| 释义 |
▪ I. dun, a.|dʌn|
Also 4–6 dune, donne, 5 don, 5–7 dunne, 6 doon. β. Sc. 6 dyn, 9 din.
[OE. dun(n, perh. from Celtic: cf. Irish and Gael. donn brown, Welsh dwn ‘subfuscus’ (Davies).]
1. Of a dull or dingy brown colour; now esp. dull greyish brown, like the hair of the ass and mouse.
953Charter of Eadred in Cod. Dipl. V. 325 Ðanne to ðan redan hole; and ðanne to ðan dunnan hole. c1000ælfric Voc. in Wright 46 Nomina colorum. Dosinus uel cinereus, asse dun. Natius, dun. a1366Chaucer Rom. Rose 1213 She was not broune ne dunne of hewe [qui nestoit ne brune ne bise]. 1388Wyclif Gen. xxx. 32 What euer thing schal be dun and spottid. 1434E.E. Wills (1882) 98 My Don Bullok. 1548Hall Chron., Henry VIII, an. 5 (1550) 28 On the toppe of the pauilions stode the kynges bestes holdynge fanes, as the Lion, the Dragon, the Greyhounde, the Antelope, the Donne kowe. 1562J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 139 The dun Asse hath trode on both thy feete. 1567Trial Treas. in Hazl. Dodsley III. 279 May the devil go with you and his dun dame! 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 118 A Buffola is of a Dun Colour. 1709Addison Tatler No. 148 ⁋1 Guy Earl of Warwick, who is well known to have eaten up a Dun Cow. 1820Scott Ivanhoe xvi, Among the herds of dun deer that feed in the glades. 1830― Demonol. iv. 132 Her colour..is now of a dun leaden hue. 1852C. M. Yonge Cameos (1877) IV. iii. 38 The dun cow was a cognizance of the Earldom of Richmond. 1863Huxley Man's Place Nat. i. 22 Its dun or iron-grey colour.
(β) The Sc. form dyn, din, has now esp. the sense of dingy-coloured as opposed to white or fair.
1553Douglas' æneis viii. ix. 26 Ane dyn [MS. dvn] lyoun skyn with nalis of gold. 1814Saxon & Gael I. 107 (Jam.) As din as a docken, an' as dry as a Fintrum speldin. a1876Binórie O an Binórie x. in Child Ballads i. x. (1882) 133/2 But ye was fair and I was din.
2. More vaguely: Dark, dusky (from absence of light); murky, gloomy. Cf. brown. (Chiefly poetic.)
a1300Cursor M. 22510 Þe sun þat es sa bright..It sal becum..dune [Gött. dim] and blak sum ani hair. c1374Chaucer Troylus ii. 859 (908) Whit thingis gan to wexe donne For lak of light. a1415Lydg. Temple of Glas 30 Certein skyes donne. 1634Milton Comus 127 Tis only day-light that makes sin, Which these dun shades will ne'er report. c1748Collins On Death Thomson ix, Dun Night has veil'd the solemn view. 1801Campbell Hohenlinden 22 Scarce yon level sun Can pierce the war-clouds, rolling dun. 1827Keble Chr. Y. 23rd Sund. Trinity, Chill and dun Falls on the moor the brief November day. 1851Longfellow Gold. Leg. v. At Sea 31 Athwart the vapours, dense and dun.
fig.1797A. Seward Lett. (1811) V. 11 Frowning like herself, in dun cogitation.
3. Comb.
a. With adjs. of colour, as dun-brown, dun-olive, dun-red, dun-white, dun-yellow.
b. Parasynthetic, as dun-belted, dun-coloured adjs.
1783Lightfoot in Phil. Trans. LXXV. 11 All of one uniform *dun-brown colour. 1882E. O'Donovan Merv Oasis I. 336 The air is thick with dun-brown dust.
1674N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. i. (1677) 41 Of the Dun-Hound..there are few *dun-coloured to be found bad. 1868Darwin Anim. & Pl. I. ii. 55 The English race-horse..is said never to be dun-coloured.
1798Coleridge Picture, With *dun-red bark The fir-trees..Soar up.
1822–34Good Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 516 The *dun yellow colour of the middle coat.
