, 6– beaver.
[One of the animal names common to the Aryan family: OE. beofor, earlier befor (= bevor), identical with LG. and Du. bever, OHG. bibar, mod.G. biber:—OTeut. *bebru-z; cogn. w. Lith. bebru-s, Boh. bobr, OSlav. bebru-, L. fiber, ‘beaver’; also with Skr. babhrús ‘brown,’ and as n. ‘great ichneumon’:—OAryan *bhebhrú-s, reduplicated deriv. of bhru- brown, with sense of ‘brown’ or ‘red-brown,’ and ‘brown water-animal.’]
1. a. An amphibious rodent, distinguished by its broad, oval, horizontally-flattened, scaly tail, palmated hind feet, coat of soft fur, and hard incisor teeth with which it cuts down trees; remarkable for its skill in constructing huts of mud and wood for its habitation, and dams for preserving its supply of water.
c1000ælfric Gram. (Zup.) 27 Fiber, befor, beofor. c1200Moral Ode 362 in Lamb. Hom. 181 Ne scal þer beo fou ne grei..ne beuer ne sabeline. 1387Trevisa Higden Rolls Ser. VI. 205 Beverlay..the place or lake of bevers. c1460J. Russell Bk. Nurture in Babees Bk. (1868) 153 To peson or frumenty take þe tayle of þe bevere. 1591Spenser M. Hubberd 1124 Monstrous beasts..Bred of two kindes, as Griffons, Minotaures..Beavers, and Centaures. a1667Cowley Love's Riddle i. i, His lips..Softer than Bevers Skins. 1776Adam Smith W.N. I. i. vi. 49 One beaver should exchange for or be worth two deer. 1855Longfellow Hiaw. iii. 153 How the beavers built their lodges.
b. bank beaver, a beaver living in a burrow apart from the colony. N. Amer.
1903Outing (U.S.) Mar. 669/1 You find the bank beaver mostly on lakes, or large rivers, which they are unable to dam. 1953Canadian Geogr. Jrnl. Sept. 88/2 All along the river we came upon bank beaver.
c. collect. Beavers. Chiefly U.S.
a1649J. Winthrop Jrnl. (1908) I. 61 A sagamore..offered to give them yearly eighty skins of beaver. 1770Washington Diaries I. 441 Then Bever catch it in there way up. 1778J. King Jrnl. Sept. in Cook Jrnls. (1967) III. ii. 1439 Their jackets were principally of Deer Skins, edg'd with the Skin of other Animals, as Wolves, foxes, beaver &c. 1789Morse Amer. Geogr. 198 In this country are..beaver, otters, sables. 1840C. F. Hoffman Greyslaer I. v. 60, I had gone clean up to Racket Lake..hoping to get a few beaver. 1890L. D'Oyle Notches 66, I knew that beaver were plentiful.
d. Phr. to work like a beaver: to work hard. orig. U.S.
1741in H. M. Brooks Days of Spinning-Wheel (1886) II. 31 To be sold.., the very best negro woman in this town, who..will work like a beaver. 1877Raymond Mines 225 Mr. Baldwin..has worked like a beaver since he assumed the management of the mine. 1915Lit. Digest 21 Aug. 347/2 Every one knows what ‘working like a beaver’ means.
e. Beaver, a member of the youngest section of the Scout movement, consisting of groups (Colonies) for six- (Canad. five-) to seven-year old boys affiliated to the Scout Association and sponsored by local Scout Groups; also attrib. as Beaver Colony. orig. Canad.
1975Canad. Leader Mag. Jan. 8/1 On September 23, 1971..the first Beaver colony was started in St. Cuthbert's Anglican Church, Winnipeg... Fifteen thousand Beavers later, on November 15, 1974, Beavers–Canada was adopted as a regular section program of Boy Scouts of Canada. 1977Globe & Mail (Toronto) 23 July Suppl. 7/3 There are now 35,000 Beavers in Canada and the membership crisis is over. 1978Tower Times (Kingston, Ont.) 22 Mar. 5/1 The Beaver Colony know already that they will need at least five new leaders. 1983J. Deft Beaver Leader's Handbk. 7 In 1982 The Scout Association gave general approval for the formation of Beaver Colonies within existing Scout Groups... The purpose of a Beaver Colony is thus to provide enjoyable and worthwhile activities for boys of six- and seven-years-old. Ibid., Beavers are not Members of The Scout Association. Ibid. 8 Beaver Leaders..are full Members of the Scout Group which sponsors the Colony. 1985Oxford Times 11 Jan. 4/5 Beaver leader Mrs Val Wells..launched the 12-strong colony in July last year. Ibid. 4/6 The beaver colony is an organization for boys before they join cubs.
