| 释义 |
dead man's thumb
1. A local name for Orchis mascula, from the shape of the tubers. (Cf. dead man's finger 1.)
1652Roxb. Ballads (Britten & Holland), Each flower..Such as within the meddowes grew, As dead man's thumbs and harebell blew [v.r. an hearb all blew]. 1853G. Johnston Nat. Hist. E. Bord. 193 From the colour and shape of the tuber the plant is called Dead-man's thumb; and children tell one another, with mysterious awe, that the root was once the thumb of some unburied murderer.
2. = dead man's hand 1.
1863G. Rowe in Intell. Observ. Sept. 84 The swelling lobes of the dead man's thumb. |