| 释义 |
▪ I. billow, n.|ˈbɪləʊ|
Also 6 bellow(e, 6–7 billowe.
[Not known bef. 1550, but may have been in dial. use. App. a. ON. bylgja billow (in Da. bölge, Sw. bölja); cf. MHG. bulge; OHG. *bulga and OE. *bylge are not found; f. com. Teut. belgan to swell, swell up: see bell v.1]
†1. The swell on the ocean produced by the wind, or on a river or estuary by the tide. Obs.
1560Jenkinson in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 358 And much adoe to keepe our barke from sinking, the billowe was so great. 1614Raleigh Hist. World i. iii. §13 That branch of Indus..[is] so large and deepe, and by reason thereof so great a billow, as it endangered his whole Fleet.
2. a. prop. A great swelling wave of the sea, produced generally by a high wind; but often used as merely = Wave, and hence poetically for ‘the sea.’
1552Huloet, Bellowe or waue of water. 1566Gascoigne Jocasta iii. (1575) 99 b, His barke with many a billowe beaten. 1596Spenser Prothal. 48 The gentle stream..bad his billowes spare To wet their silken feathers. 1601Shakes. Jul. C. v. i. 67 Why now blow winde, swell Billow, And swimme Barke. 1611Bible Ps. xlii. 7 All thy waues, and thy billowes [Wyclif flodis, Coverd. waterflouds] are gone ouer me. 1712Hughes Spect. No. 467 ⁋2 The Waves and Billows thro' which he has steered. 1799Scotland Descr. (ed. 2) 12 The appulse of the billows of the open Atlantic. 1817Wolfe Burial Sir J. Moore, The foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head, And we far away on the billow.
b. fig. esp. of death as an overwhelming flood.
1592tr. Junius on Rev. xii. 18 And provoke the nations that they might with their furious bellowes toss up and down. 1807Crabbe Par. Reg. iii. 15 Till the last strong billow stops the breath. 1857Heavysege Saul (1869) 429 The billows black of death's deep gulf.
3. transf. A great wave of flame, air, sound; a body of men sweeping onward, etc.
1677Milton P.L. i. 224 On each hand the flames..rowld In billows, leave i' th' midst a horrid Vale. 1854Russell The War xxvi. (ed. 17) 173 Huge stately billows of armed men. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. §25. 185 Billows of air..rolled over us with a long surging sound. 1872Blackie Lays Highl. 104 Let the billow of your pæans To Dunolly's tower be borne.
4. Comb. and attrib., as billow-crest, billow-roll, billow-swell, billow-beaten, billow-like adjs.; billow-bred a., reared or brought up on the sea; billow-rife a., full of, or beset with many, billows.
1597Middleton in Farr S.P. (1845) II. 536 The swans forsooke the quire of billow-roule. 1749West Pindar in Johnson Life Wks. IV. 202 The billow-beaten side Of the foam-besilver'd main. 1851H. Melville Moby Dick I. ix. 65 How billow-like and boisterously grand! 1855Singleton Virgil I. 229 Upon the billow-crest hang these. 1904W. de la Mare Henry Brocken 95 The hosts of our pursuers paused, billow-like, reared, and scattered.
▪ II. ˈbillow, v.
[f. prec. n.]
1. intr. To rise in billows; to surge, swell.
1597Drayton Mortimer. 94 A poole of tears..Billow'd with sighes, like to a little maine. 1655H. Vaughan Silex Scint. 39 When his waters billow thus, Dark storms and wind Incite them. 1794Coleridge Dest. Nations, Ocean behind him billows. 1868Tennyson Lucretius 31 A riotous confluence of watercourses Blanching and billowing in a hollow of it.
2. fig. and transf. To surge, swell, undulate, roll with wavy motion.
1628Feltham Resolves i. xxxvi. (1647) 119 Vexations when they daily billow upon the minde. 1713Young Last Day iii. 249 It soars on high, Swells in the storm, and billows through the sky. 1795Southey Joan of Arc v. 120 The yellow harvest billow'd o'er the plain. 1865G. Macdonald A. Forbes xviii. 75 A laugh..billowed and broke thro' the whole school. 1871Rossetti Last Confess. 407 The pain comes billowing on like a full cloud of thunder. |