| 释义 |
ˈsnake-pit
Also snakepit.
[snake n.]
1. Among primitive peoples, a large pit containing poisonous snakes into which victims are thrown for execution or as a test of endurance.
1883Vigfusson & York-Powell Corpus Poeticum Boreale II. ix. 346 Anslaug..gives him a charmed coat, which preserves him even in the snake-pit into which he is cast by ælla, king of the Northumbrians. 1909Saga-Book of Viking Club VI. i. 73 Ragnarr was captured by King Ella, and cast into a snake pit. 1940–41Scandinavian Stud. XVI. 32 We may say that the theme of the Snake Tower or Snake Pit is foreign to Europe but is a typical Oriental importation. 1961H. Treece Jason iii. xxvii. 224 Medea halted at the edge of the snake-pit... Then she lowered herself to the marble rim of the pit and gently eased down among the little snakes. 1977A. P. Smyth Scandinavian Kings in Brit. Isles 850–880 iii. 36 The account of Ragnarr's invasion of Northumbria and his death in the snake-pit at the hands of King ælla is found in its most elaborate form in Ragnars saga.
2. transf. and fig.
1941Argus (Melbourne) Week-End Mag. 15 Nov. 1/4 Snake pit, sergeants' mess. 1948S. L. Elliott in E. Hanger Khaki, Bush & Bigotry (1968) 91 Andy Edwards has been promoted and moved up to the snake pit with you and the other snakes. 1956A. L. Rowse Early Churchills v. 82 He was a man..simple and rigid, in that snake-pit of a Court with its twisting..creatures,..deceitful and insincere. 1966B. Glemser Dear Hungarian Friend ii. 36 He is at the United Nations... That is the only way to survive in the political snakepit. 1969N.Y. Review Bks. 21 Aug. 8/1 The venal and compromising snakepit of American politics. 1976Publishers Weekly 20 Sept. 74/3 All depicted as guilty as hell, conniving, scheming, fighting and feuding. It's a snakepit of a scene. 1977Listener 25 Aug. 245/1 A snake-pit of imperfect chromatic scales.
3. spec. A mental hospital (after the title of the novel by M. J. Ward: see quot. 1947).
1947M. J. Ward (title) The snake pit. 1960Sunday Express 15 May 17/4 The snake-pit women's ward. 1968A. Laski Keeper ii. 22 They had visited him in the snake⁓pit. 1976Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 30 Apr. 5/1 It's like going back to the days when psychiatric hospitals everywhere were called snakepits. |