half moonn.adj.

Brit.

/ˌhɑːf ˈmuːn/, U.S.

/ˈhæf ˌmun/,

/ˌhæf ˈmun/

Forms: see half adj. and moon n.¹

Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: half adj., moon n.¹

Etymology: < half adj. + moon n.¹In sense A. 3 after Middle French, French demilune demilune n.

A. n.

a. The moon when half (or approximately half) of its illuminated surface is visible. Also: a shape like the moon in this phase; a half-disc or (sometimes) a crescent approaching a half-disc in shape.

ΘΠ

the world > the universe > planet > primary planet > moon > phase > [noun] > half moon

dichotomy1661

dichotomization1830

a1425 Medulla Gram. (Stonyhurst) f. 59^v Semilunium, half mone.

?c1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (Paris) (1971) 188 The firste instrument ben þe tenacles of Auycen, and þai ben toþede, like half mones [?a1425 N.Y. Acad. Med. semilunarez].

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 230/1 Halfe moone, croissant de la lune.

1631 D. Widdowes tr. W. A. Scribonius Nat. Philos. (new ed.) 13 The Moone..when she is horned, or halfe moone.

1661 E. Hickeringill Jamaica Viewed (ed. 2) 11 A sharp Iron in form of an half-moon, fastened to a staffe.

1708 G. Vaux tr. J. C. Sturm Mathesis Juvenilis III. 48 The Phases..offer themselves in view to us from the Earth under the Names of the New-moon, Half-moon, Dichotomous, Gibbous, and Full-moon.

1850 W. Colton Deck & Port vi. 206 The saddle..rises up before and behind like a well-horned half-moon.

1962 M. Renault Bull from Sea (1968) ii. 19 A half-moon rose late, to shine about..the ancient gravemounds.

2014 West Austral. (Perth) (Nexis) 27 Dec. 119 The waxing crescent moon will grow to a half moon (first quarter) by tomorrow night.

b. A time or period each month when the moon appears half illuminated, i.e. at first and last quarter.

1803 First Elem. Astron. & Nat. Philos. (ed. 5) App. ii. 126 Spring tide in any place is observed to happen precisely at a certain period after half moon.

1833 Penny Mag. 6 July 263/2 At half moon, the boundary diameter of the enlightened hemisphere would pass through the earth, if lengthened.

1912 Strand Mag. Jan. 862/2 The best time to look for the lady is just after half moon.

1969 Oecologia 3 11 Maximum emergence on days about neap tides (1–2 days after half moon).

2007 T. Koppel Ebb & Flow i. 25 The tides get smaller until half moon and then become larger again until full moon.

a. A representation or figure of a crescent moon used as a symbol of Turkey or the Ottoman Empire; (hence) Turkey or the Ottoman Empire as a political or military power (now historical). Cf. crescent n. 3.

ΘΠ

society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > a or the government > [noun] > the Turkish government

Portec1440

the gate of the great Turk1572

to come a gate?a1600

1571 Patent Roll, 13 Elizabeth I 30 July (P.R.O.: C 66/1077) vii. m. 35 To the skill of makinge of certen haftes called Turkye haftes for knyves, weapons and other thinges..and for his marke to haue vpon the blade and hafte of the same knyfes..a halfe moone.

1656 B. Harris tr. J. N. de Parival Hist. Iron Age ii. ii. ii. 236 She [sc. Venice] was not able alone, to sustaine the weight of the Half-Moon.

1726 N. Amhurst Terræ-filius (ed. 2) xlviii. 256 A half-moon is the Turkish arms.

1865 tr. Communication from Sublime Porte in Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs: Pt. 4 383 All the vessels of the merchant national marine..will hereafter hoist a red flag with a half moon in the centre and a border of green around it.

1908 Sunday Post (Boston) 11 Oct. 32/3 The present crisis in Turkey, when liberty seems to be dawning in the land of the half-moon, [etc.].

2013 M. Pearce Bride Box (e-book ed.) The Muhafaza was the old post office and the ottoman half-moon was still carved above its front door.

b. Something having the shape or appearance of a half moon or crescent; a group of people or things assembled or arranged in a semicircular or crescent-shaped formation.With quot. 1893, cf. half-mooning n.

ΘΠ

the world > space > shape > curvature > types of curvature > [noun] > crescent

lunary1610

sickle1657

crescent1672

lune1709

demilunea1734

lunette1774

semi-lune1862

1581 T. Styward Pathwaie to Martiall Discipline i. 24 The which..is the battaile called the halfe moone.

1598 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 1 iii. i. 97 And cuts me from the best of all my land, A huge halfe moone, a monstrous scantle out.

