| 释义 |
pine knot U.S.
[pine n.2 7.]
A knot of pine-wood, usu. burned as a fuel or for illumination, and adduced as a symbol of hardness, toughness, etc. Also fig. and attrib.
c1670Plymouth (Mass.) Rec. (1889) I. 119 There shalbe noe pyne knot picked. 1791W. Bartram Carolina 387 To collect a great quantity of wood and Pine knots to feed our fires. 1808J. N. Barker Indian Princess iii. i. 47 [She] lit me with her pine-knot torch to bedward. 1835‘H. Bull-Us’ Diverting Hist. John Bull & Bro. Jonathan (new ed.) i. 8 Jonathan, though as hard as a pine knot,..could bear it no longer. 1850H. C. Watson Camp-Fires of Revolution 31 We stuck to them as close as pine-knots. 1853‘P. Paxton’ Stray Yankee in Texas 310 We stood..with the bright light of a pineknot fire shining full upon us. 1856X. D. MacLeod Biogr. F. Wood 48 The human pine-knot John C. Calhoun. 1876S. & A. Warner Gold of Chickaree 360 You know as well as I do, that you are a pine knot for endurance. 1897Outing XXX. 69/2, I held a pine-knot for him to make the entry in our log-book. 1904G. S. Porter Freckles 95 He was as tough as a pine-knot and as agile as a panther. 1945B. A. Botkin Lay my Burden Down 62 When the boys would start to the quarters from the field, they would get a turn of lider [sc. lightwood] knots. I 'specks you knows 'em as pine knots. 1961B. Palmer Many are Hearts 137 The dark night flecked with pine-knot torches. 1979M. G. Eberhart Bayou Road xvii. 175 There was the red, smokey flare of lighted pine knots ahead. |