| 释义 |
▪ I. runt, n.|rʌnt|
Also 6 ront(e, 7 runte.
[Of obscure origin. It seems unlikely that sense 2 is at all connected with MDu. runt (Du. rund) ox.]
1. a. An old or decayed stump of a tree. Also attrib., as runt-tree, runt-wood, and fig. (quot. a 1585). Now dial.
1501Douglas Pal. Hon. i. iii, Not throw the soyl bot muskane treis sproutit,..Auld rottin runtis quhairin na sap was leifit. a1585Polwart Flyting w. Montgomerie 789 Iock Blunt, deid runt! I sall dunt whill I slay thee. 1601Holland Pliny xvi. xxxix. I. 480 Neither yong poles nor old runts are fit for durable building. 1603― Plutarch 399 Like unto old runt-trees or dodils, which repining as it were at others, do manifestly hinder and take away the spring and growth of yoong poles and plants which come up under them, or grow neere about them. 1710Tusser Redivivus in Tusser's Husb. (1878) 78 Few Pollards perish for want of it [lopping], but Runt-wood will. 1841Hartshorne Shropsh. Gloss. 552 Runts, decayed stumps of trees.
b. Sc. and north. A hardened stem or stalk of a plant, esp. of a cabbage (cf. kale-runt, kale 4).
1785Burns Halloween iv, Poor hav'rel Will..pow't, for want o' better shift, A runt was like a sow-tail Sae bow't that night. 1786― Ordination vi, Lapfu's large o' gospel kail..An' runts o' grace. 1807–10Tannahill Poems (1846) 117 They got naething for crowdy, but runts boiled to sowdie. 1829Brockett N.C. Gloss. 1928R. Campbell Wayzgoose ii. 58 The Sacred Carrot with the golden rind, Whose magic runt..The more one nibbled it, the larger grew.
2. a. An ox or cow of a small breed or size, esp. one belonging to the small breeds characteristic of Wales and the Highlands of Scotland.
1549Act 3 & 4 Edw. VI, c. 19 §1 Any manner of Oxen, Steres, Rontes, Kyen, Heighfers or Calves. 1579Spenser Sheph. Cal. Feb. 5 My ragged rontes all shiver and shake, As doen high Towers in an earthquake. 1620Middleton Chaste Maid iv. i, She's full of cattle, some two thousand runts. 1649W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1652) 184 That year may put up three midling Runts upon an Acre and feed them up. 1700J. Brome Trav. i. (1707) 23 Multitudes of Oxen, which they call Runts. 1768Pennant Brit. Zool. I. 18 The Welsh runts are much larger: the black cattle of Cornwall are of the same size with the last. 1825Cobbett Rur. Rides 253 The cattle here are chiefly Welsh, black and called runts. 1847W. C. L. Martin Ox 100/1 From the midland and western counties, 230 Herefords, runts, Devons, &c. 1886Daily News 14 Dec. 2/5 Welsh Runts were in good force, and maintained a prominent rank in the exhibition.
attrib.1884W. Sussex Gaz. 25 Sept., 25 Scotch Cows and Heifers, 16 Runt Steers. 1886Daily News 15 Sept. 2/4 Prime sides of English runt beef.
b. An old cow or ox. Now dial.
1638Laud Wks. (1857) VI. 538 Your hung beef..was..as hard as the very horn the old runt wore when she lived. 1808Jamieson. 1823E. Moor Suffolk Wds. 1877Cumb. Gloss.
c. A small or inferior horse.
1725Portland Papers (Hist. MSS. Comm.) VI. 90 We met a parcel of Scots horses... I should let them pass unremembered but for the extravagant value I thought they set upon one of their runts. 1895Westm. Gaz. 7 Sept. 2/1 He..drove a little ole runt that couldn't go seven mile a hour.
d. (a) A small pig, esp. the smallest in a litter. dial. and U.S. (b) In gen. use, a small pig that is weakly or undernourished.
1841Hartshorne Shropsh. Gloss. 552 Runt, Runtling, the smallest in a litter of pigs. 1886Cent. Mag. XXXII. 107 While the runt is the weakest and most forlorn of pigs [etc.]. 1887in Kent. Gloss. 1939V. C. Fishwick Pigs i. i. 19 Such piglings grow well and are a sound proposition. They are not regarded as ‘runts’, a term which is here used to describe a pig that is in poor condition. 1939Nature 23 Sept. 552/2 Radiographic examination of a ‘runt’, the small starveling pig, shows evidence of arrested growth in the skeleton. 1977P. R. English et al. Sow viii. 163 One can have a litter in which most piglets are thriving well but in which one or two are obviously suffering from malnutrition and are in danger of becoming nutritional ‘runts’.
3. transf.
a. An ignorant, uncouth, or uncultivated person.
