| 释义 |
▪ I. sky, n.1|skaɪ|
Forms: 3–4 (6) ski (4 scki, schi); 3 skei, 4 skey; 3 skiȝe, 4–7 skie, skye (5 schye), 4– sky (7 pl. skyne).
[a. ON. ský (Icel. ský, Norw., Sw., Da. sky) neut., cloud (:—original *skiuja), directly related to OS. skio masc., OE. scéo (doubtful), and more remotely to OE. scuwa, ON. skugge shade, shadow, whence scug n.1 See also skew n.1]
†1. A cloud. Obs.
c1220Bestiary 66 Up he teð, til ðat he ðe heuene seð, ðurȝ skies sexe and seuene til he cumeð to heuene. c1250Gen. & Ex. 3255 Bi-foren hem fleȝ an skiȝe briȝt ðat niȝt hem made ðe weiȝe liȝt. c1384Chaucer H. Fame iii. 1600 A certeyn wynde..blewe so hydously and hye That hyt ne left not a skye In alle the welkene. 1390Gower Conf. II. 50 Al sodeinly Sche passeth, as it were a Sky, Al clene out of this ladi sihte. c1407Lydg. Reson & Sens. 1007 As sterris in the frosty nyght, Whanne walkne is most bryght, With-oute cloude or any skye. c1430― Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 161 The somerys day is..seelden seyn, With so cleer hayr, but that ther is som skye. 1500–20Dunbar Poems lxix. 3 Quhone sabill all the hewin arrayis, With mystie vapouris, cluddis and skyis. a1550Sterne of Redempt. 31 in Dunbar's Poems (1893) 329 To the superne eternall regioun, Quhair noxiall skyis may mak no sogeorn.
fig.14..Epiph. in Tundale's Vis. (1843) 121 Thus..trw menyng darketh with a skye That we in Englysch callon flaturye. a1529Skelton Replyc. 165 Ye soored ouer hye.., Your names to magnifye, Among the scabbed skyes Of Wycliffes flesshe flyes.
2. a. the skies, the clouds (obs.); the upper region of the air; the heavens. Chiefly poet.
a1300XV Signa in E.E.P. (1862) 11 Þe holi man telliþ..þat þe skeis so sal spec þan..in steuen as hit wer man. 1390Gower Conf. II. 261 Sche drof forth bothe char and whel Above in thair among the Skyes. c1400Destr. Troy 6016 The day was done, dymmet the skyes. 1508Dunbar Gold. Targe 25 The skyes rang for schoutyng of the larkis. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. iv. i. 121 The skies, the fountaines, euery region neere, Seeme all one mutuall cry. 1614C. Brooke Ghost Rich. III, Poems (1872) 103 To..curle his leauie hayres The more in bows, and armes, that kisse the skyne. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 248 Late at Night, when Stars adorn the Skies. 1754Gray Pleasure 51 The common Sun, the air, the skies To him are opening Paradise. 1784Mickle Cumnor Hall ii, Now nought was heard beneath the skies, The sounds of busy life were still. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. i. vii. ix, With uplifted right hand..to these pouring skies. 1860Ld. Lytton Lucile i. iv. 12 There was war in the skies!
transf. and fig.1562Winȝet Wks. (S.T.S.) I. 20 We exhort ȝow, and adiuris ȝow also,..to descend from the hie skyis. 1585Higins tr. Junius' Nomencl. 190/2 Machina,..the skies or counterfet heauen ouer the stage.
b. Used without the, in limited sense.
1503Dunbar Thistle & Rose 41 Illumynit our with orient skyis brycht. 1748Gray Alliance 55 A brighter Day and Skies of azure Hue. 1781Cowper Truth 138 The rude inclemency of wintry skies. 1907H. Wyndham Flare of Footlights xxx, It was a dismal day, with leaden skies overhead.
3. a. the sky, the apparent arch or vault of heaven, whether covered with cloud or clear and blue; the firmament.
a1300Cursor M. 1341 Him thoght..þat to þe sky it raght þe toppe. 1390Gower Conf. I. 312 The Sky wax derk, the wynd gan blowe, The firy welkne gan to thondre. c1470Gol. & Gaw. 610 Quhen the day can daw,..And the sone in the sky wes schynyng so schir. 1508Dunbar Golden Targe 50, I saw approch agayn the orient sky, A saill. 1546J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 9 When the sky fallth we shall have larks. 1594Shakes. Rich. III, v. iii. 283 The sky doth frowne, and lowre vpon our Army. 1635R. N. tr. Camden's Hist. Eliz. ii. 221 The skye being extreame cold with snow and frost. 1672R. Wild Poet. Licent. 34 If the Skie fall, down-comes the price of Larks. 1728Pope Dunc. i. 178 As..lead itself can fly, And pond'rous slugs cut swiftly thro' the sky. 1774M. Mackenzie Maritime Surv. 5 A dark Flag on that [pole] which appears between you and the Sky. 1843Ruskin Mod. Paint. I. ii. i. §5. 204 The sky is to be considered as a transparent blue liquid, in which..clouds are suspended. 1876Mozley Univ. Serm. vi. 135 No people have ever existed to whom the sky has not suggested one set of ideas.
b. With descriptive or limiting term.
1613Chapman Maske Inns Court, Ouer this..in an Euening sky, the ruddy Sunne was seen ready to be set. a1700Evelyn Diary 1 Nov. 1660, The Sunn represented by a face and raies of gold, upon an azure skie. 1798Coleridge Anc. Mar. ii. vii, All in a hot and copper sky, The bloody Sun..did stand. 1814Wordsw. Yarrow Visited 17 A blue sky bends o'er Yarrow vale. 1855Tennyson Maud v. ii, With her..wild voice pealing up to the sunny sky. 1869E. Dunkin (title), The Midnight Sky: Familiar Notes on the Stars and Planets.
c. Without article.
