| 释义 |
▪ I. taut, a.|tɔːt|
Forms: α. 3–4 toȝt, -e, 4 toght, touht, towt, -e, (tout); 5 towght, 5–7 (9 dial.) tought (7 toft). β. 5–9 taught. γ. 7–9 tort. δ. 8– taut.
[The history of this word is in many points obscure. Though the form taught (now spelt taut) is known to us only after 1600, there is little doubt that it is the same word as the ME. toȝt, toght, tought, used also by Capt. Smith 1612 (and in Forby). The etymology of toȝt, toght, is doubtful; but it is generally held to be related in some way to the ablaut-grade tog-, toȝ- of OE. *téohan, téon, tee v.1, Goth. tiuhan to draw. See Note below.]
†1.
a. Tense, as a surface; tight, distended, full to distention. Obs.
αc1325Poem Times Edw. II 160 in Pol. Songs (Camden) 331 He maketh his mawe touht off the beste. Ibid. 238 ibid. 334 The best he piketh up himself, and maketh his mawe touht. c1380Sir Ferumb. 4390 Þat ech of hem ne drof forþ on, With pakkes y-charged euerechon, Wyþ harneys y-fillid toȝte. c1386Chaucer Sompn. T. 559 Than shul this cherl with bely stif and toght As any Tabour, hither ben ybrought. c1450Songs, Carols, etc. (E.E.T.S.) 118/24 Your brest is so towght, Tyll ye haue well cowght. 1612Capt. Smith Map Virginia 28 They haue a great deepe platter of wood. They couer the mouth thereof with a skin, at each corner they tie a walnut,..with a small rope they twitch them togither till it be so tought and stiffe, that they may beat vpon it as vpon a drumme.
δ1878H. M. Stanley Dark Cont. I. xvii. 456 Their rounded bodies were as taut as a drumhead.
†b. fig. (?) Firm, firmly fixed or settled, clinched. (See also tought a.)
13..E.E. Allit. P. A. 521 Gos in-to my vyne, dotz þat ȝe conne. So sayde the lorde & made hit toȝt.
2. a. Tightly drawn, as by longitudinal tension; stiff, tense, not slack. Chiefly in nautical use.
α1604Peele's Tale Troy 256 Away they fly, their tackling toft [ed. 1589 teft] and tight. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Taught, tought, tight.
βa1625Nomenclator Navalis (Harl. MS. 2301), We saie sett taught ye shrowdes y⊇ staies or anie other Roape when it is to slack. 1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ix. 42 Cast of that Boling.., and hale vp taught the other. 1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag. i. ii. 18 Hawl them taught and belaye them. 1793Smeaton Edystone L. §259 We..fixed our great tackle to it..and hove all taught. 1816Scott Antiq. viii, Haul taught and belay! c1820G. Beattie John o' Arnha' 55 (Jam.) Ilk tendon, taght like thairm, was lac'd. 1828Webster, Taught [pron.] taut, stretched; not slack. 1833Marryat P. Simple xxx. II. 174 The yards carefully squared, and the ropes hauled taught.
γa1687Petty Treat. Naval Philos. i. ii, Setting of the Shrowds loose or tort as the Condition of Sailing of the Vessel requires. 1806W. Taylor in Ann. Rev. IV. 773 Tort and smooth threads of flax and hemp. 1847Emerson Poems (1857) 99 Yet holds he them with tortest rein.
δ1727–41Chambers Cycl., Taught, or Tau't,..in the sea language, is the same as stiff, or fast. 1796Nelson in Southey Life (1813) II. vi. 1 My complaint is as if a girth were buckled taut over my breast. 1840R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxvii, The land-breeze set in, which brought us upon a taut bowline. 1883Stevenson Treas. Isl. v. xxiii, The hawser was as taut as a bowstring.
transf.1748Smollett Rod. Rand. xxiv. (1760) I. 191 Many a taught gale of wind has honest Tom Bowling and I weathered together.
b. Tightly or trimly done up; put into good order. Of a person: Neat in appearance. Esp. in phr. taut ship, a disciplined or strictly run ship; also attrib. and fig. Cf. sense 2 c below.
