| 释义 |
ˈrolling stone
Also rolling-stone.
[f. rolling ppl. a. or vbl. n.2]
1. In the prov. a rolling stone gathers no moss, or variants of this: see moss n.1 3 b.
The proverb, with the same or similar wording, is found in various languages from at least the 15th century.
1546Heywood Prov. (1867) 26 The rollyng stone neuer gatherth mosse. 1581Mulcaster Positions xxxvii. (1887) 156 [They] reape as much learning, as the rowling stone doth gather mosse. 1618Breton Courtier & Countryman Wks. (Grosart) II. 8/2, I haue heard that roling stones gather no mosse. 1720T. Boston Fourfold State (1797) 305 A rolling stone gathers no fog. 1853Trench Prov. 45 The old Greek proverb, ‘A rolling stone gathers no moss’. 1886‘Sarah Tytler’ Buried Diamonds xxii, The sudden turning up of Jack as a roving brother, who, like a rolling stone, gathered no moss.
2. A rambler, wanderer; a good-for-nothing.
1611Cotgr., Rodeur,..a rolling stone, one that does nought but runne here and there. 1621Sanderson Serm. I. 212 Some men are ever restless... But thes rowling stones carry their curse with them; they seldom gather moss. 1887H. Smart Cleverly Won i. 1 It was odd that he should have been so much of a rolling-stone. 1892Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 6 Dec. 6/5 He was a shiftless fellow,—a rolling stone.
attrib.1887T. A. Trollope What I remember I. ii. 41 One of the results of such a rolling-stone life as mine has been.
3. A cylindrical stone used for crushing, flattening, etc., esp. in the form of a heavy roller.
1611Cotgr., Rollon, a rowler, a rowling stone. 1664Evelyn Sylva (1679) 26 Stubbed oak is the fittest timber for the case of a cider mill, and suchlike engines, as best enduring the unquietness of a ponderous rolling stone. 1709J. Ward Introd. Math. v. (1734) 402 A Cylinder (or Solid, like a Rolling-stone in a Garden). 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 474 A rolling stone, a wheel⁓barrow,..are fitted for peculiar uses of mankind. 1839H. T. De la Beche Rep. Geol. Cornw., etc. xv. 494 The granite annually raised in the district and employed for bridges, pavements, rolling-stones [etc.]. 1846Keightley Notes Virg. 353 It [the threshing-floor] was then made solid and level with rammers or a rolling-stone. |