1596Spenser F.Q. iv. iii. 13 Into a starre in sky. 1611Shakes. Cymb. v. v. 146 A Nobler Sir ne're liu'd 'Twixt sky and ground. 1649Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. ii. 93 But the greatest part of this paisage and Landtskip is sky. 1725Pope Odyssey iii. 411 A length of Ocean and unbounded sky. 1805Wordsw. Prelude iii. 107, I..perused The common countenance of earth and sky. 1855Tennyson Maud i. xviii. v, The countercharm of space and hollow sky. 1884Jrnl. R. Meteorol. Soc. (1885) XI. 231 There was a portion of blue sky between the Helm cloud and the Bar.
d. fig. or in fig. phrases. Also, out of a clear (or blue) sky and varr. = out of the blue s.v. blue n. 5 a; (b) to the sky or skies, to the highest possible degree, enthusiastically, extravagantly; (c) in the skies, in an ecstasy, in the realms of fancy; (d) the sky's the limit, there is no apparent limit.
(a)c1586C'tess Pembroke Ps. lxxx. i, O God,..Display thy faces skie on us thine owne. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iv. iii. 56, I, in the cleare Skie of Fame, o're-shine you. 1793Cowper To Mary i, The twentieth year is well-nigh past, Since first our sky was overcast. 1878Browning La Saisiaz 61, I bid him—at suspicion of first cloud athwart his sky..die! 1875Tennyson Q. Mary v. iii. 264 So from a clear sky falls the thunderbolt! 1897W. E. Norris Marietta's Mar. xxxi. 224 He dropped upon me suddenly out of a clear sky and began asking questions which I had to answer. 1903Wodehouse Tales of St. Austin's 2 To spring an examination on you in the middle of the term out of a blue sky, as it were, was underhand and unsportsmanlike. 1924E. O'Neill Welded i, in All God's Chillun got Wings i. 98 It was revelation, then—a miracle out of the sky! 1958G. Greene Our Man in Havana iii. ii. 115 She's had two unhappy coups de foudre herself. They came quite suddenly, out of a clear sky.
(b)1617Moryson Itin. i. 104 Italians..alwaies extoll their owne things to the skie. 1670G. H. Hist. Cardinals ii. iii. 191 Those of any Piety or Religion, commended it to the Skyes. 1731–8Swift Polite Conv. 71 You were extoll'd to the Skies I assure you. 1815W. H. Ireland Scribbleomania 25 Rhymsters who praise 'em to the skies, And meanest actions eulogize. 1915W. S. Maugham Of Human Bondage xlii. 198 Red-nosed comedians were lauded to the skies for their sense of character. 1955D. Garnett Golden Echo II. i. 16 If he had praised it to the skies or damned it, or even told the truth, not much harm would have been done. 1973P. J. Seybold Revolutionary Educ. in China xiv. 156 At one time they shouted ‘Long live the teachers’.., praising them to the skies.
(c)1869Mrs. H. Wood Roland Yorke xx, Roland was in the skies at once.
(d)1920Current History (U.S.) Oct. 142/2 (caption) The sky is now her limit. 1933Daily Mirror 26 Oct. 12/4 To say ‘the sky was his limit’ definitely adds something to the usual ‘he succeeded’ or ‘he rose in the world’. 1934Webster s.v. sky, The sky is the limit. 1936C. Sandburg People, Yes 160 ‘Did you say the sky is the limit?’ ‘Yes, we won't go any higher than the sky.’ 1942E. Paul Narrow St. xxiv. 211 Every municipality, excepting small villages, had its official Mont-de-Piété, and the sky was the limit. 1952W. R. Burnett Vanity Row vii. 68 If there's ever anything we can do for you... You know. Sky's the limit, as people say. 1961L. Mumford City in History ii. 52 The cult of power exulted in its own boundless display... The sky was the limit. 1977H. Fast Immigrants ii. 97 As far as the Pacific passage is concerned, rates are going up and the sky's the limit.
4. poet. or rhet.
a. The celestial regions; heaven; the heavenly power, the deity.
1590Shakes. Mids. N. v. i. 308 Now am I dead, now am I fled, my soule is in the sky. 1634Milton Comus 242 So maist thou be translated to the skies. 1697Dryden Alex. Feast 179 He rais'd a Mortal to the Skies; She drew an Angel down. 1731Swift Judas Wks. 1755 IV. i. 165 The just vengeance of incensed skies. 1781Cowper Charity 70 Thou that hast..dared despise Alike the wrath and mercy of the skies. 1810Shelley Despair 8 In the eternal mansions of the sky. 1868Lynch Rivulet cli. ii, Time loses his scythe When he enters the skies.
b. The sky (sense 3) of a particular region; hence, climate, clime.
1701Addison Let. to Ld. Halifax 136 We envy not the warmer Clime that lies In ten Degrees of more indulgent Skies. 1842Tennyson You ask me why vii, I seek a warmer sky. 1856Kane Arctic Explor. II. xxi. 207 Strange that these famine-pinched wanderers of the ice should rejoice in sports..like the children of our own smiling sky.
c. In joc. phr. the (or that) great ― in the sky: with personal subj., God considered as the omniscient exponent of an earthly art or profession; of a place or structure, the type of a paradise especially suited to the deceased.
