| 释义 |
▪ I. † dank, n. Obs.
Forms: see adj.
[app. f. dank a.]
1. Wetness, humidity, damp.
a1400Morte Arth. 3751 One þe danke of þe dewe many dede lyggys. 1602Marston Antonio's Rev. Prol., The rawish danke of clumzie winter ramps The fluent summers raine. [Cf. Clumsy.]
2. A wet place, pool, marsh, mere.
1513Douglas æneis vii. Prol. 60 Bedovin in donkis deyp was every syk. 1560Rolland Crt. Venus i. 2 Eolus out ouir thir rokkis rang, Be donk and daill. 1667Milton P.L. vii. 441 Yet oft they quit The Dank, and rising on stiff Pennons, towre The mid Aereal Skie.
▪ II. dank, a.|dæŋk|
Forms: 5 dannke, 5–7 danke, 6 dancke, 6– dank; also 6 donk, 7 donke, 8–9 dial. donk.
[The adj. and n. are known from c 1400, the vb. (which we should expect to be formed from the adj.) appears nearly a century earlier; the early quots. for both vb. and adj. refer to dew. The etymology is uncertain.
The only words allied in form, and possibly in sense, are Swedish dank ‘moist place in a field, marshy spot’, Icel. dökk (: -danku-) pit, pool. These must evidently be separated from the Germanic stem dink-, dank-, dunk-, whence ON. dökkr dark, Ger. dunkel. There is no original connexion, either of form or sense, between dank and damp, but in recent times damp has acquired the sense of dank and largely taken its place.]
†1. Wet, watery, wetting:
a. said of dew, rain, clouds, water, etc. Obs.
a1400Morte Arth. 313 Þe dewe þat es dannke, whene þat it doune falles. c1400Destr. Troy 2368 Dropis as dew or a danke rayne. 1513Douglas æneis iii. ix. 3 Aurora the wak nycht dyd..chays fra hevin with hir dym skyis donk. 1549Compl. Scot. vi. 38 The drops of the fresche deu, quhilk of befor hed maid dikis ande dailis verray donc. 1601Weever Mirr. Mart. B ij, Fruits..Which the danke moisture of the ayre doth cherish.
b. said of marshes, fens, soaking ground, humid tropical forests, and the like.
[1667Milton P.L. ix. 179 Through each Thicket Danck or Drie.] 1735Somerville Chase i. 340 O'er the dank Marsh, bleak Hill, and sandy Plain. 1799Scotland described (ed. 2) 14 A pool in the midst of a wide, dead, and dank morass. 1851Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. I. 163 On the dank marshy shores of the oozy Yare. 1857S. Osborn Quedah xxiv. 351 In those dank and hot forests reptiles abound.
2. Damp: with the connotation that this is an injurious or disagreeable quality.
a. of fog, vapour, the air, weather, etc.
1601? Marston Pasquil & Kath. v. 70 The euening's raw and danke; I shall take cold. 1757Dyer Fleece i. 365 Dank or frosty days. 1784Cowper Task i. 437 Vapours, dank and clammy. 1822Hazlitt Table-t. Ser. ii. xiv. (1869) 288 A dank, cold mist, encircling all objects. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. v. 41 Dull dank fog choked the valley.
b. of substances or surfaces.
In this sense app. Obs. after 1650, exc. in northern dialect; but revived by the romantic writers in end of 18th c.
1573Tusser Husb. xxii. (1878) 60 Dank ling forgot will quickly rot. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. ii. ii. 75 Sleeping sound On the danke and durty ground. 1626Bacon Sylva §352 In a Cellar or Dank room. 1642Rogers Naaman 618 Oh that our powder were not danke. 1787Grose Prov. Gloss., Donk, a little wettish, damp. N[orth]. 1813Scott Rokeby ii. ix, The dank and sable earth receives Its only carpet from the leaves. 1855Robinson Whitby Gloss., ‘As donk as a dungeon.’ 1876Humphreys Coin-Coll. Man. xxvi. 400 Pages of vellum that served as knee-rests to the monks on the dank stone pavements.
3. In 19th c., often said of rank grass or weeds growing in damp places. [perh. associated with rank.]
1820Shelley Sensit. Plant iii. 55 And thistles, and nettles, and darnels rank, And the dock, and henbane, and hemlock dank. 1827Keble Chr. Y. 1st Sunday after Trin., Here over shatter'd walls dank weeds are growing. 1863Geo. Eliot Romola i. xviii, That dank luxuriance [of the garden] had begun to penetrate even within the walls of the..room.
▪ III. dank, v. Obs. exc. dial.|dæŋk|
Forms: 4–5 donk(e, 5 downk(e, 5–6 danke, 6 dounk, 7– dank, 9 dial. donk.
[See dank a.]
†1. trans. To wet, damp, moisten; originally said of dew, mist, drizzling rain, etc. Obs.
a1310in Wright Lyric P. xiii. 44 Deowes donketh the dounes. c1400Destr. Troy 7997 The droupes, as a dew, dankit his fas. Ibid. 9639 A myste..All donkyt the dales with the dym showris. 1552Lyndesay Monarche 6309 The dew now dounkis the rossis redolent. 1634W. Wood New Eng. Prosp. ii. vii, The water having dank't his pistoles.
b. fig. To damp (the spirits or aspirations); to depress. Still dial.
1555Abp. Parker Ps. viii. I j b, Thy foes to blanke: their threates to danke. a1575― Corr. 237, I am..not amazed nor danked. 1864Bamford Homely Rhymes 135 (Lanc. Gloss.) Put th' Kurn-bill i' the divel's hous 'At it no moor may dank us.
†2. intr. To become damp. Obs.
1590Sir J. Smyth Disc. Weapons 21 The ayre of some moyst weather hath..caused the powder to give and danke.
b. To be a fine rain or mist; to drizzle. dial.
1866Gentl. Mag. I. 546 They have a peculiar expression in Lancashire, to convey the description of a hazy showery day: ‘it donkes and it dozzles’. 1869Lonsdale Gloss. s.v., ‘It donks and it dozzles’ = It damps and drizzles.
Hence ˈdanking vbl. n. and ppl. a.
c1340Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 519 When þe donkande dewe dropez of the leuez. a1400Morte Arth. 3248 Was thare no downkynge of dewe that oghte dere scholde. |