| 释义 |
▪ I. labyrinth, n.|ˈlæbɪrɪnθ|
Forms: 6 laborynth, lab(e)rinth, -irinth, 6–7 -arinth, 7 -erinth, -irynth, -orynth, 7–8 poet. lab'rinth, 6– labyrinth.
[ad. L. labyrinth-us, a. Gr. λαβύρινθ-ος, of unknown (prob. non-Hellenic) origin. Cf. F. labyrinthe (1418 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. A structure consisting of a number of intercommunicating passages arranged in bewildering complexity, through which it is difficult or impossible to find one's way without guidance; a maze.
a. With references to the structures so named in classical antiquity.
[1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 9 Þis matir, as laborintus, Dedalus hous, haþ many halkes and hurnes..wyndynges and wrynkelynges. 1494Fabyan Chron. vii. ccxxxviii. 277 This house, after some wryters, was named, labor intus or Deladus (v.r. Labyrinthus or Dedalus) werke.] 1549Compl. Scotl. vi. 64 Dedalus maid the laborynth to keip the monstir minotaurus. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, v. iii. 188 Thou mayest not wander in that Labyrinth, There Minotaurs and vgly Treasons lurke. 1591Spenser Ruins of Rome 22 Crete will boast the Labyrinth. 1601Holland Pliny I. 99 The Labyrinth built vp in the lake of Mœris without any iot of timber to it. Ibid. II. 578 This Labyrinth in Crete is counted the second to that of ægypt: the third is in the Isle Lemnos: the fourth in Italy. 1836Thirlwall Greece II. xii. 112 Theodorus,..the builder of the Lemnian labyrinth.
b. In mod. landscape gardening, a maze formed by paths bordered by high hedges.
1611Coryat Crudities 298, I sawe a fine Labyrinthe made of boxe. 1666Pepys Diary 25 June, Here were also great variety of other exotique plants, and several labyrinths. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Labyrinths are only proper for large gardens, and the finest in the world is said to be that of Versailles. 1792A. Young Trav. France 7 The labyrinth [at Chantilly] is the only complete one I have seen, and I have no inclination to see another: it is in gardening what a rebus is in poetry.
2. transf. An intricate, complicated, or tortuous arrangement (of physical features, buildings, etc.).
1615Crooke Body of Man 465 A mazey laberynth of small veines and arteries. 1634Milton Comus 277 Co. What chance good Lady hath bereft you thus? La. Dim darknes, and this leafy Labyrinth. 1730–46Thomson Autumn 415 The scented dew Betrays her [sc. a hare's] early labyrinth. 1777Watson Philip II (1793) II. xiii. 133 Leyden lies..in the midst of a labyrinth of rivulets and canals. 1778Robertson Hist. Amer. I. ii. 122 He was entangled in a labyrinth, formed by an incredible number of small islands. 1843Lytton Last of Barons i. iv. 56 He suddenly halted..to find himself entangled in a labyrinth of scattered suburbs. 1873Symonds Grk. Poets xii. 400 The labyrinth of peristyles and pediments in which her children dwell.
†b. rushy labyrinth = Gr. ἐκ σχοίνων λαβύρινθος (Theocritus), applied to a bow-net of rushes. Obs.—1
1658Sir T. Browne Gard. Cyrus ii. 42 The rushy labyrinths of Theocritus.
c. (a) Metallurgy. A contrivance of winding channels used for distributing and separating the ores in the order of the coarseness of grain. (b) A chamber of many turnings for the condensation of fumes arising from dry distillation, etc. (Knight Dict. Mech. 1875).
1839Ure Dict. Arts, etc., Labyrinth, in metallurgy, means a series of canals distributed in the sequel of a stamping-mill; through which canals a stream of water is transmitted for suspending, carrying off, and depositing, at different distances, the ground ores.
3. Anat. A complex cavity hollowed out of the temporal bone consisting of a bony capsule (osseous labyrinth) and a delicate membranous apparatus (membranous labyrinth) contained by it; the internal ear. In birds, ‘the membranous capsule which encloses the end-organs of the auditory nerve’ (Newton Dict. Birds 1893, 180).
1696Phillips (ed. 5), Labyrinth..In Anatomy, the Third Cavity in the innermost part of the Ear, resembling the Shell of a Snail. 1709Blair in Phil. Trans. XXVII. 125, I search'd for the Labyrinth, or Lineæ Semilunares, but could find none. 1722Quincy Lex. Physico-Med. (ed. 2) 126/2 The Labyrinth is made of three Semicircular Pipes, above half a Line wide, excavated in the Os Petrosum. 1840G. V. Ellis Anat. 290 There is ..a fluid..contained in the osseous labyrinth, and in it the membranous labyrinth floats. 1873Mivart Elem. Anat. ix. 393 A labyrinth composed of three semicircular canals is also almost universal.
b. Applied to other organs of complex or intricate structure (see quots.).