1977McKnight & Tobler Bob Marley v. 62 Chuck Willis, the ‘Sheik of the Stroll’ became one of the first members of the great rock group in the sky. 1979Times 24 Nov. 15/7 It is up to that Great Film Critic in the sky to deal with Life of Brian in His own way. 1980D. Bloodworth Trapdoor xvii. 107 There's a Director of Central Intelligence up there in that great Langley in the sky. 1982Times 26 Jan. 10/3 Daphne, the pelican, has gone to that great aviary in the sky after 25 years residence..in St James's Park.
5. a. The colour of the sky; sky-blue.
1667Dryden Maiden Queen ii. i, Those knots of sky do not So well with the dead colour of her face. 1668G. Etherege She wou'd if she cou'd iii. ii, A whole bevy of damsels in sky, and pink, and flame-coloured taffetas. 1851Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. iii. 506/2 Pink, white, sky, and maize gros de Naples for ladies' bonnets. 1894[see helio2]. 1923Weekly Dispatch 11 Feb. 14 (Advt.), Will not Fade... Silky finish. Ivory, Biscuit, Sky, Coral [etc.]. 1949Radio Times 15 July 44/3 Lovely pastel shades—Peach, Apple, Sky. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 22 May 17/4 (Advt.), The plain shades... Rust, Beige, Tan, Sky, White, Black.
b. The representation of a sky in a painting, etc.
1747Francis tr. Horace, Art P. 34 note, It is chiefly in this View, that Ruisdale's Waters, and Claude Lorrain's Skies are so admirable. 1815J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 746 For a pure mid-day sky,..vermilion and white as the sky approaches the horizon. 1878Ruskin Notes 43 The sky is unusually careless.
6. ‘The upper rows of pictures in a gallery; also, the space near the ceiling’ (Cent. Dict. 1891).
7. The small opening in the roof of a cab, used as a means of communication.
1907Daily Chron. 18 Oct. 4/4, I did..steal the..box from his hansom-cab, and the driver was looking through the sky.
8. Rhyming slang. ellipt. for sky-rocket n. 3: pocket.
1890in Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang II. 248/2 The Oof Bird's scarce and the landlady's fly, And there isn't a mash with a mag in his sky. 1898A. M. Binstead Pink 'Un & Pelican xi. 237 After thirty-six 'ands 'ad bin all over him, tore his trowseys an' left 'im as naked as Barth-Sheber—why, even then we never found his sky! 1928E. Wallace Gunner xviii. 140 ‘Put that in your sky... In your pocket,’ she said impatiently. 1979P. Hill Washermen lx. 132 Said 'ee found it [sc. a gun] on the rattler. Put it in 'is sky when 'ee got off at Leicester Square.
9. attrib. and Comb. Now chiefly Lit. and poet.
a. Attrib., in sense ‘of or in the sky’, as sky-children, sky-glare, sky-pebble, etc.
1582Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 18 Shee pouts, that Ganymed by Ioue too skitop is hoysed. 1634Milton Comus 83, I must put off These my skie robes spun out of Iris Wooff. 1653H. More Conject. Cabbal. (1713) 53 The Sun and the Moon (according to this Hypothesis) will prove the two great Lights, and the Stars but scatter'd sky-pebbles. a1821Keats Hyperion i. 133 Beautiful things made new, for the surprise Of the sky-children. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. iii. viii, In the sky-glare of the lights of the little town. 1882Jefferies Bevis I. 251 It was a sky-storm, and the lightning was at least a mile high. 1904W. B. Yeats Pot of Broth in Hour-Glass 78 Give me some vessel till I give this sky-woman a taste of it. 1916Blunden Harbingers 64 He stells the meadows in similitude Of stars in black sky-spaces. 1920D. H. Lawrence Lost Girl xiv. 320 White clouds, in the sort of hollow sky-dome. 1930W. H. Auden Poems 9 Though heart fears all heart cries for, rebuffs with mortal beat Skyfall, the legs sucked under, adder's bite. 1946L. B. Lyon Rough Walk Home 11 Lift arm or lift an eyebrow, He'll weave his sky-brow Spell round the offender. 1959D. Davie Forests of Lithuania vi. 59 Fires cluster and dart Cross over, light over light Overarches the sky⁓round. 1979D. Williams Genesis & Exodus vii. 127 He enjoyed the wide sky-sweep of the fens.
b. With agent nouns, as sky-flyer, sky-gazer, sky-holder, etc.
1812Colman Br. Grins, Fire xlviii, The monarch of Olympus spake; It made his petty tenants quake, And the large sky-holders obedient bowed. 1838‘T. Treddlehoyle’ Ben Bunt 19 Bein a bit an a ski-peepar ma sen. 1891Times 5 Oct. 3/5 Splendid buildings..—veritable ‘sky⁓piercers’, as most modern American aspiring business houses are. 1897Daily News 3 June 5/6 There would be hardly a point..where at least the pyrotechnic sky-flyers could not be seen. 1930V. Woolf On being Ill 19 Pedestrians would be impeded and disconcerted by a public sky-gazer.
c. With pa. pples., as sky-blasted, sky-born, sky-bred, sky-capped, sky-cast, sky-dyed, etc.
Similar combs. are common in the 19th and 20th cent.
