| 释义 |
swallow-tail, swallowtail|ˈswɒləʊteɪl|
Also in some senses swallow's tail.
[f. swallow n.1 + tail n.; corresp. to and in certain uses modelled on F. queue d'aronde, † d'arondelle (senses 5 and 6), G. schwalbenschwanz (2 b, 8, etc.), Du. zwaluwstaart, MLG. swalekenstert, LG. swalkensteert, etc.]
1. A tail like that of a swallow; a forked tail.
1703tr. Perrault's Abridgm. Vitruvius i. iv. 30 The Sabliers..joined together by Tenons, in the form of a Swallow-Tail. 1775Dalrymple in Phil. Trans. LXVIII. 402 Two birds..with swallow-tails flying above the ship. 1842G. Darling in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club II. No. 10. 4 Smelts of the Salmon with their silvery sides, dark purply fins, and swallow-tail. 1860Mayne Reid Hunters' Feast iv, The ‘passenger’ [pigeon]..looks not unlike the kite, wanting the forked or ‘swallow’ tail.
2. Applied to various animals having a forked tail.
†a. Some kind of fish: see quot. Obs.
1683Poyntz Pres. Prosp. Tobago 21 The green Swallow-Tail..a Fish not much bigger than a Herring.
b. A swallow-tailed butterfly.
1819G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 416 Papilio Machaon. The Swallow-tail. 1868Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 314 The swallow-tails, belonging to the family Papilionidæ. 1880C. R. Markham Peruv. Bark 173 One bright swallow-tail, with blue wings, fringed with crimson.
c. A humming-bird of the genus Eupetomena.
1861Gould Monogr. Troch. II. Plate 42, Eupetomena Hirundinacea. Swallow-tail... This species being the most swallow-like member of the entire family of Trochilidæ. 1899Evans in Cambr. Nat. Hist. IX. 435 Eupetomena macrura of Brazil and Guiana, termed the ‘Swallow-tail’ from its forking rectrices.
d. A swallow-tailed kite.
3. A name for the white willow (Salix alba): also swallow-tail willow, swallow-tailed willow (see next, 2 b).
1626Bacon Sylva §475 The Shining Willow, which they call Swallow-Taile. 1766Museum Rust. VI. 81 The bright swallow-tail willow;..next to the Norfolk kind, it is the largest growing sort.
4. A broad or barbed arrow-head; an arrow with such a head.
1545R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 135 The one..hauyng two..barbes, lookyng backewarde to the stele and the fethers, which..we call..a brode arrowe head or a swalowe tayle. 1828Scott F.M. Perth xxix, The English..sent off their volleys of swallow-tails before we could call on St. Andrew.
†5. = dovetail 1 b, 2. Obs.
1548Elyot, Securicla.., a swalowes tayle [1565 Cooper, swallowe tayle], or a doue tayle in carpenters woorke, whiche is fastnyng of two pieces of timbre..togyther. 1616Bullokar Eng. Expos., Swallowes tayle,..a fastening of two peeces of timber so strongly together, that they cannot fall asunder. 1823P. Nicholson Pract. Builder 594.
6. Fortif. An outwork characterized by two projections with a re-entrant angle between them, suggesting a swallow's tail.
1688Capt. J. S. Fortification 78 Hornworks..are much more in use than the Tenailes, Swallow Tails, or Priests Bonnets. 1690D'Urfey Collin's Walk i. 11 He..all your Out-works would Assail, With his Eternal Swallows Tail. 1702Milit. & Sea Dict. (1711), Queue d'yronde, or Swallow's-Tail, a Detach'd or Out-work, whose Sides open towards the Head, or Campaign, and draw closer or narrower towards the Gorge. 1908E. Wharton Hermit & Wild Woman 1 A little walled town with Ghibelline swallow-tails.
7. The cleft two-pointed end of a flag or pennon; also, a swallow-tailed flag.
1697Lond. Gaz. No. 3317/3 One with a White Flag, Swallow Tail at Main-top-mast. 1743Bulkeley & Cummins Voy. S. Seas 5 The Commander in Chief being distinguish'd by a red broad Pendant with a Swallow's Tail at his Main-top-mast Head. 1753Scots Mag. Aug. 386/2 A yellow jack with a swallow-tail. 1825Scott Betrothed xxvii, Methinks, instead of this old swallow's tail, we should muster rarely under a broidered petticoat. 1844Regul. & Ord. Army 10 The Flag of the Guidon of Dragoons to be three feet five inches to the end of the slit of the swallow-tail. 1894C. N. Robinson Brit. Fleet 89 The flag..is sometimes square, sometimes a swallow-tail.
b. The cleft tail-end of a vane.
1843Grove Corr. Phys. Forces (1846) 32 A wind..will instantly arrange these vanes in a definite direction, the arrow-heads or narrow parts pointing one way, the swallow-tails or broad parts another.
8. A swallow-tailed coat. colloq.
1835Frith Let. 2 May, in Autobiog. (1888) III. 38, I don't want a dress-coat; besides, I should look a regular guy in a swallow-tail. 1837Dickens Pickw. ii, The green coat had been a smart dress garment in the days of swallow-tails. 1871‘M. Legrand’ Cambr. Freshm. 115 Mr. Golightly rose, divested himself of the loose coat he wore in the study, put on his black swallow-tail, and went down to the drawing-room. 1894Wilkins & Vivian Green Bay Tree I. 33 The boys..exchanged their tweed coats for the regulation swallow-tails.
b. The tail or skirt of such a coat. rare.
1894W. D. Latto Tam. Bodkin vi, I banged roon' my hand, an' lo, there was but ae solitary swallowtail to the fore! 1913Play Pictorial No. 130 The [ladies'] coat..slopes sharply away from the hips, and forms swallow-tails at the back.
9. attrib. = swallow-tailed: as in swallow-tail butterfly, swallow-tail coat, swallow-tail moth, swallow-tail pennon; also formerly applied to a cut of the beard with two points. See also swallow-tail willow in 3.
1596Nashe Walden Ep. Ded. A iv, Astrologicall Richard..most studiously compyled a profound Abridgement vpon beards, & therein..frutelessly determined betwixt the swallowes taile cut & the round beard like a rubbing brush. 1602Rowlands Greene's Ghost (1872) 9 The vse of the terrible cut, and the Swallow-taile slash. 1745Gleditsch's Teutsch-Engl. Lex., Schwalbenschwantz..a swallow-tail-carving. 1749Wilkes Engl. Moths & Butterflies 38 The Swallow-tail Moth..is bred in May and June. Ibid. 47 The Swallow-tail Butterfly is produced twice a Year. 1786Pogonologia 27 Those different fashions of wearing the beard called, sharp-pointed, square, round, fan, swallow's-tail, artichoke-leaf, &c. 1816Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxi. (1818) II. 245 The swallow-tail butterfly (Papilio Machaon, L.). 1819G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 253 Our [apteryx] sambucaria (swallow-tail moth). 1848Lowell Biglow P. Ser. i. What Mr. Robinson Thinks, Parson Wilbur sez he never heerd in his life Thet th' Apostles rigged out in their swaller-tail coats. 1852Burn Naval & Milit. Dict. ii. (1863), Swallow tail scarf, assemblage à queue d'hironde. 1853‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green i. i, The toga virilis of stick-up collars and swallow-tail coats. 1884E. Yates Recoll. I. 45 [The Police, 1836–47] wore swallow-tail blue coats. 1891Doyle White Co. xiii, The heavy ash spear with swallow-tail pennon. |