1614B. Jonson Barth. Fair iv. vi, Sir, you are a welsh Cuckold, and a prating Runt, and no Constable. a1658Cleveland Sir J. Presbyter 24 Reforming Tweed Hath sent us Runts even of her Churches breed. 1719D'Urfey Pills II. 77 Shone a Welch Runt, and Hans a Dutch Boor. 1723S. Centlivre Artifice iii. i, This City spoils all Servants. I took a Welsh Runt last Spring. 1830G. R. Gleig Country Curate II. iii. 62 Things have come to a pretty pass, when a set of beggarly Welsh runts use threats to their betters.
b. An old woman, esp. an ill-favoured or ill-conditioned one; a hag. Now Sc. or dial.
a1652Brome Eng. Moor iii. iii, Sure some old runt with a splay-foot hath crost him. 1676Coles Eng.-Lat. Dict., An old runt, vetula. 1769Herd's Songs (1904) 159, I think the auld runt be gone mad. 1787W. Taylor Scot. Poems 26 At last brave Jess..Did had Dad's hands, till the auld runt, Wi' boilin broe, John Ploughman brunt. 1823E. Moor Suffolk Wds., Runt,..an ill-conditioned woman. a1856G. Outram Annuity in Lyrics (1874), Catch the doited runt forget To ca' for her annuity. 1899S. R. Crockett Kit Kennedy 40 The auld runt Babby is fell fond o' ye.
c. A person of low but thick-set build; a stunted or undersized person; a dwarf. Also used in weakened sense as a term of abuse.
a1700Dict. Cant. Crew, Runt, a little, short, truss Man. 1828Carr Craven Gloss., Runt, a person of a strong though low stature. 1854A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss., Runt or Runty, a dwarfish person; particularly a child stunted in its growth by short food or over work. 1890L. D'Oyle Notches 65 My brother Bill..was a fine, tall fellow—not a little bit of a ‘runt’ like me. 1896Dialect Notes I. 423 Runt, worthless fellow. (Cowboys.) c1926‘Mixer’ Transport Workers' Song Bk. 52 As a slimy runt, I'm it! 1930Amer. Speech V. 119 The expression ‘little runt’ was merely contemptuous. 1936Nat. Geogr. Mag. June 787/2 A cadet's height determines his assignment, the tall men going to the ‘flanker’ companies, A and M, the ‘runts’ to companies F and G in the center. 1956J. Cannon Who struck John? 228 You're Conn McCreary, a fat runt. You're tiny. 1958Chicago Tribune 9 Feb. (Comics Feature Mag.) 9 ‘Anyhow, who'd ever think of connecting that runt with this deal?’ ‘Maybe you're right! But just the same I'm going to keep my beady eye on young Mister Dondi.’ 1969I. & P. Opie Children's Games viii. 234 ‘Come on you miserable runts,’ we say, and one of the runts runs up the steps, only to be thrown over the side of the railing.
d. A dwarfish or diminutive object.
1819M. Wilmot Let. 8 Dec. (1935) 32 What think you of my deeply regretting not having brought a white Tabinet gown. 'Tis admired here beyond satin, and my old runt has in consequence been jinkumbobbed out of Mamselle and white satin till the poor dear old dress..is become the most admired thing I have. 1845Punch VIII. 224 You work in that little runt of a garden of yours for half-an-hour or so before breakfast. 1873Carleton Farm Ball. 43 Takin' all the biggest apples, leavin' all the littlest runts. 1900R. Barr Unchanging East 258 This insignificant runt of a Turkish steamer. 1973Amer. Speech 1969 XLIV. 249 In official terminology, ground signals are referred to as dwarf signals, but railroad men call them pots, because they are round and silver, or runts, because they are small in comparison with the signals on bridges that span the tracks.
attrib.1874Coues Birds N.W. 36 In a large number examined, little ‘runt’ eggs are sometimes found.
4. a. A domestic pigeon of a breed characterized by size and stoutness of build, of which there are a number of varieties.
1661Walton Angler (ed. 3) iv. 73 Of the tame [pigeons] there be Cropers, Carryers, Runts. 1668Charleton Onomast. 77 Columbæ Russicæ, Runts. 1725Fam. Dict. s.v. Pigeon, Of Runts are different Sorts, one called Spanish Runts, generally of a Blood Red, or Mottled Colour. 1735Moore Columb. 44 There are other Sorts of Runts, as the Roman Runt.., and the Smyrna Runt. 1840Dickens Barn. Rudge i, The wheeling and circling flights of runts, fantails, tumblers, and pouters, were perhaps not quite consistent with the grave and sober character of the building. 1881J. C. Lyell Fancy Pigeons 104 In appearance runts are like huge common pigeons.
attrib. and Comb.1688Holme Armoury ii. 244/1 The Runt Pigeon, or Russian Dove,..are large Pigeons as big as young Hens. 1854L. A. Meall Moubray's Poultry 249 In the head and bill the Archangel is very Runt-like. Ibid. 252 In size it would seem to be the smallest of the Runt family.
†b. A canary-bird over three years old. Obs.
a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew. 1704Dict. Rust. (1726) s.v. Canary-birds, The several Names of these Birds at different Times and Ages: Such as are above 3 years old are called Runts.
▪ II. † runt, v. Obs.—1
In 5 runte, ront.
[Cf. arunt v.]
trans. To reprove, rate.
c1440J. Capgrave Life St. Kath. iii. 96 Euyr hys body wold he chyde & runte [v.r. ront]: ‘What eylyth þe now?’ |