2. a. The fur of the beaver.
c1394P. Pl. Crede 295 A cote haþ he furred, Wiþ foyns..oþer fyn beuer. 1532–3Act 24 Hen. VIII, xiii, Any maner of furre, other then..otter and beuer. 1613Wither Epithal. in Juvenilia (1633) 363 A hat of Bever. 1739Gray in Mason Life (ed. 2) 62 With muffs, hoods, and masks of bever. 1837Marryat Dog-Fiend x, He pulled off some beaver from his hat to staunch the blood.
fig.1598Sylvester Du Bartas i. iii. (1641) 30/1 Green Carpets, thrumd with mossie Bever, Fringing the round Skirts of his winding River.
b. attrib., esp. in beaver hat, beaver bonnet: see 3 b below.
c1386Chaucer Prol. 272 On his hed a Flaundrish bever hat. 1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. (1877) 50 note, Bever hattes, of xx., xxx., or xl shillinges price. 1740Swift Will Wks. 1745 VIII. 383 The second best beaver hat I shall die possessed of. 1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. v, Farmers' wives in beaver bonnets and red cloaks. 1862G. Borrow Wild Wales I. i. 7 He made his appearance very respectably dressed, in a beaver hat, blue surtout [etc.]. 1928D. Byrne Destiny Bay iii. 236 There comes an old fellow in a beaver hat.
c. A shade of brown resembling that of the fur of a beaver; more explicitly beaver-brown; also beaver-coloured, beaver-hued adjs.
13..Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 845 Brode, bryȝt, watȝ his berde, and al beuer-hwed. 1888Cassell's Family Mag. Apr. 313/1 Many new colourings..Beaver is such a becoming tone. 1895Ibid. Feb. 234/1 A picture hat..of beaver brown velvet. 1895Windsor Mag. I. 340/2 The cloak is in beaver-coloured velvet. 1914Scotsman 26 Oct. 12/2 The shades are Steel, Oxford and Parson Grey, Mole, Beaver, Fawn.
3. a. A hat made of beaver's fur, or some imitation of it; formerly worn by both sexes, but chiefly by men.
1528Roy Sat., To exalte the thre folde crowne Of anti-christ hys bever. 1642H. More Song of Soul i. ii. xxxviii, A Yongster gent With bever cock't. 1661Pepys Diary 27 June, Mr. Holden sent me a bever, which cost me 4{pstlg} 5s. 1766[Anstey] Bath Guide xi. 97 To preside at her Balls in a Cream-colour'd Beaver. 1810Crabbe Borough iv. Wks. 1834 III. 80 The simple Friend..in drab and beaver. 1885Cornh. Mag. June 649 His crumpled beaver—there might be some difficulty in lighting on a beaver nowaday except in a museum.
b. in beaver (Univ. slang). In a tall hat (and the costume which accompanies it) instead of cap and gown; in non-academical costume.
1840New Monthly Mag. LIX. 271 He..went out of college in what the members of the United Service call mufti, but members of the University beaver, which means, not in his academics—his cap and gown.
4. A felted cloth, used for overcoats, etc.
1756Gentl. Mag. XXVI. 618 Their carpets and bevers..retain the electrical virtue, and prevent its spreading to the floor. 1810J. T. in Risdon's Surv. Devon Introd. 25 Coatings, beavers..found a market.
5. A particular kind of glove.
1816Jane Austen Emma (1870) II. vi. 169 Well tied parcels of ‘Men's Beavers’ and ‘York Tan.’ [1836Dickens Sk. Boz (1850) 131/2 In a black coat..gaiters, and brown beaver gloves.]
