| 释义 |
▪ I. † prill, n.1 Obs.
[app. related to It. pirla, pirlo ‘a childes top, a gig, or twirle’ (Florio) (cf. pirouette), and prob. to pirl v.]
A whirligig, or top that one spins.
c1440Promp. Parv. 413/2 Prylle, or whyrlegygge, as chylderys pley (or spylkok,..K. prille of chyldrys pleyynge, S. whyrgyg), giraculum. [a1500Medulla Gram. in Promp. Parv. 413 note, Giraculum, a pirlle.]
▪ II. prill, n.2 Now local.|prɪl|
[A phonetic variant of pirle, purl, a small rill. Cf. prill v.]
A small stream of running water; a rill.
1603J. Davies Microcosm. (Grosart) 12/2 Each siluer Prill gliding on golden Sand. 1614― Eclogue 150 By some prill, that 'mong the Pibbles plods. 1610R. Vaughan (title) Most Approved And Long experienced Water-Workes. Containing The manner of Winter and Summer-drowning of Medow and Pasture, by the aduantage of the least Riuer, Brooke, Fount or Water-prill adiacent. 1862Temple Bar Mag. VI. 464 Tints of orange-brown..coloured the prill of water running on the wayside. 1879G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., Prill, a streamlet of clear water, a rill; a runnel from a spring. [1903 in Eng. Dial. Dict. from Worc., Shrop., Heref., Radnor, Glouc.]
▪ III. † prill, n.3 Obs. rare.
[Origin doubtful; perh. a generalized use of the proper name Prill, short for Priscilla, which according to Elworthy is very common in West Somerset. Cf. gill n.4]
A girl, a lass.
1587M. Grove Pelops & Hipp. (1878) 78 The change of dames within the court: For Countrey prilles. Ibid. 83 Though that she be a countrey prill, no weight thereof doth stand: Thinke you that some those Courtly dames are not of countrey land?
▪ IV. prill, n.4 Mining.
[A local term in Cornwall.]
1. In Cornish copper-mining: The rich copper ore which remains after cobbing and separating the inferior pieces.
1778Pryce Min. Cornub. 263 The reduced Copper, or as it is more usually called by the Cornish assayers, the Prill, will be found beneath the slagg. Ibid., The refining the prill is a very nice operation. 1839H. T. De la Beche Rep. Geol. Cornwall, etc. xv. 594 At present the copper-ores..are broken or spalled as before, and divided into pieces of good ore, commonly termed prills. 1875Ure's Dict. Arts II. 80 Detaching from each piece the inferior portions, and thus forming prill or best dradge ore.
2. Hence, A button or globule of metal obtained by assaying a specimen of ore in the cupel. U.S. and Colonial.
1864in Webster. 1880J. Percy Metallurgy, Silver & Gold i. 249 Examination of the Silver ‘Prills’ for Gold... One or more of the ‘prills’ are flattened out by hammering, and heated with dilute nitric acid [etc.].
▪ V. † prill, n.5
obs. variant of brill n.1
1668Charleton Onomast. 145 Rhombus squammosus..Turbut, Bret-cock, Bret, or Prill.
▪ VI. † prill, v. Obs. rare.
[app. a variant of pirl, purl v.: see prill n.2]
intr. To flow, spirt, purl.
1603Stow Surv. xxx. (ed. 2) 269 An Image..of Diana, and water conuayd from the Thames prilling from her naked breast for a time.
▪ VII. [prill, prile
in Rom. Rose 1058, app. a scribal error; ? for þrill or prick.
] |