| 释义 |
saurian, a. and n.|ˈsɔːrɪən|
[f. prec. + -an. Cf. F. saurien.]
A. adj.
1. Zool. Belonging to the order Sauria.
1807–29Edinb. Encycl. (1830) XI. 23/1 Saurian Reptiles. 1851Mantell Petrifactions iii. §5. 308 The Amblyrhynchi, the most exclusively vegetable feeders of the saurian order.
2. Pertaining to or characteristic of a saurian.
1826Ann. Rep. Yorksh. Philos. Soc. 14 in Lyell Princ. Geol. (1830) I. 129 note, Having found a saurian vertebra. 1844Mrs. Browning Drama of Exile 738 Earth methinks, Will..class these present dogmas with the rest Of the old⁓world traditions, Eden fruits And Saurian fossils. 1864Day in Geol. Mag. I. 61 They were not mixed up with Saurian remains, or those of any other species of Hybodus.
3. fig.
1864W. Bagehot in National Rev. XVIII. 525 Much of Tristram Shandy is a sort of antediluvian fun, in which uncouth Saurian jokes play idly in an unintelligible world. 1929G. Mitchell Mystery of Butcher's Shop i. 8 Mrs. Beatrice Lestrange Bradley..smiled the saurian smile of the sand lizard and basked in the sun. 1940― Brazen Tongue vi. 67 Lady Selina had never approved..the deep affection of her daughter Sally for this oddly saurian aunt. 1970[see morning-glory 1].
B. n.
1. (Zool.) A reptile of the order Sauria. Now chiefly in popular use, applied esp. to crocodiles and to large extinct lizard-like animals such as the ichthyosaurus, plesiosaurus, etc.
1807–29Edinb. Encycl. (1830) XI. 23/2 Flat-tailed Saurians. 1830Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 148 The vertebra..of a saurian..has been met with in the mountain limestone of Northumberland. 1832Ibid. II. 103 Of the great saurians, the gavials which inhabit the Ganges differ from the cayman of America, or the crocodile of the Nile. 1851Mantell Petrifactions iii. §5. 302 Bones and teeth of marine saurians. 1888J. Inglis Tent Life in Tigerland 3 The long ugly serrated back of the man-eating saurian. 1891F. Thompson Sister-Songs (1895) 31 Like the back of a gold-mailèd saurian Heaving its slow length from Nilotic slime.
2. fig.
1923H. G. Wells Men like Gods i. i. 13 A car with the voice of a prehistoric saurian warned him. 1953A. Huxley Let. 25 Sept. (1969) 684 The mesozoic reptiles of the Ford Foundation are being as mesozoic as ever... Hutchins has recently flown to New York and has promised to do what he can with the saurians. 1974V. Nabokov Look at Harlequins (1975) ii. i. 130 He was one of the very few larger saurians in the émigré marshes. |