1608 T. Middleton Mad World, my Masters iii. sig. E4^v To weare half moons made of anothers hair.

1671 J. Milton Paradise Regain'd iii. 308 See how in warlike muster they appear, In Rhombs and wedges, and half moons, and wings.

1824 S. R. Meyrick Crit. Inq. into Antient Armour III. Gloss. Martellus, the martel de fer, a weapon which had at one end a pick and at the other a hammer, axe-blade, half moon, mace head or other fancy termination.

1893 H. A. Macpherson et al. Partridge iv. 173 When he directed the half-moon it was a most beautifully executed manœuvre.

1928 Washington Post 17 Oct. 2/3 American officers..forming a friendly half moon around Capt. Hugo Eckener and fifteen officers of the Graf Zeppelin.

1981 R. Davies Rebel Angels (1983) ix. 252 He got so fat they had to make him a special altar with a half-moon carved out of it to accommodate his tum?

2000 J. Lanchester Mr. Phillips 175 One of the people sitting in this half moon of chairs.

c. The whitish, crescent-shaped or semicircular area at the base of a fingernail or toenail; = lunula n. 3b.

ΘΠ

the world > life > the body > nail > [noun] > parts of nail

root end1675

lunula1828

eponychium1885

cuticle1907

1839 Countess of Blessington Idler in Italy I. 396 The nails, couleur de rose, showing pearly half moons at the bottom.

1883 M. Morris Bk. of Health 912 The laminæ in the half moon, or lunula, near the root, are not supplied so abundantly with blood-vessels as those beneath the rest of the nail.

1934 Courier & Advertiser (Dundee) 14 Sept. 12/4 Toe nails will be as carefully tended as the finger ones... Half-moons should be cultivated assiduously.

2006 P. Mordecai Pink Icing & Other Stories 55 Shirley Lyn had..fingernails that were pink and delicate with half moons that peeped out at the bottom.

3. Fortification. An outwork resembling a bastion, with a crescent-shaped gorge. Cf. demilune n. 2. Now historical.

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > defence > defensive work(s) > earthwork or rampart > [noun] > outwork > demilune

half-moon1642

demilune1728

semi-lune1862

1591 W. Garrard & R. Hitchcock Arte of Warre 319 Hee must..vse requisite fortifications, wyth repayres, bulwarks, Bastillions, Caualieres, Casemates, Counterscarpes, Countergardes, halfe Moones, Trenches, Mounts, &c.

1642 D. Rogers Naaman 101 Out-workes, halfe-moones and retrenchments to hold the enemy.

1712 E. Cooke Voy. S. Sea 149 A Half-Moon, on which six Guns may be planted.

1807 Z. M. Pike Acct. Exped. Sources Mississippi (1810) 19 Some were half moons and quite a breastwork.

1901 H. L. Conard Encycl. Hist. Missouri II. 493/1 The proposed plan contemplated the erection of a central garrison, two bastions and four half-moons, all built of stone.

1989 J. M. Montias Vermeer & his Millieu v. 85 Military engineers, known as ‘pioneers,’ were building fortifications—half moons and bulwarks—in the waterways surrounding the town.

†4. A cuckold. Obsolete.Apparently an isolated use, alluding to the resemblance between the horns (horn n. 7a) of the cuckold and the two ends of a crescent moon.

ΘΚΠ

society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > fornication, adultery, or incest > [noun] > adultery > husband of adulterous wife

cuckolda1250

cornutoc1430

unicorn1509

hoddypolla1529

summer bird1541

Actaeon1567

knight of the forked order1586

Vulcanian1598

hoddy-doddy1601

becco1604

ram-head1605

cornute1608

horn-stock1611

skimmington1623

horn-heada1640

tup1652

half-moon1659

cuck1706

1659 J. Shirley Honoria & Mammon iii. 41 Bow in homage to your Soveraigne Antlers. Most high and mighty halfe moon, Prince of Becos.

†5. Mining. A platform filling half the sectional area of a circular pit-shaft, used for making repairs to the shaft. Obsolete.

ΚΠ

1866 Gloucester Jrnl. 13 Oct. 5/5 I went down the shaft with Mr. Henderson and found the ‘half moon’, a temporary stage, at about 22 or 23 feet from the bottom of the pit.