1589R. Greene Menaphon Sig. F1v, A Skie borne forme. 1595Spenser Friend's Passion 31 The skiebred Egle roiall bird. 1599J. Davies Immort. Soul, Introd. xi, What is this Knowledge, but the Sky stoll'n Fire? c1611Chapman Iliad vii. 346 He held his scepter vp, to all the skie thron'd powres. 1611Shakes. Cymb. v. iv. 96 The Thunderer, whose Bolt..Sky-planted, batters all rebelling Coasts. 1667Milton P.L. v. 285 The third his feet Shaddowd from either heele with featherd maile Skie-tinctur'd grain. 1725Pope Odyss. xi. 727 There figs sky-dy'd, a purple hue disclose. 1742Young Nt. Th. vi. 418 Sky-born, sky-guided, sky-returning race! 1747Collins Ode Pity ii, Let the nations view Thy skyworn robes. 1807J. Barlow Columbiad iii. 110 Far beneath, the sky-borne waters ride, Veil the dark deep and sheet the mountain's side. a1821Keats Hyperion i. 310 Earth-born And sky-engender'd, Son of Mysteries! 1878B. Taylor Deukalion iii. ii. 108 The sky-cast shadow of a Hebrew chief. 1887Bowen æneid iii. 291 Soon thy sky-capped towers, Phæacia, vanish from view. 1923D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 17 And sipped down, perhaps, with a sip of Marsala So that the rambling, sky-dropped grape can add its music to yours. 1934L. B. Lyon White Hare 14 Wind-scoured and sky-burned The fell was. 1946Dylan Thomas Deaths & Entrances 27 May his hunger go howling on bare white bones Past the statues of the stables and the sky roofed sties. 1977Hongkong Standard 12 Apr. 3/3 Aides say Mr. Peres originated and pushed the idea of last July's skyborne rescue from Uganda of 100 hostages.
d. With pres. pples., as sky-aspiring, sky-cleaving, sky-falling, sky-measuring, sky-pointing, sky-reaching, etc.
This type is also common in the 19th and 20th cent.
1593Shakes. Rich. II, i. iii. 130 Sky-aspiring and ambitious thoughts. 1596Spenser F.Q. vi. x. 22 They are the daughters of sky-ruling Ioue. 1600Nashe Summer's Last Will 1492 Skie-measuring Mathematicians. 1612Drayton Poly-olb. ix. 66 Mighty Raran shooke his proud sky-kissing top. 1633Drummond of Hawthornden Speeches to Pr. Chas. Wks. (1711) 39/1 Nero's Sky-resembling Gold-ceil'd Halls. 1743Francis tr. Horace, Odes iii. x. 21 Thy Threshold hard-hearted, and sky-falling Rain. 1788P. Freneau Hermit of Saba in Misc. Works 31 When thou, sky-pointing Saba, Shall tremble on thy base most fearfully! 1796E. Hamilton Lett. Hindoo Rajah (1811) II. 117 Whose trees have their sky-touching heads overshadowed by..mountains. 1819Sky-aspiring [see balmily adv.]. 1820Shelley Prometh. Unb. ii. iii. 28 The keen sky-cleaving mountains. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. i. iv. iv, Amid skyrending vivats, and blessings from every heart. 1844J. R. Lowell Poems 274 They tell us that our land was made for song, With its huge rivers and sky-piercing peaks. 1887Times 29 Aug. 4/4 Endless sky-reaching spires. 1922Joyce Ulysses 563 Stephen with hat ashplant frogsplits in middle highkicks with skykicking mouth shut hand clasp part under thigh. 1933C. Day Lewis Magnetic Mountain 9 Void are the valleys..And dumb the sky-dividing hills. 1957L. MacNeice Visitations 42 Felt suddenly harassed, a sky-splitting headache with nothing to cause it. 1977New Scientist 24 Feb. 478/1 A spiky, sky-piercing crenellation of buildings running down the Royal Mile from the hunched bulk of the castle to the rounded towers of the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
10. Special combs.: sky bear N. Amer. slang, (an officer in) a police helicopter (cf. Smokey Bear 2); sky-blink = ice-blink 1; sky-blotch, the dark outline of a building against the evening sky; sky border Theatr., a border of painted cloth, used both to represent sky and to conceal the top of the stage from the audience; skycap N. Amer. [after redcap 5], a porter at an airport; sky-clad a. slang, nude, unclothed (esp. in Witchcraft); sky-clear a., clear as the sky; sky cloth Theatr., a backcloth painted or coloured to represent the sky (cf. sky border above); sky-clothed a. = sky-clad adj. above; sky-diving, the sport of parachuting from an aeroplane with a long period of (freq. acrobatic) free fall before the parachute is opened; also as adj., sky-diver and (as back-formation) sky-dive v. intr.; sky-drop Theatr. = sky cloth above; sky fighter, an aeroplane or airman that engages in aerial combat; hence sky-fight; sky filter, a filter (usu. yellow and denser at the top than at the bottom) for improving the rendering of a bright sky in black and white photography; sky-fire (see quot. 1710); sky-flower, a shrub or small tree, Duranta repens, of the family Verbenaceæ, native to Central and South America and bearing clusters of pale blue flowers followed by yellow berries (cf. pigeon-berry 1); sky-flyer, an ambitious person; sky-gazer (see quots.); sky-god Religion and Mythol., a god of or in the sky; also sky-goddess; skyman Journalists' slang, a paratrooper; sky-mark, a thing standing out against the sky (nonce-use); sky-marker Mil., a parachute flare used by raiding aircraft to mark a target (cf. parachute n. 5); also Comb., as sky-marker bomb; also sky-marking; sky marshal U.S., a plain-clothes armed guard on an aeroplane employed to counter hi-jacking; sky-organ, the wind (nonce-use); sky-path, a route taken through the sky, a skyway; sky pilot slang (see quot. 1893); also, a chaplain in any of the armed forces, prison service, etc., and gen., a priest or parson, a clergyman; sky-pipit U.S. = skylark n. 2; † sky-puppy (see puppy n. 3 c); † sky race, in British India, an amateur steeplechase; sky-ride U.S., a device for conveying passengers at a considerable height above ground, spec. one at the World Fair at Chicago in 1933–4; sky screen, an array of photocells used to record or detect the travel of an aircraft, projectile, etc.; † sky-setting Sc., sunset; sky shade Photogr. (see quots.); sky-ship, a very large craft for air or space travel; sky-shouting, the sending of advertisements or messages from an aircraft to the ground by means of a loudspeaker; also as adj. and sky-shouter; sky-stone, a meteorite; sky-surfing U.S. = hang-gliding s.v. hang-; hence sky-surfer; skywatch orig. U.S., the process or activity of watching the sky for aircraft or other phenomena; hence skywatcher; sky wave, a radio wave reflected back towards the earth's surface by the ionosphere (cf. ground wave s.v. ground n. 18 a).
