| 释义 |
▪ I. couplet|ˈkʌplɪt|
Also 7 cop-, cup-, (? caplet).
[a. F. couplet (1364 in Godefroy) two pieces of iron riveted or hinged together, succession of verses riming together, stanza, etc., dim. of couple.]
1. A pair of successive lines of verse, esp. when riming together and of the same length.
1580Sidney Arcadia (J.), In singing some short couplets, whereto the one half beginning, the other half should answer. a1649Drummond of Hawthornden Conv. w. Jonson Wks. (1711) 225 It is all in couplets, for he detested all other rhimes. 1780Johnson L.P., Congreve Wks. III. 171 Except what relates to the stage, I know not that he has ever written a stanza that is sung, or a couplet that is quoted. 1866Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xxiv. 615 A popular notion, embodied in a rhyming couplet. 1889Skeat Chaucer's L.G.W. Introd. 33 He introduces a new metre..now famous as ‘the heroic couplet’.
2. gen. A pair or couple; in pl. = twins (quot. 1824, nonce-use: cf. triplets).
1601Shakes. Twel. N. iii. iv. 412 Weel whisper ore a couplet or two of most sage sawes. 1602― Ham. v. i. 310 As patient as the female Doue, When that her golden Cuplet [Qq. couplets] are disclos'd. 1824Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 161 Their very nurse, as she used to boast, could hardly tell her pretty ‘couplets’ apart.
3. Arch. A window of two lights.
1844Ecclesiologist III. 149 The church is lighted with four couplets and a half on each side. 1879Sir G. G. Scott Lect. Archit. I. 251 The couplets, triplets, and more numerous groups of the Early English windows.
4. Music. Two equal notes inserted in a passage of triple rhythm and made to occupy the time of three.
1876in Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms.
†5. A coupling, link, or chain. Obs. rare—1.
1601? Marston Pasquil & Kath. iii. 105 Being chain'd by the mightie coplet of ineuitable destiny.
6. attrib. and comb., as couplet-chiming, couplet-grinder, couplet verse (sense 1); † couplet-harness, mail.
1609Holland Amm. Marcell. xxv. iii. 264 A couple of Parthyans in couplet-harneis [L. cataphractorum]. 1666Dryden Ann. Mirab. Pref. Wks. (Globe) 38 In this necessity of our rhymes, I have always found the couplet verse most easy. 1797–1802G. Colman Br. Grins Lament. viii, 'Twere strange if they [dead poets] should rise, and go afresh to couplet-chiming. 1896Westm. Gaz. 1 June 3/2 The most formal allegorical couplet-grinders of the eighteenth century. 1941Essays & Studies XXVI. 78 He [sc. William Collins] sank to the level of the poorest couplet-grinder among them.
▪ II. ˈcouplet, v. nonce-wd.
[f. the n.]
to couplet it: to compose couplets.
1742Jarvis Quix. ii. iv. xvi. (D.), Methinks, quoth Sancho, the thoughts which give way to the making of couplets can not be many. Couplet is as much as your worship pleases, and I will sleep as much as I can. |