6. Comb., chiefly attrib., as beaver-fur, beaver-intellect, beaver-kind, beaver-pond, beaver-skin, beaver-wool(= fur); beaver-like adj. Also beaver-board, a trade-mark (U.S.) for a kind of wood-fibre building board; beaver cloth (cf. sense 4); beaver-dam, a dam made by beavers; beaver-eater (see quot. 1771); beaver finish, a finish giving a resemblance to beaver fur; hence, a finish in which the fibres are all laid in one direction; so beaver-finished adj.; beaver lamb, lambskin cut and dyed to resemble beaver fur; also attrib.; beaver-poison U.S., the water-hemlock, Cicuta sp.; beaver-rat, the musquash or muskrat; beaver-root N. Amer., a pond-lily, Nymphæa odorata; beaver-stones, the two small sacs in the groin of the beaver, from which the substance ‘castor’ is obtained; beaver-tail, the tail of a beaver; also transf.; beaver-tree, Magnolia virginiana, the sweet or white bay of the U.S.; beaver-wood, (a) the hackberry tree of the U.S., Celtis occidentalis; (b) the beaver-tree; the wood of this tree.
1909Sat. Even. Post 20 Feb. 35/1 [Advt. Beaver Manuf. Co., Buffalo, N.Y.], *Beaver Board..Takes Place of Both Lath and Plaster. 1933D. L. Sayers Murder must Advertise viii. 145 The thinness of the beaverboard partition between Mr. Hankin's room and Mr. Copley's. 1948‘N. Shute’ No Highway i. 7 A shabby little room of glass and beaverboard.
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Beaver-cloths, a species of felted woollens made in America. 1904Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 46/2 Beaver Cloth, a thick woollen fabric covered with fibre or nap. The best qualities are made in the West of England; medium and lower qualities in the heavy woollen districts of Yorkshire. 1968J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet 213 Beaver cloth, a heavily-napped overcoating resembling the beaver fur.
1725Lond. Gaz. No. 6383/4 Ann Messenger,..*Beaver-Cutter.
1638in Amer. Speech (1940) XV. 155/1 Upon the branches of a swamp runing North west up into the woods from the head of the said Vlyes Creeke out of a *Bever dam. 1676T. Glover in Phil. Trans. XI. 626 The Bevers..gnaw down trees, wherewith they make..Bever-damms. 1703in Cal. Virginia St. Papers I. 83 To three white oakes, by the East side of the Tuckahoe Bever Dam. 1903S. E. White Forest xvi. 231 He knows the beaver-dams, how many animals each harbors. 1931W. Cather Shadows on Rock (1932) ii. i. 46 A group of little boys played just below, building ‘beaver-dams’ in the gutter to catch the overflow. 1968Globe & Mail (Toronto) 3 Feb. 43/2 (Advt.), Large trout stream 15 acres flooded by beaver dam.
1771Pennant Syn. Quadrup. 197 Wolverene..in America is called the *Beaver-Eater. 1791J. Long Voy. & Trav. Indian Interpreter 41 The country everywhere abounds with wild animals, particularly bears..beaver eaters, [etc.]. 1804–5Lewis & Clark Jrnls. (1905) VI. ii. 107 Carkajous, wolverine or Beaver Eaters..or Links.
1904Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 46/2 *Beaver Finish.
1909R. Beaumont Finishing Textile Fabrics 11 The lateral surfaces of the fibres mainly resist the friction in the *beaver-finished cloth.
1855Wood Anim. Life 421 The *beaver-fur will work its way completely through the felt.
1850Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. iv. 2 The intellect of the Nineteenth Century..is itself a mechanical or *beaver-intellect.
1735Somerville Chase iv. 379 This subtle Spoiler of the *Beaver kind.
1939Fur Times 12 May 2/3 *Beaver lamb is shown in swaggers and short jackets. Ibid. 25 Aug. 8/1 Beaver lamb coats..are now offered at eleven-and-a-half guineas. 1953Economist 9 May 346/2 Thanks to the postwar prices of woollen (cloth) coats, ‘beaver lamb’ coats have provided the English fur manufacturers with a mass market. 1960A. Burgess Right to Answer ix, Alice in her beaver lamb.
