| 释义 |
ˈlock-jaw
[An alteration of the older locked jaw: see locked ppl. a.]
Popular name for trismus, or tonic spasm of the muscles of mastication, causing the jaws to remain rigidly closed; a variety of tetanus. ‘Also extended so as to mean Tetanus’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
1803Med. Jrnl. IX. 316 One girl..died of lock jaw. 1866A. Flint Princ. Med. (1880) 841 The jaws are firmly shut by the rigid contraction of the muscles, and hence the affection is known as lock-jaw. 1874Carpenter Ment. Phys. i. ii. §74 (1879) 78 Tetanus (commonly known as ‘lock-jaw’).
Hence ˈlock-jawed ppl. a., having the jaws fixed; fig. unable to speak.
1801J. Brown in Naval Chron. VII. 153 We were lock⁓jaw'd. 1809Malkin Gil Blas xi. v. ⁋7 On this theme you may expatiate till the populace become lock-jawed with astonishment. 1826J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 210, I burst out into such a torrent of indignant eloquence that the Slaves and Tyrants were all tongue-tied and lock⁓jawed before me. |