| 释义 |
prickly, a.|ˈprɪklɪ|
[f. prickle n.1 + -y.]
1. a. Having, armed with, or full of prickles; aculeate.
1578Lyte Dodoens vi. xxxiv. 700 The leaues of Holly are..full of sharpe poyntes or prickley corners. a1661Fuller Worthies, Middlesex (1662) ii. 182 Mr. John Denley..began to sing a Psalm at the Stake, and Dr. Story..caused a prickley fagot to be hurled in his face, which so hurt him, that he bled therewith. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VI. 315, I examine its fins, whether they be prickly or soft. 1784Cowper Task i. 527 The common, overgrown with fern, and rough With prickly gorse. 1870Hooker Stud. Flora 120 Rose. Erect sarmentose or climbing shrubs, usually prickly.
b. fig. Full of contentious or irritating points; difficult to deal with. Also, of persons: quick to react angrily, touchy.
c1862E. Dickinson Poems (1955) II. 490 His pretty estimates Of Prickly Things. 1871E. F. Burr Ad Fidem xi. 217 Prickly Christianity. 1882–3Schaff's Encycl. Relig. Knowl. II. 943/2 The discussion over this extremely complicated and prickly question is not yet closed. 1894Idler Sept. 207 Anxious to try, in his own person, the effect of wedding what one may call the Prickly Young Person. 1935N. Mitchison We have been Warned iv. 340 Would you mind particularly if the C.P. were involved..? They're a nasty, prickly lot. 1943A. Ransome Picts & Martyrs i. 11 It's Mother she's getting at, not us... She's prickly with disapproval. 1950Listener 9 Nov. 482/1 Hence the prickly suspicions of the new China's relations with the Western Powers. 1957R. Watson-Watt Three Steps to Victory cxxiv. 453, I was probably being needlessly prickly. 1975N.Y. Times 2 Apr. 37/2 They were self-conscious gentry, prickly of their privileges and independence. 1980T. Morgan Somerset Maugham iii. 168 Janet Vale of the Morning Telegraph found him prickly.
2. Having a sensation as of many pricking points; smarting, as if full of prickles; tingling.
1836J. M. Gully Magendie's Formul. 4 The patient complained of a prickly feeling of the limbs. 1902Buchan Watcher by Threshold 81 The skin grows hot and prickly.
3. Special collocations: prickly ash, any of several North American shrubs or trees whose aromatic bark is used medicinally, including those belonging to the genus Zanthoxylum, esp. Z. americanum, of the family Rutaceæ, and the angelica tree, Aralia spinosa, of the family Araliaceæ; prickly back, (a) = prickle-back; (b) see quot. 1890; prickly box: see box n.1 3 c; prickly broom, the whin or furze, Ulex europæus; prickly bullhead, a freshwater fish of the genus Cottus (Webster 1864); prickly cedar: see cedar; also applied to an evergreen shrub of Tasmania and Victoria, Cyathodes Oxycedrus; prickly fern, rigid species of the genus Polystichum; prickly grass, any species of Echinochloa; prickly lettuce, Wild Lettuce, Lactuca Scariola; prickly Moses Austral., one of several species of Acacia bearing prickles, esp. A. verticillata, A. juniperina, or A. pulchella; prickly palm, pole, a slender West Indian palm, Bactris Plumierana; prickly poppy, an annual or perennial herb belonging to the genus Argemone of the family Papaveraceæ, native to North or Central America, esp. Argemone mexicana, a widespread weed of tropical and subtropical regions; prickly rat, any one of the species of Ctenomys and allied genera of S. American burrowing rodents, the hair of which is usually intermingled with sharp spines (Webster 1890); prickly rhubarb = gunnera; prickly samphire, the sea-parsnip, Echinophora spinosa; prickly withe, a cactaceous plant of Jamaica and Mexico, Cereus triangularis; prickly yellowwood (also prickle-yellow), a West Indian tree, Xanthoxylum caribæum. See also prickly pear. For prickly comfrey, glasswort, tang, etc., see the ns.
