| 释义 |
† shaw-fowl Obs. rare.
[f. shaw (of obscure origin) + fowl n.
It is improbable that the first element is shaw, the northern form of show v. Cf. WFlem. schuw, scarecrow, but it is not easy to see how this can be formally connected.]
A scarecrow, also fig. Also an artificial bird set up as a mark for shooting at.
1621Bp. R. Montagu Diatribæ 323 As Shaw-Fowles are in a Corne-Field, which skarre away the Crowes and Birds at first erecting. 1624― Gagg To Rdr. 2 Terrible Shawe-fowles to skarre poore Soules. Ibid. ii. 13 You set up a Shaw foule for a mark and shoot your bolt at it yourselfe alone. 1624― Immed. Addr. 131 If they vrge Angelicall Reuelation, then that vnanswerable Argument of the Controuerser is but as a Shaw foule, in a Corne field. 1625in Cosin's Corr. (Surtees) i. 45, I feare not those shaw-foules of convention. 1654Tuckney Death Disarmed 78 Such shaw-fowls do not scare me. 1678Phillips (ed. 4), Shawfowl, an artificial Bird made on purpose for Fowlers to shoot at. |