| 释义 |
▪ I. sear, n.1|sɪə(r)|
Forms: 6 serre, 6–7 seare, 7 saer, 9 sere, scear, sear.
[Of obscure history.
Commonly regarded as a. OF. serre grasp, something that grasps or holds fast, f. serrer to grasp, hold fast, press close, repr. late L. serāre to bar, bolt, f. L. sera bar for a door. The Fr. word, however, has app. not been found with this specific meaning; in the sense ‘foot of a bird of prey’ (sere n.1) it is still current, and in OF. it also meant a lock or bolt.]
1. A portion of a gun-lock which engages with the notches of the tumbler in order to keep the hammer at full or half cock, and which is released (at full cock) by pressure upon the trigger.
1596Lambarde Peramb. Kent (ed. 2) 452 Euen as a pistole that is ready charged and bent, will flie off by and by, if a man do but touch the Seare. 1622F. Markham Bk. War i. ix. 35 Let the Cocks and Trickers be nimble to goe and come; for as concerning Seares, they are vtterly out of date. 1688Holme Armoury iii. xviii. (Roxb.) 135/1 The seuerall parts of a Fire lock... The saer or dog. 1802Trans. Soc. Arts XX. 246 Further motion being prevented by a notch in the small sear. 1864Wheelwright Spring Lapl. 200 It [a gun-lock] seemed to be altogether destitute of a scear, but with a famous mainspring. 1898Proc. Soc. Antiq. 17 Mar. 109 The cock is caught by the nose of the sear projecting from the lock-plate. 1903Sir M. G. Gerard Leaves fr. Diaries x. 367 The bent of the sear had broken—the piece being at half-cock.
b. tickle or light of the sear (fig.): easily made to ‘go off’, readily yielding to any impulse (cf. quot. 1596 above). So † to go glib upon the sear.
1560Dial. Comen Secretarye & Jelowsye 7 She that is fayre, lusty, and yonge,..Thynke ye her tayle is not lyght of the seare. 1583H. Howard Defensative H iv, Discouering the moods and humours of the vulgar sort,..to be so loose and tickle of the seare, as there wanted nothing but a leader, of great courage and deepe wisedome to begin the game. 1600Breton Pasquil's Fooles-cap B 2, An idle Mate, Whose tongue goes all too glibbe vpon the seare. 1602Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 337 The Clowne shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled [read tickle] a th' sere.
2. Comb., as sear-nose, the end of the sear which engages with the notches in the tumbler; sear-pin, -pivot, the bolt upon which the sear turns; sear-spring, a spring which keeps the sear in position, also, in some gun-locks a spring which throws the hammer back to half-cock after a discharge (also attrib. in sear-spring cramp, sear-spring-pin).
1859Musketry Instr. 16 The arm of the sear is that part on which the trigger acts to raise the *sear-nose out of the full bent of tumbler.
1853Ure Dict. Arts II. 251 The *sear-pin.
1892Greener Breech-loader 16 Tumbler and *scear pivots.
1688Holme Armoury iii. xviii. (Roxb.) 135/1 The *saer spring or feather spring. 1831Darwin in Life & Lett. (1887) I. 211 Two sere-springs, four nipples or plugs.
1844Queen's Regul. Army 96 note, One *Sear-Spring Cramp, for Arms with back-action Locks.
1892Greener Breech-loader 15 The bridle and *scear-spring pins.
▪ II. sear, n.2|sɪə(r)|
Also 6 seare.
[f. sear v.]
A mark or impression produced by searing. Also fig.
1874A. O'Shaughnessy Music & Moonlight 122 Her dear wan life is dearer to me keeping The sear upon its whiteness of her fall. 1875Manning Internal Mission Holy Ghost viii. 216 If you had ever been burnt, there would remain the sear of the burn as long as you live.
▪ III. sear, v.|sɪə(r)|
Forms: 4–6, 9 sere, 5–8 seer, (6 cear), 6–7 seare, 6– sear.
[OE. séarian = OHG. (ar-)sôrên:—OTeut. type *sauræ̂jan, f. *sauro-, OE. séar dry, sere a.]
1. intr. To dry up, to wither away; to become sere. Now rare.
c890in Cockayne Shrine 168/22 Grenu [leaf] weaxað..hy eft onginnað searian. c1430Lydg. Reson & Sens. 2736 Ful of trees..whose fressh beaute and grenesse..Nouther Sere, nor wexen olde. 1496Dives & Pauper (W. de W.) i. xxviii. 66/2 Whan other herbes sere and drye up. 1530Palsgr. 709/2 This tree wyll seere within a yere or twayne. 1878Scribner's Monthly Mag. XVI. 332/2 As the autumn seared and browned and grayed at last into winter. 1901A. Austin Royal Homecoming x, What Nature feels when Autumn stacks and seres, Or Yule-gusts blow.
2. trans. To cause to wither, to blight.
1412–20Lydg. Chron. Troy i. 1655 Eke ȝonge trees to sere, rote and rinde, And afterward make hem, agein kynde, With lusty braunchis blosme and budde newe. c1550Cheke Matt. xxi. 19 And y⊇ fig tree was seered bi and bi. 1561Hollybush Hom. Apoth. 25 b, The same heate dryeth or seereth the stomake. 1784Cowper Task iii. 30 When summer sears the plains. 1815Shelley Alastor 249 His scattered hair Sered by the autumn of strange suffering Sung dirges in the wind. 1876Swinburne Erechtheus 1459 If no fire of sun or star untimely sear the tender grain. 1896A. Austin England's Darling iii. i, How often have I crushed their [reeds'] crackling stems, Sered by the wind and manacled in ice.
