| 释义 |
fertile, a.
(ˈfɜːtaɪl, older and U.S. ˈfɜːtɪl)
Forms: 5–6 fertyl(e, -yll, 7–8 fertil(l, (6 fartyll, 6–7 firtile, -ill, 7 furtill, fertle), 5– fertile.
[a. OF. fertil (Fr. fertile = Pr. fertil), ad. L. fertilis, f. ferre to bear.]
1. Bearing or producing in abundance; fruitful, prolific. Const. of, in, rarely † to.
a. lit. of the soil, a district or region, rarely of animals.
c1460Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. iii, Dwellyn thai in on the most fertile reaume of the worlde. 1484Caxton æsop v. viii, This yere shalle be the..moost fertyle of alle maner of corne. 1581Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 62 The firtilest ground must bee manured. 1624Capt. Smith Virginia iii. xi. 87 The ground was..exceeding furtill. 1785S. Fielding Ophelia II. ix, A soil..not..fertile of any thing but weeds. 1832H. Martineau Life in Wilds i. 3 The plains..are fertile in native plants. 1853C. Brontë Villette xv, These September suns shone..on fertile plains.
b. transf. and fig.
1481Caxton Myrr. ii. iv. 68 It [Probane, Ceylon] is moche plenteuous of gold and syluer and moche fertyle of other thynges. 1603Drayton Odes ii. 43 That Spray to fame so fertle, The Louer-crowning Mirtle. 1730A. Gordon Maffei's Amphith. 23 Augustus..being of a fertile and jovial Disposition. 1791Gentl. Mag. 26/2 The offspring of his fertile imagination. 1819T. Jefferson Autobiog. Wks. 1859 I. 121 He was..fertile in resources. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 216 One family, singularly fertile of great men. 1869Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) iii. xiv. 335 England was..a land fertile in warriors.
c. fertile crescent (see quot. 1914).
1914J. H. Breasted in Breasted & Robinson Outl. Europ. Hist. i. iii. 56 This fertile crescent is approximately a semicircle..with one wing stretching along the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, the other reaching out to the Persian Gulf. Ibid. 57 This great semicircle, for lack of a name, may be called the fertile crescent. 1945Auden Coll. Poetry 343 The earth debates: the Fertile Crescent argues. 1950H. L. Lorimer Homer & Monuments ii. 83 The tip of the ‘fertile crescent’, whence a main trade route leads into the interior. 1958Spectator 7 Feb. 159/2 The rulers of Syria..had no wish so soon afterwards to be engulfed within the Fertile Crescent scheme then being mooted. 1970Guardian 10 Sept. 15/2 There's an old fable told in the lands of the Fertile Crescent.
d. Nuclear Physics. Capable of being transformed into a fissile isotope by the capture of a neutron.
1949Nucleonics Dec. 41/2 The concentration of the new fissionable material builds up within the fertile material. 1963Peterson & Wymer Chem. Nuclear Technol. i. 3 This type of reactor contains fertile material, either U238 or thorium, which is converted to fuel by neutrons in excess of those needed to maintain the fission process.
2. Causing or tending to promote fertility.
1597Bp. Hall Sat. i. ii, The coole streame that tooke his endles name, From out the fertile hoofe of winged steed. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. ii. ii. iii. 248 The Brise..most pleasant and fertile. 1657Austen Fruit Trees i. 71 Lay Pigeons dung..(or the like stuffe, that is very hot, and fertill) to the roots. 1847Emerson Poems, Wks. (Bohn) I. 485 They thank the spring-flood for its fertile slime.
fig.1596Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iv. iii. 131 With..good store of Fertile Sherris.
†3. Copiously produced, abundant. Obs.
1601Shakes. Twel. N. i. v. 274 Ol. How does he loue me? Vio. With adorations, fertill teares. 1667Milton P.L. ix. 801 Shall..the fertil burden ease Of thy full branches.
4. Comb. fertile-brained a. = fertile-headed (b); fertile-fresh a., having luxuriant foliage; fertile-headed a., (a) many headed; (b) rich in expedients.
1598Shakes. Merry W. v. v. 72 Greene let it be, More fertile-fresh then all the Field to see. 1632Massinger & Field Fatal Dowry i. i, Cerberus..loud and fertile-headed. 1754J. Shebbeare Matrimony (1766) I. 230 The fertile-headed Woman..whipt a ten-peck Bag over her Gallant's Head. 1894H. Nisbet Bush Girl's Romance 275 It seemed to be all plain enough sailing to this fertile-brained..sybarite.
Hence † ˈfertile v. Obs.—1 = fertilize v.; ˈfertilely adv.; ˈfertileness rare = fertility.
1580Sidney Arcadia (1622) 155 Who..could not but fertilly requite his fathers fatherly education. 1581― Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 19 The fertilnes of the Italian wit. 1613Markham Eng. Husb. ii. i. v. (1635) 27 According to the fertilenesse of the soyle in which they grow. 1627–47Feltham Resolves i. lxxxi. 252 He that hopes too much shall coozen himself at last; especially if his industry goes not along to fertile it. 1661–6Wood City of Oxford (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) I. 395 The meedes adjoyning are fertilly soyled. |