| 释义 |
snapdragon|ˈsnæpˌdrægən|
Also snap dragon, snap-dragon.
[f. snap v. + dragon1.]
1. a. A popular name for one or other of the plants belonging to the genus Antirrhinum, esp. A. majus, a hardy plant bearing showy flowers, freq. grown in gardens.
1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 96 Roses of all sorts... Snap [pr. snag] dragons. 1597Gerarde Herbal 438 The flowers [are]..fashioned like..a dragons mouth; from whence the women haue taken the name Snapdragon. 1629Parkinson Parad. 269 There is some diuersity in the Snapdragons, some being of a larger, and others of a lesser stature and bignesse. 1657S. Purchas Pol. Flying-Ins. 93 Those flowers, that..shut hard and close at the top or lips,.. as Toads-flax, Snap-dragon, Fox-gloves. 1705tr. Cowley's Plants Wks. 1711 III. 372 Antirrhinon..takes the Stile Of Lion's Mouth, sometimes of Calf's-Snout vile, By us Snap-Dragon call'd. 1785Martyn Rousseau's Bot. iv. (1794) 45 Having the two lips not usually open, or gaping, but closed and joined, as you may see in the snap-dragon. 1847James Convict x, Those old walls, time-worn, and lichen-covered, and loaded with snapdragon. 1882Garden 26 Aug. 183/2 Truly the Snap-dragon is one of our finest open-air flowers.
attrib. and Comb.1871Kingsley At Last xii, This raft supports the little scape of yellow snapdragon-like flowers. 1872Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (ed. 4) 412 In the path of the bean is interposed this snapdragon light. Alcohol and water are here mixed with a quantity of common salt.
b. With distinguishing terms.
1597Gerarde Herbal 438 The purple Snapdragon hath great and brittle stalks. 1629Parkinson Parad. 269 Variable Snapdragon... Yellow Snapdragon. c1710Petiver Cat. Ray's Eng. Herbal xxxv, Small Snap-Dragon. 1731Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Antirrhinum, The Broad-leav'd Snap-dragon. Ibid., The strip'd Snap-dragon. 1796Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) III. 549 Ivy-leaved Snap⁓dragon... Round-leaved Snapdragon. Ibid. 550 Creeping Snapdragon [etc.]. 1856Delamer Fl. Garden (1861) 74 Garden Snapdragon.
c. Applied to various other plants having personate flowers (see quots.).
Also dial. the foxglove, the columbine, and the common fumitory (Eng. Dial. Dict.).
1753Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. s.v. Linaria, The species of toad flax..called by authors the lesser snapdragon... Stone snapdragon. 1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. 327 Snap Dragon of America, Ruellia. 1859Miss Pratt Flowering Pl. IV. 125 Lesser Snapdragon. 1864Grisebach Flora Brit. W. Ind. 787/2 Snapdragon, Ruellia tuberosa. 1866Treas. Bot. 1067/2 Snapdragon,..Silene Antirrhina.
2. A figure or representation of a dragon, esp. one so constructed as to open and shut the mouth, used in mayoral or civic shows or processions. Obs. exc. Hist.
1611Florio, Mandúco, a disguised or vglie picture to make children afraid, as wee say, a snap-dragon, a turke, a bug-beare. 1694Echard Plautus 234 Antick Figures with wide Mouths, like our Snap-dragons for Mayor's Shows. 1726in Hist. Norfolk (1829) II. 1202 Great preparations are making in this city for the guild on Tuesday next, and the old snap dragon being dead, a young one..will make his first public appearance.
†3. ? Burnt brandy. (Cf. next.) Obs.
1676Poor Robin's Intell. 22–29 Aug. 1/1 An old Crony..with whom he drank Snapdraggon so plentifully [etc.]. 1682Dryden & Lee Dk. Guise i. i, I swallow oaths as easy as snap-dragon.
4. A game or amusement (usually held at Christmas) consisting of snatching raisins out of a bowl or dish of burning brandy or other spirit and eating them whilst alight; a bowl or quantity of the liquor, etc., used in this game. (Cf. flap-dragon 1.)
1704Swift T. Tub xi, He bore a strange kind of appetite to snap-dragon, and to the livid snuffs of a burning candle. 1709Steele Tatler No. 85 ⁋2 We got into a dark Corner with a Porringer of Brandy, and threw Raisins into it, then set it on Fire... This fantastical Mirth was called Snap-Draggon. 1792Wolcot (P. Pindar) More Money Wks. 1812 II. 505 He hates snap-dragon; 'tis a game of danger. 1835Sir J. Ross Narr. 2nd Voy. xvii. 273 The exhibition of snap-dragon..produced also great surprise. 1847L. Hunt Men, Women, & B. II. xi. 275 The recollections of last night's snap-dragon and blindman's-buff. 1894Times 12 Jan. 9/2 An accident arising from an explosion of methylated spirits used in a snapdragon.
fig.1818Hazlitt Eng. Poets v. (1870) 141 His Muse is, in fact, a giddy wanton flirt, who spends her time in playing at snap-dragon.
5. techn. (See quots.)
1833J. Holland Manuf. Metal II. 11 A snap-dragon..is a sort of screw nippers placed in an ordinary vice, and opening horizontally to hold a horn or other scale while being flat filed. 1869Our Young Folks V. 85 This was taken up by a second boy on a ‘snap-dragon’,—a rod something like a ponty, but with a socket at the end for holding articles of glass,—and carried to a glory-hole. 1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2229/1 Snap⁓dragon, a kind of tongs used by glass-blowers to hold their hot hollow ware. |