| 释义 |
bow-string, bowstring|ˈbəʊstrɪŋ|
[f. bow n.1 + string n.]
1. The string of a bow; also fig.
1486Bk. St. Albans B vi, Tho saame lewnes þou shalt fastyn slackely as a bowstryng vnocupyede. 1564Act 8 Eliz. x. §4 An Armouror, Fletcher or maker of Bowstrings. 1626Bacon Sylva §993 Sound will be conveyed to the Eare, by striking upon a Bow-string, if the Horne of the Bow be held to the Eare. 1809Campbell Gertrude iii. xiv, The bow-string of my spirit was not slack. 1814Scott Ld. of Isles vi. xxii, At once ten thousand bow-strings ring, Ten thousand arrows fly!
2. As used in Turkey for strangling offenders.
1603Knolles Hist. Turks (1638) 258 [He] commanded the executioner presently to strangle him with a bow string. 1768Tucker Lt. Nat. II. 79 The Turks can now..discharge their ministers by other methods than the bow-string. a1839Praed Poems (1865) II. 45 As if apprenticed to the work, He ties the bowstring round the Turk.
3. attrib. and Comb., as bowstring-maker; bow-string bridge, a bridge consisting of an arch and horizontal tie, to resist the horizontal thrust; hence bowstring-girder; bowstring hemp, plants of the genus Sanseviera, family Liliaceæ, found both in Africa and India, of the fibres of which bow-strings are made.
1530Palsgr. 200/2 Bowstryng maker faisevr de cordes a larc. 1724Lond. Gaz. No. 6249/6 William Boyworth..Bow-string-maker. 1866Treas. Bot. s.v. Sanseviera, The Bowstring Hemps are stemless perennial plants. |