| 释义 |
▪ I. beak, n.1|biːk|
Forms: 3–6 bec, 4–5 bek, beke, 4–6 beeke, 6 becke (pl. bex), 6–7 beake, 7 beack, 7–8 beck, 7– beak.
[a. F. bec (= It. becco, Pr. bec, Sp., Pg. bico:—late L. beccus), of Gaulish origin. Suetonius says (Vitell. 18) that Antonius Primus, who was born at Toulouse, had as a boy the nickname of Beccus, ‘id valet, gallinacei rostrum.’ According to Thurneysen, probably related to the Celtic stem bacc- ‘hook’; but the mod. Celtic words, Irish bec, Breton bek, beg, are ‘certainly borrowed’ from Eng. and Fr. The original short vowel of Fr. bec, ME. bec, bek, was still retained in beck in the 18th c., but the form beek, beak, with lengthened vowel, occurred in the plural at least, where it evidently originated (bek-es being made into be-kes, bē-kes, beekes, beaks; cf. staff, staves) as early as 1400.]
I. Original and allied senses.
1. a. The horny termination of the jaws of a bird, consisting of two pointed mandibles adapted for piercing and for taking firm hold: a bird's bill.
c1220Bestiary 58 in O.E. Misc. 3 Siðen his bec is al to-wrong. 1399Pol. Poems (1859) I. 395 But the nedy nestlingis..burnisched her beekis, and bent to himwardis. 1486Bk. St. Albans A vj b, Ye shall say this hauke has a large beke or a shortt beke, and call it not bille. c1532Ld. Berners Huon cxxi. 432 The Gryffon..was redy to dystroye hym with his becke and naylys. a1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 89 If peacook and turkey leaue iobbing their bex. 1611Shakes. Cymb. v. iv. 118 His Royall Bird Prunes the immortall wing, and cloyes his Beake. 1713C'tess of Winchilsea Misc. Poems 107 With Vultur's Becks, And Shoulders higher than their Necks. 1831Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. vii. (1838) 187 The Eagle..to attain his new beak, must harshly dash off the old one upon rocks.
b. birds of a beak (cf. ‘birds of a feather’; see a a.2 3).
1607Dekker Knt's Conjur. (1842) 28 Cut vp one cut vp all; they were birdes all of a beake.
c. transf. The long snout of a fish.
1889in Cent. Dict. 1927Observer 24 July 22 A 38-lb. cock-salmon... I was obliged to measure it, and I made it over 50 inches, from tail to beak.
2. The extremities, often horny in structure, of the mandibles of other animals; e.g. the turtle, ornithorhynchus, octopus, etc.
1822Burrowes Cycl. s.v. Sepia. Their beak is like that of a parrot. 1840Penny Cycl. s.v. Ornithorhynchus, The edge of the osseous beak. 1847Carpenter Zool. §485 Tortoises..[have] the mouth destitute of teeth, but furnished with a horny beak. 1877Symonds Renaiss. Italy vi. 317 An octopus which..shoots its beak into a vital spot.
†3. The snout or muzzle of quadrupeds. Obs.
1567J. Maplet Gr. Forest 85 [The Elephant's] becke is holpen with that snowt that helpeth him euen as our hand doth. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 231 The beak or snowt of a Horse, ought not to stand out like a Swines.
4. The elongated head, proboscis, or sucker mouth of certain insects; e.g. the weevil, cochineal.
1658Rowland Mouffet's Theat. Ins. 1086 The Weevil..is formed like a small Beetle, it hath a beck proper to it self. 1847Carpenter Zool. §720 The young larvæ [of the Cochineal]..affix themselves by their sucking-beak. 1866Rye Brit. Beetles xvii. 174 The Rhynchophora..have the head elongated in front into a rostrum or beak.
5. humorously. The human nose.
[1598Florio, Naso adunco, a beake-nose.] 1854Thackeray Newcomes I. 296 The well-known hooked beak of the old Countess. 1865E. C. Clayton Cruel Fort. I. 143 A large, fat, greasy woman, with a prominent beak.
