| 释义 |
ˈsea-green, a. and n.
[Cf. F. vert de mer.]
A. adj.
1. Pale bluish-green.
1603Inv. in Gage Hengrave (1822) 36 Saddles covered wth sea grene clothe. 1666Dryden Ann. Mirab. xxi, Lawson..Whom sea-green Sirens from the rocks lament. 1809Shaw Gen. Zool. VII. 388 Sea-green Roller, with..wings varied with blue, sea-green, and black. 1811Ibid. VIII. 152 Sea-green Bee-Eater, with yellow throat. 1823Byron Island iii. ii, Their sea-green isle. 1878Newcomb Pop. Astron. iii. iv. 354 [Uranus] has a decided sea-green color.
2. In phr. sea-green incorruptible, applied to Robespierre by Carlyle (see quot. 1837) and now commonly used allusively (often followed by some other word) to designate a person of rigid honesty or uncompromising idealism. Also in extended use and absol., impervious to moral corruption.
1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. II. iv. iv, O seagreen Incorruptible, thou shalt see! 1931Economist 7 Mar. 492/1 Although Mr. Hu Han-min at Manking may be a ‘sea-green incorruptible’ of as pure a dye as Robespierre, the local representatives of the Party in the country districts are often oppressors of the poor. 1936H. G. Wells Anat. Frustration ix. 94 His [sc. Philip Snowden's] early appearance as the ‘sea green incorruptible’ of the British Labour revolution. 1958Spectator 1 Aug. 157/1 Utopia is to be attained only by sea-green incorruptibility. 1960C. P. Snow Affair xl. 372 ‘I shall have to,’ Skeffington replied, obdurate and sea⁓green. 1976Listener 5 Aug. 143/3 He is, for all that, a man of sea-green integrity. 1977New Society 17 Feb. 328/1 A former Chief Constable from the north west..a man of cast-iron integrity from a religious background and..a sea-green incorruptible.
B. n.
1. A sea-green colour.
1598Chapman Hero & Leander iv. 73 With a pure Sea greene She did so queintly shadow euery lim. 1662Merrett tr. Neri's Art of Glass xx, Between a Sea-green and a skie-colour. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair ix, She..appeared..in draggled sea-green, or slatternly sky-blue.
†2. Houseleek. Cf. ay-green, sengreen. Obs.
Perh. orig. a misprint: see the first quot.
1601Holland Pliny xviii. xvii. I. 575 The hearb Housleek or Sea-greene [Errata, read Sengreene]. 1696Phillips (ed. 5), Scolopender,..a certain Medicinal Herb,..such as Sea⁓green [etc.]. 1755Johnson, Seagreen, saxifrage. A plant.
3. A collector's name for a moth, the Hadena thalassina.
1832J. Rennie Butterfl. & Moths 67.
4. pl. (Sc.) (See quot.)
1765–8Erskine Inst. Law Scot. ii. vi. §17 Sea-greens..i.e. grounds in some measure gained from the sea, but which still continue to be overflowed in spring-tides. |