| 释义 |
rose-water|ˈrəʊzˈwɔːtə(r)|
[f. rose n. + water n. Cf. MDu. rose(n)-, rooswater (Du. rozenwater), MLG. rosenwater, MHG. rôs(en)waz̧z̧er (G. rosenwasser), MSw. rosenvatn (Sw. -vatten, Da. -vana).]
1. a. Water distilled from roses, or impregnated with essence of roses, and used as a perfume, etc.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. v. (Bodl. MS.), Men temper þe wyne wiþ rose water. 1456Cov. Leet-bk. 292 He payde for a glasse of Rose water that my lord Ryvers had ij s. 1553Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 17 Their Priestes washe the Image of the deuyll with rose water. 1594Nashe Unfort. Trav. Wks. (Grosart) V. 37 Their nere bitten beardes must.. be dewd euerie daie with rose water. 1620Venner Via Recta vi. 95 Orenges sliced and sopped in Rose-water and Sugar, are very good to coole..the stomacke. 1662W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. xi. 215/1 The Rose-water is not the less sweet, because one writes Wormwood-water on the glass. 1712tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 111 It is of these Roses we make the best Rose-Water. 1782F. Burney Cecilia vi. xi, After dinner you shall bathe them in rose-water. 1850Thackeray Pendennis li, He..could scent his pocket-handkerchief with rose-water. 1856Delamer Fl. Garden (1861) 141 A well-known type is the medical rose, grown..for the preparation of rose-water by distillers.
b. With a and pl. rare.
1582Lichefield tr. Castanheda's Conq. E. Ind. i. xiii. 33 So came they thether,..finding there..coralls, Rose waters, and all kinde of Conserues. a1586Sidney Arcadia (1622) 246 Haue you euer seene a pure Rosewater kept in a crystall glasse? how fine it looks? how sweet it smels? 1806Med. Jrnl. XV. 70 A fragrant rose water is distilled from the root [of yellow rose-wort]. 1870Emerson Soc. & Sol. vii. 133 We may yet find a rose-water that will wash the negro white.
c. attrib., as rose-water bottle, rose-water bowl, rose-water dish, rose-water ewer, etc.; also rose-water pear (see quots. 1676, 1786); rose-water pipe, an oriental tobacco-pipe in which the smoke passes through rose water before reaching the mouth; rose-water still, a still for making rose-water.
1629J. Parkinson Parad. iii. xxi. 592 The Rosewater peare is a goodly faire peare, and of a delicate taste. 1663Boyle Usef. Exp. Nat. Philos. ii. ii. 79 Made by a bare distillation in a common rose-water still. 1676Worlidge Cyder (1691) 214 The Rosewater-pear, the Shortneck,..are..very good table fruit. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 248 Also Rose-Water Bottles, the best Water whereof is Distilled here. 1786Abercrombie Gard. Assist., Arr. p. xii, Pears,..Principal Varieties... Summer Pears Ripe in August and September... Rose-water [etc.]. 1835N. P. Willis Pencillings by Way II. xxi. 234 A string of beads in one hand, and a splendid narghilé, or rose-water pipe, in the other. 1869Corporation & College Plate 6 The fashion of ewers and rose-water dishes was introduced from the East to Europe. Ibid., Rose-water Ewer. 1886Cakes & other Good Things (ed. 2) 3 Rose-water Cake. 1898Jeanes Mod. Confect. 263 Rosewater Ice. 1956G. Taylor Silver v. 97 A rose⁓water dish of 1672 belonging to St John's College, Oxford. 1960H. Hayward Antique Coll. 243/2 Rose⁓water ewer and dish or basin, used for finger-washing at table. 1968Canad. Antiques Collector June 9/3 The rose water bowl or basin was like an enormous soup plate, 12 to 20 inches in diameter. It had an extra wide rim, two inches or more, around the slightly depressed center and was usually ornately decorated.
2. fig. or in fig. context.
1590Greene Never too late (1600) 8 Wetting Cupids wings with rosewater, and tricking vp his quiver with sweete perfumes. 1598E. Guilpin Skial. (1878) 65 But I must..haue A blessing of Rose-water, ere I goe. 1830Morn. Chron. 4 Aug., But for the 1500 killed and wounded..this would almost have been what Mirabeau said was impossible: a revolution of rose-water. 1870Lowell Study Wind., Condesc. Foreigners Wks. 1890 III. 241 We do not ask to be sprinkled with rosewater.
3. attrib. in fig. uses:
a. Of language: Fair, flattering. rare—1.
1598E. Guilpin Skial. (1878) 37 Come to the Court, and Balthazer affords Fountaines of holy and rose-water words... Nothing but cossenage doth the world possesse.
b. Gentle, mild, sentimental.
1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. ii. vi. i, It is not a Revolt, it is a Revolution; and truly no rose-water one! 1855Mrs. Gaskell North & S. xv, ‘They are that,’ replied Mr. Thornton. ‘Rose-water surgery won't do for them’. 1872Bagehot Physics & Pol. (1876) 213 This is no pleasant power, no ‘rose-water’ authority.
c. Elegant, superfine.
1840Thackeray Catherine iii, To paint such thieves as they are: not dandy, poetical, rose-water thieves; but real downright scoundrels. 1883Cent. Mag. Sept. 738 Because you're not [rich], she will strike for one of them rose-water snobs on Algonquin Avenue.
d. Pleasant, comfortable. rare.
1889Gretton Memory's Harkback 21, I was to be cut adrift.., and sent to rough it among strangers in a new and anything but a rose-water life.
Hence ˈrose-ˈwater v., ˈrose-ˈwatered, ˈrose-ˌwatery, adjs.
1600Rowlands Lett. Humours Blood iv. 63 Mellfluuious, sweete Rose-watred elloquence. 1876Sir R. F. Burton in Lady Burton Life II. (1893) 72 My language is not rose-watered. 1893Edin. Rev. July 59 Literary revolutionists have rosewatered Catiline. 1902G. B. Shaw Let. 20 June (1972) II. 277 The comparatively rose-watery part of it [sc. a situation in Mrs. Warren's Profession]. |