| 释义 |
squirrel-tail
Also squirrel's tail.
1. The tail of a squirrel. In quot. collect.
c1400Seuyn Sag. (W.) 2777 He let him make a garnement,..And heng theron squirel taile, A thousand and mo, withouten fail.
2. A species of lob-worm. ? Obs.
Walton's wording is repeated by later writers.
1653Walton Angler 94 There be also of lob-worms, some called squirel-tails (a worm which has a red head, a streak down the back, and a broad tail). 1787Best Angling (ed. 2) 16. 1839 T. C. Hofland Brit. Angler's Man. ii. (1841) 9.
3. squirrel-tail grass, one or other of various species of grasses belonging to the genus Hordeum.
1777W. Curtis Flora Lond. (1798) II. Pl. 23, We have been informed..that in the Isle of Thanet this grass [Hordeum murinum] is well known to the inn-keepers, who call it Squirrel-tail Grass. 1796Withering Brit. Pl. (ed. 3) II. 172 Hordeum maritimum. This is the true Squirrel-tail Grass of the Isle of Thanet, and not as Mr. Curtis says, the Hord. murinum. 1846–50A. Wood Class-bk. Bot. 620 Hordeum jubatum. Squirrel-tail Grass. 1851Phytologist IV. 10 Hordeum pratense... In the Monckton meadows [near Ryde]..the herbage consists mainly of the ‘Squirrel-tail grass’ [etc.].
b. ellipt. = squirrel-tail grass.
1796Withering Brit. Pl. (ed. 3) II. 172 The stunted habit of the true Squirrel-tail. 1899Cumberland Gloss. 310/2 Squirrel's tail, sea barley, Hordeum maritimum.
4. Zool. (See quot.)
1850Miss Pratt Comm. Things of Sea-side iv. 250 Another [polyp] is called Squirrel's Tail, (Sertularia argentea), because it is so like the tail of our woodland animal. |