| 释义 |
▪ I. chess, n.1|tʃɛs|
Forms: 4–5 ches, chees, 4–7 chesse, 5 schesse, 4, 7– chess; in Comb. 6 cheast, Sc. chas, 6–7 chest(e, 7 ches; also 5–6 chesses, 6 chestes, cheast(e)s, 7 chests.
[ME. ches, chess, aphetic f. AF. and OF. eschès (OF. also eschecs, eschas, eschax, escas, mod.F. échecs = échè-z) ‘chequers, chess’, pl. of eschec (escac, etc.) check n.1 So med.L. had scacci, scāci, scāchi, It. scacchi, Pr. escacos, all plurals, as name of the game; Sp. and Pg., on the other hand, have preserved in Sp. ajedrez, Pg. xadrez, the Arabic name, shâṭ-ranj, from OPers. chatrang, Skr. chaturanga lit. ‘the four angas or members of an army (elephants, horses, chariots, foot-soldiers)’. Cf. check n.1]
1. a. A game of skill played by two persons, on a chequered board divided into sixty-four squares; each player having a set of sixteen ‘men’, consisting of king, queen, two bishops, two knights, two castles or rooks, and eight pawns; the object of the game is to place the adversary's king in checkmate. (In early use, often the chess.)
[c1180A. Neckam De Nat. Rerum [cap. De Scaccis], De scaccorum ludo..scribere non erit molestum. ]a1300Cursor M. (Cott.) 28338, I ha me liked..til idel gammes, chess and tablis. c1325Coer de L. 2172 They found Kyng Richard at play, At the chess in his galeye. c1386Chaucer Frankl. T. 172 They dauncen and they pleyen at ches [v.r. chesse] and tables. 1474Caxton Chesse 2 Vnder this kyng was this game and playe of the chesse founden. 1546Langley Pol. Verg. De Invent. ii. viii. 49 b, The Chesse were inuented..by a certaine wiseman called Xerxes. 1630R. Brathwait Eng. Gentl. (1641) 96 There is no one game which may seeme to represent the state of mans life to the full so well as the chesse. 1643Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. i. §19 Thus the Devill playd at Chesse with mee. 1822Hazlitt Table-t. I. v. 102 It requires a good capacity to play well at chess.
†b. in form chesses, chests.
1440J. Shirley Dethe K. James (1818) 12 As the Kyng plaid at the chesses with oone of his knyghtis. c1489Caxton Sonnes of Aymon ii. 58 As they were playnge togyder at the Chesses. 1556T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer (1561) Yy iv b, To be meanly seene in the play at Chestes. 1562J. Rowbottom (title) The Pleasaunt and Wittie Plaie of the Cheastes. c1610Donne Poems, 2nd Lett. to Sir H. Wootton, Whose deepest projects, and egregious gests Are but dull morals of a game at Chests. 1640G. Watts tr. Bacon's Adv. Learn. 181 Chests.
c. fig.
c1657Let. in Clarendon Hist. Reb. xv. (1847) 857/2, I have often observed, that a desperate game at Chess has been recover'd after the loss of the Nobility, only by playing the pawns well. 1887F. E. Gretton Classical Coincidences vii. 5 Hannibal, in his famous game of chess with Fabius.
†2. The pieces or board used in playing; the chess-men. Obs. [So med.L. scacci, OF. eschecs.]
1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 4308 Take furþe the chesse or þe tabler. c1320Sir Tristr. 1227 His harp, his croude was rike, His tables, his ches he bare. c1400Beryn 1732 The Ches was al of yvery, the meyne fressh & newe. 1474Caxton Chesse iv. viii, After that it is said in the chappitres of theschessys. 1618Daniel Coll. Hist. Eng. (1621) 35 Called him the son of a bastard and threw the chess in his face.
3. Loosely used to translate Gr. ἀστράγαλοι, πεσσοί, L. tesseræ, etc.
1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) VII. 75 Knyȝhtes of golde playenge with chesses of golde [tesseris aureis; Trevisa, dees of golde]. 1676Hobbes Iliad xxiii. 90 And Childishly the quarrel took at Chess [ἀµϕ' ἀστραγάλοισι]. 1725Pope Odyss. i. 143 At Chess [πεσσοῖσι] they vie.
4. Comb., as chess-game, chess-king, chess-pawn, chess-player, chess-playing, chess-rook; chess-clock (see quot. 1962); † chess-maker, one who makes chess-men, etc.; chess-master, an expert chess-player; † chess-play, (a) ? a set of materials for the game, chess-board and chess-men (see quot. 1481); (b) the game of chess; chess-table, a small table inlaid as a chess-board. Also chess-board, -man.
[1888Brit. Chess Mag. Jan. (Advt.), Chess Timing Clocks.] 1905Ibid. 301 We have received from Mr A. Lehmann..a sample of a new *chess clock. 1951‘Assiac’ Adv. in Chess iii. 92 Before Chess-clocks were in use, match-games would often drag on to twenty hours or more. 1962E. Bruton Dict. Clocks 39 Chess clock, special timer for chess players with two movements and two dials, one showing the accumulating time occupied by one player in his moves, and the other the time of the other player.
1831Carlyle Sart. Res. (1858) 13 Councillors of State sit plotting, and playing their high *chess-game, whereof the pawns are Men.
1646J. Hall Poems i. 8 Like *Chess-kings brave.