1883 W. S. Gresley Gloss. Terms Coal Mining Half-moon. A scaffold nearly filling up one half the sectional area of a pit-shaft, or in plan the form of a half-moon upon which repairs are done.

1909 R. A. S. Redmayne Mod. Pract. Mining II. iv. 94 The walling stage or scaffold..is usually suspended from six chains made of best wrought-iron, ¾ inch diameter, there being three chains to each ‘half-moon’.

B. adj.

1. Shaped like a half moon; semicircular or crescent-shaped.

ΚΠ

1566 T. Blundeville Order curing Horses Dis. f. 103^v, in Fower Offices Horsemanshippe Pul of his shooes, & shoe him with halfe Mone shooes, called Lunette.

a1661 W. Brereton Trav. (1844) 50 An half-moon roof over the table whereon the fish is laid.

1794 Ld. Nelson Let. 22 Feb. in Dispatches & Lett. (1844) I. 359 The two guns mounted en barbette, are now making a half-moon battery.

1827 Gill's Technol. Repository 1 51 Those who understand the management of Lehigh coal, can..kindle a good fire in the half-moon furnace.

1928 Garden & Home Builder Aug. 574/2 There was..a small half-moon table at one end and a magazine stand at the other.

2008 T: N.Y. Times Style Mag. 18 May 84/1 I staked out my initial sunbathing spot at..a tiny half-moon cove on Ischia's northwest coast.

2. Designating spectacles with semicircular lenses having a flat top and a rounded bottom, typically used for reading.

ΘΠ

the world > health and disease > healing > ophthalmology or optometry > aids to defective vision > [adjective] > types of spectacles

steel-rimmeda1400

steelbowed1606

young1667

near-sighted1796

trifocal1826

steel-bow1834

pantoscopic1836

window glass1885

bifocal1888

horn-rimmed1894

pebbled1928

thick-lensed1946

single-vision1962

wire-rim1968

wire-frame1977

Lennon1984

1882 New Albany (Indiana) Ledger 6 Dec. Lost. A pair of steel frame, half moon spectacles, between court house and 142 Oak street.

1952 B. Malamud Natural 73 Pop, wearing half-moon specs.

1972 P. Townend Zoom! xi. 190 He put on his half-moon spectacles and glanced over them.

2000 Vanity Fair Mar. 205/2 She..adjusts her half-moon glasses, and begins to study a stack of documents.

Compounds

half-moon knife n. a knife having a semicircular blade and a two-handed handle fixed at right angles to the plane of the blade, used in the preparation of leather.

1820 National Advocate (N.Y.) 24 Oct. (advt.) 1 do Wilson's best cast steel saddles, half moon knives 8 inches.

1928 Times 26 Oct. 20/1 (caption) Note the quaint half-moon knife the workman is using.

2009 Guardian 21 Mar. (Work section) 4/1 Tools peculiar to the trade:..the paring knife, the half-moon knife, [etc.].

half-moon-shaped adj. shaped like a half moon; esp. crescent-shaped.

1662 N. Culpeper & A. Cole tr. T. Bartholin Anatomy i. vi. 10/1 The Line about which the Tendons of the oblique Muscles of the Belly begin, which Spigelius calls Semilunaris, the half-moon-shap'd Line.

1772 J. Forster in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 62 396 Marks..half-moon shaped.

1886 Morning Post 10 May 8/5 One model of a Sheik has a headdress adorned with little sharp half-moon shaped steel ornaments.

2004 J. Myerson Home (2005) ii. 37 The lawn snaking in and out to create half-moon-shaped beds that he plants with shrubs.

Derivatives

half-ˈmoon-like adj. resembling or shaped like a half moon; esp. crescent-shaped.

?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 37 (MED) Seweþ..in þe palpebrez fro angle i. corner, to corner with perforacioun halfemonelike [L. semilunari].

1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory ii. xi. 244/2 Black and blew Feathers, with half-moon like black borders.

1877 Davenport (Iowa) Gaz. 2 June The instrument used to shave the head is a half moon like concern, or rather like a scythe on a small scale.

2018 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 3 Mar. (Traveller section) 30 That alluringly-lit landing point, Clifford Pier, with its elegant, half-moon like roof built in the early 1930s.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2022).