1975L. Dills CB Slanguage Dict. 54 *Sky bear, police helicopter. 1977Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 3 July 1/2 (heading) Sky bear keeps eye on Island's drivers.
1837Macdougall tr. Graah's E. Coast Greenl. 134 This *sky-blink, or ice-blink, as it is usually termed by English navigators, is a whitish luminous appearance seen above ice.
1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. I. 311/2 The aspect of the ‘*sky-blotch’ of an architectural edifice is very important.
1846G. A. a'Beckett Quizziology Brit. Drama 16 Pointing with a property sword to the *sky borders. 1896W. Archer Theatr. World of 1895 iv. 28 Above it hang mathematically horizontal ‘sky-borders’, apparently representing a flat layer of fog in the upper air. 1918G. B. Shaw in Nation 22 June 310/1 The scenery made Old Drury feel young again. Wings, sky-borders, set pieces: nothing was missing.
1950Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 26 Dec. 1066/2 *Sky Cap. For General Porter Service. 1966National Observer (U.S.) 7 Nov. 6/5 They would reduce the number of Negro ‘sky caps’ employed at the airport. 1972T. Kenrick Tough One to Lose ii. 33 He took a job as a skycap at the International Airport. 1977J. Wambaugh Black Marble (1978) xv. 342 He spotted a skycap carrying some bags towards the front.
1909Webster, *Sky-clad. 1970R. Buckland in K. Singer Tales from Unknown 296 Witches always work naked or, as they call it, skyclad.
1868Gladstone Juv. Mundi x. (1869) 386 His soul and actions are *sky-clear.
1933*Sky-cloth [see batten n.1 1 b]. 1981Times Lit. Suppl. 4 Sept. 998/3 Instead of a naturalistically painted backcloth he used a plain sheet of colour (what we should call a sky cloth).
1924Earl of Ronaldshay India xxiv. 305 The Digambara, or *sky-clothed ascetic, must live stark naked.
1965N.Y. Times 24 Apr. 21 Mary Cushing..snorkles, surfs, skis and *sky-dives.
1961Times 3 July 6/4 The screech of the *skydiver was heard above Hereford this weekend as..people saw a demonstration of the latest ‘official’ British Army sport. 1970Daily Tel. 5 Oct. 1/1 Two women sky⁓divers and a man were injured when they parachuted at 2,500 ft from a De Havilland aircraft..last night. 1979P. Niesewand Member of Club xii. 84 A flypast might be nice... How about some sky-divers? Everyone likes them.
1959News Chron. 8 July 4/7 The sport..of ‘*sky-diving’ in which certain adventurous types turn somersaults in the air before opening their parachutes. 1962Daily Tel. 7 Aug. 11/7 A sky-diving team will leave London Airport today..to compete in the sixth world sport parachuting championships. 1979R. Jaffe Class Reunion (1980) ii. ix. 275 Apparently she's taken up skydiving... She's going to kill herself.
1901C. Morris Life on Stage xii. 84 In this tableau the circular opening in the flat, backed by a *sky-drop and with blue clouds hanging about the opening, represented heaven.
1969G. Macbeth War Quartet 36 He was dead to this Antarctic *sky-fight.
1937Sun (Baltimore) 2 Mar. 1/3 The first of the army's super *sky-fighters, a four engined Boeing bomber, dropped to a perfect landing on snow-covered Langley Field at 2.09 P.M. today. 1943R. Whelan Flying Tigers ix. 97 George Paxton..moved to break up this shocking attack on a helpless airman, which violated the code of sky fighters.
1930G. E. Brown Clerc's Photogr. xi. 83 *Sky filters are made in the shape of a long rectangle, which is carried in a mount, allowing it to be raised or lowered. 1970M. J. Sethna Photogr. v. 102 Where the sky is light and bright, but the landscape is less bright or is dark, the balance of tones can well be secured through the use of what is known as ‘the graduated sky filter’.
1710P. S. Wks. II. 262 *Sky-Fire is that in the Body of the Sun, and other Heavenly Lights. 1906Sky-fire [see night-web s.v. night n. 13 a].
1938D. Wyman Hedges, Screens & Windbreaks ii. 77 Tall Broad-leaved Evergreens... Duranta plumieri, *Skyflower. 1971Sky-flower [see pigeon-berry 1].
1887Daily News 30 Nov. 3/4 Such a work, by a young *sky-flyer of eighteen.
1854Badham Halieut. 127 The name of this fish, uranoscopus, or ‘*sky-gazer’, is derived from the position of the eyes, which are singularly planted on the crown of the head. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 630 Sky-gazer,..a sail of very light duck, over which un-nameable sails have been set, which defy classification.
