| 释义 |
black water
1. A stream stained brown by the peat of the mosses from which it flows.
1676Cotton Walton's Angler ii. ii. 14 This River [Trent] from its head for a Mile or two is a black water. Ibid. 16 The River Wye..a black water too at the Fountain... Derwent, a black water too.
2. A disease incident to sheep and cows.
1800Tuke Agric. N. Riding Yorks. 272 There is another disorder to which lambs are liable in autumn; it is called the black-water. 1825Loudon Encycl. Agric. §6263 The black water is only the aggravated and latter stages of [red water]. 1879J. Lucas in Zoologist 3rd Ser. III. 356 Many [sheep] die in cold nights, when they contract a disease known as ‘blackwater’.
3. In full blackwater fever. A tropical fever to which chiefly white people are subject, characterized by a brown or blue-black colour of the urine.
1884J. F. Easmon (title) The nature and treatment of blackwater fever. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 645 Two extremely deadly forms of fever have come into notice here, malarial typhoid and blackwater. 1926Blackw. Mag. Nov. 663/1 The doctor had died three weeks before of blackwater. 1965B. Sweet-Escott Baker St. Irreg. viii. 249 Musgrave had known Burma well before the war, and had twice suffered from blackwater fever.
4. [tr. Hindi kālā pānī.] A term used by Indians, esp. Hindus, for the sea.
1818M. M. Sherwood Hist. Little Henry & his Bearer (ed. 12) 79 He could never follow him through the black water, as the Hindoos call the seas. 1898Kipling Day's Work 7 A sea-priest—one who had never set foot on Black Water, but had been chosen as ghostly counsellor by two generations of sea-rovers. 1940M. R. Anand (title) Across the black waters. 1966P. Scott Jewel in Crown v. 209 Unclean by traditional Hindu standards and custom because I had crossed the black water. 1977― Staying On xv. 199 He would spend his remaining years like a little dog at Lila's heels, panting after her all round India and perhaps beyond the black water.
▸ Ecol. Waste from domestic toilets, esp. as distinguished from other household waste water; waste water that is heavily contaminated with human excrement. Cf. grey water n. at grey adj. and n. Additions.
1970Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 67 874 Additionally, the concept of dividing ‘black-water’ and ‘gray-water’ waste systems has been suggested for overall community use. 1988Harrowsmith Jan.–Feb. 124/1 The two kinds of household sewage—greywater, the lightly polluted effluent from sinks, showers and washing machines, and blackwater, the waste from toilets that is heavily contaminated by feces and urine—are normally disposed of together. 1998Mother Earth News (Electronic ed.) 14 Apr. 38 Outhouses and composting toilets are legal here. A septic tank is a must for the black water; sink or gray water can be filtered and used on plants. |