| 释义 |
soft-shelled, a.
[soft a. 31.]
1. Having a soft shell. Chiefly in specific names of animals; esp. of the soft-shell crab or turtle.
1611Cotgr., Harde, a soft-sheld egge. 1771Phil. Trans. LXI. 267 We call it the soft shelled Turtle. 1796Rec. Smithtown, N.Y. (1898) 129 Any person not an inhabitant..taking Soft shelled clams within the limits of said Town shall pay six pence for every bushel. 1835J. J. Audubon Ornith. Biogr. III. 239 He knows..how to watch the soft-shelled turtle's crawl. 1856Rep. Comm. Patents 1855: Agric. (U.S.) p. xviii, The ‘soft⁓shelled’ almond..is the variety recently introduced and distributed by this Office. c1880Cassell's Nat. Hist. IV. 256 The other Soft-shelled Tortoise (Trionyx ferox)..is a voracious animal. 1883Goode in Fisheries Exhib. Lit. (1884) V. 15 Soft-shelled clam, Mya arenaria. 1884― Nat. Hist. Aquat. Anim. 152 The species of Soft-shelled Tortoises, Trionychidæ. Ibid. 776 The common edible Crab or Blue Crab—Callinectes hastatus... These ‘soft-shelled Crabs’ are much esteemed by many. 1948[see paper-shelled adj. s.v. paper n. 12]. 1953G. M. Durrell Overloaded Ark xiii. 223 It was a species known as the Soft-shelled Turtle: the shell is fairly smooth and domed, and it protruded round the edge in a great soft rim.
2. transf. (Cf. soft-shell 2.)
1890Daily News 4 Feb. 5/3 Dissentient Liberals of the soft-shelled species. |