| 释义 |
▪ I. corkscrew, n.|ˈkɔːkskruː|
[f. cork n.1 + screw.]
1. a. An instrument for drawing corks from bottles, consisting of a steel screw or helix with a sharp point and a transverse handle.
1720Amherst Poems, Bottle Screw, This hand a corkscrew did contain, And that a bottle of champaigne. 1814Scott Wav. lxvi, The landlord's cork-screw was just introduced into the muzzle of a pint bottle of claret. 1875Darwin Insectiv. Pl. iii. 52 With their tentacles twisted about,..the longer ones like corkscrews.
b. Short for corkscrew curl: see 2.
1839F. Trollope Dom. Manners Amer. (ed. 5) xxix. 273 Loan me the two corkscrews then, mother, just to hang behind my spit curls. 1883Harper's Mag. Feb. 402/1 No small mincing..‘corkscrews’, but a goodly sized tress.
c. Short for corkscrew twill: see 2.
1887Ld. Macnaghten in Law Rep. App. Cases XII. 295 The goods..belong to a class of wearing material known in the trade as ‘corkscrews’.
2. attrib. Resembling a corkscrew; spirally twisted; esp. of curls or ringlets, and of staircases. Also corkscrew grass, a kind of grass having a twisted seed with long awn.
1815N. Amer. Rev. I. 20 The innocent animated imitations of the Medicean Venus, with their thousand corkscrew ringlets. a1828D. Wordsworth Tour Continent in Jrnls. (1941) II. 28 The splendid cork-screw spire. 1830Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 285 Their leaves have..a uniform spiral arrangement..so as to give the stem a sort of corkscrew appearance. 1838Dickens O. Twist II. xxii. 35 Hair..tortured into long corkscrew curls. 1839Thackeray Major Gahagan iii, Little corkscrew ringlets. 1842Tennyson Walking to Mail 82 Up the cork-screw stair. 1887Ld. Selborne in Law Rep. App. Cases XII. 289 In all goods of the class called ‘corkscrew twills’ the weft lies hidden inside, the surface on both sides being warp. 1890Melbourne Argus 26 Sept. 13/5 To get the fleeces off before the grass seeds ripen, those of the corkscrew grass especially. 1898Nature 27 Jan. 311 Spear or corkscrew-grass (Stipa setacea). 1938C. Isherwood Lions & Shadows i. 34 Charabancs came tearing round the corkscrew corners.
3. Comb., as corkscrew-like adj.
1882Vines Sachs' Bot. 443 The corkscrew-like antherozoid, which is coiled 12 or 13 times.
▪ II. corkscrew, v. colloq.|ˈkɔːkskruː|
[f. prec.]
1. trans. To cause to move or advance in a spiral course. Also (pass.), to twist spirally.
1837Dickens Pickw. xxxv, Mr. Bantam corkscrewed his way through the crowd. 1851H. Melville Moby Dick cxxxiv, Caught and twisted, corkscrewed in the mazes of the line, loose harpoons..came flashing. 1872Daily News 11 May 5/7 Herr Gerwig has corkscrewed his line round the Eisenberg. 1887Jessopp in 19th Cent. Mar. 370 [The horses] have to be corkscrewed into our diminutive stables. 1896Daily News 26 Sept. 5/3 The line itself had been completely swept away, and great sections crumpled and corkscrewed beyond hope of repair. 1898Ibid. 24 Aug. 2/1 The fancy grottos and rockeries would be swept into the sea if the stream was corkscrewed. 1924R. Campbell Flaming Terrapin iii. 45 Thick mælstroms..with hideous twist, Corkscrewed by whirlwinds.
2. a. intr. To proceed in a spiral course.
1853G. J. Cayley Las Alforjas I. 117 An interminable..gallery..corkscrewing round and round the tower. 1883W. C. Smith N. Country Folk 225 A turnpike stair That corkscrewed up a round tower.
b. To become twisted.
1909Chambers's Jrnl. July 423/2 As in the case of the bayonets which ‘corkscrewed’ in the Soudan.
3. a. trans. To draw out as with a corkscrew; to elicit by roundabout devices, or with effort.
1852Dickens Bleak Ho. II. xxiv. 328 From what Small has dropped, and from what we have corkscrewed out of him.
b. intr. To work away at as with a corkscrew.
1920J. Gregory Man to Man iv, Trying to pump me and corkscrewing away at dad when he was full of whisky. |