| 释义 |
weeper|ˈwiːpə(r)|
[f. weep v. + -er1.]
1. a. One who weeps or sheds tears, esp. one who is constantly weeping; also one who has tears at command.
c1380Antecrist in Todd Three Treat. Wyclif (1851) 142 Crist chese to him wepers; & þei chesen to hem myrye syngers. 1382Wyclif Judg. ii. 5 The name of that place [Bochim] is clepid, of wepers, or of terys. [Similarly in 1611 marg.] a1400Prymer (1891) 46 Seynte marie..do fauour to weperes. 1597Shakes. Lover's Compl. 124 To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weepe. 1646Crashaw Steps to Temple 1 The Weeper. 1693Dryden Juvenal x. 46 Laughter is easie; but the Wonder lies, What stores of Brine supplyd the Weepers Eyes. 1735Craig tr. Veda's Past. i. (1736) 167 Thus, while he sigh'd and dropt a tender Tear, The Hiefers..Nor Crystal Brooks, nor sprouting Grass regard, So much they in the Weeper's Sorrow shar'd. 1825T. Hook Sayings Ser. ii. Passion & Princ. xi. III. 230 My first wife was a weeper, Ma'am; and I did hope to have escaped a second. However, it seems you are come of a crying family. 1842C. Whitehead R. Savage xii, Had I been at any time of my life a weeper and wailer. 1874L. Stephen Hours in Libr. (1892) II. vii. 212 Cowper's tears..never..suggest that the weeper is proud of his excessive tenderness.
b. spec. A hired mourner at a death-bed or funeral.
1412–20Lydg. Troy Bk. iv. 3062 It neded hem no wepers for to here,—Þei hadde I-nowe of her owne stoor. c1485Digby Myst. iii. 835 With wepers to þe erth yow hym bryng. 1634W. Tirwhyt tr. Balzac's Lett. I. 386 At funerals in Paris, weepers are usually hired for money. 1714Swift Poems, In Sickness 23 Ye formal Weepers for the Sick. 1824Morier Adv. Hajji Baba xxv, Leilah, who is a professed weeper at burials. 1895Petrie Egypt. Tales Ser. i. 115 The weepers crouching at the door of thy tomb shall cry aloud the prayers for offerings.
c. One of a number of little images in niches on a funeral monument, representing mourners.
1656Dugdale Antiq. Warw. 354, xiv Images embossed, of Lords and Ladyes in divers vestures, called Weepers, to stand in housings made about the Tombe. 1790Pennant Lond. 64 The sides [of the tombs] are..embellished..with figures of mourners, pleureurs, or weepers, frequently in monastic habits. 1864Boutell Her. Hist. & Pop. xxiii. (ed. 3) 388 Eight compartments, each of them having a canopied effigy or ‘weeper’. 1912J. S. M. Ward Brasses 85 A magnificent canopy with figures either of saints or of ‘weepers’ in niches.
d. Ch. Hist. One of the lowest class of penitents (προσκλαίοντες, flentes) in the early Eastern Church.
1841Gentl. Mag. Aug. 152/2 That abject class of penitents, mentioned in ancient ecclesiastical canons as mourners, kneelers, and weepers,..who, covered with sackcloth and ashes, were enjoined to perform penance in the open air. 1885Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 486/1.
2. The Capuchin monkey (Cebus capucinus) of South America. Also weeper sai, weeper capuchin, weeper monkey. Cf. F. singe pleureur and bewailer 2.
1781Smellie Buffon's Nat. Hist. (1791) VIII. 174 The sai, which some travellers have called the weeper, is somewhat larger than the sajou. 1781Pennant Hist. Quad. I. 204 Weeper monkey. 1821Helen M. Williams tr. Humboldts Trav. V. 532 Those bearded monkeys called capuchins, which must not be confounded with the weeper or sai. 1841Penny Cycl. XX. 417/1 One of the most common species is the Weeper (Cebus Apella). 1894H. O. Forbes Handbk. Primates I. 216 When sleeping the Weeper Çai curls itself up, covering its face with its arms and tail.
3. A conventional badge of mourning. Usually pl.
a. A strip of white linen or muslin formerly worn on the cuff of a man's sleeve. Cf. F. pleureuse.
