| 释义 |
▪ I. ravel, n.1|ˈræv(ə)l|
Also Sc. raivel, dial. revel.
[f. the vb. Cf. Du. rafel a fraying out.]
1. A tangle, complication, entanglement; a cluster.
1634Jackson Creed vii. xxvi. §1 The thread which we are to unwind as far as possibly we can without knot or ravel. 1853W. Jerdan Autobiogr. IV. 150 The act by which numerous political ravels seemed to be so happily disentangled. 1865Swinburne Poems & Ball., At Eleusis 185 She thought to thread this web's fine ravel out. 1913D. H. Lawrence Sons & Lovers xiii. 380 There was a lovely yellow ravel of sunflowers in the garden.
2. A broken thread, a loose end. Also fig.
1832Carlyle in Froude Life (1882) II. 307 Great is self⁓denial... Life goes all to ravels and tatters, where that enters not. 1847Halliwell, Revels, the broken threads cast away by women at their work.
▪ II. ˈravel, n.2 Sc. (and north. dial.)
Also 7 reuele, ravell, 9 raivel.
[Of obscure origin.]
1. A rail or railing.
1632Lithgow Trav. vi. 264 A foure squared stone; inclosed about with an yron Reuele, on which..the dead body of our Sauiour lay, and was imbalmed. [1695in Hist. Brechin (1867) v. 98 The east ravell is found to be very ruinous. In 1707 the whole ravell is directed to be amended.] 1792New Year's Morning 12 (E.D.D.) A cellar, upo' the high street, But ony ravel, bare. 1821Galt Ayrsh. Legatees v. let. xv, We then ran..up an old timber-stair with a rope ravel. 1892N. Dickson Auld Scotch Min. 115 An inside stair that had what was called a ‘wooden ravel’.
2. ‘The cross-beam to which the tops of cow-stakes are fastened’ (Jam. 1825). Also ravel-stick, ravel-tree (Northumb. Gloss.; cf. rail-tree rail n.2 6).
▪ III. ˈravel, n.3
Also Sc. raivel.
[Synonymous with raddle n.1 1 b and rave n.2 3, but the mutual relationship of the words is not clear. Cf. prec. and ravel v.1, which may have influenced the form.]
Weaving. A separator (cf. quot. 1842).
1805J. Austin in Trans. Soc. Arts XXIII. 242 An universal ravel or sniffle, useful at the beaming of all kinds of webs. 1831Porter Silk Manuf. 220 The threads of the warp being separated and guided by means of the ravel. 1842J. Bischoff Woollen Manuf. II. 412 In order that the warp may be laid evenly on the beam, an instrument is used similar to the reel... It is called a ravel or separator, and is composed of strips of cane fastened into a rail of wood [etc.].
▪ IV. † ˈravel, a. Obs. rare—1.
In 7 rauill.
[Perh. related to rabble v.1]
? Loquacious, voluble.
a1603T. Cartwright Confut. Rhem. N.T. (1618) Pref. 35 Your Dirigie groats, and Trentall money, will make you lauish and rauill in your translation.
▪ V. ravel, v.1|ˈræv(ə)l|
Also 6–7 ravell, 7 ravill, ravle, 9 dial. raivel, reavel.
[App. a. Du. ravelen (Kilian), rafelen to tangle, to fray out, to unweave; cf. LG. reffeln, rebbeln in same sense. A common dial. form is raffle: see raffle v.3
In ordinary Eng. use ravel is synonymous with unravel. The more original sense of entangling or becoming tangled is still common in Sc. and dial.]
I. intr.
1. To become entangled or confused. rare (exc. dial.).
a1585Montgomerie Flyting w. Polwart 511 Litill tent to their time the toone leit them take, Bot ay..[they] raveld in their reeles. 1591Shakes. Two Gent. iii. ii. 51 As you vnwinde her loue from him, Least it should rauell,..You must prouide to bottome it on me. 1671Milton Samson 305 By thir own perplexities involv'd They ravel more.
2. Of a fabric: To fray out, to suffer disintegration. (Also in fig. context.)
1611Cotgr., Riuler, to rauell out like silke. 1639Fuller Holy War v. i. (1840) 242 To hem the end of our history that it ravel not out. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 97/2 Ravell—when threads come out of the edges of the cloth. 1791Hamilton Berthollet's Dyeing I. i. ii. i. 133 The stuff now participates of the nature of..felt..and it may be cut without being subject to ravel. 1860H. Wedgwood in Phil. Soc. Trans. 32 The hem of a garment is that which binds it round, and prevents it from ravelling out.
fig.1606Marston Fawne ii. i, Do's my Lord rauell out, do's he fret? c1610Beaum. & Fl. Philaster v. iv, Your royalty shall ravel. 1669Shadwell Royal Shepherdess ii, How do men ravel back to childhood. 1956Essays in Crit. III. 320 The discussion then ravels out into a note on such secondary Virgilian sources as the Saturnian prophecy. 1963Oglesby & Hewes Highway Engin. (ed. 2) xvii. 544 The roads raveled rapidly and in the worst instances became during a single season merely a pile of loose stones.