II. Transferred and technical senses.
6. A beak-shaped point or projection; a peak.
c1440Partonope 2100 Wyth the beke yet of his gleve. 1483in Planché Brit. Costume (1834) 212 Two hats of estate..with the round rolls behind and the beeks before. 1602Carew Cornwall (J.) Cuddenbeak, from a well advanced promontory, which entitled it beak. 1720Stow's Surv. (Strype 1754) I. iii. viii. 691/2 It was ordained..that Beaks of Shin [= shoes] and Boots should not pass the length of two inches. 1855tr. Labarte's Arts Mid. Ages iv. 106 A goose-quill cut to a point..but with a longer beak.
7. The pointed and ornamented projection at the prow of ancient vessels, esp. of war galleys, where it was used in piercing and disabling the enemy's vessels; now = beak-head.
1550Nicolls Thucyd. 183 (R.) Crushedde and brused in their foore partes with the beckes of the Corynthyans. 1610Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 197 Now on the Beake, Now in the Waste, the Decke, in every Cabyn, I flam'd amazement. 1738Glover Leonidas i. 63 Xerxes' navy with their hostile beaks. 1850Blackie æschylus I. 43 Ship on ship Struck clashing; beak on butting beak was driven.
8. a. In the shells of some univalves: A narrow prolongation of the shell beyond the aperture in the axial line, containing the ‘canal.’
b. In those of some bivalves: The projecting apex of each valve, situated directly above the hinge; also called umbo.
1851Richardson Palæont. viii. 240 The canal is the elongation of the aperture, in both lips of those shells which have a beak. 1854Woodward Mollusca ii. 245 The valves of the Conchifera are bound together by an elastic ligament..The apex is termed the beak, or umbo.
9. Bot. A sharp projecting process, or prolonged tip, as in the seeds of Crane's-bill, etc.
[1578Lyte Dodoens 45 Whose seedes be long and sharpe like to a Hearons beake or byl.] 1820J. Galpine Brit. Bot. 67 Siliques linear, smooth, with short beaks. 1870Hooker St. Fl. 75 Ovary..produced upwards into a styliferous beak.
10. The taper tube of a retort, still, etc.; a spout.
1641French Distill. v. (1651) 146 Take a Caldron with a..high cover having a beake or nose. 1827Faraday Chem. Manip. xx. 542 When the beak of a retort is dipped into such mercury.
†11. pl. A pair of pincers, a forceps. Obs.
1656Ridgley Pract. Physic 172 The bone must be cut away either with Beaks or Rasps. Ibid. 357 It is taken out with the Fingers, or Bekes, with or without cutting.
12. technically in mechanical arts:
a. in Printing (see quot.).
b. in Forging (see beak-iron).
c. in Carpentry, the crooked end of the holdfast of a carpenter's bench.
d. in Gas-fitting, a gas-burner with a circular hole 1/28 of an inch in diameter.
e. in Organ-building.
1676Moxon Print Lett. 21 The Projecture or Beak of the Stem. Ibid. 18 The Beak projects 1 stem on the left hand. 1831J. Holland Manuf. Metal I. 182 The beak or point of his anvil. 1852Seidel Organ 82 The mouth-piece..consists of the block, the beak, the tongue, the spring, the reed.
13. Farriery, ‘A little horse-shoe, turned up, and fastened in upon the forepart of the hoof. Its use is to keep the shoes fast.’ Chambers Cycl. Supp.
14. Arch. ‘A little pendent fillet left on the edge of the larmier, forming a canal behind to prevent the water from running down the lower bed of the cornice.’ Gwilt.
1734in Builder's Dict.
III. Comb., chiefly attrib., as beak-mouth, beak-nose (see 5), beak-rush, beak-sedge (see quot.); also the adjs. beak-bearing, beak-leaved, beak-like, beak-shaped, beak-sharp. See also beak-head, -iron.
1830Withering Bot. Arrangem. (ed. 7) II. 109 White Beak-rush; Rhynchospora alba..[found in] turfy bogs and marshes. 1839–47Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. III. 251/2 The beak-bearing mouth of the adult. 1849–52Ibid. IV. 878/2 The dense covering of the beak-like jaws of the Parrot-fishes. 1851Richardson Geol. viii. 232 The dorsal valve is the largest, and..develops a beak-shaped process. 188.G. M. Hopkins Poems (1918) 52 Only the beak-leaved boughs. 1921D. H. Lawrence Tortoises 9 To open your tiny beak-mouth. 1933W. de la Mare Fleeting 152 Beak-sharp nose.
▪ II. † beak, n.2 Obs. rare—1.
