| 释义 |
hunter|ˈhʌntə(r)|
[f. hunt v. + -er1.]
1. A man who hunts.
a. One engaged in the chase of wild animals; a huntsman.
c1250Gen. & Ex. 1481 Esau wilde man huntere, And Iacob tame man tiliere. c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 780 The hunters in the regne of Trace. c1420Anturs of Arth. v, The hunteres thay haulen, by hurstes and by hoes. 1486Bk. St. Albans E iij b, The hunter shall rewarde hem then with the hede. 1590Spenser F.Q. ii. iii. 21 A goodly Ladie clad in hunters weed. 1692Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) II. 639 Last Satturday 9 highwaymen mett and robb'd 7 hunters, near Ingerstone, in Essex. 1735Somerville Chase i. 37 When Nimrod bold, That mighty Hunter, first made War on Beasts. 1865Lubbock Preh. Times xvi. (1869) 581 In a population which lives on the produce of the chase, each hunter requires on an average 50,000 acres.
b. fig. and gen. One who hunts or searches eagerly for something; a seeker. (Most freq. in comb., as fortune-hunter, place-hunter.)
c1374Chaucer Boeth. i. pr. iii. 12 (Add. MS.) We scorne swiche rauiners and honters [Camb. MS. henters] of foulest[e] þinges. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 74 b, The hunter of mannes soule. 1542–5Brinklow Lament. 6 b, Whore hounters and robbers of Goddes glorie. 1796Burke Let. Noble Ld. Wks. VIII. 52 They are the duke of Bedford's natural hunters; and he is their natural game. 1811Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life (1870) I. v. 157 Are you a good motto hunter?
c. Mil. (tr. Ger. jäger, Fr. chasseur.)
1753Hanway Trav. (1762) I. vii. xciii. 428 Besides the hussars, the king has a small body of men whom they call hunters, who are reputed the most faithful couriers in his army. 1761Brit. Mag. II. 443 Lieutenant-colonel de Stockhausen had..posted himself in the Solling with his hunters and cannon.
2. a. A horse used, or adapted for use, in hunting.
1687Lond. Gaz. No. 2296/4 A milk white Mare above 14 hands..a very good Hunter. 1786Mrs. Piozzi Anecd. Johnson in Boswell (1831) I. 512 He certainly rode on Mr. Thrale's old hunter. 1882C. Pebody Eng. Journalism xvi. 120 The dash and decision with which, upon a thorough⁓bred hunter, he rode to hounds.
b. A dog used in or adapted for hunting.
1605Shakes. Macb. iii. i. 97 The valued file Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle, The House-keeper, the Hunter. 1685Lond. Gaz. No. 2037/4 To be sold 14 Couple of Harriers, very good Hunters, and have good Mouths. 1898Daily News 5 Oct. 6/6 A very close hunter, and a fine hound to boot.
3. An animal that hunts or chases its prey; spec.
a. = hunting-spider (see hunting ppl. a. b);
b. The Jamaican cuckoo, Hyetornis pluvialis.
1658Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 1058 Spiders..others live in the open air, and from their greediness are called hunters or wolves. 1667Milton P.L. xi. 188 The Beast that reigns in Woods, First Hunter then. 1847Gosse & Hill Birds Jamaica 277 Hunter. Old Man.—Rainbird... The appellation of Rainbird is indiscriminately applied to both this and the preceding [sc. Saurothera vetula], as is, in a lesser degree, that of Old Man. I use a term by which I have heard it distinguished,..perhaps derived from the perseverance with which it hunts..for its prey. 1885A. Brassey The Trades 133 The most formidable of these insects appears to be the ‘hunter ant’. 1960J. Bond Birds W. Indies 116 Chestnut-bellied cuckoo. Hyetornis pluvialis. Local names: Old Man Bird; Hunter; Rain Bird.
4. = hunting-watch: see hunting vbl. n. 3 b.
1851Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 1268 A hunter, engraved, enamel dial, 1½ inches diameter. 1884F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 122 Hunter..[is] a watch case that has a metal cover over the dial.
