释义 |
ˈlich-owl Also 6–7 like-owle. [f. lich + owl.] The screech-owl, so called because its cry was supposed to portend death in the house.
1585Higins Junius' Nomenclator 56 Bubo, a shrichowle: a likeowle. 1601Holland Pliny I. 283 The Otis is a bird lesse than the Like-Owle,..hauing two plumed ears standing vp aloft. 1604Drayton Owle 302 The shreeking Litch-Owle that doth never cry, But boding death. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 268/1 The little Horn-Owle..termed Lich Owls..because Prognosticaters of Peoples death, when they scrietch about there Houses. 1898Watts-Dunton Aylwin (1900) 32/2 Then came the shadow of a lich-owl, as it whisked past us towards the apple-trees. |