[? f. beak v.1, or F. becquer, in the sense ‘to give a stroke with the beak.’]
? A stroke with the beak; a thrust, a poke.
1592W. Wyrley Armorie 100 A hardie Britton thinking not to toy Vnto..my seruant gaue a beake.
▪ III. beak, n.3 slang.|biːk|
[Derivation unknown. ? from beak n.1; but in Harman's vocabulary of ‘Peddlers' French’ in his Caveat (1573), harman beck is explained as ‘the counstable’ (harman being ‘the stocks’).]
a. A magistrate or justice of the peace.
[1573Harman Caveat (Shaks. Soc. 1880) 84 The Harman beck, the counstable. Gipsy Song in Shaks. Eng. (1856) I. viii. 270 The ruffin (devil) cly (take) the nob (head) of the harman beck.] 1799in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. III. 352 Took a gentle walk to the [police] office..paid my respects to Sir William, and the rest of the beaks. a1845Hood Tale Trump. xxx, Dicky Gossips of birds, That talk with as much good sense and decorum, As many Beaks who belong to the quorum. 1838Dickens O. Twist (1850) 37/2 Why, a beak's a madgst'rate; and when you walk by a beak's order, it's..always agoing up, and nivir acoming down agin. 1879E. Walford Londoniana I. 233 We hope and trust [they] were brought before the ‘beak’ and duly punished.
b. transf. (Schoolboys' slang.) A schoolmaster.
1888Pall Mall G. 9 Feb. 5/1 One of the Eton masters, or ‘beaks’, if we may be allowed to use a schoolboy phrase. 1916E. F. Benson David Blaize ix, You can have your crib spread out..and he won't see it. He didn't ought to be a beak at all. 1926Spectator 11 Sept. 383/1 This scholarly Irishman and Eton ‘beak’. 1960Betjeman Summoned by Bells vii. 69 Comparing bruises, other boys could show Far worse ones that the beaks and prefects made.
▪ IV. beak, v.1|biːk|
Forms: 3–5 beke, (4 bike), 6 beake, 7 beck, 7– beak.
[a. OF. beque-r, bequier, f. bec beak n.1; cf. MHG. becken, bicken.]
1. To strike or seize with the beak, to peck; to push the beak (or snout) into:
a. trans.
c1230Ancr. R. 118 Ase deð þe pellican..mid hire owune bile bekie hire breoste. 1591Percivall Sp. Dict., Hocicar, to roote as a pigge, to busse, or beake. 1770Langhorne Plutarch (1879) I. 513/1 The crows came and beaked it for several days. 1861Mrs. Norton Lady La G. ii. 296 Some poor woodland bird, who stays his flight..And beaks the plumage of his glistening wings.
b. absol. or intr.: occas. fig.
c1230Ancr. R. 84 Þe bacbitare..bekeð mid his blake bile o cwike charoines. 1571Fortescue Forest Hist. 65 b, Certaine sparrowes..supposing they had been grapes, arrested them to beake thereon. 1780–6Wolcott (P. Pindar) Odes R. Acad. Wks. I. 113 Like cocks, for ever at each other beaking.
†c. spec. in Falconry; see quot.
1486Bk. St. Albans C viij, She bekyth when she sewith: that is to say she wypith hir beke.
2. intr. To project or stick out with or as a beak; to put or push out the beak; to ‘put out the nose,’ i.e. to peep out. rare.
c1230Ancr. R. 102 Totilde ancre..þet bekeð euer utward ase untowe brid ine cage. 1547Boorde Introd. Knowl. 207 On the toppe..is a thyng like a poding bekyng forward.
†3. ? To thrust, strike with a pointed weapon.[In the quotation biked may be for beked, as styked interchanges with steked, perh. the original reading here; but it may also be a distinct word. Mätzner compares MHG. bicken, and becken, ‘to pierce, strike through, hack, hew,’ ad. F. piquer, It. piccare.] c1300K. Alis. 2337 The thridde, Gildas, faste biked; Ac thorugh the throte he him styked.
4. trans. To ram (a vessel). Also absol. Hence ˈbeaking vbl. n.
1898Kipling Fleet in Being 55 We could run in and beak 'em while it's thick. I believe in beaking... Oh, he'd beak like a shot, if he saw his chance.
▪ V. beak
var. form of beek v. to warm. |