| 释义 |
▪ I. ˈbird's-nest, bird-nest, n.
1. a. (Usually two words): The nest of a bird; spec. the edible nest of certain species of swallow found in the Chinese Sea. Also attrib., as in bird's-nest soup.
1599Shakes. Much Ado ii. i. 229 A Schoole-boy..ouerioyed with finding a birds nest. 1760Goldsm. Cit. W. xcvii, I am for a Chinese dish of bear's claws and bird's nests. 1865Longfellow Hiaw. Introd. 25 In the bird's-nests of the forest. 1864R. Reid Glasgow & Env. 354 The [cotton] yarns..were imported in globular balls, pretty similar to a bird's nest, and got the name of Bird-nest Yarns. 1871M. Collins Mrq. & Merch. II. iii. 82 Ideas..as strange to an..Englishman's brain as bird's-nest soup to his palate.
b. transf. Also attrib.
1931R. Campbell Georgiad ii. 32 A bird's-nest wig, a melancholy face. 1950A. Christie Murder is Announced i. 16 Her curly bird's nest of grey hair was in a good deal of disorder. 1961Sunday Express 19 Feb. 14/3 Worn with dark legs and a bird's nest hair style.
2. A cask or similar shelter fixed at the mast-head of ships in the Arctic regions to protect the man on the look-out; a crow's nest.
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk.
3. A name given to several plants:
a. The Wild Carrot (or its concave umbel);
b. Monotropa Hypophitys;
c. = Bird's-nest Orchid.
1597Gerard Herbal i. cccxci, Wilde Carrot..The whole tuft is drawne together when the seede is ripe, resembling a birdes nest, whereupon it hath been named of some Birds nest. Ibid. i. cvi. 176 Nidus avis, Birdes nest..hath many tangling rootes platted or crossed one ouer another verie intricately..It is esteemed a degenerate kinde of Orchis. 1848W. Gardiner Flora Forfar. 84 Wild Carrot. This is the origin of our garden carrot, and is sometimes called Bird's nest. 1861Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. V. 200 Order. Orchideæ..(Common Bird's nest). 1870Hooker Stud. Flora i. xliv. §12 Monotropa, Bird's-nest..a saprophyte feeding on decayed vegetable matter.
4. bird's-nest fern, a name given to various exotic ferns from their habit of growth; bird's-nest orchid (Neottia Nidus-avis), a plant, wild in Britain, entirely of a brown feuillemort colour.
1858W. Ellis Vis. Madagascar xi. 285 The large bird's nest ferns might sometimes be seen at the end of the trunk of a dead tree. 1875I. L. Bird Sandwich Isl. (1880) 82 The glossy, tropical-looking bird's-nest fern, or Asplenium Nidus. 1883Good Words Dec. 791/1 The Birds'-Nest Orchid wears the livery of withered leaves.
5. Path. (See quots.)
1879St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 500 A tubular epithelioma..consisting of numerous tracks of epithelial cells (without any birds' nests). 1879Syd. Soc. Lex., Bird's nest bodies, a name given to a condition of arrangement of the scaly cells of epithelial cancer, in which they are placed in nest fashion around a circular central space, which contains amorphous colloid matter or degenerated cells. 1885Buck's Handbk. Med. Sci. I. 771/1 Concentric formations known as ‘birds' nests’, which characterize the typical squamous epithelioma. 1894Gould Dict. Med., Bird's-nest Bodies, or Cells, the cells of certain forms of carcinoma, distinguished by the concentric arrangement of their cell-walls.
6. bird's-nest spider = bird-spider (bird n. 9).
1910Encycl. Brit. II. 307/1 The larger species of Bird's Nest Spiders (Avicularia)..undoubtedly attack young birds.
▪ II. ˈbird's-ˌnest, bird-nest, v.
[Inferred from the gerund bird's nesting, which was much earlier in use; cf. nutting, to nut, etc.]
intr. To search for bird's nests.
1856J. Grant Black Drag, xlvi, A thicket of fir-trees, in which I had often bird-nested. 1875A. Hope My Schoolboy Fr. 148 They went to birdnest in the morning. 1877M. Laffan Hon. Miss Ferrard II. ii. 227 A solitary magpie, birdsnesting. |