| 释义 |
ˈriver-ˌdigging orig. U.S.
[f. river n.1 + digging vbl. n.]
a. pl. Gold or diamond diggings in the neighbourhood of a river or stream, or in a dried-up river-bed.
b. The action of digging at such a place. Hence river-digger. Cf. digging vbl. n. 4.
1851D. B. Woods Sixteen Months at Gold Diggings i. 13 The ‘river diggings’ include the bars and auriferous portions of the channels of the tributaries of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, during their passage through the foot-hills. 1862[see dry diggings s.v. dry a. C. 3]. 1881E. E. Frewer tr. Holub's Seven Yrs. S. Afr. I. iii. 60 The settlement at the river-diggings sprang up with a rapidity as marvellous as those of California. 1904L. J. Spencer tr. Bauer's Precious Stones I. ii. 185 The amalgamation of the ‘dry diggings’ to form the De Beers Consolidated Mines, has had the effect of increasing the number of river diggers. 1920F. C. Cornell Glamour of Prospecting i. 10 A modicum of genuine men of past experience—principally ex-‘river-diggers’—men whose small capital was running away like water for bare necessities in this miserable dust-hole of creation. 1947L. Hastings Dragons are Extra i. 10 Dabbling in river⁓digging for diamonds. 1947E. Afr. Ann. 1946–7 122/1 The ‘river diggings’ of South Africa where workings extend..along present or ancient river beds. |