单词	half moon
释义	half moonn.adj. Brit. /ˌhɑːf ˈmuːn/, U.S. /ˈhæf ˌmun/, /ˌhæf ˈmun/ Forms: see half adj. and moon n.¹ Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: half adj., moon n.¹ Etymology: < half adj. + moon n.¹In sense A. 3 after Middle French, French demilune demilune n. A. n. 1. a. The moon when half (or approximately half) of its illuminated surface is visible. Also: a shape like the moon in this phase; a half-disc or (sometimes) a crescent approaching a half-disc in shape. ΘΠ the world > the universe > planet > primary planet > moon > phase > [noun] > half moon dichotomy1661 dichotomization1830 a1425 Medulla Gram. (Stonyhurst) f. 59^v Semilunium, half mone. ?c1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (Paris) (1971) 188 The firste instrument ben þe tenacles of Auycen, and þai ben toþede, like half mones [?a1425 N.Y. Acad. Med. semilunarez]. 1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 230/1 Halfe moone, croissant de la lune. 1631 D. Widdowes tr. W. A. Scribonius Nat. Philos. (new ed.) 13 The Moone..when she is horned, or halfe moone. 1661 E. Hickeringill Jamaica Viewed (ed. 2) 11 A sharp Iron in form of an half-moon, fastened to a staffe. 1708 G. Vaux tr. J. C. Sturm Mathesis Juvenilis III. 48 The Phases..offer themselves in view to us from the Earth under the Names of the New-moon, Half-moon, Dichotomous, Gibbous, and Full-moon. 1850 W. Colton Deck & Port vi. 206 The saddle..rises up before and behind like a well-horned half-moon. 1962 M. Renault Bull from Sea (1968) ii. 19 A half-moon rose late, to shine about..the ancient gravemounds. 2014 West Austral. (Perth) (Nexis) 27 Dec. 119 The waxing crescent moon will grow to a half moon (first quarter) by tomorrow night. b. A time or period each month when the moon appears half illuminated, i.e. at first and last quarter. Π 1803 First Elem. Astron. & Nat. Philos. (ed. 5) App. ii. 126 Spring tide in any place is observed to happen precisely at a certain period after half moon. 1833 Penny Mag. 6 July 263/2 At half moon, the boundary diameter of the enlightened hemisphere would pass through the earth, if lengthened. 1912 Strand Mag. Jan. 862/2 The best time to look for the lady is just after half moon. 1969 Oecologia 3 11 Maximum emergence on days about neap tides (1–2 days after half moon). 2007 T. Koppel Ebb & Flow i. 25 The tides get smaller until half moon and then become larger again until full moon. 2. a. A representation or figure of a crescent moon used as a symbol of Turkey or the Ottoman Empire; (hence) Turkey or the Ottoman Empire as a political or military power (now historical). Cf. crescent n. 3. ΘΠ society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > a or the government > [noun] > the Turkish government Portec1440 the gate of the great Turk1572 to come a gate?a1600 1571 Patent Roll, 13 Elizabeth I 30 July (P.R.O.: C 66/1077) vii. m. 35 To the skill of makinge of certen haftes called Turkye haftes for knyves, weapons and other thinges..and for his marke to haue vpon the blade and hafte of the same knyfes..a halfe moone. 1656 B. Harris tr. J. N. de Parival Hist. Iron Age ii. ii. ii. 236 She [sc. Venice] was not able alone, to sustaine the weight of the Half-Moon. 1726 N. Amhurst Terræ-filius (ed. 2) xlviii. 256 A half-moon is the Turkish arms. 1865 tr. Communication from Sublime Porte in Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs: Pt. 4 383 All the vessels of the merchant national marine..will hereafter hoist a red flag with a half moon in the centre and a border of green around it. 1908 Sunday Post (Boston) 11 Oct. 32/3 The present crisis in Turkey, when liberty seems to be dawning in the land of the half-moon, [etc.]. 2013 M. Pearce Bride Box (e-book ed.) The Muhafaza was the old post office and the ottoman half-moon was still carved above its front door. b. Something having the shape or appearance of a half moon or crescent; a group of people or things assembled or arranged in a semicircular or crescent-shaped formation.With quot. 1893, cf. half-mooning n. ΘΠ the world > space > shape > curvature > types of curvature > [noun] > crescent lunary1610 sickle1657 crescent1672 lune1709 demilunea1734 lunette1774 semi-lune1862 1581 T. Styward Pathwaie to Martiall Discipline i. 24 The which..is the battaile called the halfe moone. 