†b. to sear up: to subject to a process which causes withering, to dry up from the roots. Obs.
1430–40Lydg. Bochas viii. xv. (1494) D iij b, The frutles trees vp seryd to the rote. 1589Hakluyt Voy. 97 They cut the branches euery euening, because they are seared vp in the day by the heate of the Sunne.
3. To burn or char (animal tissues) by the application of a hot iron; to cauterize (a wound, the stump of an amputated limb, etc.) in order to destroy virus or prevent the flow of blood.
1530Palsgr. 709/2, I sere with a hoote yron, as a smyth or cyrurgien dothe. 1555W. Watreman Fardle Facions i. vi. 107 If [it ware] a wenche, they [Amazons] streighte ceared y⊇ pappes, that thei might not growe to hindre them in the warres. 1634Canne Necess. Separ. (1849) 145 A chirurgeon trieth all gentle means before lancing, searing, or cutting off. 1778Johnson in Boswell 20 Apr., It is a sad thing for a man..to bleed to death, because he has not fortitude enough to sear the wound, or even to stitch it up. 1831Youatt Horse 227 Preventing bleeding by searing the vessels with a hot iron. 1865Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. Ser. ii. I. ii. 252, I prefer searing at about eight or ten weeks as a..more humane process than drawing... I have never lost a lamb from searing.
b. fig. Chiefly after 1 Tim. iv. 2, to render (the conscience) incapable of feeling.
1582N.T. (Rhem.) 1 Tim. iv. 2 Having their conscience seared [1611 seared with a hote iron]. 1633Ford 'Tis Pity v. I. 2, Thy Conscience youth is sear'd. a1674Traherne Chr. Ethics (1675) 190 They are obdurate and seared, that cannot discern and feel the wound which they inflict on themselves, who grieve and offend their Creator. 1772Mackenzie Man World i. iii, To give firmness to sensibility..without searing its feelings where they led to virtue. 1816Byron Fare thee well xv, Sear'd in heart, and lone, and blighted, More than this I scarce can die. 1851Robertson Serm. Ser. iv. xv. (1863) 116 Christianity does not sear the human heart; it softens it. 1868Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. viii. 210 A long career of ambition, craft, and despotic rule never utterly seared his conscience. 1879Spencer Data of Ethics xiv. §93. 245 The destructive activities carried on against external enemies sear it [sympathy].
c. to sear up: to close (a wound, vein, etc.) by actual cautery. Also fig.
1600W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 41 [The Jesuits] haue bespattered with a most dangerous Gangrene, the whole bodie misticall of Christ (which vnlesse it be seared vp with hot irons here in England, wil neuer come at Rome to be soundly cured). 1629B. Jonson New Inn ii. i, The rogue deserues..To be crop'd with his owne Scizzers..And ha' the stumps sear'd vp with his owne searing candle. 1697Collier Ess. Mor. Subj. ii. 145 The Vein of Rhetorick was seared up. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 644 Then for the worm of conscience,..they have seared up his mouth with a hot iron that he cannot bite. 1839Hallam Lit. Eur. iii. iv. §79 The political system of Hobbes, like his moral system,..sears up the heart.
†d. To brand, stigmatize. Also fig. Obs.
c1520Skelton Magnyf. 360 And boyes to the pylery gan me plucke,..And some bade sere hym with a marke. 1601Shakes. All's Well ii. i. 176 A divulged shame Traduc'd by odious ballads: my maidens name Seard otherwise. 1611― Wint. T. ii. i. 73 Calumnie will seare Vertue it selfe. 1638Brief Relat. 21 Now the Executioner being come, to seare him and cut of his eares, Mr. Prynne spake these words to him [etc.]. 1644Milton Divorce i. i. (ed. 2) 7 Not to suffer the ordinance of his goodnes and favour, through any error to be ser'd and stigmatiz'd upon his servants to their misery and thraldome.
4. In wider sense: To burn, scorch; † to put out (one's eyes) by burning. Also fig. ? Obs.
1590Spenser F.Q. i. xi. 26 The scorching flame sore swinged all his face, And through his armour all his bodie seard. 1593Nashe Christ's T. Wks. 1904 II. 136 To the intent that..he might with the bright reflection of his [the sun's] beamy radiation seare out his eyes. c1610Beaum. & Fl. Philaster 11, All the Court shall hoot thee through the Court Fling rotten Oranges, make ribald Rimes, And sear thy name with Candles upon walls. 1650Fuller Pisgah iii. xiii. 349 Tophet..where children were offered to Moloch, searing them to death with his burning imbracements. 1652Gataker Antinom. 8 Poor souls for fear of searing their lips, dare not put the cup to their mouths. 1725Pope Odyss. v. 307 A lofty wood Whose leafless summits to the skies aspire, Scorch'd by the sun, or sear'd by heav'nly fire. 1810Scott Lady of L. iii. x, For as the flames this symbol sear, His home, the refuge of his fear, A kindred fate shall know.
▪ IV. sear
variant of sere a.; obs. Sc. f. sore.
▪ V. sear(e cloth
see cere-cloth. |