1875Helps Anim. & Mast. iii. 59 Words of wisdom, of *beaver-like sagacity.
1857A. Gray First Less. Bot. 157 Spotted cowbane. Musquash-root. *Beaver-poison... The root is a deadly poison.
1884Cassell's Fam. Mag. Apr. 272/2 The ‘*beaver-rat’ is another singular animal.
1832W. D. Williamson Hist. Maine I. 126 Of the Lily tribe, we have several species..such as the yellow water-lily, or dog-lily, or *beaver-root. 1856W. E. Cormack Narr. Journey Newfoundland (1874) 27 They also subsist on the large roots of the white waterlilly..called by the Indians beaver-root.
1761Brit. Mag. 7 Jan. II. 52 This day 10,000 *beaver skins..were entered from Quebec.
1697Dryden Virgil (1806) I. 207 Pontus sends her *beaver-stones from far.
a1811J. J. Henry Campaign against Quebec (1812) 23 They returned two fresh *beaver tails, which when boiled, renewed ideas. 1909Ware Passing Eng. 23/2 Beaver-tail (Mid.-class, 1860). A feminine mode of wearing the back-hair, turned up loose in a fine thread net..which fell well on to the shoulders. .. Obviously from the shape of the netted hair [compared] to a beaver's flat and comparatively shapeless tail. 1937Discovery Sept. 259/2 The last coach [of the L.N.E.R. ‘Coronation’ streamlined train] now has a streamlined ‘beaver’ tail, and is an observation car. 1960Aeroplane XCVIII. 521/2 Major assembly has begun on the first AW 660 for the R.A.F. This version has a 100,000-lb. gross weight, ‘beaver-tail’ rear doors, and no nose doors.
1756P. Kalm Resa till N. Amer. II. 324 Magnolia,..*Beawer-Tree. 1866Lindley & Moore Treas. Bot. s.v. Magnolia, Magnolia glauca..is also known by the name of Beaver-tree, because the root is eaten by beavers. 1901C. T. Mohr Plant Life Ala. 505 White Bay. Sweet Bay. Beaver Tree... The bark is used medicinally.
1810F. Michaux Hist. des Arbres I. 33 Small magnolia..ou *Beaver wood. 1813H. Muhlenberg Cat. Plantarum 95 Beaver wood [or] hoop ash. 1880Encycl. Brit. XI. 360/1 [The hackberry tree] is also known under the name of ‘beaver-wood’, and ‘nettle tree’.
1780Coxe Russ. Disc. 114 One side set close with *beaver-wool like velvet.
Sense 1 e in Dict. becomes 1 f. Add: [1.] e. With capital initial. [tr. Chipewyan Tsa-ttiné, dwellers among beavers.] (a) (A member of) an Athapascan people of northern Alberta. Also attrib. or as adj.
1801A. Mackenzie Voy. from Montreal ii. 17 The Slave and Beaver Indians..would not be here till the time that the swans cast their feathers. 1881[see Dogrib n. (and a.) a]. 1916P. E. Goddard Beaver Indians (Anthropol. Papers Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. X. vi.) 208 They often met Beaver from Vermilion and Fort St. John. 1946J. J. Honigmann Ethnogr. & Acculturation Fort Nelson Slave (Yale Univ. Publ. Anthropol. No. 33) 133 The Cree interpreter..who is part Beaver, was positive that the Beaver had a prophet in his grandfather's time. 1975J. V. Wright Prehist. Lake Athabasca iii. 143 The western portion of the lake was occupied by another group: possibly Athabascan-speaking Beavers.
(b) The Athapaskan language spoken by this people.
