| 释义 |
washboard, n. (a.)
[f. wash n.; cf. G. waschbrett.]
I.
1. Naut. A board on the side of a boat to prevent the sea breaking over; also, a board on the sill of a lower-deck port, for the same purpose.
1742Woodroofe in Hanway's Trav. (1762) I. ii. xvii. 78 The largest boat was towed a-stern, being raised with washboards for that purpose. 1825T. Hook Sayings Ser. ii. Passion & Princ. xv. III. 399 She shipped a heavy sea, which washed away all the starboard bulwarks and washboards. 1888T. T. Wildridge Northumbria 134 The structural points of interest in this [ancient] boat are the ‘washboards’ and the wooden pegs.
2. A board round the walls of a room with its edge resting on the floor; a skirting-board. dial.
1828–32Webster, Wash-board. 2. a board in a room, next to the floor. 1860Geo. Eliot Mill on Fl. ii. iii, To stand looking out of the study window at the rain, and kicking his foot against the washboard in solitude. 1862[C. C. Robinson] Dialect of Leeds, Gloss., Washboard (pron. weshboard), the wainscot.
3.
†a. A flat piece of wood fixed on an axis within the barrel of a washing-machine, and made to revolve so as to agitate the clothes in the water. Obs.
b. U.S. A hardwood board, with a fluted surface or covered with corrugated zinc, on which clothes are rubbed in washing.
1799Hull Advertiser 29 June 2/2 Washing machines which move with a pendulum or upright wash-board in the inside. 1845J. W. Norris Business Adviser & Gen. Directory Chicago 95 Manufacturer of the improved zinc wash⁓boards. 1882Howells in Longman's Mag. I. 56 Wherever the piano-forte penetrates, lovely woman lifts her fingers from the needle, the broom-handle, and the washboard. 1902E. Banks Newspaper Girl 158 Clothes washed by her own hands on an American washboard in a big wooden tub.
c. A washboard (sense 3 b) used as a percussion instrument; hence, the kind of music produced by bands using this instrument. Freq. attrib.
1925J. Taylor (title of musical composition) Wash⁓board blues. 1933Gramophone June 26/1 Washboard bands are the red-nosed comedians of dance music... They usually play about with delightfully inconsequent tunes. Ibid., There is a good deal to be said for Yes Suh..by the Washboard Rhythm Kings... The gent on the washboard is a dexterous performer. 1946, etc. [see jug n.2 1 c]. 1947R. de Toledano Frontiers of Jazz 107 The first washboard was recorded by me. 1961W. Sansom Last Hours Sandra Lee vii. 173 There came a machine slamming of washboard music and wailing voices that sounded as if they were lost in a large, echoing cave. 1973J. Marks Mick Jagger (1974) 56 Washboard was also fair enough, if you wanted that sort of sound... You know..more or less a primitive sort of Chicago sound. 1973J. Wainwright Pride of Pigs 174 Instead of a drummer there was a young kid with a washboard and thimbles.
4. fig. A corrugated surface, esp. of a road.
1934in Webster. 1950J. Dempsey Championship Fighting 186 Bending exercises are best to develop the stomach muscles into a protective ‘washboard’ against body blows. 1968G. Jones Hist. Vikings iii. i. 156 Not only a ‘washboard’ of wide furrows is visible, but even the wheel-tracks of the viking farmer's last carting. 1976[see reg2]. 1979Tucson Mag. Apr. 51/1 The long gravel drive to its shore..tends to turn into a washboard in the drier summer months.
II.
5. attrib. as adj. Corrugated, furrowed, esp. as a result of weather and usage.
1913Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. XXIV. 145 The till sheet over large areas has been rubbed into a fluted or wash⁓board form on a large scale, but with low relief. 1936Trans. R. Soc. Canada XXX. iv. 10 In the general area where these wash-board moraines were noted there are extensive sand plains. 1949Consumer Rep. Jan. 8/1 Pick out a hubbly surface or a ‘washboard’ gravel road. 1953W. Moore Bring Jubilee (1955) i. 6 The morasses or wash⁓board roads which were the only highways. 1968R. W. Fairbridge Encycl. Geomorphol. 989/2 Steep valley slopes [in a rain forest] typically have a washboard topography, a simple parallel consequent drainage system. 1976New Motorcycling Monthly Oct. 6/3 Washboard surfaces would set the rear wheel pattering. |