单词 | the downs |
释义 | > as lemmasthe Downs 2. Chiefly in plural. An elevated stretch of open, uncultivated land with gently rolling hills; spec. (usually as the Downs) undulating chalk and limestone uplands in southern and south-eastern England, with few trees and used mainly for pasture.Also found in topographical names in the south of England, as e.g. the North Downs, the South Downs, the Berkshire Downs, the Sussex Downs.Some early examples may show contextual uses of sense 1. Compare discussion in the etymology.In quot. c1325 with reference to the site of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, near the village of Amesbury, Wiltshire. ΚΠ c1325 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) l. 3110 To þe doune of ambresbury þes stones ybroȝt were..yset hii were þere. a1450 ( tr. Vegetius De Re Militari (Douce) f. 51v (MED) Þat þey picche noȝt hir tentes..nyh stynkynge mores, ne in no hilles ne drye downes þat ben playn wiþ oute schadewynge of trees. 1485 Malory's Morte Darthur (Caxton) xxi. iv. sig. ddvv An hondred thousand layed deed vpon the down. 1563 B. Googe Eglogs Epytaphes & Sonettes sig. B*.iv To take my sheepe, and dwell vpon the downe. 1599 H. Petowe Philochasander & Elanira iv. sig. B2 The Calfe with many a prettie nibling Lam: Vppon the downes doe feede their hunger full. a1616 W. Shakespeare Tempest (1623) iv. i. 81 My boskie acres, and my vnshrubd downe . View more context for this quotation a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1646 (1955) II. 485 Downes of fine grasse, like some places of the South of England. 1694 Narbrough's Acct. Several Late Voy. 22 As bare as the Grass-Downs in England. 1701 London Gaz. No. 3751/8 3 Plates will be run for on the new Heat upon Epsom Downs. 1733 J. Swift On Poetry 12 So Geographers in Afric-Maps..o'er unhabitable Downs Place Elephants for want of Towns. 1778 Philos. Trans. 1777 (Royal Soc.) 67 386 Turf, equal to any of the finest on our sheep downs. 1826 W. Cobbett Rural Rides in Cobbett's Weekly Polit. Reg. 21 Oct. 195 The down-farms in Wiltshire. 1831 Acct. Colony Van Diemen's Land 27 The road..passes through a pastoral district of fine thinly wooded downs, principally adapted for sheep grazing. 1856 R. W. Emerson Eng. Traits xvi. 275 On the broad downs..not a house was visible, nothing but Stonehenge. 1863 A. P. Stanley Lect. Jewish Church I. iii. 62 The undulating downs of Gilead. 1910 W. H. Hudson Shepherd's Life viii. 106 On the following day he was with his flock on the down and found himself with another shepherd. 1954 W. G. Hoskins Devon v. 93 He had a flock of over 700 sheep pasturing on the downs. 1980 Geogr. Mag. June 627/2 Positive planning measures, involving spending public money, have helped to conserve the Downs landscape. 2009 A. S. Byatt Children's Bk. (2010) xxvi. 299 A child remembers one scramble over the Downs, or zigzag trot through the woods, out of many. the Downs 3. the Downs: the name of an area of sheltered sea off the east coast of Kent between Deal and Sandwich, which provided a safe anchorage for ships negotiating the dangerous Goodwin Sands while sailing through the Straits of Dover. ΘΚΠ the world > the earth > water > sea or ocean > specific seas > [noun] > North Sea > part within Goodwin Sands the Downs1452 1452 in H. Nicolas Proc. & Ordinances Privy Council (1837) VI. 121 The Downes of Sandewyche. c1475 Gregory's Chron. in J. Gairdner Hist. Coll. Citizen London (1876) 178 The vyntage come by londe ynne cartys unto London fro the Downys. 1513 E. Howard Let. in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1827) 2nd Ser. I. 215 We cowd ryd no lenger ther withowt gret danger,..we weyd to get us in to the Downes. 1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VI f. clxxvv Sir Simon Mondford..was appoynted to kepe the downes, and the fiue Portes. 1604 E. Grimeston tr. True Hist. Siege Ostend 147 An other of the Kings shippes called the answer, whereof Bredgate was Captaine, who ridde at an Anchor South of the Downes. 1667 S. Pepys Diary 2 Jan. (1974) VIII. 1 To send all the ships we can possible to the Downes. 1702 Jrnl. of Brigantine 15 Oct. in Mariner's Mirror (1921) 7 359 Loosed the starboard yard arm of the foresail..and so scudded as well as we could for the Downs. 1773 J. Hawkesworth Acct. Voy. Southern Hemisphere III. iii. xiv. 395 About three [we] came to an anchor in the Downs, and went a-shore at Deal. 1840 F. Marryat Poor Jack xxvi. 180 I had remained at Deal about three weeks, when an outward-bound Indiaman anchored in the Downs. 1858 J. A. Froude Hist. Eng. (ed. 2) III. 349 One morning when the darkness lifted, sixty strange sail were found at anchor in the Downs. 1911 Mariner′s Mirror 1 95 I left the Downs with a fleet of over 100 outward-bounders, clippers and all sorts. 1972 P. O'Brian Post Captain viii. 241 Before we reached the Downs he came to me in great secrecy and asked me for an antaphrodisiac. 2003 D. Cordingly Billy Ruffian (2004) iv. 54 Although the Goodwin Sands were, and are, a graveyard of ships they also provided shelter from easterly and south-easterly winds for ships anchored in the Downs. < as lemmas |
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