1481–90Howard Househ. Bks. (1841) 514 Pay[d] to the *chesmaker for ij *chesplayes viijd.
1886Fortn. Rev. XL. 765 To depict the masters..who cultivate the royal game, not only as *chess-masters pure and simple, but as men. 1900Westm. Gaz. 31 May 2/1 The chess master must have full control of himself at all times. 1961Guardian 17 Mar. 8/7 The formation of an ‘International Association of Chessmasters’.
1831Carlyle Misc. (1857) II. 296 The soldier a *chess-pawn to shoot and be shot at.
1596Carew Huarte's Exam. Wits viii. 112 *Chesse-play, is one of the things, which best discouereth the imagination. 1656Beale Chess, This most excellent and delightfull game of Chesse-play.
Ibid. 121 (Advt.) The Stationer to the Ingenious *Chesse-player. 1833Brewster Nat. Magic xi. 269 These machines..sink into insignificance when compared with the automaton chess-player.
c1400St. Alexius (Laud 622) 989 Of *chesse pleieyng & of tablere. 1833Brewster Nat. Magic xi. 272 The chess-playing machine..was exhibited..in Presburg, Vienna, and Paris.
1864Boutell Heraldry Hist. & Pop. (ed. 3) xv. 197 Charged with a golden *chess-rook.
1862Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit. II. No. 5575, *Chess-tables nacre and pearl specimen cribbage board. 1898A. Bennett Man from North xvii. 161 They had tea on a little round chess-table.
▪ II. chess, n.2 Obs. exc. dial.
Also 5 ches, 6–7 chesse; pl. 5 ches, 7 chess(e, (chests), (8 chase), 6– chesses.
[c gray][/c][Connexion with the rows of squares or men on a chess-board has been conjectured. Senses 4 and 5 may not belong here; they are however parallel layers.] 1. One tier or layer above another; a storey of a house. Now only dial.
c1460Townley Myst. 27 [Of the ark] thre ches chambre, thay ar welle maide. 1641Best Farm. Bks. (1856) 126 Observe that every board lye direcktly over the board which is layde the nexte chesse beneath it save one. 1877E. Peacock N.W. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) They keep 'em on trays, chess aboon chess, like cheney in a cupboard.
2. A row side by side with another. ? Obs.
1534in E. Peacock Eng. Ch. Furniture (1866) 198, ij chesses of perle abowte every of them. 1615W. Lawson Orch. & Gard. iii. vi. (1668) 12 A gutter..set without with three or four chess of thorns. 1616Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 87 Three or four Chesse of stones. Ibid. 299 These Bay trees shall be planted in double chesse. a1722Lisle Husb. Gloss. s.v. In planting quicksets a single chase is a single row: a double chase means another row planted below the first.
†3. pl. The parallel rows of grains in an ear of corn or grass. Obs.
1562Turner Herbal (1568) 72 [Rice] hath comonly an Ear with ij chesses or orders of corn as barley hath. a1722Lisle Husb. 154 The smutty ears are perfect in the chests. Ibid. 208 The chaff of the chesses is clung.
4. Mil. in pl. The parallel planks of a pontoon-bridge.
1803Wellington in Gurw. Disp. I. 488 Placing them at proper distances to fit the chesses or planks that cover the bridge. 1859F. Griffiths Artil. Man (1862) 277 By removing the chesses over the gunnels, it may be bent. 1868Daily Tel. 14 Apr., Into these saddles were dropped the balks of timber which support the ‘chesses’..of the bridge.
b. Hence chess man, one whose duty it is to lay the chesses in making a pontoon-bridge.
1853Sir H. Douglas Mil. Bridges (ed. 3) 68 Rafts Nos. 5 and 6.—Chess Men.—Nos. 1 of No. 5 Raft will bring up two half Chesses and lay them across the Balks.
5. One of the parallel sections into which an apple, etc., may be divided by cutting from pole to pole; ‘the chess or lith of an orange, one of the divisions of it’ (Jam.). (Sc.)
a1800Popular Rhyme in Sibbald Sc. Poet. IV. lix. (Jam.) I've a cherry, I've a chess; I've a bonny blue glass.
▪ III. chess, n.3
[Cf. prec.: sense 3.]
A kind of grass which grows as a weed among wheat: now chiefly in U.S.: see quotations. Cf. cheat, cheats.
1736W. Ellis New Experiments 71 Chess-grass. 1744― Mod. Husbandman (1750) III. i. 50 (E.D.S.) Ches-seed Weed [Bromus secalinus]. Ibid. VIII. 304 Chess. 1828Webster, Chess, in New-England, that weed which grows among wheat, and is supposed to be wheat degenerated or changed, as it abounds most in fields where the wheat is winter-killed. 1884Miller Plant-n., Cheat, Cheats, or Chess, Bromus secalinus and Lolium temulentum. American C., Bromus Kalmii.
▪ IV. chess, n.4 Sc.
[ad. F. châssis, and châsse: in 17th c. Eng. pl. chasses; see chassis.]
1. A window sash; = chassis.
1808in Jamieson. [Still in common use.]
2. A printer's chase. (In Jamieson.)
▪ V. chess, v. dial.
[? f. chess n.2]
1828Dial. of Craven, Chess, to pile up.
▪ VI. chess
obs. Sc. form of chase n.1
▪ VII. chess, -e
obs. form of jess. |