5. attrib. and Comb.
a. in sense 1, as hunter-boy, hunter-craft, hunter-crew, hunter-goddess, hunter-spear, hunter-train, hunter-troop, hunter-warrior; hunter-like, hunter-seeming adjs.;
b. in sense 2, as hunter action, hunter-breeder, hunter-breeding, hunter-fancier, hunter-horse, hunter-steed;
c. in sense 3, as hunter ant; hunter-spider = sense 3 a.
1823in Joanna Baillie Collect. Poems 15 A *hunter-boy blew horn beneath it.
1856H. H. Dixon Post & Paddock i. 2 An old *hunter-breeder's confession.
Ibid. 7 The Shropshire men..are more careful, both as to pedigree and style, in their *hunter-breeding.
1851Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. v, Different tricks known in *hunter-craft.
1838J. Pardoe River & Desert II. 53 Dedicated to the *Hunter-Goddess.
1735Somerville Chase iv. 240 The *Hunter-Horse, Once kind Associate of his sylvan Toils.
1555–8T. Phaer æneid i. B j, *Hunterlyke her bow she bare, her lockes went with the wynd.
1483Cath. Angl. 192/2 An *Hunter spere, venabulum.
1867Amer. Naturalist I. 409 This very large *hunter-spider [sc. the tarantula] makes its appearance in Texas some years as early as the twenty-fifth of May.
1863Lyell Antiq. Man 23 When the habits of the *hunter state predominated over those of the pastoral, venison was more eaten than the flesh of..sheep.
1697Dryden æneid xi. 1003 Young Ornitus bestrode a *hunter steed.
1735Somerville Chase ii. 357 The busy *Hunter-Train mark out the Ground.
d. Combinations with hunter's, in specialized senses: as hunter's beef, pudding (see quots.); hunter's green (see quot. 1957); † hunter's mass (cf. Ger. jägermesse), ‘a short mass said in great haste for hunters who were eager to start for the chase’ (Nares); hunter's moon, a name for the full moon next after the harvest moon (q.v.).
1879Mrs. A. G. F. E. James Ind. Househ. Managem. 55 A hump of beef is..best spiced and cured, as *hunter's beef is made at home.
1872Young Englishwoman Nov. 599/1 Sombre greens,..chasseur, or *hunter's-green, myrtle, cypress. 1957M. B. Picken Fashion Dict. 181/2 Hunter's green, dark, slightly yellowish green.
1595Copley Wits, Fits, & Fancies 60 A Gentleman pray'd him to say a *Hunters Masse (meaning a briefe Masse).
1710Brit. Apollo III. No. 70. 2/1 The Country People call this the *Hunters-Moon. 1854Tomlinson Arago's Astron. 171 There can, therefore, be but two full moons in the year which rise during a week almost at the same time as the sun sets; the former, occurring in September, is called the Harvest-Moon; and the latter, in the month of October, being in a similar predicament, is termed the Hunter's Moon.
1815Simond Tour Gt. Brit. I. 45 This plum-pudding..This precious faculty of not losing anything from waiting, has made it be named emphatically *Hunter's Pudding, Pudding de Chasseur.
e. hunter-killer a., designating a naval vessel or group of vessels equipped to locate and destroy enemy vessels, esp. submarines. Also as n.
1948U.S. Naval Inst. Proc. LXXIV. 505/2 The other two will be classified as ‘hunter-killers’—destroyers with the prime purpose of tracking down submarines, instead of operating on convoy duty. 1950Jane's Fighting Ships 1950–51 7 A new anti-submarine type of light cruiser, known as a hunter-killer ship, will be completed in 1951. 1957Times Lit. Suppl. 20 Dec. 771/3 The escort carrier Guadalcanal and her ‘hunter-killer’ group of four escort destroyers. 1962Daily Tel. 10 Dec. 18/4 Britain's first nuclear hunter-killer submarine, is expected to leave the..yard of her builders,..on Wednesday or Thursday for sea-trials. 1972Sci. Amer. July 16/3 A hunter-killer submarine is large enough to carry an array of hydrophones to produce a narrow listening beam for long-range detection. |