| 释义 |
withers, n. pl.|ˈwɪðəz|
occas. sing. wither. Also 7 weather-.
[app. a reduced form of widersome or -sone (see quots. 1541–2, 1547), f. wider- = wither-1 + an obscure element; cf. G. widerrist withers, f. wider- wither-1 + rist wrist.]
a. In a horse, The highest part of the back, lying between the shoulder-blades. Also, the corresponding part in some other animals, as the ox or the sheep. Often in fig. context, esp. after Shakes. (quot. 1602), with allusion to the ‘wringing’ of a horse's withers.
1541–2Act 33 Hen. VIII, c. 5 §1 Every horse..to be..in heyght xiiij handfulles..measured from the nether parte of the here of the houghe unto the upper part of the Wydersomes, That is to saye, the upper parte of the Shulders. 1547Salesbury Dict. Engl. Welsh, Yskwydd gudun, the wyder sone.
1580Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 249 Wring not a horse on the withers, with a false saddle. 1594Blundevil Exerc. iv. xix. (1597) 221 b, In his [sc. the Bull's] necke toward the Withers are 7 starres. 1596Nashe Saffron Walden P 4, That wrung him on the withers worse than all the rest. 1602Shakes. Ham. iii. ii. 252 Let the gall'd iade winch: our withers are vnrung. 1607Dekker & Webster Westw. Hoe v. i. H 2 b, Never were three innocent Citizens..so abhominably wrung vnder the withers. 1649G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. IV, cccxlvii, Though the chaine of Tyrranye..gall'd the withers of their will. 1729Swift Direct. Serv. v, Contrive that the Saddle may pinch the Beast in his Withers. 1838Lytton Alice v. iii, ‘Tell me now’, said Caroline pressing on the wrung withers, [etc.]. 1839Darwin Voy. Nat. ii. 25 The Vampire bat is often the cause of much trouble, by biting the horses on their withers. 1867S. Baker Nile Trib. xviii. 475 The shoulders [of the sable antelope]..are extremely high at the withers. 1886Symonds Renaiss. It., Cath. React. (1898) VII. xi. 179 There is not a city of Italy which Tassoni did not wring in the withers of its self-conceit.
sing.1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 597 The wither of the beast, I meane the top of his shoulder next to his necke. 1695Lond. Gaz. No. 3096/4 A black Gelding,..the Hair clipt on his Wither. 1770G. White Selborne, To Pennant Mar., I measured it [sc. the moose-deer], as they do an horse, and found that, from the ground to the wither, it was just five feet four inches. 1850‘H. Hieover’ Pract. Horsemanship 118 The saddle, pressing on the off side of the wither, would pinch the horse. 1908Animal Managem. 160 A wide wither is nearly as troublesome as a high one.
b. transf. The part of a saddle which comes over the withers.
1764T. Wallis Farrier's Dict. s.v. Bows of a Saddle, The withers is the arch that rises two or three fingers over the horse's withers.
c. attrib. and Comb., as wither-gall, wither pad, wither-strap; witherband, -lock (see quots.); witherwrung a., injured in the withers.
1656Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. i. xxxi. 54 A three-wheel'd Charret..drawn by lean weather⁓wrung-Jades. 1764T. Wallis Farrier's Dict. s.v. Bands of a Saddle, Besides these two great bands, the fore-bow has a small one called the wither-band, and a crescent to keep up the wither arch. Ibid., Witherband,..a band or piece of iron, laid underneath a saddle, about four fingers above the withers of the horse, to keep tight the two pieces of wood that form the bow. 1767S. Paterson Another Trav. II. v. 57 A..broken-winded..wither-wrung..horse. 1794W. Felton Carriages (1801) II. Gloss., Wither Strap, a part of the harness, which goes round the withers of the horse to hold up the collar. 1825Jamieson, Witherlock, that lock of hair in the mane, of which one takes hold when mounting on horse-back. 1886Cornh. Mag. Sept. 299 Many of them had open kidney-sores and wither-galls. 1963E. H. Edwards Saddlery xv. 112 Numnahs and wither pads are used in conjunction with saddles. 1976Horse & Hound 3 Dec. 52 (Advt.), The John Ayres New Zealand Rug... Featuring a sheepskin wither pad. |