| 释义 |
ˈmill-pond
[mill n.1]
The water retained above a mill-dam for driving a mill. Also attrib.
1697W. Dampier Voy. I. 217 It was quite calm, and the Sea as smooth as a Mill-pond. 1766Smollett Trav. I. xix. 301 In the month of November, when the Mediterranean is always calm and smooth as a mill-pond. 1886A. Winchell Walks Geol. Field 51 The farmer's fields contributed the material that lies in the bottom of the mill-pond.
attrib.a1706Evelyn Sylva iii. iv. (1776) 521 Lay therefore your boards a fortnight in the water, (if running, the better, as at some mill-pond head).
b. humorous. [Anticipated, and perhaps orig. suggested by, the use in quots. 1813.] The Atlantic, esp. that part of the ocean traversed by ships passing between Britain and North America. Cf. herring-pond.
[1813‘H. Bull-Us’ Diverting Hist. John Bull & Bro. Jonathan (ed. 2) i. 5 He put himself in a boat, and paddled over the mill-pond to some new lands. Ibid. ii. 12 The tenants began to carry their grain to different parts of the great mill-pond.] 1885G. Allen Babylon xi. (1886) 79 And now, while Minna Wroe was waiting at table in Regent's Park,..how was our other friend Hiram Winthrop employing his time beyond the millpond? |