| 释义 |
dowse, v.|daʊz|
Also dowze, douse.
[Derivation unknown; app. a dialect term.]
intr. To use the divining- or dowsing-rod in search of subterraneous supplies of water or mineral veins.
Hence ˈdowsing vbl. n.; dowser |ˈdaʊzə(r)|, one who uses the divining-rod, a water-diviner; dowsing-rod, the rod or twig used by dowsers.
1691Locke Lower. Interest 40 Not of the nature of the deusing-rod, or virgula divina, able to discover mines of gold and silver. 1838A. E. Bray Tradit. Devonsh. III. 260 The superstition relative to the dowsing or divining rod, and the dowsers themselves, is too well known to be noticed here. 1865R. Hunt Pop. Rom. W. Eng. Ser. i. Introd. 20 The divining or dowzing rod is certainly not older than the German miners, who were brought over by Queen Elizabeth to teach the Cornish to work their mines. 1869Eng. Mech. 31 Dec. 380 1 The ‘dowsing’ or ‘divining’ rod is a forked stick of some fruit-bearing wood, generally hazel, held by the extremity of each prong of the fork in a peculiar way. 1888Standard 22 Dec., These authorities [Hastings Board of Guardians] lately invoked the aid of a ‘Dowser’, or water diviner, to tell them where to sink a well. 1894Daily News 28 Dec. 5/2 The dry summer of 1893 brought the Divining Rod forward..‘dowsers’ sought for water with the mystic ‘twig’, and, very often, found it. Ibid., Instances are adduced of ladies who have tried..and found that they could ‘dowse’. |