1829D. Jerrold Black-Ey'd Susan iii. ii. 43 The trimmest sailor as ever handled rope..give me taut Bill before any able seaman in his Majesty's fleet. 1870Daily News 1 Dec., Shops ran up shutters, everything was made taut. 1871Whittier Sisters xii, In the tautest schooner that ever swam He rides at anchor in Annisquam. 1880Clark Russell Sailor's Sweetheart vii, By breakfast-time the ship was clean and taut fore and aft. 1881Scribner's Mag. XXI. 271/1 [She appeared] in Miss B―'s shop, taut and trim. 1887Besant The World went i, A fair wind, and the ship taut and trim. 1941Time 29 Dec. 8/1 The promoted admirals were ‘taut ship’ commanders (meaning rigid disciplinarians, as opposed to ‘happy ship’ officers). 1970H. Waugh Finish me Off (1971) 106 Yesterday she had been haughty and taut-ship, but today..Mrs. Hardell's position had suddenly become tenuous. 1974Progress (Easley, S. Carolina) 24 Apr. 2/2 His language was salty and he ran a taut ship. He demanded discipline, accuracy, integrity and honesty, as well as good writing. 1977Navy News July 20 All the taut-ship zeal for a tip-top navy, which gave Whale Island its fame as one of the best-known of service establishments, has been redirected. 1980Globe & Laurel July/Aug. 250/1, I found the first half of the book, which describes Trevelyan's efforts to create a taut ship, as he takes Icarus through a NATO exercise, a ship's fire, and a funeral at sea, sketchy and unsatisfactory.
c. fig. Of a person: Strict or severe as to duty.
1833Marryat P. Simple xii, He was considered to be the taughtest (that is, the most active and severe) boatswain in the service. 1851Kingston Pirate Medit. (1860) 4 What sort of a chap is our skipper? He looks like a taut hand.
d. fig. Of music, literature, etc.: concise, controlled; of the human voice: strained.
1966Listener 10 Feb. 219/2 The music..did not seem to have quite the structural control or clarity of texture one discerned in the piano concerto, where..the thought seems more taut and the tension is therefore more easily maintained. 1972Observer 16 Apr. 33/6 A short, taut, yet circumstantially detailed account. 1976M. Machlin Pipeline lv. 557 Coutts voice was taut with worry. 1978Internat. Herald Tribune 24 July 14/4 Among reviewers, the favored adjectives of the past—trenchant and ironic for books, taut, pert and luminous for theatrical productions—have been overtaken by sentimental.
3. Used adverbially and parasynthetically in Comb., as taut-necked, taut-rigged, taut-stretched adjs.
1829D. Jerrold Black-Ey'd Susan i. i. 15 There's not so fine, so noble, so taut-rigged a fellow in His Majesty's navy. 1943D. Gascoyne Poems 1937–42 42 The sky's a faded blue and taut-stretched flag Tenting the quadrangle. 1948L. MacNeice Holes in Sky 31 The taut-necked donkey's..lamenting. [Note. For the interchange of taught, tought, cf. aught, ought; naught, nought (where however au is the earlier), and the falling together in sound in mod. Eng. of bought, sought, wrought, brought, thought (OE. bohte, sóhte, worhte, brǫ́hte, þǫ́hte) with caught, distraught, raught, taught (ME. cahte, distraught, OE. rǽhte, tǽhte, táhte), where the two sounds remain distinct in Sc. (bocht, thocht, cauwcht, tauwcht) and northern Eng. Toȝt, toght, has been suggested to be:—an OTeut. *tohtoz (from ablaut-grade tog-), which is improbable, since no trace of such a form appears in OE. or any of the cognate languages; also, to be a syncopated form of ME. toȝed, now towed (see tow v.2); this seems impossible. With more probability it has been viewed as an altered form of ME. tiȝt, tight, under the influence of toȝed, or more prob. of toȝen ‘drawn’, pa. pple. of tee v.1 It is noticeable that toȝt, touȝt, tought, occur also in ME. and Sc. as variants of tough a.] ▪ II. taut, v. Sc.|tat, tɑt|
Also tawt, tat.
[Origin obscure: cf. tatty a.1; also tatter n.1]
a. trans. To tangle or mat together (hair or wool).
b. intr. To become tangled or matted, as hair or wool. Hence ˈtauted (tautit) ppl. a., tangled, matted; having the hair tangled.
1782Burns Poor Mailie's Elegy vi, She was nae get o' moorland tips, Wi' tawted ket, an' hairy hips. 1786― Twa Dogs 20 Nae tawted tyke, tho' e'er sae duddie. 1853J. Crawford in Whistle-Binkie (1890) II. 224 While frae the bairnie's tautit hair The frozen crystals hung. 1882Jamieson Supp. s.v. Tat, Dinna taut your hair sa. 1893Stevenson Catriona xx, God's truth, it's the tautit laddie!
▪ III. taut
var. f. tat n.2, a coarse Indian cloth.
▪ IV. taut, taute
obs. ff. taught: see teach. |