| 释义 |
rat's-tail
[f. rat n.1 Cf. rat-tail.]
1. pl. in Farriery:
†a. Chaps or cracks on the back of a horse's hind legs, also called cratches or scratches. Obs.
b. Warty or suppurating excrescences on the same part. (See quots. and cf. rat-tail 1.)
1580Blundeville Horsemanship iv. cxxxix. 61 Of the Cratches or Rats tailes, called of the Italians Crepaccie. This is a kind of long scabbie rifts growing right vp and downe in the hinder part from the fewterlock vp to the Curbe. 1639T. de Grey Compl. Horsem. 314 They be all..one and the same disease, as mules, kibes, rats tayles, crepanches. 1687Lond. Gaz. No. 2263/4 A brown Bay cropt Mare,..with two Rats Tails on each Leg behind. 1722W. Gibson Farrier's Guide ii. 246 Of Warts, Scratches, Rats-Tails and other Excrescences on the Legs and Pasterns. Ibid. 247 Rats-tails..generally creep from the Pasterns to the middle of the Shank. 1891H. Dalziel Dis. Horses 101 Rats' Tails, excrescences discharging ichorous matter, extending from the middle of the shank to the fetlock.
2. Applied to various things resembling a rat's tail in shape:
a. The tapering end of a rope (Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 1867).
b. A rat-tail file (Ibid.).
c. A candle-end.
d. A lank lock of hair.
e. A tapering rib or tongue of metal.
f. = rat's-tail fescue (see 3 below).
1810J. Lambert Trav. Lower Canada I. ix. 162 The dress of the Habitant is simple, and homely;..His hair is tied in a thick long queue behind, with an eelskin; and on each side of his face a few strait locks hang down like, what are vulgarly called, ‘rats' tails’. 1869Blackmore Lorna D. i, The end of a candle of tallow, or ‘rat's tail’, as we called it. 1899Besant Orange Girl ii. v. 174 Their hair hung about their shoulders loose and undressed: it was not unbecoming in the young, but in the older women it became what is called rats' tails. 1950N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Sept. 219/3 In a way the rapid ingress of ratstail into pastures during the 1930's was a good thing.
3. attrib. rat's tail cactus = rat-tail cactus s.v. rat-tail 5; rat's tail crane ? Obs. (see quot.); rat's-tail fescue, an annual grass, Vulpia myuros.
1957Dict. Gardening (R. Hort. Soc.) I. 146/2 Rat's Tail Cactus. Stems weak, pendent, slender. 1958S. H. Scott Observer's Bk. Cacti 61 Aporocactus flagelliformis. Usually referred to as the ‘rat's tail cactus’ because of its pendent method of growth.
1729Desaguliers in Phil. Trans. XXXVI. 196 This Crane is of the Sort which is commonly call'd a Rat's Tail Crane,..moving round a strong Post like a Wind-mill, so that it may turn quite round with all its Load.
1858G. Bentham Handbk. Brit. Flora 602 Rat's-tail Fescue... A tufted annual, usually about a foot high. 1917S. F. Armstrong Brit. Grasses vii. 100 Rat's-tail Fescue... An annual, occurring chiefly in waste places. 1944W. J. Stokoe Caterpillars Brit. Butterflies 224 Rat's-tail Fescue Grass... This small tufted grass grows mostly in dry pastures. 1954C. E. Hubbard Grasses 137 (heading) Rat's-tail Fescue. |