| 释义 |
feline, a. and n.|ˈfiːlaɪn, -lɪn|
[ad. L. fēlīn-us, f. fēles cat.]
A. adj.
a. Of or pertaining to cats or their species, cat-like in form or structure.
b. Resembling a cat in any respect, cat-like in character or quality.
a.1681Grew Musœum Reg. Soc. 16 From which [the Bevir] he [the Otter] differs..in his Tail, which is feline, or a long Taper. 1833Sir C. Bell Hand (1834) 149 The feline quadrupeds. 1850Lyell 2nd Visit U.S. II. 335 The feline tribe and the foxes. 1876C. M. Davies Unorth. Lond. 159 Fanaticism has within it a more than feline tenacity of life.
b.1843Lytton Last Bar. i. i, The feline care with which he stepped aside from any patches of mire. 1851H. Melville Whale xli. 204 Human madness is oftentimes a..most feline thing.
B. n. An animal of the cat tribe.
1861Wood Illustr. Nat. Hist. I. 196 The large savage feline that ranges the waste lands. 1889Pall Mall G. 14 Oct. 3/3 The eyes are..as bright as a feline's in the dark.
Hence ˈfelinely adv., in a feline manner; ˈfelineness, the state of being feline.
1848Lytton Harold vii. iv, The rings through which scratched so felinely the paw of..Griffin. 1865Carlyle Fredk. Gt. V. xiv. v. 202 Noailles has us in a perfect mouse⁓trap, souricière as he felinely calls it. 1893National Observer 25 Mar. 467/2 His gait was felinely nimble. |