| 释义 |
seven year(s, -years', attrib. phr.
Consisting of or lasting for seven years; having a period of seven years. † these (this) seven years day, this long time: cf. seven A 1 c, d.
seven-year(s apple, a fruit of tropical America, Genipa clusiæfolia, supposed to require seven years to ripen. † seven-years bean, seven years pea: see quot. 1666. Seven Years' War, the third Silesian war (1756–1763), in which Austria, France, Russia, Saxony, and Sweden were allied against Frederick II of Prussia. seven-year-vine, the West Indian Ipomœa tuberosa. seven year(s' itch (orig. U.S.), used to designate conditions supposed to last for, appear, or recur after, seven years; freq. applied joc. to an urge towards infidelity after seven years of marriage.
1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, ii. i. 2, I saw not better sport these seuen yeeres day. 1647Symmons Vind. To Rdr. b 3 b, It hath been mine endeavour this seaven years day, and my usuall Prayer, that I may be able to conclude as M. Bradford the Martyr did. 1666J. Davies Hist. Caribbee Isles 64 Those called the Seven-years Beans, because the same stalk bears seven years one after another. 1672W. Hughes Amer. Physit. 20 Of the seven years Pease. 1730Phil. Trans. XXXVI. 434 The Seven Years Apple. 1788Towers Mem. Fredk. III of Prussia II. 325 Thus ended [1763], what is called in Germany, The Seven Years War. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. II. iii. i, In that seven-years sleep of his, so much has changed! 1854H. D. Thoreau Walden 355 These may be but the spring months in the life of the race. If we have had the seven-years' itch, we have not seen the seventeen-year locust yet in Concord. 1856H. H. Dixon Post & Paddock i. 17 We lately met with a seven-year-old. 1864Grisebach Flora W. Ind. Islands 787 Seven-year-vine. 1880J. C. Harris Uncle Remus i. (1881) 17 ‘Miss Sally’ missed her little seven-year-old. 1899C. W. Chesnutt Conjure Woman 154 Lawsuits wuz slow ez de seben-yeah eetch. 1900Jrnl. Sch. Geog. (U.S.) Apr. 141 The seven-year periods. 1936C. Sandburg People, Yes 112 ‘May you have the sevenyear itch,’ was answered, ‘I hope your wife eats crackers in bed.’ 1955Sun (Baltimore) 16 May 12/7 When I was a boy we called the skin rash from poison ivy..‘the seven-year-itch’ and firmly believed that it would reappear every year for seven years. 1959‘O. Mills’ Stairway to Murder xiv. 149 Lapse understood and sympathised with. It's so common they've even got a name for it. It's the seven-year itch. 1980P. Moyes Angel Death x. 132 There's something called the seven-year itch..middle-aged men quite suddenly cutting loose. |