1598 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 1 iii. i. 97 And cuts me from the best of all my land, A huge halfe moone, a monstrous scantle out. View more context for this quotation 1608 T. Middleton Mad World, my Masters iii. sig. E4^v To weare half moons made of anothers hair. 1671 J. Milton Paradise Regain'd iii. 308 See how in warlike muster they appear, In Rhombs and wedges, and half moons, and wings. View more context for this quotation 1824 S. R. Meyrick Crit. Inq. into Antient Armour III. Gloss. Martellus, the martel de fer, a weapon which had at one end a pick and at the other a hammer, axe-blade, half moon, mace head or other fancy termination. 1893 H. A. Macpherson et al. Partridge iv. 173 When he directed the half-moon it was a most beautifully executed manœuvre. 1928 Washington Post 17 Oct. 2/3 American officers..forming a friendly half moon around Capt. Hugo Eckener and fifteen officers of the Graf Zeppelin. 1981 R. Davies Rebel Angels (1983) ix. 252 He got so fat they had to make him a special altar with a half-moon carved out of it to accommodate his tum? 2000 J. Lanchester Mr. Phillips 175 One of the people sitting in this half moon of chairs. c. The whitish, crescent-shaped or semicircular area at the base of a fingernail or toenail; = lunula n. 3b. ΘΠ the world > life > the body > nail > [noun] > parts of nail root end1675 lunula1828 eponychium1885 cuticle1907 1839 Countess of Blessington Idler in Italy I. 396 The nails, couleur de rose, showing pearly half moons at the bottom. 1883 M. Morris Bk. of Health 912 The laminæ in the half moon, or lunula, near the root, are not supplied so abundantly with blood-vessels as those beneath the rest of the nail. 1934 Courier & Advertiser (Dundee) 14 Sept. 12/4 Toe nails will be as carefully tended as the finger ones... Half-moons should be cultivated assiduously. 2006 P. Mordecai Pink Icing & Other Stories 55 Shirley Lyn had..fingernails that were pink and delicate with half moons that peeped out at the bottom. 3. Fortification. An outwork resembling a bastion, with a crescent-shaped gorge. Cf. demilune n. 2. Now historical. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > defence > defensive work(s) > earthwork or rampart > [noun] > outwork > demilune half-moon1642 demilune1728 semi-lune1862 1591 W. Garrard & R. Hitchcock Arte of Warre 319 Hee must..vse requisite fortifications, wyth repayres, bulwarks, Bastillions, Caualieres, Casemates, Counterscarpes, Countergardes, halfe Moones, Trenches, Mounts, &c. 1642 D. Rogers Naaman 101 Out-workes, halfe-moones and retrenchments to hold the enemy. 1712 E. Cooke Voy. S. Sea 149 A Half-Moon, on which six Guns may be planted. 1807 Z. M. Pike Acct. Exped. Sources Mississippi (1810) 19 Some were half moons and quite a breastwork. 1901 H. L. Conard Encycl. Hist. Missouri II. 493/1 The proposed plan contemplated the erection of a central garrison, two bastions and four half-moons, all built of stone. 1989 J. M. Montias Vermeer & his Millieu v. 85 Military engineers, known as ‘pioneers,’ were building fortifications—half moons and bulwarks—in the waterways surrounding the town. †4. A cuckold. Obsolete.Apparently an isolated use, alluding to the resemblance between the horns (horn n. 7a) of the cuckold and the two ends of a crescent moon. ΘΚΠ society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > fornication, adultery, or incest > [noun] > adultery > husband of adulterous wife cuckolda1250 cornutoc1430 unicorn1509 hoddypolla1529 summer bird1541 Actaeon1567 knight of the forked order1586 Vulcanian1598 hoddy-doddy1601 becco1604 ram-head1605 cornute1608 horn-stock1611 skimmington1623 horn-heada1640 tup1652 half-moon1659 cuck1706 1659 J. Shirley Honoria & Mammon iii. 41 Bow in homage to your Soveraigne Antlers. Most high and mighty halfe moon, Prince of Becos. †5. Mining. A platform filling half the sectional area of a circular pit-shaft, used for making repairs to the shaft. Obsolete. ΚΠ 1866 Gloucester Jrnl. 13 Oct. 5/5 I went down the shaft with Mr. Henderson and found the ‘half moon’, a temporary stage, at about 22 or 23 feet from the bottom of the pit. 1883 W. S. Gresley Gloss. Terms Coal Mining Half-moon. A scaffold nearly filling up one half the sectional