| 释义 |
▪ I. ratoon, n.|rəˈtuːn|
Also 8–9 ratt-.
[ad. Sp. retoño a fresh shoot or sprout.]
A new shoot or sprout springing up from the root of the sugar-cane after it has been cropped.
1779Phil. Trans. LXVII. 232, I then took each rattoon apart, and found it fastened to a joint of these last canes. a1818M. G. Lewis Jrnl. W. Ind. (1834) 88 After these original plants have been cut, their roots throw up suckers which in time become canes, and are called ratoons. 1887Century Mag. Nov. 111 Next year the cane sprouts from the stubble, and is called first ratoons... The second year it sprouts again, and is called second ratoons.
transf.1894Pop. Sci. Monthly XLIV. 493 The Jamaican reference to a meal made off the remnants of a previous feast as ‘eating the rattoons’.
attrib.1777Robertson Hist. Amer. (1778) I. 459 On the banks of the Essequebo, thirty crops of ratoon canes have been raised successively. 1880J. S. Cooper Coral Lands I. xviii. 213 When cut in March or April the ratoon canes are made to grow in cold dry weather.
▪ II. ratoon, v.|rəˈtuːn|
[f. prec. or ad. Sp. retoñar to sprout again, f. retoño.]
a. intr. Of plants, esp. the sugar-cane: To send up new shoots after being cut down or cropped. † Said also of the ground.
1756P. Browne Jamaica 130 Where the ground is observed to produce a kind plant and to rattoon well. 1789Trans. Soc. Arts I. 260 Some sorts of Cotton did not rattoon or stool so well as others. 1856Olmsted Slave States 666 In the West India plantations the cane is frequently allowed to ratoon for eight successive crops. 1880J. S. Cooper Coral Lands I. xviii. 214 Such a cane must be hardy and healthy, grow rapidly, ratoon quickly and often.
b. trans. To cut down (plants) to induce them to send up new shoots.
1925Glasgow Herald 23 Apr. 14/2 Reports indicate that ratooned cotton has suffered. Ratooned plants produce a much earlier crop than new plants and..Zululand had ratooned a considerable quantity this year.
Hence raˈtooned ppl. a., raˈtooning vbl. n.
1790Phil. Trans. LXXX. 357 He makes a greater revenue than the Grenada planter on the present mode of rattooning. 1882Spons' Encycl. Manuf. V. 1868 By constant ratooning, the produce of sugar per acre..yields [etc.]. 1925Ratooned [see sense b of the vb.]. |