| 释义 |
ˈrushlight
Also rush-light.
[rush n.1]
1. a. = rush-candle.
1710Lond. Gaz. No. 4673/2 Small Rush Lights once dipped or drawn through Grease, or Kitchin Stuff. a1764Lloyd Tale Poet. Wks. 1774 I. 78 As rushlights in a spacious room, Just burn enough to form a gloom. 1817Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxv. (1818) II. 409 A single candle, not more vivid than the rush-light which glimmers in the peasant's cottage. 1856Orr's Circ. Sci., Pract. Chem. 451 The rush⁓lights that are sold in London vary from ten to eighteen in the pound. 1889Jessopp Coming of Friars ii. 89 Why should he burn a rushlight when there was nothing to look at?
b. Without article: The light of a rush-candle.
1827G. Griffin Holland-Tide 326 It was neither like sun-light, nor moonlight, nor the light of the stars, nor fire, nor rush light. 1847C. Brontë J. Eyre vi, The next day commenced as before, getting up and dressing by rushlight.
c. fig., denoting something insignificant or of little account; a glimmer. Also of persons.
1829Carlyle Misc. (1857) II. 1 A lamp or rushlight of understanding. Ibid. 112 A dwelling in the rush-light of ‘closet-logic’. 1866Yale Lit. Mag. Apr. 229 Peters told him that good scholars were looked upon here as mere rush-lights. 1893F. F. Moore I Forbid Banns xxxiv, You have spoken according to your lights, I daresay; but such lights as yours are rush-lights, Mr. Hardy.
2. attrib., as rushlight box, rushlight candle, rushlight holder, rushlight life, rushlight love, rushlight shade.
1721Amherst Terræ Fil. No. 13 (1726) 64 The late bishop of Bristol..found him in his lodgings by a little starving fire, with a rush-light candle before him. 1838Dickens O. Twist xii, The little circles of light, which the reflection of the rushlight-shade threw upon the ceiling. 1863W. Cory Lett. & Jrnls. (1897) 104 It was a great day in my rushlight life. 1934L. B. Lyon White Hare 34 And dowsed in dark Their little rush-light love. 1937Discovery Jan. 12/1 Rushlight holders (examples of which date from the 15th century onwards but are commonly of the 18th or early 19th) are generally in iron but might be..merely split sticks. 1955G. Stevens In Canadian Attic 23 Light for domestic purposes was first supplied by the campfires; next came the rushlight holder. 1969E. H. Pinto Treen 123 Rush-light boxes. These containers..usually of oak or mahogany and mostly dating from the 18th century, are rare and seldom identified correctly. 1969Canadian Antiques Collector Jan. 19/2 An interesting item you may be able to pick up is a ‘Rushlight-holder’.
Hence ˈrushlighted a.
1866Ruskin Crown Wild Olive §154 As many candles..as would comfort the old eyes..of a whole rushlighted country village. |