| 释义 |
ˈundertow
[under-1 5 c.]
A sea-current below the surface of the water, moving in a contrary direction to that of the surface current.
1817Sporting Mag. L. 221 A current,..at times counteracted by means of a strong opposing ‘undertow’, as it is called. 1829Marryat F. Mildmay xix, The recoil of the sea, and what is called by sailors the undertow, carried him back again. 1877Huxley Physiogr. xi. 172 The water bursts with great force upon the land, and then sweeps back, as a powerful ‘undertow’ to the sea.
transf. and fig.1840Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) V. 232 There is always a strong ‘under-tow’, as the Americans would call it, of honest and well-disposed men in such situations. 1879Jefferies Wild Life 41 The weathercock will sometimes point in precisely the opposite direction, obeying the ‘undertow’ of the gale. |