3. Of a clue or thread: To unwind; to come off the clue, reel, etc. rare (now dial.).
1649G. Daniel Trinarch., Rich. II, lxxxvii, Shee gives the Clue: and if it can but ravel To the Thred's End, wee seeke no farther travel. 1653Walton Angler viii. 154 With such a nick..as may keep the line from any more of it ravelling from about the stick than so much of it as you intend. 1873A. G. Murdoch Doric Lyre 13 The threed in Tammie's shuttle Gaed raivelling aff the pirn.
†4. To examine or inquire into a thing. Obs. (freq. in 17th c.).
1618Sir H. May in Fortescue Papers (Camden) 46 Being unwillinge to ravell into the memory of those offensive particulers. 1669W. Simpson Hydrol. Chym. 34 We have already sufficiently ravell'd into the nature of both vitriol and iron. 1710J. Palmer Proverbs 141 The malicious..ravel into the conduct of a man of honour in the dark.
II. trans.
5. a. To entangle, confuse, perplex.
1598E. Guilpin Skial. (1878) 51 Like Weavers shuttles which runne to and fro, Rau'ling their owne guts with their running so. a1656Vines Lord's Supp. (1677) 130 The words which are so ravelled and perplexed by contrary senses. 1706De Foe Jure Divino viii. 188 Those wild, unhappy, self-defending Few, If not destroy'd in Time, will ravel all the Clew. 1727Berkeley Let. to Prior 27 June in Wks. 1871 IV. 145 My affairs were ravell'd by the death of his Majesty. 1845P. Fairbairn Typol. Script. (1857) I. i. iv. 133 It ravels and complicates the meaning of the prophecies.
absol.1862A. Hislop Prov. Scot. 63 Fools ravel, and wise men redd.
†b. transf. To make (dust) rise in confusion.
1646J. Hall's Poems To Authour, Summon thy lungs, and with an angry breath Ravell the curious dust. 1647J. Hall Poems ii. 100 Dust, ravel'd in the Aire will fly Up high.
6. a. To unwind or unweave; to unravel. † Also with away.
1607Tourneur Rev. Trag. ii. ii, You shall have one woman knit more in an hower than any man can rauel agen. 1650W. Brough Sacr. Princ. (1659) 426 How then darest thou ravel away that pretious threed. 1726Pope Odyss. xix. 173 The night still ravell'd, what the day renew'd. 1809M. Edgeworth Manœuvring ix, A fool, who ravels, as fast as one weaves, the web of her fortune. 1889Century Mag. Apr. 841 A favorite gown had been woven by her maids, of cotton, striped with silk procured by raveling the general's discarded stockings.
b. fig. To take to pieces; to disentangle.
1582Stanyhurst æneis To Rdr. (Arb.) 12 Many good verses would bee rauelde and dismembred. 1648Heylin Relat. & Observ. i. 139 b, To rauell back all Governments, to the first principles of nature. a1658Cleveland Hermaphrodite 19 Ravel thy Body, and I find In every Limb a double kind. 1874Holland Mistr. Manse 161 A thousand chances of the feud She wove and raveled one by one.
7. a. to ravel out: To draw or pull out by unwinding or unweaving.
1623–4Middleton & Rowley Span. Gipsy ii. i. 161 A stitch in a man's stocking not taken up in time, ravels out all the rest. 1675Hobbes Odyssey xix. 139 All day I wove, but ere I went to bed, What I had wov'n, I ravel'd out agen. 1746Arderon in Phil. Trans. XLIV. 429 Whenever it ascended, it wound its Thread with its Feet into a sort of Coil, and when it descended only ravelled it out again. 1856Froude Hist. Eng. vii. (1858) II. 164 We find a commission sitting at Lambeth..ravelling out the threads of a story.
b. To destroy, spoil, or waste, as by pulling a fabric into threads. ? Obs.
a1616Beaum. & Fl. Wit at Sev. Weap. v. i, Shelter, shelter, if you be seene All's ravell'd out agen. 1660N. Ingelo Bentiv. & Ur. i. (1682) 157 [They] slighted those mean Sports which ravel out the time of other people. a1708Beveridge Priv. Th. i. (1730) 97 Why should I spend and ravel out my Thoughts upon that which will destroy my Soul.
c. To disentangle, make plain or clear.
1593Shakes. Rich. II, iv. i. 239 Must I rauell out My weau'd-vp follyes? 1602― Ham. iii. iv. 186 Let him..Make you to rauell all this matter out. a1658Cleveland Wks. (1687) 11 Then roll up, Muse, what thou hast ravel'd out. 1832J. Bree St. Herbert's Isle 89 What there she did, took me full thrice as long To ravel out. 1870Morris Earthly Par. III. iv. 195 Asking words from these To ravel out his tale for him.
†8. To turn or toss over. (? Cf. rabble v.1 2.)
a1655Digby (J.), They but ravel it over loosely, and pitch upon disputing against particular conclusions.
▪ VI. † ˈravel, v.2 Obs. rare—1.
[Cf. raffle v.2]
trans. To ruffle or scratch.
1621J. Reynolds God's Revenge i. ii. 62 A faire thrust..which onely pierced his shirt, and ravelled his skinne.
▪ VII. † ˈravel, v.3 Obs. rare—1.
[Perh. a back-formation from ravelled a.]
trans. To sift.
1674S. Jeake Arith. (1696) 74 Houshold-Bread of the best Wheat unravelled, or ravelled through the coursest Boultel.
▪ VIII. ravel
var. rabble n.2 or v.3 |