1907H. M. Chadwick Orig. Eng. Nation x. 245 On the strength of this passage [in Gylfaginning] it has been supposed that Frey was originally a *sky-god or sun-god. 1938E. Bevan Symbolism & Belief ii. 30 The belief in the Sky-God may have, of course, two forms according as the sky itself is personified, is identified with the Person up there, or as the Person is conceived more anthropomorphically. 1948B. G. M. Sundkler Bantu Prophets in S. Afr. i. 24 The lightning-magician, the priest of the sky-god, arrives much sooner..at proficiency in his particular speciality. 1979N.Y. Rev. Bks. 25 Oct. 19/3 Now the Heavenly Father, or Aryan sky-god, is found to be..simply irrelevant.
1959New Larousse Encycl. Mythol. 23/2 Hathor... A *sky-goddess, she was originally described as the daughter of Ra and the wife of Horus. 1982N. Frye Great Code iii. 70 Zeus..third in a line of sky-gods. The earth-mother..tends to take on the characteristics of a sky-goddess.
1952John o' London's Weekly 18 Jan. 54/1 The failure of Fleet Street to make paratroopers into *skymen. 1958Daily Mail 18 July 1/2 Skymen saved Hussein's life... But for the arrival of our paratroops yesterday,..Hussein..would almost certainly have been assassinated. 1964Sunday Tel. 14 June 3/4 (heading) Skymen hit the target.
1856Miss Mulock J. Halifax (1857) 101 The four tall poplars..were our landmarks, and *skymarks too.
1943Times 31 Dec. 4/6 The Pathfinder force used parachute flares known as ‘*sky⁓markers’ which drift downwards very slowly, to mark the target area. 1944Times 17 Feb. 4/4 Flak was so violent when the first sky-marker bombs were dropped that it was evident that the main night fighter force was late. 1946R.A.F. Jrnl. May 169 The red, yellow and green T.I.s and the skymarker flares, remained the principal weapons of P.F.F. throughout the war... The ‘wanganni’ skymarkers went down over Germany and load after load of destruction followed.
1944R. Dimbleby in War Report (B.B.C.) (1946) 281 Our job was to replenish the flares already dropped by the Pathfinders ahead... This was ‘*sky-marking’.
1968Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 23 June 32/6 He is a member of a new elite breed of law enforcement officers in America—the *sky marshals. His job is to prevent airliner hi-jacking... All the sky marshals are volunteers from the ranks of the F.A.A.'s regular inspectors. 1971Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 13 Mar. 25/6 A number of women trained in marksmanship and hand-to-hand combat will join the men assigned to the skymarshal force recently created to protect U.S. airliners from hijackers.
1837H. Martineau Soc. Amer. II. 20 The next moment, the *sky-organ began to blow in our rigging.
1931F. Simpich in Nat. Geogr. Mag. Jan. 1 (heading) *Skypaths through Latin America. 1958Times 27 Oct. 10/1 Nearly 400 Glacier dry bearings assist each Comet 4 on its smooth skypath.
1883G. W. Peck Peck's Bad Boy 177 Look-a-here you *sky-pilot, this thing has gone far enough. 1888W. B. Churchward Blackbirding 22 A dock missionary (we called him sky-pilot). 1893Spectator 30 Dec. 952/2 A ‘Sky-pilot’, in sailor's parlance, is a clergyman generally, and specially a clergyman who has a spiritual charge among seamen. 1910Busy Man's Mag. Mar. 71/1, I was hailed as a ‘sky pilot’ by the trio and invited to be sociable over a whisky bottle. 1922Joyce Ulysses 305 One or two sky pilots having an eye around that there was no goings on with the females. 1935Auden & Isherwood Dog beneath Skin ii. v. 114 Ort ter 'ave bin a sky pilot, you ort! 1973B. Broadfoot Ten Lost Years xii. 140 At the missions you would get a sermon, say 15 minutes of religion from a sky pilot. 1982New Scientist 18 Mar. 740/3 The first issue includes an attack on the accuracy of radiocarbon dating by an English skypilot called Charles Foley.
1884Coues N. Amer. Birds 286 Neocorys, *Sky Pipits.
1858G. F. Atkinson Curry & Rice (ed. 2) xviii, The *Sky Races, which to the uninitiated may be explained as a meeting for horses that have enjoyed no specific training beyond what could be accomplished during the interval of the ‘get-up’ and the ‘come-off’. 1885Lady Dufferin Jrnl. 11 June in Our Viceregal Life in India (1889) I. iv. 157 The Simla sky races began today.
1933Sun (Baltimore) 22 July 10/3 Two Concordia women, who attended the World's Fair at Chicago recently ventured on the ‘*sky ride’, the device which carries passengers across the grounds at a height of 200 feet. 1966E. McCullogh World's Fair Midways viii. 93 One of the features of the fair [sc. Century of Progress Exposition] was the Sky Ride, a monorail structure whose two giant towers stretched up sixty-four stories... They were connected at the twenty-fourth story by cables, from which so-called rocket cars were suspended.
1945L. E. Simon German Sci. Establishments (PB Rep. No. 19849) ii. ii. 48 One thing that was particularly notable was a large number of photoelectric ‘*sky screens’. 1969New Scientist 2 Oct. 25/3 The accuracy of the sky screens is said to be two metres in azimuth, and 1·5 metres in elevation.
1731Gentl. Mag. I. 31 On the last Monday of Nov. 1730, about *sky setting.
