| 释义 |
star-fish, starfish|ˈstɑːfɪʃ|
Pl. -fish, -fishes.
[Cf. sea-star 2.]
1. Any echinoderm of the genus Asterias or of the class Asteroidea, having a flattened body, normally consisting of lobes or rays (usually five), radiating from a central disc. These rays are sometimes very short or altogether absent, the body having the form of a pentagonal disc. The common star-fish is Asterias (Asteracanthion) rubens.
1538Elyot Dict., Stella, a sterre, also a sterrefyshe. 1611Cotgr., Arbre marin.., the greatest of Starre-fishes. 1672W. Hughes Amer. Physit. 9 Of the Sea-Star-Fish, or by some called the Sea-Star. 1672J. Josselyn New-Eng. Rarities 95 The Star Fish, having five points like a Star, the whole Fish no bigger than the Palm of a Mans hand. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. VIII. 174. 1836–9 Todd's Cycl. Anat. II. 34/1 The star-fish has the power of slowly moving its rays. 1896Lydekker Roy. Nat. Hist. VI. 305 Star⁓fish are sluggish animals.
attrib.1868M. W. Taylor in Trans. Cumb. & Westm. Antiq. & Archæol. Soc. I. 166 Imparting..a kind of star⁓fish appearance to the structure. 1885― Ibid. VIII. 331 The White Raise or Star-fish cairn.
2. transf. A name for certain species of Stapelia.
1840Paxton Bot. Dict., Star fish,..Stapelia Asterias. 1884W. Miller Plant-n. 130 Star-fish-flower, Stapelia Asterias and other species.
3. Special Comb.: starfish bed Geol., a stratum rich in starfish fossils; (usu. with capital initial(s) as a proper name).
1863Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc. XIX. 289 Capping these, in Down Cliffs, is the Starfish-bed, above which begin the Middle Lias Sands. 1935J. Pringle South of Scotland ii. 34 Near the head of the Lady Burn the mudstones are underlain by a hard greenish-grey calcareous sandstone, the well-known Starfish Bed. 1970R. M. Black Elements Palaeont. x. 141 While, in general, they are rare fossils, in some horizons (referred to as ‘starfish’ beds) they are relatively numerous, e.g. in the Upper Ordovician, Girvan and in the Lower Ludlow in Herefordshire. 1977J. W. Perkins Geol. explained in Dorset xi. 138 The base of the Starfish Bed forms a strong spring-line, and hillsides below this level are often cut by deep wooded gullies as a result.
Hence ˈstar-fishy a. (nonce-wd.).
1875Ruskin Fors. Clav. lxi, A population mostly of..bagmen..nothing else but bags;—sloppy, star-fishy, seven-suckered stomachs of indiscriminate covetousness. |