[1862R. G. Latham Elements Comparative Philol. lv. 391 The Beaver Indian is transitional to the Slave and the Chepewyan proper.] 1916P. E. Goddard Beaver Indians (Anthropol. Papers Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. X. vi.) 209 As far as phonetics are concerned the Sarsi language is more nearly akin to Beaver than to any other east of the Rocky Mountains. 1933[see Dogrib n. (and a.) b]. 1946J. J. Honigmann Ethnogr. & Acculturation Fort Nelson Slave (Yale Univ. Publ. Anthropol. No. 33) 130 The Cree, in interpersonal relations with the Slave, must speak either an Athapaskan dialect (generally Beaver or Slave or a mixture of both) or must speak English. 1977[see Sarcee a. and n.].
Add:[2.] d. Canad. Hist. Pl. often unchanged. = made beaver s.v. *made ppl. a. 5 b.
[1708in Beaver (1957) Winter 14/1, 10 [for] good skins; that is, Winter Beaver; 12 [for] skins of the biggest sort, 10 for the mean, and 8 for the smallest. ]1765in A. Henry Trav. (1809) ii. i. 192 It is in Beaver that accounts are kept at Michilimackinac. 1851J. Richardson Arctic Searching Exped. i. xii. 391 To be accounted a chief among the Kutchin, a man must possess beads to the amount of 200 beavers. 1913F. Williams Wilderness Trail xviii. 190 When the value [of the furs] is determined, the trader pushes over the counter as many ‘beaver’ (lead pellets), as the furs are worth. 1941Beaver Sept. 14/2 The North-West Company, about 1820, issued beaver tokens, a form of coinage only a few pieces of which..have been saved.
▪ II. beaver, n.2 Obs. exc. Hist.|ˈbiːvə(r)|
Forms: 5 baviere, 6 bauour, -er, 6–7 beuer, 7 bauier, beauer, beavoir, 8–9 bever, 9 beavor, 6– beaver.
[ME. baviere, a. OF. bavière, orig. a child's bib, f. bave saliva; cf. It. baviera, Sp. babera.]
1. ‘The lower portion of the face-guard of a helmet, when worn with a visor; but occasionally serving the purposes of both.’
‘In 14th c. applied to the moveable face-guard of the basinet, otherwise called viziere, ventaile, or aventaile. In the early part of 15th c. the beaver appears formed of overlapping plates, which can be raised or depressed to any degree desired by the wearer. In the 16th c. it again became confounded with the visor, and could be pushed up entirely over the top of the helmet, and drawn down at pleasure.’ (Planché.)
1481–90Howard Househ. Bks. 274 A peir brigandines{ddd}.ij. bavieres [and] iij. peire ganteletz. 1557K. Arthur (Copland) vi. ix, Syr Launcelot..gate hym by the bauour of hys helmet. 1600Fairfax Tasso ii. xlviii, The Virgin gan her Beavoir vale. 1602Shakes. Ham. i. ii. 230 Then saw you not his face? O yes, my Lord, he wore his Beaver vp. 1765H. Walpole Otranto iii. (1798) 51 Two knights in complete armour, their beavers down. 1820Scott Ivanhoe viii, The conqueror called for a bowl of wine, and opening the beaver, or lower part of his helmet..quaffed it. 1876J. R. Planché Cycl. Costume I. 39 One of the earliest examples of a movable beaver is seen in the effigy of Thomas, Duke of Clarence, slain 1421.
b. fig.
1838Southey Doctor Wks. V. 148, I will maintain..as publicly (only that my bever must be closed). 1845R. Hamilton Pop. Educ. iii. 49 Why should the Author suppress this anecdote now that his beaver is up?
2. Comb., as beaver-sight, eye-hole of a helmet.
a1843Southey G. Hermiguez i. Wks. 1853 VI. 163 Through the bever-sight his eye Glared fierce and red.
▪ III. beaver, n.3 slang.|ˈbiːvə(r)|
[Etym. uncertain.]
1. (a) A beard; (b) a bearded person; (c) a game, in which points are scored in various ways by ‘spotting’ beards.
In the U.S., beaver (prob. beaver1) is recorded in the sense ‘a person’ (not necessarily one with a beard): 1850–66 examples in D.A.
