| 释义 |
ˈseed-corn
1. Grain (or occas. a grain of corn) for sowing in order to produce a new crop.
1592–3Shuttleworths' Acc. (Chetham Soc.) 79 Roberte Aspeden for to bestowe upone side corne and other charges ..x1. 1645Quarles Sol. Recant. Sol. xi. 70 Stay not for showres; The soile, if overflowne, Will drown thy seed-corn, and return thee none. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. (Globe) 119 Even after I had got the first Handful of Seed-Corn. 1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 283 All seed-corn should be sifted.
fig.1800W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. VIII. 598 Some of these seed-corns of superstition, it is expected, must strike root. 1870Emerson Soc. & Solit. ix. 199 We know that l'homme de lettres is a little wary, and not fond of giving away his seed-corn. 1962Economist 19 May 688/1 The loans and grants from his agency are ‘seed corn’; they stimulate local initiative and self-help. 1977Times 20 Dec. 10/8 The IBA should be prepared to use the secondary rental income from these established stations which are already well into profit, as seedcorn money to help establish and run independent stations in smaller townships.
2. seed-corn maggot U.S., the yellowish-white larva of a fly, Hylemya platura, which infests the seed of many vegetables and other crop plants, preventing sprouting or causing the seedlings to be weak and sickly; also, the adult fly.
1869C. V. Riley First Ann. Rep. Noxious Insects Missouri 154 (heading) The seed-corn maggot. 1902Bull. Div. Entomol. U.S. Dept. Agric. XXXIII. 84 The Seed-Corn Maggot..has received no less than seven Latin names. 1949Jrnl. Econ. Entomol. XLII. 77/1 The seed corn maggot..injures bean, pea and corn seedlings before the plants emerge. 1975Nature 7 Aug. 487/1 Larvae of the seedcorn maggot..may damage or kill young plants of many crop species by feeding on the cotyledons and plumules. |