1889E. J. Wall Dict. Photogr. 177 *Sky shade, a piece of wood or card used to shade the lens during exposure, to prevent reflections from the sky or sun. 1909G. L. Johnson Photographic Optics & Colour Photogr. ii. 152 Skyshades are of great value in colour photography..as without some such screen the skies are invariably spoilt through overexposure. 1930G. E. Brown Clerc's Photogr. xi. 83 The most usual form of commercial sky shade..consists of a uniformly graduated filter of gelatine or glass. 1973D. A. Spencer Focal Dict. Photogr. Technol. 568 Sky shade, any form of shield attached to the lens mount for preventing direct rays of the sun reaching the camera lens. In USA, the term is sometimes used as another name for lens hood.
1923L. Pauer Day of Judgment 16 If possible..we are going to board that *sky-ship. 1960Analog Science Fact/Fiction Dec. 10/1 When we first heard of the Sky Ship, we were on an island whose name..was Yarzik. 1975Times 18 Apr. 6/3 The Sky Ship, with a diameter of 30ft and in the shape of a flying saucer..is a scaled-down prototype of a planned vehicle..which will be 700 ft in diameter..able to carry a payload of up to 400 tons.
1932Children's Newspaper 23 Jan. 6/1 The inventor..can now quote terms for Sky Shouting or Sky Advertising. Concerning the *sky-shouters a really alarming invention has been successfully tried. 1932Flight 8 July 638/1 They recommend that *sky-shouting (by means of a loud speaker) should be prohibited by law for all private purposes. 1955Times 9 June 8/2 The withdrawal of the surrender offer was being conveyed to the terrorists by all possible means, including radio and sky-shouting aircraft. 1962Engineering 26 Oct. 564 The practicability of long range speech transmission was seen during British army operations in Malaya when a ‘sky-shouting’ installation in an aircraft was used for propaganda purposes. 1973Times 15 May 8/4 Last year 2,285 hours were logged by aircraft flying ‘sky-shouting’ patrols in which recorded propaganda messages were relayed to Africans living in the bush.
1797Southey Lett. fr. Spain (1808) II. 78 Let the heavier *sky-stones come whence they may, these must have been formed in the atmosphere.
1972Popular Mechanics June 102/2 How long a *sky surfer can stay in the air depends on wind strength and skill.
1972Popular Sci. June 94/2 Today's hang-glider pilots like to call their sport ‘*sky-surfing’. 1974Sci. Amer. Dec. 138/1 The rapidly evolving sport, which is known as sky surfing or hang gliding, makes about equal demands on the enthusiast's skills as a pilot and as an aerodynamicist.
1952Sun (Baltimore) 17 July b7/5 (heading) 18,000 in Britain serve on *skywatch. 1958A. Budrys in Aldiss & Harrison Decade 1950s (1976) 68, I made it. Got to this Navy skywatch station. 1972Oxford Times 21 Jan. 3/7 A full house is expected for next week's UFO convention in Banbury... ‘Many of those attending are the people who made sightings over North Oxon last year which ended with us having a skywatch, which was unfortunately rained off.’
1973Daily Tel. 30 July 1/5 Skylab, at present, is not visible to British *sky⁓watchers since its orbital track does not take it over Britain.
1928Sterling & Kruse Radio Manual xiv. 524 The day signal which reappears at 850 miles may be considered the *sky wave. 1944Proc. IRE XXXII. 668/1 Design of directional antennas for broadcast stations to prevent skywave interference to another station. 1971K. Kent in C. Bonington Annapurna South Face 277 The near-link radios had to be h/f sets capable of voice/cw and able to utilize a sky-wave and surface-wave mode of operation.
▸ skyboard n. orig. U.S. a board used in sky-surfing (in quot. 1991: (nonce-use) a board on which a person can fly).
1991Time (Nexis) 18 Feb. 61 First out will be The Black Dragon, in which the teen's high-flying, superconductive *skyboard is stolen for evil purposes. 1992Atlanta Jrnl. & Constit. (Nexis) 5 June g3 Participants leap from a plane with a 5-pound ‘skyboard’ strapped to their feet. 2002Village Voice (N.Y.) 27 Nov. 120/4 Manchild Jim, a G-Force skate-punk voiced to angsty perfection by Joseph Gordon-Levitt sports a bi-level rat-tail, rides a turbo-powered sky-board, [etc.].
▸ skyboarder n. a person who rides a skyboard.
1996State Jrnl.-Reg. (Springfield, Illinois) 3 Aug. 23 Mark became an avid *sky boarder after seeing the sport on ESPN's Extreme Games. 1998Deseret (Salt Lake City, Utah) News (Nexis) 10 Feb. b1 Among Wilbert's successes is the work he did to create Pepsi's popular new commercial with a Canada goose and skyboarder doing airborne tricks.
▸ skyboarding n. = sky-surfing n. at Additions.
1994Daily Tel. (Nexis) 12 Apr. 36 We viewers [of cable television]..got to see..Russell Calkins doing an exhibition of *skyboarding. 1998St. Petersburg (Florida) Times (Nexis) 13 Apr. 3 d, Skateboarding, BMX biking, sky boarding and in-line skating could be seen by mainstream audiences.
▸ sky-surfing n. orig. U.S., a sport in which participants jump from an aircraft and surf while standing on a board in the air before landing by parachute (an earlier form of the activity, in which participants used a boogie board and lay in a prone position, was performed in the early 1980s in the U.S. and known as air surfing, the now-accepted standing position being pioneered in France in the late 1980s, under the name Skysurf).