1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist., Birds i. i. (1824) II. 214 It is some⁓times also seen that the wind-pipe makes many convolutions within the body of the bird, and it is then called the labyrinth. 1888Syd. Soc. Lex., Labyrinth, a name given to the cells in the lateral masses of the ethmoid bone... L., ethmoïdal, the irregularly divided space formed by the anterior, middle and posterior cells of the ethmoid bone... L., olfactory, the contorted structure formed by the upper end of the middle turbinate bones.
4. fig. A tortuous, entangled, or inextricable condition of things, events, ideas, etc.; an entanglement, maze.
1548Hall Chron., Rich. III 47 When the Earle was thus..escaped all ye daungerous labirinthes and snares that were set for him. 1571Digges Pantom. i. xxx. K b, The Geometer..without practise..shall fall into manyfoulde errours, or inextricable Laberinthes. 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. ii. iii. 2 How now Thersites? what lost in the Labyrinth of thy furie? 1622Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 211 All will run into a Laborinth and confusion. 1642Sir E. Dering Sp. on Relig. xvi. 74 We shall run our selves into a..Labyrinth of words, and lose the matter. 1756Burke Vind. Nat. Soc. Wks. 1842 I. 17 The more deeply we penetrate into the labyrinth of art, the further we find ourselves from those ends for which we entered it. 1816T. L. Peacock Headlong Hall v, Unravelling the labyrinth of mind. 1818Scott Rob Roy i, He found himself..involved in the labyrinth of mercantile concerns without the clew of knowledge necessary for his extraction. 1823Lamb Elia Ser. i. South-Sea Ho., She traced her descent, by some labyrinth of relationship..to the illustrious, but unfortunate, house of Derwentwater. 1828Macaulay Ess., Hallam (1851) I. 53 In this labyrinth of falsehood and sophistry the guidance of Mr. Hallam is peculiarly valuable. 1876Mozley Univ. Serm. iv. 92 Even in the dark labyrinth of evil there are unexpected outlets. 1885Law Times LXXIX. 130/1 To thread the labyrinth of the statutes under which London is governed.
5. attrib. and Comb., as labyrinth cave, labyrinth thread; labyrinth-like, labyrinth-stemmed adjs.; labyrinth fret Arch. (see quot.); labyrinth vesicle Anat., a cavity or furrow in the labyrinth of the ear.
1817Shelley Rev. Islam viii. xi, From slavery and religion's *labyrinth caves Guide us.
1842–59Gwilt Archit. Gloss., *Labyrinth Fret, a fret, with many turnings, in the form of a labyrinth. 1851Penrose Athen. Arch. 56 The labyrinth fret beneath the mutules.
1622Drayton Poly-olb. xxii. 22 In *Labrinth-like turnes, and twinings intricate. 1855Richardson Geol. 302 The labyrinth-like arrangement of the dentine, from which Professor Owen derived the name Labyrinthodon.
1860Ruskin Mod. Paint. V. ix. iv. 240 Its forests are sombre-leaved, *labyrinth-stemmed.
1823in Joanna Baillie Collect. Poems 210 Life's *labyrinth-thread deceives, and seems but sand.
1878Bell tr. Gegenbaur's Comp. Anat. 44 The *labyrinth-vesicles of the Vertebrata.
Add:[5.] labyrinth fish, any fish of the perciform suborder Anabantidae, most members of which possess an accessory breathing organ above the gill chambers, and which includes many aquarium fishes (e.g. gouramis, Siamese fighting fish, and paradise fish).
1950Webster Add., *Labyrinth fish, any fish of the order Labyrinthici. 1961E. S. Herald Living Fishes of World 243/2 Because of the special labyrinthine breathing apparatus located in a cavity above each gill chamber.., the members of this family [sc. Anabantidae] are called labyrinth fishes. 1985Banister & Campbell Encycl. Underwater Life 120/1 The anabantids include the climbing perch, the Kissing gourami and the genus of Siamese fighting fish. They are also called labyrinth fishes.
▪ II. ˈlabyrinth, v.
[f. labyrinth n.]
trans. To enclose in or as in a labyrinth; to arrange in the form of a labyrinth.
1808J. Barlow Columb. ix. 201 Close labyrinth'd here the feign'd Omniscient dwells. 1820Keats Lamia ii. 53 How to entangle..Your soul in mine and labyrinth you there. 1846Ruskin Mod. Paint. (1851) II. iii. §i. v, The purple clefts of the hill side are labyrinthed in the darkness. |