| 释义 |
saddleback, n. and a.|ˈsæd(ə)lbæk|
[f. saddle n. + back n.]
A. n.
1.
†a. Archery. A saddle-backed feather. Obs.
b. A saddle-backed hill. (Cf. saddle-backed a. 1.)
1545R. Ascham Toxoph. ii. (Arb.) 133 The swyne backed fashion..gathereth more ayer than the saddle backed, and therefore the saddle backe is surer for daunger of wether. 1869E. A. Parkes Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3) 289 A saddleback is usually healthy..so are positions near the top of a slope. 1907Gentl. Mag. Mar. 247 A regular saddleback of grey Silurian blocks the wayfarers path.
†2. A back (of an animal) having a depression in the middle of it. Obs.
1625Purchas Pilgrims ii. 1694 Certaine beasts..much like unto a Deere, hauing a Saddle-backe like unto a Camell.
3. Arch. A roof of a tower, having a gable at two opposite sides connected by a ridge-roof; a packsaddle roof.
1849Freeman Archit. 238 The gabled tower..does not seem to occur; but we meet with the form usually called a saddle-back. 1861A. Beresford-Hope Eng. Cathedr. 19th C. 243 The due and moderate use of the gabled tower of the German style..may be adopted,..so too may the saddle⁓back. 1893C. Hodges in Reliquary Jan. 15 The finish of the tower was what is generally known as a saddle-back, a form common in Normandy, but rare in England.
4. A name of various birds and animals etc.
a. The Grey or Hooded Crow, Corvus cornix; also called saddleback crow.
1864Atkinson Prov. Names Birds, Saddleback Crow..Hooded Crow. Corvus cornix. 1895P. H. Emerson Birds etc. of Norf. Broadland xlix. 140 A useful bird is the handsome but sluggish ‘saddle-back’ [i.e. the grey crow].
b. The adult of either of the Black-backed Gulls, Larus marinus and L. fuscus; also saddleback gull.
1770G. Cartwright Jrnl. 2 Oct. (1792) I. 40 They returned with three shellbirds and a saddleback. 1847P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 275 A huge saddle⁓back gull. 1864Atkinson Prov. Names Birds, Saddle-back, Saddleback Gull..Great Blackbacked Gull. Larus marinus. 1872Daily News 23 Aug., The decrease of the gulls would be attended with certain loss to fishermen who were often directed and piloted to the shoals by the keen-eyed saddle-back. 1872Coues Key N. Amer. Birds 312 Great Black-backed Gull. Saddle⁓back. 1932J. Barbour Forty-Eight Days Adrift vi. 61 A ‘saddleback’ coming towards us..was a good sign we were getting near land.
c. The male of the Greenland or Harp Seal (Phoca grœnlandica) when three years old; in full saddleback seal.
1856Kane Arct. Expl. I. ii. 22 The valued furs of the saddle-back seal. 1896Lydekker Brit. Mammals 156 It is not till the third year that the males (then called ‘Saddle-backs’) assume the characteristic dark harp-shaped markings.
d. A New Zealand wattle-bird, Creadion (or Philesturnus) carunculatus.
1868W. Buller Ess. Ornithol. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. I. 5 (Morris) The Saddle-back (Creadion carunculatus) of the North is represented in the South by C. Cinereus, a closely allied species. 1966Weekly News (Auckland, N.Z.) 1 June 17/1 A pair of saddlebacks point like hunting dogs... They snap from one rigid position to another, head down, tail erect, wattles a blood crimson, the fragmented sunlight burnishing the chestnut saddle on their backs.
e. A variety of the goose (see quot. 1885).
1885Encycl. Brit. XIX. 647/1 The common variety [of the goose] frequently marked with dark feathers on the back, and hence termed ‘saddlebacks’.
f. A kind of oyster (see quot. 1876).
1876Weale's Dict. Terms, Saddle-backs, in fishery, a name given to a bastard kind of oyster by the fishers; they are considered unfit for human food.
g. The brown and green larva of the moth Sibine stimulea, which has stinging spiny hairs and is found in southeastern North America.