1851Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. xxiii, [The mare] of that *dun-yellowish colour known as ‘clay-bank’.
c. Special Combs.: dun-bar, collector's name for a dun-coloured moth (Cosmia trapezina), having two bars or transverse lines on the fore-wings; dun courses (see quot.); dun cow, local name for a fish, the shagreen ray, Raia fullonica (Yarrell Brit. Fishes II. 578); dun cur [see cur 3], local name of the pochard = dun-bird; dun cut, dun drake, dun hackle, names of artificial flies used in angling; † dun-kite, † dun pickle, obsolete names for the moor-buzzard (Circus æruginosus); dun land (see quot.); † dun-row, name given to a dun-coloured stratum.
1819G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 433 Noctua trapezina. The *Dunbar. 1869Newman Brit. Moths 381 The Dun-bar. 1881E. A. Ormerod Injurious Insects (1890) 241 The carnivorous caterpillars of the Dunbar Moth..doing great good in clearing away this attack.
1877A. H. Green Phys. Geol. vii. §2. 276 Ribs of Magnesian Limestone are met with in the Carboniferous L. of Yorkshire where they are known as *Dun Courses.
1802G. Montagu Ornith. Dict. (1833) 142 Dunbird and *Duncur. Names for the Pochard.
a1450Fysshynge w. Angle (1883) 34 The *donne cutte: the body of blacke wull and a yelow lyste after eyther syde. 1799G. Smith Laboratory II. 291 The Duncut. Dub with bear's-cub fur, and a little yellow and green crewel.
1799G. Smith Laboratory II. 302 The brown-fly or *dun-drake.
Ibid. 301 *Dunhackle: Body, dun coloured silk, with a dun cock's hackle.
1577Harrison England iii. v. (1878) ii. 31 The bussard, the kite, the ringtaile, *dun-kite.
1810J. T. in Risdon's Surv. Devon p. iv, *Dun land..is furnished..by the decomposition of the Schistus rock on which it lies.
1802G. Montagu Ornith. Dict. (1833) 146 *Dunpickle, a name for the Moor Buzzard. 1825Hone Every-day Bk. I. 535 The dun-pickles or moor buzzards alight.
1712F. Bellers in Phil. Trans. XXVII. 542 A black Substance, called the *Dun-Row-Bat. Ibid., A hard grey Iron Oar, called the Dun-Row Iron-Stone.
▪ II. dun, n.1|dʌn|
[subst. use of dun a.]
1. Dun colour: see dun a. 1.
1568Satir. Poems Reform. xlviii. 11 Dun dippit in ȝello ffor mony gud fallo. 1686Plot Staffordsh. 111 They will certainly change the colour of their coat to a whitish-dun. 1819Byron Juan ii. xcii, Baptized in molten gold, and swathed in dun. 1894Superfluous Woman (ed. 4) I. 171 Silvery grays and duns.
2. A dun horse. Formerly a quasi-proper name for any horse (see also 5).
c1386[see 5]. c1460Towneley Myst. (Surtees) 18 Gif Don, thyne hors, a wisp of hay. 1840E. E. Napier Scenes & Sports Foreign Lands I. ii. 27 In India..four-legged duns are as much disliked as those of the biped species. 1892R. Kipling Barrack-room Ballads, East & West 21 The Colonel's son has taken a horse, and a raw rough dun was he.
3. A name for various dusky-coloured flies used in angling, and for artificial flies imitating these.
1681J. Chetham Angler's Vade-m, xxxiv. §26 (1689) 200 Angle with the smallest gnats, Browns and Duns you can find. 1760Hawkins in Walton's Angler i. xvii. note, Ash-coloured duns of several shapes and dimentions. 1799G. Smith Laboratory II. 290 The little-dun. The dubbing of a bear's dun-hair, whirled upon yellow silk. 1833J. Rennie Alph. Angling 36 Various species of day flies known to anglers by the various names of duns, drakes, and may flies.
4. (See quot.) = dun-row in dun a. 3 c.
a1843Southey Comm-pl. Bk. (1849) IV. 407 A thin stratum near the coal called duns.
