| 释义 |
▪ I. bream, n.|briːm|
Forms: 4 breem, brem, 4–7 breme, 5 breeme, 6–7 breame, 7– bream.
[ME. breme, a. F. brême, in OF. bresme (med.L. bresmia), ad. Teutonic: cf. OS. bressemo(:—brehsmo), also with a, OHG. brahsema (whence med.L. braximus), MHG. brahsem, brasme, Ger. brassen, MDu. and Du. brasem:— WGer. brahsm- and brehsm-; perh. f. stem of brehwan to glitter, sparkle. (The word has no connexion with barse.)]
1. The common name of a fresh-water fish (Abramis brama) called also Carp-bream, which inhabits lakes and deep water, and is distinguished by its yellowish colour and the high arched form of its back. Also the genus (Abramis, family Cyprinidæ) to which this belongs, including also the White Bream (A. blicca) and other species.
c1386Chaucer Prol. 350 Many a Breem [v.r. brem, breme] and many a luce in Stuwe. 1462Mann. & Househ. Exp. 561 My master putt into the said ponde, in grete bremes, xij. 1539Act 31 Hen. VIII, ii. §1 Pykes, breames, carpes, tenches, and other fysshes. 1616Surfl. & Markh. Country Farm 506 If you intend the pond for Carpe or Breame. 1653Walton Angler 174 The Bream..is a large and stately fish..long in growing. 1769Pennant Zool. III. 309 The bream is an inhabitant of lakes—or the deep parts of still rivers. 1870Morris Earthly Par. I. i. 167 Look up and down..And note the bubbles of the bream.
2. a. Applied also to some acanthopterygious sea-fishes, of the genus Pagellus (family Sparidae), and genus Labrus (family Labridæ), as the Sea Bream (P. centrodontus), Spanish Bream (P. erythrinus).
c1460J. Russell Bk. Nurture 578 in Babees Bk. (1868) 156 Carpe, Breme de mere, & trowt. 1655Mouffet & Benn. Health's Improv. (1746) 238 Breams of the Sea be of a white and solid Substance. 1840R. Dana Bef. Mast vii. 16 There were cod, breams, silver-fish, and other kinds.
b. Any of various fishes of the family Centrarchidæ, or sun-fishes, resembling the common European bream. U.S.
1634W. Wood New Eng. Prosp. ii. xvi. 90 Catching of Pikes, Pearches, Breames, and other sorts of fresh water fish. 1791W. Bartram Trav. Caroline 176 The golden bream or sun-fish, the red bellied bream..also abound here. 1884Goode Nat. Hist. Aquatic Anim. 406 The Blue Sun-fish—Lepomis pallidus..is known as the ‘Blue Bream’. 1965A. J. McClane Standard Fishing Encycl. 143/2 Bream. A regional colloquialism (Southern United States) for various sunfishes, usually pronounced as ‘brim’.
3. Comb. bream-backed: (of a horse) having a high ridged back.
1723Lond. Gaz. No. 6190/7 Stolen..a sorrel Nag..bream back'd. 1834–43Southey Doctor cxciii. (D.) He was not..hollow-backed, bream-backed, or broken backed.
▪ II. bream, v.1|briːm|
Also 7 breem.
[Of uncertain origin: known only since 1600. It has been conjecturally referred to Du. brem ‘broom, furze’, and to Eng. broom, as a deriv. vb., or a dialect variant: but evidence is lacking. Conjectures identifying the word with bren, burn, are unsupported exc. by the analogy of Ger. ein Schiff brennen, F. chauffer le vaisseau, donner le feu.]
trans. To clear (a ship's bottom) of shells, seaweed, ooze, etc., by singeing it with burning reeds, furze, or fagots, thus softening the pitch so that the rubbish adhering may be swept off. Cf. broom v.
1626Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Seaman 3 For calking, breaming, stopping leakes. 1627― Seaman's Gram. ii. 13 Breaming her, is but washing or burning of all the filth with reeds or broome. 1628Digby Voy. Medit. (1868) 60 There I careend and breemed my shippes with verie great diligence. 1779Forrest Voy. N. Guinea 260 On the 8th we breamed the vessel's bottom. 1875Fortn. Rev. Aug. 206 Bonfires of brushwood, lighted to bream the sharp-bowed craft.
▪ III. bream, v.2
Also 6 breme (dial.), breme.
Variant of brim v.1 said of a boar or sow.
1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 127 The female camel of Bactria, feeding upon the mountaines amongest the wilde Boares, is oftentimes breamed of the boare, and conceaveth. 1863Atkinson Provinc. Danby, Brim, breme, to desire the boar; to serve the sow. |