释义 |
molten, ppl. a.|ˈməʊlt(ə)n| Forms: see melt v. [strong pa. pple. of melt v.] 1. Liquefied by heat; in a state of fusion. Now said only of metals or other bodies that require great heat to melt them; not, e.g., of wax or ice. Cf. melted.
c1375Sc. Leg. Saints xlviii. (Juliana) 39 Þar men þane dang hir sare,..& moltyne led he gert ȝet a-pone hir hed. 1500–20Dunbar Poems xxvi. 62 Out of thair throttis thay schot on vdder Hett moltin gold. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 135 To some the boylynge oyle or molte leed hath ben no more payne, than the pleasaunt warme water. Ibid. 192 b, Goddes of metall molten. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, v. iii. 34, I am as hot as molten Lead, and as heauy too. 1611L. Barrey Ram-Alley iv. i, It lies, As heauy in my belly as moult lead. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 686 Scum that on the molten Silver swims. 1784Cowper Task i. 170 The stream, That, as with molten glass, inlays the vale. 1884C. G. W. Lock Workshop Receipts Ser. iii. 249/2 Malleable iron is iron which has been ‘decarburized’..by the action of air upon it in a molten state. b. fig.
1824Landor Imag. Conv., Demosth. & Eub. Wks. 1853 I. 86/2 He leaves them in the quiet possession of all their moulten arguments. 1871Swinburne Songs bef. Sunrise, Tenebræ 27 In the manifold sound remote, In the molten murmur of song. 1884F. Harrison Choice Bks. (1886) 253 The molten passion of Burke. 1885Times (weekly ed.) 15 May 5/3 The molten material of his mind too abundant for the capacity of the mould, overflowed it in gushes of fiery excess. †c. molten grease (see quot. 1754). Obs.
1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Molten Grease, a Disease in Horses. 1754Bartlet Farriery (ed. 2) 166 By molten-grease is meant a fat or oily discharge with the dung, and arises from a colliquation or melting down of the fat of the horse's body, by violent exercise in very hot weather. 2. a. Of metal or other substance: That has been melted (and again solidified). b. Of an image, etc.: Made or produced by melting and running into a mould; = cast ppl. a. 8.
c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 316/580 Þei he of molten bras were. 1428Surtees Misc. (1888) 2 Ȝai fand certein smale peces multen tyn menged with other metall. 1535Coverdale Exod. xxxii. 4 They made a molten calf. 1641Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 29 Wee buy our molten tallowe..of the hucksters and tripe-wives. 1718Prior Solomon ii. 327 His Mystic Form the Artizans of Greece In wounded Stone, or molten Gold, express. †3. Dissolved (in a liquid); also, loosely, reduced to a partially liquid condition, e.g. by putrefaction.
a1300Cursor M. 22791 It semis al again kind þan man es molten flexs and banes, fra time þat þai be roten anes ha pith and lijf als þai had ar. c1420Pallad. on Husb. ii. 284 And summe hem kepe Thre nyght in molten [L. liquide] donge. 4. Comb., as molten-blue, molten-crystal, molten-golden adjs.
1862G. M. Hopkins Poems (1930) 132 As though some sapphire molten-blue Were vein'd and streak'd with dusk-deep lazuli.
1950D. Gascoyne Vagrant 27 Moulting molten-crystal plumes of birds of paradise.
1849Poe Bells in Sartain's Union Mag. Nov. 304/1 From the molten-golden notes,..What a liquid ditty floats. Hence ˈmoltenly adv., like what is molten.
1870Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. iii. (1870) 149 A..language..that is still hot from the hearts and brains of a people, not hardened yet, but moltenly ductile to new shapes of sharp and clear relief in the moulds of new thought. |