1910F. Richardson Whiskers & Soda 211 He provided a list of celebrated clean-shaven men and also of celebrated beavers, as bearded men are technically termed. 1922J. Kettelwell Beaver 58 The outlines of the game itself are so simple..that the question of rules scarcely arises. A bearded man is a Beaver, claim him, crying aloud, as musically as possible, ‘Beaver, fifteen love’—or appropriately to the score. If both players cry aloud simultaneously it is a ‘no ball’. 1922New Statesman 12 Aug. 511/1 This amazing game of Beaver..is played ..by two persons, and the points are scored as in tennis. Whichever of the two first cries ‘Beaver!’ as a beard heaves into sight, scores. 1922Westm. Gaz. 12 Oct. 6/5 He was a beaver of a pronounced type, wore horn-rimmed spectacles, and two huge opal rings. 1927W. E. Collinson Contemp. Eng. 63 About three years ago a fashion was started among men of wearing beards. These were greeted with the cry: Beaver!, a term now often applied to the beard itself [o]n ‘a beaver’. 1936Wodehouse Laughing Gas xxiv. 255, I had fallen among a band of criminals who were not wilful beavers, but had merely assumed the fungus for purposes of disguise. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolchildren iii. 54 The cry ‘Beaver!’ is a thing of the past.
2. a. The female genitals or the pubic area in general; also attrib., denoting films, literature, etc., in which nude females are portrayed; split beaver: see split ppl. a. 3 a. Chiefly U.S.
1927Immortalia 166 She took off her clothes From her head to her toes, And a voice at the keyhole yelled, ‘Beaver!’ 1939Joyce Finnegans Wake 537 Thou, Frick's Flame, Uden Sulfer, who strikest only on the marryd bokks, enquick me if so be I did cophetuise milady's maid! In spect of her beavers she is a womanly and sacret. 1969Films & Filming Aug. 25/2 The Supreme Court ruling that pubic hair wasn't obscene..led directly to a crop of self-styled ‘beaver movies’. 1976Listener 12 Feb. 180/1 Like the beaver mags (Kurt Vonnegut's word for the glossies that concentrate on the female pudenda), television has only a limited number of shots with which to titillate the viewer. 1978J. Irving World according to Garp xiii. 241 Pictures of naked women... If you could see the sex parts, which were sometimes partially hidden by the hair, that was a beaver. 1981M. Gee Dying, in Other Words 101 He hadn't been very intelligent..showing him the skin flick picture of Moira{ddd}It was probably too dirty, they can't use beaver shots, although she was cracked up her beaver, Macbeth felt it briefly.
b. Hence, a girl or woman, esp. one who is sexually attractive. U.S.
1968–70Current Slang (Univ. S. Dakota) III–IV. 8 Beaver, a girl.—College males, Kansas. 1976Lieberman & Rhodes Compl. CB Handbk. vi. 121 ‘Beaver’, meaning a girl, was taken from a phrase used to describe pornographic films. 1977Rolling Stone 13 Jan. 42/2, 10–4, Beaver [CB talk for a female], we're all going down to Plains tomorrow after Jimmy Carter wins.
▪ IV. ˈbeaver, v.
1. local. [cf. E.D.D. beaver n.2 (Lincs.), a term applied to fine woad.] (See quots.)
1799A. Young Gen. View Agric. County Lincoln vii. 155 Without these attentions the woad will not beaver well, a term descriptive of the fineness of the capillary filaments into which it draws out when broken between the finger and thumb. 1805R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. xi. 771 When this attention is neglected, the woad will not, on being broken between the finger and thumb, draw out into fine hair-like filaments, or, in the language of the manufacturer, beaver well. 1942J. M. Dowsett Romance of England's Forests viii. 210 This powder was spread on the floor, moistened with water and allowed to ‘couch’ (ferment), a process which required very considerable care if the material was to ‘beaver’ well.
2. [f. beaver1.] Const. away: to work like a beaver.
1946Time 22 Apr. 49 He found time to dash off five other books while beavering away at his vast History. 1966M. R. D. Foot SOE in France p. xxi, The gaullists beavered away at their own plans, irrespective of the prospects of putting them into action. 1967Spectator 15 Dec. 740/2 The Germans beaver away at their scheme for ‘entry by stages’.
▪ V. beaver
variant of bever. |