| 释义 |
horsehair|ˈhɔːshɛə(r)|
a. A hair from the mane or tail of a horse.
animated horsehair = horsehair worm: see c.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) III. 323 A briȝt swerd and a scharp euene aboue his heued by an hors here. 1422tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. (E.E.T.S.) 155 Nothynge the Swerde held, Saue oone hors-here. 1611Shakes. Cymb. ii. iii. 33 A voyce in her eares which Horse-haires, and Calues⁓guts..can neuer amend. 1672Phil. Trans. VII. 4064 (heading) Extract of a letter..concerning animated horse⁓hairs, rectifying a Vulgar Error. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Animated Horse-Hairs,..a sort of long and slender water-worm..generally, by the vulgar, supposed to be the hair fallen from a Horse's mane into the water. 1796Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) III. 655 Fruit-stalks hardly thicker than horse hair. 1816J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art II. 82 Suspended by means of a horse hair.
b. A mass or collection of such hair.
In quot. 1850 = legal verbiage, horsehair being use to make barrister's wigs. vegetable horsehair: see quote. 1897.
c1305Edmund Conf. 158 in E.E.P. (1862) 75 Seint Edmund werede strong here..Of hard hors-her ymaked. 1494Act 11 Hen. VII, c. 19 Preamb., Cussions stuffed with horse here. 1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 338 The Chynaes..they write with pencils made of horse hayre. 1812J. Smyth Pract. of Customs (1821) 203 The Hair cut from the manes and tails of Horses is considered and passed in London as Horse Hair, and no other. 1850Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. ii. (1827) 67 In spite of all this..blotting-out of Heaven's sunlight by mountains of horsehair and officiality. 1897Willis Flower. Pl. II. 372 Tillandsia usneoides, L. (long moss, old man's beard, vegetable horsehair).
c. attrib. and Comb., as horsehair crest, horsehair-crested adj., horsehair-dresser, horsehair glove, horsehair plume, etc.; in sense ‘covered with a fabric woven of horsehair’, as horsehair chair, horsehair cushion, horsehair sofa, etc.; horsehair-lichen = horsetail-lichen; horsehair snake U.S. = horsehair-worm; horsehair-worm, a hairworm or Gordius.
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., Horse Hair Worms. 1822–34Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 276 The Gordius is the seta equina or horse-hair-worm of the old writers. 1838Dickens O. Twist xxvii, The very horse-hair seats of the chairs. 1852Miss Sewell Exper. of Life xiv. (1858) 95 A set of black horsehair chairs and a horsehair sofa. 1853Hickie tr. Aristoph. (1872) II. 572 Strife of horse-hair-crested words. 1864Ld. Derby tr. Iliad vi. 546 Scar'd by the brazen helm and horse-hair plume. 1875B. Meadows Clin. Observ. 61 Friction with horse hair gloves. 1897Daily News 30 Apr. 3/3 The daughter of a horsehair dresser. 1897Outing (U.S.) XXX. 434/2 The creature referred to as a mystery is what is termed the ‘horsehair snake’, in reality, a hairworm. 1949Sci. Monthly Jan. 56/2 Another mythical serpent, confined to the rural scene, is the horsehair snake..the worm Paragordius varius. 1966Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. XLII. 19 Horsehair snake. Actually a long slender worm (Gordius, sp.), which spends one portion of its life in the body of a large insect and the other in shallow water, as in a watering trough. Thus arose the folk belief that these worms were originally horsehairs.
So ˈhorse-haired a., covered or furnished with horsehair; in quot. = bewigged.
1887Pall Mall G. 4 Mar. 1/1 Glozing phrases..which horse-haired pedants of Attorney-Generals in every age have employed. |