| 释义 |
ˈblue-bird
1. a. A small perching bird allied to the Warblers (Motacilla sialis Linn., Sylvia sialis Wilson, Erythaca Wilsonii Swainson), common in the United States, where it appears in early spring, taking its departure in the autumn. Its upper part is sky-blue; breast and throat reddish-chestnut.
1688J. Clayton in Phil. Trans. XVII. 996 A Bird they call a Blew-bird, of a curious azure colour, about the bigness of a Chafinch. a1813A. Wilson (title) The American Blue-Bird. 1846Longfellow Not always May i, The blue-bird prophesying spring. 1881J. Hawthorne Fort. Fool i. xxxiii, Blue-birds, with a flash of sky on their backs.
b. fig. Happiness (in allusion to the title of a play, L'Oiseau bleu by Maurice Maeterlinck).
1909A. T. de Mattos tr. Maeterlinck's Blue Bird iii. ii. 131 You are looking for the Blue Bird, that is to say, the great secret of things and of happiness. 1909Beerbohm L'Oiseau Bleu in Yet Again 300 All these ladies..have tried to catch this same Blue Bird. 1968K. O'Hara Bird-Cage vi. 46 A little blue dickey-bird. A bluebird of happiness, a love-bird of happiness.
2. ? A species of albatross (Diomedea fuliginosa ‘albatross of China,’ Penny Cycl.).
1731Medley Kolben's Cape G. Hope II. 152 The description..of the Cape Blue-bird. |