| 释义 |
knee-deep, a.
1. So deep as to reach to the knee. Said of water, snow, mud, grass, etc.; also of the ground submerged or covered by these.
1535Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 619 In wynter in ane kne deip snaw. 1555Eden Decades 116 They make a hole in the earth knee deape. 1647H. More Insomn. Philos. xii, Great fields of Corn and Knee-deep grasse were seen. 1748Anson's Voy. ii. iv. 160 Her decks were almost constantly knee-deep in water. 1862Beveridge Hist. India III. vii. v. 148 Rice fields and plains knee-deep in water.
2. Sunk to the knee (in water, mud, etc.). Also fig.
c1400Sege Jerus. (E.E.T.S.) 32/573 Kne-depe in þe dale, dascheden stedes. 1611Shakes. Wint. T. i. ii. 186 Ynch-thick, knee-deepe; ore head and eares a fork'd one. 1646Evance Noble Ord. 42 Wee have bin but anckle-deepe in the one, but wee have bin knee-deepe in the other. 1721Amherst Terræ Fil. No. 48 (1754) 256 To keep his court knee-deep in a bog. 1862Mrs. H. Wood Mrs. Hallib. ii. ix. 194 Half the women round us are knee-deep in Bankes's books. 1895E. R. Suffling Land of Broads 51 Hundreds of oxen..standing knee-deep in the cool water. |