1709J. Lawson New Voy. Carolina 101 *Prickly-Ash grows up like a Pole. 1743J. F. Gronovius Flora Virginica II. 150 Aralia... Gambriar and Prickly-ash. 1778J. Carver Trav. N.-Amer. 393 The chief..prepared for him a decoction of the bark of the roots of the prickly Ash. 1805Pike Sources Mississ. (1810) 31 The whole bottom covered with the prickly ash. 1817J. Bradbury Trav. Amer. 30 The underwood consisted chiefly of the prickly ash. 1860M. A. Curtis Bot. 91 Prickly ash. (Aralia spinosa)... The berries..are thought by some to be also a valuable remedy for the bite of a rattlesnake. 1899M. Going Field, Forest, & Wayside Flowers 74 Prickly-ash, and hackberry..are thus unsystematic in their mode of conducting their affairs. 1931M. Grieve Mod. Herbal I. 70/1 The Prickly Ash..is a small North American tree. Ibid. 71/2 The name Prickly Ash has also been given to Aralia spinosa.., the Prickly Elder, or Angelica Tree. 1938M. K. Rawlings Yearling xxix. 379 She..made him a tonic of prickly ash and poke-root and potassium. 1975M. C. Davis Near Woods ii. 27 A clumped prickly ash had found a home among sandstone boulders.
1883Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4) 174 Tom Cods,..*Prickly Backs... Dog Fish. Bill Fish. 1890Cent. Dict., Pricklyback, the edible crab, Callinectes hastatus, when the new shell is only partially hardened; a shedder (Long Island).
1862Ansted Channel Isl. ii. viii. (ed. 2) 182 The *prickly fern (Polystichum aculeatum)..exceedingly abundant in England and Jersey.
1887Australian Apr. 9/3 An expedition was now made into the scrub for fishing rods... I cannot recommend ‘snap-scrub’ for a rod, nor that awful thing which our philosopher called ‘*prickly moses’. 1965Austral. Encycl. VII. 276/1 Prickly Moses, a corruption of ‘prickly mimosa’ applied to several species of wattle.
1666J. Davies Hist. Caribby Isles 36 If the *Prickly-Palm before described, afford Wine.
1725Sloane Jamaica II. 121 *Prickly Pole. The Stem is very small,..and thick beset with large and long prickles round it.
1724P. Miller Gardeners & Florists Dict. I. s.v. Argemone, Argemone is a sort of Poppy, and some call it the *prickly Poppy. 1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 323 Poppy, Prickly, Argemone.
1869Amer. Naturalist III. 163 The Prickly Poppy (Argemone) looks now like a common thistle. 1898A. M. Davidson Calif. Plants 112 The prickly poppy will send out great white flowers with crumpled petals and a great many yellow stamens. 1977Lewis & Elvin-Lewis Med. Bot. ii. 31/2 Prickly poppies are widely distributed in weedy habitats in temperate and tropic regions.
1895W. Robinson Eng. Flower Garden (ed. 4) 501/2 Gunnera (*Prickly Rhubarb).—South American plants remarkable for large and handsome foliage, somewhat resembling that of gigantic Rhubarb. 1900Century Bk. Gardening 98/2 Gunneras are called ‘Prickly Rhubarbs’, and the big leaves are not unlike those of a large Rhubarb. 1952A. G. L. Hellyer Sanders' Encycl. Gardening (ed. 22) 217 Gunnera (Prickly Rhubarb)... Hardy herbaceous perennials. First introduced mid-nineteenth century.
1725Sloane Jamaica II. 155 *Prickly Withe. This plant has several small roots sticking to the bark of trees.
4. Comb., as prickly-cupped, prickly-headed, prickly-stemmed.
1858Homans Cycl. Comm. s.v. Leather, the acorn cups of Quercus ægilops, or prickly-cupped oak, growing in the Morea. 1871Kingsley At Last x, The prickly-stemmed scarlet-flowered Euphorbia. 1872Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. June 419/1 The prickly-headed Poppy. |