1724Lond. Gaz. No. 6255/2 All..being enjoyned to appear..in long black Cloaks, Cambrick Bands, Chamoy Shooes, Weepers, &c. 1746H. Walpole Let. to Mann 1 Aug., I..was assisted by the sight of the Marquis of Lothian in weepers for his son who fell at Culloden. 1760–2Goldsm. Cit. W. xcvi, Our merry mourners clap bits of muslin on their sleeves, and these are called weepers. 1827Hood True Story 115 There comes some unexpected stroke And hangs a weeper on the cuff. 1892D. Fraser Autob. ii. 4 Our cuffs were covered with white linen ‘weepers’.
b. A broad white cuff worn by widows.
1755in W. Macgill Old Ross-sh. (1909) 148 Making 6 shirts..6 suit double mobs—6 lawn hoods—6 pair weepers. 1786Burns On a Scotch Bard 25 Auld, cantie Kyle may weepers wear, An' stain them wi' the saut, saut tear. 1811Sporting Mag. XXXVIII. 47 With weepers she has tipped her sleeve The while she's laughing in it. 1843Thackeray Bluebeard's Ghost in Fraser's Mag. Oct. 413/1 She [the widow] had her beautiful hair confined in crimped caps, and her weepers came over her elbows. 1889‘J. S. Winter’ Mrs. Bob xix, Mrs. Antrobus..wore very deep and very wide weepers.
c. A long black hat-band formerly worn by men.
1832Standish Maid of Jaen 40 The plumes broad floating in the air, And weepers which the followers bear. 1834Marryat P. Simple xli, My father..tore off the crape weepers, and then threw them on the floor as he walked away. 1898Besant Orange Girl i. vi, The undertaker..was..tying the weepers on the hats.
d. The long black crape veil of a widow.
1860Geo. Eliot Mill on Fl. i. xii, He might cherish the mean project of heightening her grief at his death by leaving her poorly off, in which case she was firmly resolved that she would have scarcely any weeper on her bonnet. 1872― Middlem. lxxx, If anybody was to marry me, flattering himself as I should wear those hijeous weepers..for him.
e. transf. A streamer of moss hanging from a tree.
1857B. Taylor Northern Trav. xiv. (1858) 144 The firs were hung with weepers of black-green moss.
4. Usually pl. Long flowing side-whiskers as worn by ‘Lord Dundreary’ (E. A. Sothern) in the play ‘Our American Cousin’. So Dundreary (or Piccadilly) weepers.
1894Du Maurier Trilby i. (1912) 4 He wore an immense pair of drooping auburn whiskers, of the kind that used to be called Piccadilly weepers. 1903Athenæum 13 June 760/3 A mid-Victorian Englishman with ‘Dundreary weepers’. 1908Sat. Rev. 20 June 775/2 Sir James Day was..adorned with the ‘weeper’—a form of whisker..at one time a popular forensic compromise between the bare face and the full beard.
5. A hole or pipe in a wall for the escape of dripping water. (Cf. weep-hole in weep n. 3.)
1890N.Y. Tribune 2 Feb. (Cent.) The eyes with which it [sc. the aqueduct tunnel] weeps are rightly called weepers, being small rectangular openings in the side walls, through which all the water collected and collecting on the outside of the masonry pours into the inside. 1893G. D. Leslie Lett. Marco xxxvii. 255 A drain-pipe, or what builders term a weeper... The weepers in it are to allow the water from the bank behind it to escape.
6. = weepie. colloq.
1934‘N. Bell’ Winding Road xvii. 445 A few hot-eared scribes have written weepers about such things and kidded themselves they'd done the trick. 1949M. Laski in Sketch 21 Dec. 551/2 Every magazine..reckons to print at least one weeper every Christmas. 1977New Yorker 8 Aug. 10/1 Irene Dunn does the suffering in this version of the Fannie Hurst classic weeper about a woman who loves a selfish married man. 1984Miami Herald 30 Mar. 7d/4 We have been hearing that romance is making a comeback in the movies, and here it is: the old-fashioned, meet-ya-when-this-war-is-over weeper.
Hence ˈweepered a., furnished with weepers.
1908Edith Somerville & ‘Ross’ Further Exp. Irish R.M. ii. 54 John Cullinane, very dusty, and waving a crushed and weepered hat.
Add:7. A wine bottle that leaks gradually through the cork. Cf. weep v. 4 c.
1946A. L. Simon Conc. Encycl. Gastron. VIII. 174/2 Weeper, a bottle showing the first signs of a defective cork; one that should be recorked, or, preferably, drunk, before it becomes an Ullage. 1959W. James Word-bk. Wine 201 Weepers are bottles leaking through the cork. 1976Times 4 Sept. 11/5 A ‘weeper’ or bottle showing signs of seepage..may not result in an ullaged wine;..however, it is worth checking with the supplier should you find a weeping bottle. |