| 释义 |
▪ I. moat, n.1|məʊt|
Forms: 4–8 mote, 4–6 (9– dial.) mot(t, 5–6 moote, 6 moate, 7 moat.
[ME. mote, mot, app. identical with mote n.2 mound, embankment, a. OF. mote, motte.
The development of the sense ‘ditch’ from that of ‘embankment’ (for which cf. dike n.1, dam n.1) may have taken place in Norman-French: Moisy (Dict. Patois Normand) says that motte is still used in Normandy for ‘moat’, and quotes from an early document (? of 16th c.) a passage containing mote in this sense.]
1. Fortif. A deep and wide ditch surrounding a town, castle, or other building, usually filled with water as a protection against assault. Also transf. and fig.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. vi. 76 Þe Mot is of Merci þe maner al abouten. 1377Ibid. B. xix. 362 Conscience comaunded þo al crystene to delue, And make a muche mote. 1469Bury Wills (Camden) 46 Alle the curtelage..wyth jnne the moote. 1542Boorde Dyetary iv. (1870) 239 Yf there be a moote made aboute it [sc. a mansion], there should be some freesshe sprynge come to it. 1593Shakes. Rich. II, ii. i. 48 The siluer sea, Which serues it in the office of a wall, Or as a Moate defensiue to a house. 1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. vi. §276 The Close in Leitchfield..; a place naturally strong, and defended with a moat. 1694G. Savile New Model at Sea 4 It may be said now to England,..What shall we do to be saved in this World? There is no other answer, but this, Look to your Mote. 17..S. Jenyns Mod. Fine Lady in Dodsley Poems (1763) III. 174 Until at length appears the ruin'd hall Within the grass-green moat, and ivy'd wall. 1808Ld. Erskine in Hansard Parl. Debates X. 929 Surrounded by that impregnable moat with which the Divine Providence has fortified this island, we can say [etc.]. 1820W. Irving Sketch Bk., Royal Poet I. 194 The garden..occupies what was once the moat of the keep. 1871Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xviii. 153 A sort of ravine..forms a natural moat round the greater part of the city. 1937Times 16 Nov. 19/6 One pair [of ducks] yearly chose the old moat or ‘mott’, all among the reeds and the moorhens, [to nest in].
2. A pond, lake; esp. a fish-pond. Obs. exc. dial.
1463Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 563 My master put into his longe mote be the hye wey att Overbury halle, in roches, ixxx. [1472in Blount Law Dict. (1691) s.v. Mote, Rogerus tradidit prefato Thomæ tria stagna & unam Motam Piscariam existentem infra manerium Domini de Yeffyn.] 1539Act 31 Hen. VIII, c. 2 title, Fishing in any seuerall ponde stewe or mot with an intent to steale fishe out of the same is felony. 1598Yong Diana 71 They came to a large greene meadow, wherein was a very faire great moate of cleere water. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VI. 38 The water-hen..keeps near ponds, motes, and pools of water near gentlemen's houses. 1903Dial. Dict., Mot, a ‘moat’; a small pond. Chs. Nhp. War. Ess.
3. attrib. and Comb., as moat-side; moat-garden, one situated in a disused moat; † moat-hen, the moor-hen, Gallinula chloropus (cf. 1774 in 2); moat-house, a moated house.
1899Crockett Black Douglas (ed 2) 94 Sholto stood..on the topmost step of the ascent from the *moat-bridge.
1826Hor. Smith Tor Hill (1838) II. 82 The *moat-garden.
1544Turner Avium Præcip. I 6, Trynga, Anglicè a uuater hen, or a *mot hen.
1899Trevelyan Eng. Age Wycliffe 318 He was welcomed at nightfall to the kitchen fire of the *moat-house.
1697Vanbrugh Relapse iv. v, Will they open the Gate, or do they desire I should grow at their *Moat-side like a Willow?
▪ II. † moat, n.2 Obs.
Also 7 mot, moate, 8 mote.
[Cf. mit 2.]
A cheese-vat.
1602Plat Delightes for Ladies iii. xxii, You may deuise moates or cases [for cheese] either rounde or square of fine wicker. 1617,1629Cheese mot, moate [see cheese n.1 7]. 1736Bailey Househ. Dict. 171 Fill a narrow high cheese mote or vat, continually filling as the curd sinks, till the mote or vat is full.
▪ III. moat, v.|məʊt|
[f. moat n.1]
trans. To surround with or as with a moat, ditch, or trench. (Said of a personal agent, also of a river, fosse, etc. which serves as a moat.) Also with about, in, round.
c1420Anturs of Arth. 671 (Thornton MS.), I gyffe to the..Twa baronryse in Burgoyne, with burghes so balde, That are moted abowte [Douce MS. batailed abouȝte]. 1509Hawes Past. Pleas. xxxiv. (Percy Soc.) 175 A manour place, Moted about. 1606Holland Sueton. 17 The Cirque was enlarged on both sides and moted round about [L. & in gyrum Evripo addito]. 1680Morden Geog. Rect., Hungary (1685) 96 Komora is..moated by the Danow. 1700Dryden Ceyx & Alcyone 372 An Arm of Lethe with a gentle flow..The Palace moats. 1768Morant Essex II. 599/1 It is now but a farm-house moated in. 1779Forrest Voy. N. Guinea 183 A broad and straight street... It is so well raised, as never to be overflowed; and is moated on both sides. 1848J. A. Carlyle tr. Dante's Inferno (1849) 88 The deep fosses, which moat that joyless city. 1855Motley Dutch Rep. vi. xi. (1866) 804 Through the breach was seen a massive terreplein, well moated.
b. transf. and fig.
1617Bp. Hall Quo vadis (1624) §1 In moting our Iland with the Ocean he [God] meant to shut vs vp from other Regions. 1625B. Jonson Staple of N. iv. i, He [a mastercook]..Makes Citadels.., Some he dri-dishes, some motes round with broths. 1641J. Trappe Theol. Theol. iv. 181 Warding off (as well as they can) Gods blow, motting themselves up against his fire. 1652Benlowes Theoph. iii. lxvi, When purple robes hide scarlet sin Ingrain'd from that life⁓blood, which moated their Souls in. 1740H. Walpole Lett. (1857) I. 63 The torrent broke down the quays... We were moated into our house all day. 1742Young Nt. Th. v. 481 Moated round, with fathomless destruction. 1830Examiner 785/1 A prodigious effusion of cant..streamed forth, to moat in as it were, the new Government. 1852M. Arnold Empedocles on Etna ii, The sea of cloud That heaves its white and billowy vapours up To moat this isle of ashes from the world.
Hence ˈmoated ppl. a.
1592Sylvester Tri. Faith iv. xiv, Elias' Faith..Fir'd without fire his moated Sacrifice. 1603Shakes. Meas. for M. iii. i. 277 There at the moated-Grange recides this deiected Mariana. 1676Dryden Aurengz. Ep. Ded. 1 When he sees he can hardly approach Greatness, but as a Moated Castle. 1845Carlyle Cromwell I. Introd. iii. 38 A moated mansion, with ditch and painted paling round it. 1903Austin Flodden Field ii. 72, I would not be an hour with him alone, For all my vaunted moated maidenhood.
▪ IV. moat(e
obs. forms of mote. |