| 释义 |
▪ I. wraith, n. Orig. (and chiefly) Sc.|reɪθ|
Also 6 wrath, wrayth, wraithe, 7 wreath.
[Of obscure origin.]
1. a. An apparition or spectre of a dead person; a phantom or ghost.
1513Douglas æneid x. x. 112 Nor ȝit na vane wrathis nor gaistis quent Thi char constrenyt for to went. Ibid. xi. 93 In diuers placis The wraithis walkis of goistis that ar deyd. a1585Polwart Flyting w. Montgomerie 658 Thy speach..is espyed, That wrytes of witches, warlocks, wraiths, and wratches. 1786Burns ‘When Guilford good’ viii, Chatham's wraith, in heavenly graith,..cry'd, ‘Willie, rise!’ 1808Scott Marm. vi. Introd. 146 In realms of death Ulysses meets Alcides' wraith. 1861E. S. Kennedy in Peaks, Passes & Glaciers Ser. ii. I. 170 She..died broken-hearted... Afterwards, in the still of the evening,..the damsel's wraith would enter the dairy department. 1866Alger Solit. Nat. & Man iv. 288 While Winander, Fairfield and Rydal remain, to all visionary minds his [sc. Wordsworth's] wraith will haunt them. 1893T. E. Brown Old John, etc. 44 While I.. Drift vaporous to the ancient sea, A wraith, a film, a memory. 1900A. Upward E. Lobb 226 Tall, pale and hollow-eyed, with gaunt cheek-bones,..like a wraith from an extinct world.
fig.1880G. Macdonald Diary Old Soul Feb. ix, Duty's firm shape thins to a misty wraith.
b. An immaterial or spectral appearance of a living being, freq. regarded as portending that person's death; a fetch.
1513Douglas æneid x. xi. 127 Thydder went this wrath or schaddo of Ene. 1597Jas. VI Dæmonol. iii. i. 60 These kindes of spirites, when they appeare in the shaddow of a person..to die, to his friendes,..are called Wraithes in our language. 1691R. Kirk Secr. Commonwealth i. §7. 18 What the Low-countrey Scotts calls a Wreath, and the Irish Taibhshe or Death's Messenger. 1772–3R. Fergusson To Mem. Dr. W. Wilkie 35, I dream't yestreen his deadly wraith I saw Gang by my ein as white's the driven snaw... I kent that it forespak approachin' wae. 1802Scott Minstr. Scott. Bord. I. p. cxxxvi, The wraith..of a person shortly to die, is a firm article in the creed of Scotish superstition. 1824A. Grant in Mem. & Corr. (1844) III. 66 A wraith..is the shadowy likeness of an absent living person. 1838Lytton Alice xi. ii, As the shape of the warning wraith haunts the mountaineer. 1870Myers Poems 92 She and her love,—how dimly has she seen him Dark in a dream and windy in a wraith! 1871Tylor Prim. Cult. I. 404 This is well⁓shown by the reception not only of a theory of ghosts, but of a special doctrine of ‘wraiths’ or ‘fetches’.
transf.1849C. Brontë Shirley xvii, An opposition procession was there entering, headed also by men in black... ‘Is it our double?’ asked Shirley: ‘our manifold wraith?’
fig.1850Tennyson In Mem. lxxii. 13 O hollow wraith of dying fame, Fade wholly, while the soul exults.
c. Without article.
1884E. Gurney in 19th Cent. 796 The coincidences of death and wraith are due to chance. 1898H. Newbolt Island Race p. x, O Strength divine of Roman days, O Spirit of the Age of Faith, Go with our sons on all their ways When we long since are dust and wraith.
2. A water-spirit.
1742, etc. [see water n. 24 q]. 1801M. G. Lewis Bothwell's Bonny Jane ii, I hear, with mournful yell, The wraiths of angry Clyde complain. 1832J. Bree St. Herbert's Isle 132 Wraiths and warlocks by the rush-grown mere. 1854H. Miller Sch. & Schm. x. (1858) 203 Highlanders..cutting down their corn, when the boding voice of the wraith was heard.
3. An appearance or configuration suggestive of a wraith or spectre.
1882Whittier Storm on Lake Asquam iii, A fire-veined darkness swept Over the..range; A wraith of tempest,..From peak to peak the cloudy giant stepped. 1912L. Tracy Mirabel's Isl. i, Through the wraiths of scud he thought he had seen something.
4. attrib. and Comb., as wraith-land, wraith-seeing, wraith-ship, wraith-spell; wraith-like adj.
1756Yorkshire diary in N. & Q. (1922) 390/2 For the warding off of all things whatsoever from the dead—be they imps, wraithspells, wick things and the like ket. 1865J. Young Homely Pictures 126 Their leggies gat wraith-like, their cheekies gat death-like. 1871Tylor Prim. Cult. I. 405 In Silesia and the Tyrol the gift of wraith-seeing still flourishes. 1893Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch 27 Apr., What challenges are prompted to the great..to come from their wraithlands! 1924V. F. Boyson Falkland Islands viii. 181 Dimly as she came, so she passed away, as though in very truth the wraithship said to appear at every British naval fight.
▪ II. wraith
obs. Sc. var. wrath n., v., wroth a.
▪ III. wraith(e
erron. varr. rathe n.2
1824Carr Craven Gloss., Wraiths, shafts of a cart. 1851L. D. B. Gordon Art Jrnl. Illustr. Cat. p. vii**, The ‘wraithe’ is for the purpose of keeping the threads separate. 1897Westm. Gaz. 2 Feb. 7/2 He got a rope, fastened it..to the cart wraiths, and..strangled himself. |