| 释义 |
prehensile, a.|prɪˈhɛnsɪl, -saɪl|
[a. F. préhensile (Buffon), f. as prec. + -ile, -ile.]
a. Capable of prehension; having the capacity of grasping or laying hold of anything. Also fig.
1781–5Smellie tr. Buffon's Nat. Hist. (1791) VIII. 185 By..his prehensile tail, he [the Coaita] is easily distinguished from the monkeys. 1854Owen Skel. & Teeth (1855) 24 Not any of the limbs of fishes are prehensile. 1871Darwin Desc. Man I. iv. 142 With some savages..the foot has not altogether lost its prehensile power. 1945R. Hargreaves Enemy at Gate 23 Hungry, prehensile soldiers of fortune. 1959Listener 15 Oct. 633/1 A prehensile readability. 1966G. Greene in New Statesman 25 Feb. 254/2 Martha was the plump and prehensile wife of a German correspondent who was suspected of strong Nazi sympathies. She was said to look after men's needs with a simple and indiscriminate fervour. 1976Time 27 Dec. 52/3 Retailers have been eying Kong's potential with prehensile enthusiasm.
b. Comb., as prehensile-lipped, prehensile-tailed.
1822–34Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) III. 13 M. Cuvier suspects that it [the sense of touch in the tail] has a similar existence in all the prehensile-tailed mammals. 1899F. V. Kirby Sport E.C. Africa xii. 133 The prehensile-lipped rhinoceros. 1905Westm. Gaz. 18 Sept. 4/1 Prehensile-tailed creatures are, as a rule, restricted to the New World. |