| 释义 |
ˈwater-ˌbearer
1. One who carries water; spec. one whose employment is to carry water from a spring, well, or river for domestic use. Obs. exc. in descriptions of Eastern countries.
1382Wyclif Neh. iii. 26 Gabonites, water bereris forsothe dwelten in Ofel aȝen the ȝate of watris at the est. 1466Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 437 Item, owynge to the waterberere for berynge of water, vj.d. 1524–5Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1904) 328 Receued at the Maryage of chappell, the waturberer, vj d. 1549Latimer Serm. Ploughers (Arb.) 28 Yf there be neuer a wyse man, make a water bearer, a tinker,..a page, comptroller of the mynte. 1598B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. i. iii, Mat. Lie in a water⁓bearers house, a gentleman of his note? well ile tell him my mind. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 9 Their Head-geer a Clout rowled up like our Water-Bearers. 1877F. Burnaby Through Asia Minor I. xx. 229 The gusts [of wind] were a source of..inconvenience to the water-bearers; their hands being occupied with the pitchers.
2. Astr. (Now with capital initial.) = Aquarius.
1594Blundevil Exerc., Cosmogr. i. xxiv. (1597) 158 The eleaueneth Signe called Aquarius, that is to saye, the water bearer contayning two and fourtie starres. 1868Lockyer Guillemin's Heavens (ed. 3) 328 Near the horizon towards the east are perceived the constellations of the Waterbearer and the Goat.
So ˈwater-ˌbearing vbl. n., the action of carrying water as a water-bearer (sense 1).
1481–90Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.) 355 Item, the same day, for Waterberynge xij. d. |