5. Proverbial Phrases. dun [the horse] is in the mire (see 2): (a) a phrase denoting that things are at a stand-still or dead-lock; (b) an old Christmas game (called also drawing dun out of the mire), in which a heavy log was lifted and carried off by the players. dun's the mouse: a phrase ‘alluding to the colour of the mouse, but frequently employed with no other intent than that of quibbling on the word done’ (Nares). the devil upon dun, i.e. (app.) on horseback: see devil n. 22 n, quots. 1708. Obs.
c1386Chaucer Manciple's Prol. 5 Ther gan our hoost for to lape and pleye, And seyde, sires, what Dun is in the Myre. c1440J. Capgrave Life St. Kath. ii. 1046 For as wyth me, dun is in the myre, She hath me stoyned and brought me to a bay. She will not wedde, she wil be stylle a may! c1550Schole-ho. Women 461 in Hazl. E.P.P. IV. 122 One and other little ye care..Though dun and the pack lye in the mire. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. iv. 40, 41 The game was nere so faire, and I am done. Tut, duns the Mouse, the Constables owne word, If thou art dun, weele draw thee from the mire. 1620Two Merry Milkmaids (N.), Why then 'tis done, and dun's the mouse, and undone all the courtiers. 1640Shirley St. Patrick for Irel. (N.), Then draw Dun out of the mire, And throw the clog into the fire. 1801Strutt Sports & Past. iv. iv. 355. 1887 E. Gilliat Forest Outlaws 252 Merry games at barley-break and dun-in-the-mire.
▪ III. dun, n.2
Also 7 dunne.
[Goes with dun v.3
The evidence does not decide whether the n. or the vb. is the starting-point. If sense 1 below is (as appears in the quotation) earlier than sense 2, we should naturally expect it to be the source of the vb. as in Burke, to burke, and the like; sense 2, on the other hand, would as naturally be a noun of action from the vb. as in to kick, a kick. See the vb.; also the following:
1708Brit. Apollo No. 60. 2/1 The word Dun..owes its birth to one Joe Dun, a famous Bailif of the Town of Lincoln..It became a Proverb..when a man refused to pay his Debts, Why don't you Dun him? That is why don't you send Dun to arrest him?.. It is now as old as since the days of King Henry the Seventh.]
1. One who duns; an importunate creditor, or an agent employed to collect debts.
1628Earle Microcosm. xlv. (Arb.) 74 An Vniversitie Dunne..Hee is an inferiour Creditor of some ten shillings or downwards. Hee is a sore beleaguerer of Chambers. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull ii. iv, To be pulled by the sleeve by some rascally dun. 1812Combe Picturesque xxiii. I've just enough the duns to pay. 1881Besant & Rice Chapl. of Fleet i. x, Here I live free of duns and debt.
2. An act of dunning or importuning, esp. for debt; a demand for payment.
1673F. Kirkman Unlucky Cit. 210 [To] endure the frequent Duns of his Creditors. 1691Islington Wells, or Threepenny-Acad. 7 Who..Kickt their Taylors, For giving Dun at Chamber Door. 1751Smollett Per. Pic. (1779) III. lxxxiv. 312 The debtor..Finding himself waked with such a disagreeable dunn. 1847A. M. Gilliam Trav. Mexico 149 The..crowd let us pass to our rooms, without our receiving a single dun for alms.
3. Comb., as dun-driven, dun-haunted, dun-racked adjs.
1839J. R. Darley Introd. Beaum. & Fl.'s Wks. I. 13 As fast as a dun-driven poet. 1840Dickens Barn. Rudge xv, Dun-haunted students.
▪ IV. ‖ dun, n.3|dʌn|
Also doon.
[Irish and Gaelic dun (dun), hill, hill-fort, fortress, W. din hill-fort.
A frequent element in Celtic proper names in Scotland and Ireland, as in Dunkeld, Gael. Dunchaillein hill fort of the woods, Dumbarton, the dun of the Britons.]
An ancient hill-fortress or fortified eminence (in the Highlands of Scotland, or in Ireland). Sometimes also applied to a brough or broch.
1605–74Camden Rem. (ed. 7) 196 (Jam.) The Dune or Tower of Dornadilla in the parish of Diurnes. 1774Pennant Tour Scotl. in 1772, 293 These fortresses are called universally in the Erse, Duns. 1794Statist. Acc. Scotl. XIII. 334 There are several duns in this parish, most of which were built by the Danes. 1851D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) II. iii. iii. 87 This class of strongholds or Duns, as they are locally termed, pertain to a people whose arts were still in their infancy. 1873E. O'Curry Mann. Anc. Irish III. 3 The Dun was of the same form as the Rath, but consisting of at least two concentric circular mounds or walls, with a deep trench full of water between them. 1875W. McIlwraith Guide Wigtownshire 138 Here are the remains of a doon, or of a circular tower of some sort. 1888Archæol. Rev. Mar. 70.
▪ V. dun, v.1|dʌn|
[OE. dunnian, f. dun(n, dun a.]
