| 释义 |
ˈdown-country, n., adv., and a.
[down a. and prep.]
The phrase, which is current in North America, New Zealand, South Africa, etc., is to be distinguished from down-country s.v. down n.1 6.
A. n. The flat part of a country (as opposed to the hilly regions). In the United States: see quots. 1823 and a 1870.
1823J. F. Cooper Pioneers v, To them the road that made the most rapid approaches to the condition of the old, or, as they expressed it, the down countries, was the most pleasant. a1870R. M. Chipman Notes on Bartlett 129 Down-country, used in the interior to denote on or toward the seaboard; occasionally, the seaboard, or the land nearer a river's mouth. 1904‘G. B. Lancaster’ Sons o' Men 192 In the down-country. 1933Acland in Press (Christchurch) 30 Sept. 15/7 Down country, used (chiefly by people in the hills) to describe the localities near town or on the plains. They also speak of down country people or sheep. 1940E. C. Studholme Te Waimate (1954) xiii. 113 At Waimate we ran cross-bred sheep on the down-country and Merinos or half-breds on the hills.
B. adv. In or to the flat part of a country; in or to the part of a country on the plains.
1874A. Bathgate Colonial Experiences x. 135 A dozen or more horses with their pack-saddles empty..were returning down country. 1879W. J. Barry Up & Down xxiv. 263, I sent her down-country in the coach. 1945N.Z. Geographer I. i. 36 They can make a better ‘do’ of it than on a mixed farm down-country.
C. adj. Situated in, belonging to, or relating to the part of a country on the plains.
1896H. A. Bryden Tales S. Afr. iii. 68 You know I don't..spout tall yarns for the benefit of down-country folks or bar loafers at Kimberley. 1901Kipling Kim xiii. 353 Who ever heard of these Sahibs coming into the hills without a down-country cook? 1950N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Oct. 356/3 The breed of sheep on Gleneray [high-country sheep-run] is Romney type..and it is attractive to the down-country farmer when no longer suitable for the run. |