| 释义 |
swine's feather Mil. (now only Hist.).
Also swine-feather; sweynes-feather, swan's-feather.
[ad. G. schweinsfeder (1) boar-spear (= early mod.Du. swijnspriet, -spiesse, -staf, -stock), (2) rifleman's lance used as a rest for the rifle and, in numbers, as chevaux-de-frise.]
A pointed stake or pike, used as a weapon of defence against cavalry, being either fixed in the ground as a palisade (palisade n. 2) or carried in a musket-rest like a bayonet. Also called Swedish feather (feather n. 14) and swine's-pike (swine 5).
1635W. Barriffe Milit. Discipl. xcv. (1643) 307 Those parts which lye most open to the fury of the enemies Horse, ought to bee impaled with pallisadose (or swines-feathers). 1639Sir A. Johnston (Ld. Wariston) Diary (S.H.S.) 50 We have receaved no spades, nor howes, no swyne feathers wherby we may intrinch ourselves. 1646Dk. Albemarle Obs. Milit. & Polit. Aff. viii. (1671) 26 So many Musqueteers as you have more than Pikemen in your Army ought to have Swine-feathers with heads of rests fastned to them. 1786Grose Milit. Antiq. I. 165. 1824 Meyrick Ant. Armour III. 78. 1834 Penny Cycl. II. 376/1 The sweynes-feather was invented in the reign of James I. During the civil wars, its name was sometimes corrupted into swan's-feather. |