| 释义 |
ˈblack-thorn|ˈblækθɔːn|
1. a. A common thorny shrub, bearing white flowers before the leaves and very small dark purple plums; called also the Sloe (Prunus spinosa): the name is probably due to the dark colour of the naked branches, with which the white flowers strongly contrast. Its wood is prized for walking-sticks.
1388Wyclif Dan. xiii. 58 Vndur a blak thorn [1382 plum tree]. 1496Bk. St. Albans, Fysshynge 8 Take a fayr shote of blacke-thorn; crabbe tree; medeler. 1578Lyte Dodoens vi. xlvii. 721 The wilde Plumme tree, Blacke thorne, and Sloo tree. 1634Habington Castara ii. §2. xix, Love shall in that tempestuous showre Her brightest blossome like the blacke-thorne show. 1842Tennyson May Queen ii. 8, I shall never see The blossom on the black⁓thorn, the leaf upon the tree. 1882Garden 8 Apr. 241/1 One of the best flowering shrubs we know is the double-flowered Blackthorn.
b. A walking-stick or cudgel made of the stem of this shrub.
1849W. H. Maxwell Stories Waterloo, An hundred blackthorns rattled above my head.
c. attrib., as in blackthorn leaves, black-thorn winter. Also Comb., as blackthorn-fleeced adj.
1789G. White Selborne (1813) II. 292 Blackthorn..usually blossoms while cold N.E. winds blow; so that the harsh rugged weather obtaining at this season, is called by the country people, blackthorn-winter. 1824Scott St. Ronan's xv, Tea, madam! I saw none. Ash leaves and black-thorn leaves were brought in. 1898C. M. Yonge John Keble's Parishes xvi. 214 Black⁓thorn winter is supposed to bring fresh cold in spring, when the bushes almost look as if covered by hoar-frost. 1905Daily Chron. 11 Apr. 4/7 ‘Blackthorn winter’ is the Gloucestershire name for the fit of January weather that almost always follows the flowering of the beautiful wild sloe blossom. 1946L. B. Lyon Rough Walk Home 28 Pray blackthorn-winter's dawn may rediscover us. 1948C. Day Lewis Poems 1943–47 84 Walking by blackthorn-fleeced Hedges to church.
2. U.S. A species of hawthorn (Cratægus tomentosa), also called Pear-thorn. Webster 1864, and Miller Plant-n. 1884. In W. Indies, a species of Acacia (A. Farnesiana).
1737J. Brickell Nat. Hist. N. Carolina 79 The Black Thorn..grows plentifully in several parts of this Province. 1798Trans. N.Y. State Soc. Agric. I. iii. 18 The black thorn has been destroyed by a worm that preys upon its twigs. 1848A. Gray Man. Bot. 128 Black or Pear Thorn. |