| 释义 |
carnivorous, a.|kɑːˈnɪvərəs|
[f. L. carnivor-us (f. carni- flesh + -vorus devouring) + -ous.]
1. Eating or feeding on flesh; applied to those animals which naturally prey on other animals, and spec. to the order Carnivora.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iv. x, Many there are..which eate no salt at all, as all carnivorous animals. 1664Power Exp. Philos. i. 6 In all Flyes, more conspicuously in Carnivorous or Flesh-Flyes. 1797T. Bewick Brit. Birds (1847) I. Introd. 9 Birds may be distinguished, like quadrupeds, into granivorous and carnivorous. 1833Mrs. Browning Prometh. Bound, Poems (1850) I. 187 Zeus's winged hound, The strong carnivorous eagle. 1845Darwin Voy. Nat. i. (1852) 34 The carnivorous beetles or Carabidæ. 1879Wallace Australasia iii. 56 Carnivorous marsupials preying upon the other groups.
2. Bot. Applied to those plants which absorb and digest animal substances as food.
1868Sci. Opinion i. 16 The highly interesting carnivorous plants. 1878McNab Bot. iv. (1883) 95 Some plants..obtain a part of [their nitrogenous food] in a peculiar manner. These are the so-called carnivorous plants.
3. Med. Applied to caustics as destructive of flesh.
1881in Syd. Soc. Lex.
Hence carˈnivorously adv., carˈnivorousness.
1837Marryat Dog-Fiend xxxviii, The sow..was carnivorously inclined. 1858Hogg Life Shelley II. 446 He dined carnivorously. 1856Chamb. Jrnl. V. 133 Carnivorousness is an aberration of humanity, and a semi-return to the diet of beasts. |