1895J. H. & A. B. Comstock Man. Study of Insects xviii. 225 The Saddle-back Caterpillar... Its most characteristic feature is a large green patch on the back. 1943Sun (Baltimore) 9 Sept. 16/7 The Saddleback is of the family Eucleidae. 1954[see io2].
h. A parti-coloured black and white pig belonging to the breed so called. Also saddleback pig.
1919(title) The Wessex Saddleback Pig Society's herd book. 1927Daily Tel. 6 Dec. 9/2 Mr. Douglas Vickers' herd of Wessex saddlebacks at Temple Dinsley, Hitchin. 1978E. Downing Keeping Pigs iii. 25 The Large Black and the Saddleback are still hardy. 1981Times 25 May 10/6 The Johnstone Cup..was won by the cider firm, Whiteways..with British saddleback pigs.
i. The African black-backed jackal, Canis mesomelas.
1947J. Stevenson-Hamilton Wild Life S. Afr. ii. 23 The side-striped jackal..began to decrease... Its place had been taken by the black-backed jackal... It may be that it contracted and died from the same disease as affected the wild dog, and from which the saddle-back..remained..immune. 1964D. Varaday Gara-Yaka vii. 61 A pair of saddle-back jackals coming into view from the sands of an ant-bear hole.
j. The North American Arctic shrew, Sorex arcticus.
1948A. L. Rand Mammals Eastern Rockies 51 The saddle-back shrew with is red-brown sides and tricolour pattern is the most beautiful of our shrews. 1966R. L. Peterson Mammals E. Canada 38 Sorex arcticus Kerr—Arctic or Saddle-back Shrew. Ibid. 38/1 The young do not show the distinct dorsal band or ‘saddle back’.
5. a. Coal-mining (see quot.). b. Geol. An anticlinal (Cassell's Encycl. Dict. 1887).
1883Gresley Coal-mining Terms, Saddleback, a depression or valley in strata.
B. adj.
1. = saddle-backed a., in various senses.
1677Lond. Gaz. No. 1257/4 Stolen or strayed.., one dapple gray Gelding..a little saddle-back. 1696Ibid. No. 3202/4 A brown Mare,..Saddle Back, well risen on the Crest. 1862Ecclesiologist XXIII. 252 Gabled or saddle-back towers. 1876Encycl. Brit. IV. 472/1 [Coping] sloping to both sides from the middle..is technically termed saddle-back coping. 1897Daily News 3 May 7/3 The Greek troops occupied..a saddleback hill. 1904Westm. Gaz. 2 Sept. 4/1 A high saddle⁓back peak. 1904Beerbohm Let. 3 Jan. (1964) 155 There is nothing to do except to sit in the hall on a saddle-back chair. 1906Edin. Rev. Jan. 114 A plain..building..with two low gable or ‘saddle-back’ roofs. 1981P. Vansittart Death of Robin Hood iii. iii. 142 The dulled crimson sofa and saddleback chairs.
2. saddleback caterpillar, saddleback crow, saddleback gull, saddleback jackal, saddleback pig, saddleback seal, saddleback shrew: see A. 4.
3. Mech. (See quot.)
1844Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl. VII. 236/2 At the bottom of the hopper there is a number of angular or ‘saddle back bars’, placed transversely..; the ‘saddle back bars’ will have the effect of dividing the ores. 1888Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin., Saddle Back Rail, or Barlow Rail, a rail whose sides curve rapidly outwards and downwards.
4. Geol. (See quot.)
1854Page Introd. Textbk. Geol. §31 When strata dip in opposite directions from a ridge or line of elevation..the axis is termed anticlinal or saddleback.
5. Path. (Cf. saddle-nose, saddle n. 12.)
1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 686 As a result of cicatricial contraction of the connective tissue..the so-called ‘saddle⁓back’ nose may be formed.
6. Put for ‘horse-back’. Also advb.
1899‘Zack’ On Trial xiv. 124 If 'tworn't that I can trust 'ee saddle-back..I shuld hold you had done the mare a mischief. 1904Westm. Gaz. 29 Feb. 1/3 His love of saddle⁓back exercise. |