1. trans. To make dun, dusky or dingy; to darken or dull the colour of.
c888K. ælfred Boeth. iv, Se mona mid his blacan leohte þæt þa beorhtan steorran dunniaþ on þam heofone. a1415Lydg. Temple of Glas 252 Riȝt as þe sonne Passeþ þe sterres and doþ hir stremes donne. 1765Projects in Ann. Reg. 135/2 Smoke..disfigures the furniture..and duns the complexion. 1832–53Whistle-binkie (Sc. Songs) Ser. iii. 103 Afore the Lammas' tide Had dun'd the birken-tree.
b. In New England, To cure (codfish) in a particular way, by which they become of a dun colour, and are termed dunfish.
‘They are first slack-salted and cured, then taken down cellar and allowed to ‘give up’, and then dried again.’ (Century Dict.)
1828in Webster s.v. Dunning. 1873 Celia Thaxter Isles of Shoals 83 The process of dunning, which made the Shoals fish so famous a century ago, is almost a lost art, though the chief fisherman at Star still ‘duns’ a few yearly.
†2. intr. To become dun or dull-coloured.
c1300Cursor M. 23695 (Edin.) Flures..þat neuir mar sal dunne ne dwine. a1400in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems 221 Wonne..þin hew dunnet; and þi sennewess starket.
▪ VI. † dun, v.2 Obs.
In 4–5 don(n-, 5 dunn-en.
[app. a. ON. duna to thunder, give a hollow sound, f. Germanic root dun-, whence also din n. and v.]
intr. To sound, ring with sound, resound; = din v. 1.
Hence dunning vbl. n.
13..Coer de L. 4975 The erthe donyd hem undyr. c1345Orpheo 275 The kyng..Com to hunte all aboute, With dunnyng and with blowyng. a1400Sir Beues (E.E.T.S.) p. 163 (MS. E.) Al þe castel donyd and rong Off here merþe and off here song. 14..Sir Raynborwn (MS. Cantab. Ff. 2. 38, lf. 224), Soche strokys gaf the knyghtys stowte, That the hylle donyed all abowte. c1440Promp. Parv. 135/1 Dunnyn in sownde, bundo. 1483Festivall (1515) 78 b, A man sholde unneth here his folowe speke for donnynges of strokes.
▪ VII. dun, v.3|dʌn|
[First found after 1600, when quoted by Bacon, from the old besom-maker at Buxton; to Blount 1636–56 it was a ‘fancy’ word recently taken up. Origin uncertain.
It is generally assumed to be identical with dun v.2, or to be a variant of din v., of which it may possibly have been a dialect form. But cf. the cognate dun n.2]
1. trans. To make repeated and persistent demands upon, to importune; esp. for money due.
a1626Bacon Apophth. in Baconiana (1679), The advice of the plain old man at Buxton that sold besoms..‘Friend, hast thou no money? borrow of thy back, and borrow of thy belly, they will never ask thee again: I shall be dunning thee every day’. 1656Blount Glossogr., To Dun, is a word lately taken up by fancy, and signifies to demand earnestly, or press a man to pay for commodities taken up on trust, or other debt. 1681Trial S. Colledge 73, I dunn'd him for money and could not get it. 1706–7Farquhar Beaux' Strat. iii. iii, I remember the good Days, when we cou'd dun our Masters for our Wages. 1831Lincoln Herald 16 Dec. 4/6 Ministers are again dunning the king for more Peers. 1862Mrs. H. Wood Channings viii, There's a certain tradesman's house down there that I'd rather not pass; he has a habit of coming out and dunning me.
2. transf. To pester, plague, assail constantly.
1659Shuffling, Cutting & Deal. 5, I am so dun'd with the Spleen, I should think on something else all the while I were a playing. 1711C.M. Let. to Curat 72 I'm so dunn'd with your Author's demonstrations, that they can take no effect upon me. 1720Wodrow Corr. (1843) II. 486, I am dunned with letters upon all hands from London and Edinburgh, urging us to meet, and do somewhat.
3. Associated with din v.
1753School of Man 24 Ismena..concealed her desire, whilst Philemon was dunning everybody's ears with his. 1818Sporting Mag. II. 189 His teeth chattered and his head was dunned. 1821Joseph the Book-Man 116 You brute my ears thus will you dun!
▪ VIII. dun
obs. f. down n.1
▪ IX. dun
var. dhoon. |