释义 |
subaqueous, a.|sʌbˈeɪkwɪəs| [f. L. type *subaqueus: see sub- 1 a. Cf. It. subaqueo.] 1. a. Existing, formed, or constructed under water.
1677Plot Oxfordsh. 28 Terrestrial and subaqueous Plants. a1711Ken Edmund Poet. Wks. II. 26 As if sub-aqueous Fires..Had boil'd the Waves. 1774Pennant Tour Scot. in 1772, 33 In some places are vast subaqueous precipices. 1776― Brit. Zool. I. 345 For the purpose of plunging into their subaqueous winter quarters. 1829Landor Imag. Conv. Wks. 1853 I. 573/1 That dark colour which subaqueous weeds are often of. 1855Kingsley Westw. Ho! xxxii, Tarn David, one of those strange subaqueous pebble-dykes. 1862G. H. Townsend Man. Dates s.v. Submarine telegraph, In 1848 successful subaqueous telegraphs were laid across the Rhine. 1903Myers Hum. Pers. I. 77 There is a rush upwards as of a subaqueous spring. b. Performed or taking place under water; adapted for use under water.
1774A. Campbell Lexiphanes (ed. 4) 25, I risqued a sub⁓aqueous voyage. 1839United Service Jrnl. June 189 Subterraneous or subaqueous explosions. 1847Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. i. Grey Dolphin, As though the River god and Neptune were amusing themselves with a game of sub⁓aqueous battledore. 1875Knight Dict. Mech., Sub-aqueous Helmet, a diver's head-dress, supplied with air by pump from above. c. jocular. That constructs works under water.
1844Thackeray Contrib. to Punch Wks. 1898 VI. 83 It weds the tunnel of the subaqueous Brunel with the mystic edifice of Cheops. 2. Below the sea-level. nonce-use.
1724Ramsay Health 397 Ye Dutch..You scarce dare sleep in your subaqueous bowers. 3. Reflected as if in depths of water.
1798W. Mavor British Tourists V. 260 The shelving hills..with their subaqueous images were of a faint grape-like hue. 1843Wordsw. Prose Wks. (1876) III. 167 These specks of snow reflected in the lake, and so transferred, as it were, to the subaqueous sky. 4. In fig. use, lacking real substance or strength; wishy-washy.
1960C. Day Lewis Buried Day i. 15 The whole picture, clear yet elusive, is bathed in a brooding, sub-aqueous light. 1970H. Braun Parish Churches xix. 228 During the last fifty years an inevitable reaction has introduced pallid sub-aqueous treatments [of stained-glass windows], less obstructive to light but lacking all the ancient warmth and liveliness. 1977Listener 28 July 122/3 A sort of subaqueous, loopy, transcendental speculation about female identity. So subˈaquean a. rare—1.
1782W. Stevenson Hymn to Deity 19 Subaquean monsters multiform in size. |