| 释义 |
▪ I. canter, n.1|ˈkæntə(r)|
[f. cant v.2 + -er1. Cf. also cant n.1 6.]
1. a. One who cants, or tilts.
b. In a sawmill, a machine placed over the carriage and used to cant or roll over the log on the carriage in making the first cuts; a canting-machine (Cent. Dict. Suppl. 1909).
2. (See quot.)
1875Robinson Whitby Gloss (E.D.S.) Canter, a timber-carrier; one who brings ‘bauks’ or tree-trunks from the woods to the ship-yards.
▪ II. canter, n.2|ˈkæntə(r)|
[f. cant v.3 + -er1.]
1. One who uses the ‘cant’ of thieves, etc.; one of the ‘canting crew’; a rogue, vagabond. arch.
1609Dekker Lanth. & Candle-L. Wks. 1885 III. 197 Stay and heare a Canter in his owne language, making Rithmes. 1610S. R[owlands] Mart. Mark-all E j b, Thus haue I runne ouer the Canter's Dictionary. 1630J. Taylor (Water P.) Wks. ii. 239/1 [They] gaue all their mony to the mendicanting Canters. 1652Gaule Magastrom. 131 Astrologers, Soothsayers, Canters, Gypsies, Juglers. 1719D'Urfey Pills III. 100 A Filcher my Brother, A Canter my Uncle. 1865tr. V. Hugo's Hunchback ii. vi. 76 Four or five canters..were quarrelling.
2. A talker of professional or religious cant; in 17th c. a nickname of the Puritans.
1652Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 292 On Whit-Sunday, I went to the church..and heard one of the canters. 1711Vind. Sacheverell 42 The seditious Canter. 1821Blackw. Mag. X. 731 The Schlegels are the great critical canters of modern Europe. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 213 The days when he [Lauderdale] was a canter and a rebel.
▪ III. canter, n.3|ˈkæntə(r)|
[cf. canter v.2]
A Canterbury gallop; an easy gallop. ‘The exertion is much less, the spring less distant, and the feet come to the ground in more regular succession,’ than in the gallop proper (Youatt).
1755Connoisseur No. 69 She never ventured beyond a canter or a hand-gallop. 1773Johnson s.v. Canterbury gallop, The hand gallop of an ambling horse, commonly called a canter. 1831Youatt Horse (1843) 527 The canter is to the gallop very much what the walk is to the trot. 1851Longfellow Gold. Leg. v, This canter over hill and glade.
b. to win in a canter: to distance all the other horses in a race so much that galloping is unnecessary at the end; fig. to come off victor with the greatest ease.
1853Lytton My Novel (Hoppe) He wins the game in a canter. 1874Sat. Rev. Aug. 180 (ibid.) Hermitage won in a common canter.
2. fig. (cf. run, scamper.)
a1864Sir J. Stephen (Webster) A rapid canter in the Times over all the topics of the day. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. xi. 86 Ma was talking then, at her usual canter. 1879O. W. Holmes Motley xvii. 118 He ever and anon relieves his prose jog trot by breaking into a canter of poetry.
▪ IV. † ˈcanter, n.4 Obs. rare—1.
[? ad. Sp. cantera.]
A kind of Spanish fishing-boat.
a1642Sir W. Monson Naval Tracts vi. (1704) 532/1 There are..employ'd out of Spain..Vessels call'd Canters, upon that Fishing. [1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Cantera, a Spanish fishing-boat.]
▪ V. canter
obs. var. of cantor.
▪ VI. † canter, v.1 Obs.
? To chant, to intone.
1538Starkey England i. iv. (1871) 137 Thynke, yf Saynt Augustyn, Jerome, or Ambrose herd our curyouse dyscantyng and canteryng in churchys, what they wold say.
▪ VII. canter, v.2|ˈkæntə(r)|
[Shortened from canterbury v.]
1. intr. Of a horse, etc.: To move in a moderate gallop, raising the two fore-feet nearly at the same time with a leap or spring.
1706Lond. Gaz. No. 4247/4 Trots, Paces, and Canters very fine. 1804G. Rose Diaries (1860) II. 193 The horse, on cantering down a..hill, came on his head. 1865Livingstone Zambesi x. 212 The zebras..canter gracefully away.
2. Of the rider.
1768Sterne Sent. Journ. (1778) I. 117 La Fleur..canter'd away..as..perpendicular as a prince. 1821Byron Juan iv. ciii, I canter by the spot each afternoon. 1870E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. II. 164 He was cantering through the park.
3. transf. To run or move as in a canter; to move nimbly or briskly.
1761Sterne Tr. Shandy (1793) IV. 157 'Tis..any thing which a man makes a shift to get astride on, to canter it away from the cares and solicitudes of life. c1825Houlston Tracts II. No. 38. 11 Away she canters, and tosses over and tries on before the looking-glass every article of dress.
4. trans. To make (a horse) go at a canter, to ride at a canter. Also fig.
1845‘Titmarsh’ Leg. Rhine xii, in Cruikshank's Table-Bk. 243 The knight gracefully cantering an elegant cream-coloured Arabian. 1856R. Vaughan Mystics (1860) II. viii. vii. 80 The islander catches..the first [pony] that comes to hand, puts on the halter, canters it his journey, and lets it go. 1930V. Woolf Diary 20 Feb. (1953) 156, I must canter my wits if I can.
5. transf. To impart a cantering motion to.
1821New Month. Mag. II. 322 She would not be cantered in a swing set up in a kitchen-garden, because, as she whispered, the potatoes had eyes. |