| 释义 |
mare's tail, mares-tail|ˈmɛəzteɪl|
1. A common book-name for aquatic or marsh plants of the family Halorageæ, esp. Hippuris vulgaris, formerly called Female Horsetail (see horsetail 2 b); often wrongly applied to the cryptogamous genus Equisetum (horsetail 2). Also attrib.
1762Hudson Fl. Anglica 2 Hippuris..Anglis Mare's-tail. 1864Tennyson Aylmer's F. 92 The petty marestail forest, fairy pines. 1868Sir J. Hooker Addr. in Rep. Brit. Assoc. p. lxv, The existing family of Equisetaceæ..contained previously but one genus, that of the common mare's tails of our river-banks and woods. 1879Jefferies Wild Life in S. Co. 374 On the shore, where it is marshy, the mares-tail flourishes.
2. pl. Long straight streaks of cirrus, supposed to foretoken stormy weather.
1775Dalrymple in Phil. Trans. LXVIII. 408, A.M. sky mare's tails. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xxix. (1856) 246 It resembled the mackerel fleeces and mare's tails of our summer skies at home. 1895Edin. Rev. Apr. 531 It is the cloud known to seamen..as ‘goats' hair’ or ‘mares' tails’.
attrib.1886Huxley in 19th Cent. XIX. 202 The wildest streaks of marestail clouds in the sky.
3. Anat. Rendering mod.L. cauda equina, the name given to a bundle of nerves at the lower extremity of the spine.
In some recent Dicts. |