1990Life (Nexis) June 2 (caption) *Sky surfing. After jumping from a plane with only a parachute and a four-foot surfboard, [he] rides a wave of clouds 13,000 feet above the countryside. 1997Sunday Times 29 June i. 12/2 The most skilled and daring opt for ‘sky-surfing’—riding a surfboard into freefall at 13,500ft—which is described by exponents as the exhilarating sport of the next millennium. 2001Vanity Fair June 26 Whether they're skysurfing, bungee jumping, or street luging, 30 million Americans have caught the adrenaline bug.
▪ II. sky, n.2 Orkney and Shetland. ? Obs.
[repr. ON. skeið: cf. mod.Norw. skeid foot of a plough (Aasen).]
A small board in the place of a mould-board in a plough.
1793Statist. Acc. Scot. VII. 585 A square hole is cut through the lower end of the beam, and the mercal, a piece of oak about 22 inches long, introduced, which..holds the sock and sky.
▪ III. sky, n.3 slang.|skaɪ|
(See quots.)
1860Slang Dict. 216 Sky, a disagreeable person, an enemy. 1869Stanley Westm. Abb. (ed. 3) 471 The..conflicts between the Westminster scholars and the ‘skys’ of London, as the outside world was called.
▪ IV. sky, v.1|skaɪ|
Also skie.
[f. sky n.1]
1. trans.
a. slang. To throw or toss up (a coin). Also used of other objects, as a hat, etc.; spec. to sky the wipe Austral. Boxing slang = to throw up the sponge s.v. sponge n.1 1 c.
1802M. Edgeworth Irish Bulls 129 Billy (says I) will you sky a copper? 1860Slang Dict. 216 Skie, to throw upwards, to toss ‘coppers’. 1872Punch 3 Feb. 53/2 Sufficient for that indeed would have been ‘skying a copper’. 1898A. M. Binstead Pink 'Un & Pelican x. 215 He skied his tile in the most approved fashion..literally beaming with good-nature as he shook his jockey by the hand. 1916C. J. Dennis Songs of Sentimental Bloke xi. 87 Fer 'arf a mo' I 'as a fight; Then conscience skies the wipe... Sez I ‘Orright’. 1933Bulletin (Sydney) 14 June 27/2 It is generally understood that a boxer must consider himself beaten when his seconds ‘sky the wipe’.
b. Cricket. To strike (a ball) high into the air. Also in Golf, etc.
1868J. Lillywhite's Cricketers' Compan. 102 He..sometimes gets deceived by a short one, and ‘skies’ it. 1873Routledge's Young Gentlem. Mag. 378/1 The ball did not ‘travel’ on the sand, and when ‘skied’ was at once secured. 1880Times 28 Sept. 11/5 He skied the ball to cover-point, where it was easily held. 1909[see fluff v.1 5 e]. 1922E. F. Benson Miss Mapp iii. 73 Major Flint drove, skying the ball to a prodigious height. 1976Morecambe Guardian 7 Dec. 8/1 Worksop came back into the attack when Wall started a good move but Joe Johnson skied the ball high over.
absol.1882Daily Telegr. 27 May, His eleventh proved disastrous to Abel, who skyed up to Spofforth at point.
c. At an auction: to raise the price of (an item) by high bidding; to raise (the bidding) by a considerable amount.
1892Stevenson & Osbourne Wrecker ix. 146 All of a sudden he appeared as a third competitor, skied the Flying Scud with four fat bids of a thousand dollars each, and then as suddenly fled the field. 1928D. L. Sayers Ld. Peter views Body x. 236 Wimsey, entering into the spirit of the thing, skied the bidding with enthusiasm. The dealers,..fancying that there must be some special excellence about the book.., joined in.
2. To hang (a picture, etc.) high up on the wall or near the ceiling, esp. at an exhibition.
1865Slang Dict. 233 Artists say that a picture is skyed when it is hung on the upper line at the Exhibition of the Royal Academy. 1882Harper's Mag. Dec. 70/2 Skied up over a door of the hall is the portrait of a..maiden dressed as a shepherdess. 1885Truth 28 May 848/2 A good sea-piece, and one which is undeservedly skied.
transf.1884Pall Mall G. 3 Oct. 3/1 The members of the press are regarded as unwelcome intruders and are shamefully ‘skied’.
3. To cover like the sky; to overshadow.
1844Mrs. Browning Crowned & Buried 3 Napoleon!—years ago, and that great word..skied us overhead—An atmosphere whose lightning was the sword.
4. To catch sight of (an outline) against the sky.
1900H. Lawson Over Sliprails 95 He stooped,..with his hands on his knees, to ‘sky’ the loom of his big shed and so get his bearings.
5. intr. To paint a sky in a picture. nonce-use.
1862Thornbury Turner I. 139 If any one calls, I can't be seen—I'm skying.
6. Boating. To lift the blade of an oar too high.
1883Cambridge Staircase vi. 94 He knows..when men are cocking or skying, or swinging out of or into the boat.
Hence ˈskying vbl. n. (in sense 2).
1869Echo 23 Jan., In the new rooms a much larger number of pictures will find places... The ‘skying’ and ‘grounding’ so much complained of will be avoided.
▪ V. sky, v.2
[Of doubtful origin; connexion with prec. is not apparent in either sense.]
1. intr. To run swiftly.
1837J. E. Murray Summer in Pyrenees II. 153 They sky along, breast high, causing the woods to ring again.
2. trans. At Harrow: To charge and overthrow in a game of football.
1905H. A. Vachell The Hill iv. 83 Jolly well played, Cæsar!—Sky him!—Well skied, sir! |