area of a pit-shaft, or in plan the form of a half-moon upon which repairs are done. 1909 R. A. S. Redmayne Mod. Pract. Mining II. iv. 94 The walling stage or scaffold..is usually suspended from six chains made of best wrought-iron, ¾ inch diameter, there being three chains to each ‘half-moon’. B. adj. 1. Shaped like a half moon; semicircular or crescent-shaped. ΚΠ 1566 T. Blundeville Order curing Horses Dis. f. 103^v, in Fower Offices Horsemanshippe Pul of his shooes, & shoe him with halfe Mone shooes, called Lunette. a1661 W. Brereton Trav. (1844) 50 An half-moon roof over the table whereon the fish is laid. 1794 Ld. Nelson Let. 22 Feb. in Dispatches & Lett. (1844) I. 359 The two guns mounted en barbette, are now making a half-moon battery. 1827 Gill's Technol. Repository 1 51 Those who understand the management of Lehigh coal, can..kindle a good fire in the half-moon furnace. 1928 Garden & Home Builder Aug. 574/2 There was..a small half-moon table at one end and a magazine stand at the other. 2008 T: N.Y. Times Style Mag. 18 May 84/1 I staked out my initial sunbathing spot at..a tiny half-moon cove on Ischia's northwest coast. 2. Designating spectacles with semicircular lenses having a flat top and a rounded bottom, typically used for reading. ΘΠ the world > health and disease > healing > ophthalmology or optometry > aids to defective vision > [adjective] > types of spectacles steel-rimmeda1400 steelbowed1606 young1667 near-sighted1796 trifocal1826 steel-bow1834 pantoscopic1836 window glass1885 bifocal1888 horn-rimmed1894 pebbled1928 thick-lensed1946 single-vision1962 wire-rim1968 wire-frame1977 Lennon1984 1882 New Albany (Indiana) Ledger 6 Dec. Lost. A pair of steel frame, half moon spectacles, between court house and 142 Oak street. 1952 B. Malamud Natural 73 Pop, wearing half-moon specs. 1972 P. Townend Zoom! xi. 190 He put on his half-moon spectacles and glanced over them. 2000 Vanity Fair Mar. 205/2 She..adjusts her half-moon glasses, and begins to study a stack of documents. Compounds half-moon knife n. a knife having a semicircular blade and a two-handed handle fixed at right angles to the plane of the blade, used in the preparation of leather. Π 1820 National Advocate (N.Y.) 24 Oct. (advt.) 1 do Wilson's best cast steel saddles, half moon knives 8 inches. 1928 Times 26 Oct. 20/1 (caption) Note the quaint half-moon knife the workman is using. 2009 Guardian 21 Mar. (Work section) 4/1 Tools peculiar to the trade:..the paring knife, the half-moon knife, [etc.]. half-moon-shaped adj. shaped like a half moon; esp. crescent-shaped. Π 1662 N. Culpeper & A. Cole tr. T. Bartholin Anatomy i. vi. 10/1 The Line about which the Tendons of the oblique Muscles of the Belly begin, which Spigelius calls Semilunaris, the half-moon-shap'd Line. 1772 J. Forster in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 62 396 Marks..half-moon shaped. 1886 Morning Post 10 May 8/5 One model of a Sheik has a headdress adorned with little sharp half-moon shaped steel ornaments. 2004 J. Myerson Home (2005) ii. 37 The lawn snaking in and out to create half-moon-shaped beds that he plants with shrubs. Derivatives half-ˈmoon-like adj. resembling or shaped like a half moon; esp. crescent-shaped. Π ?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 37 (MED) Seweþ..in þe palpebrez fro angle i. corner, to corner with perforacioun halfemonelike [L. semilunari]. 1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory ii. xi. 244/2 Black and blew Feathers, with half-moon like black borders. 1877 Davenport (Iowa) Gaz. 2 June The instrument used to shave the head is a half moon like concern, or rather like a scythe on a small scale. 2018 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 3 Mar. (Traveller section) 30 That alluringly-lit landing point, Clifford Pier, with its elegant, half-moon like roof built in the early 1930s. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2022). < n.adj.a1425
随便看	bench hook bench in beloveds belover beloves beloving below below bridge below deck below decks below ground below one's breath below one's pay grade below par below stairs below the belt below the breadline below the gangway below the line below the moon below the radar below the salt below there! below-average below-cost