| 释义 |
breast-high, a., adv., n.|ˈbrɛsthaɪ|
A. adj. As high as the breast. spec. in Forestry: cf. breast-height s.v. breast n.11.
1677Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 157 Part of the Battlement being Breast high. 1716Lond. Gaz. No. 5472/2 The Water was Breast high. 1823J. Badcock Dom. Amus. 207 The rider has a breast-high support ascending from his seat. 1905Terms used in Forestry & Logging 7 Breasthigh, at or having a height of 4½ feet above the ground.
B. adv.
1. To the height or depth of the breast.
1580Sidney Arcad. (J.) The river itself gave way unto her, so that she was straight breast-high. 1678Massacre in Irel. 8 They saw one like a Woman rise out of the River breast-high. 1854J. Abbott Napoleon (1855) I. xxxv. 556 Some..wading breast high, reached the opposite bank.
2. Said in Hunting of the scent when it is so strong that the hounds go at a racing pace with their heads erect.
1858Kingsley Ode to N.-E. Wind 30 Hark! the brave North-Easter! Breast-high lies the scent. 1868R. E. Egerton-Warburton Hunt. Songs lvi, When we fly with a scent breast high, and a galloping fox before us.
C. n. A tunnel or horizontal entrance into a coal-mine, so low that the miner has to stoop: in Lancash. dial. breast-hee.
1850Bamford Tim Bobbin Introd. 3 in Lanc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) The collier brought his coal to daylight at the mouth of a..breast-hee, generally opening out not unlike a large black sough, on some hill-side. 1857E. Waugh Lanc. Sk. 44 ibid., At the mouth of a lonely breast-hee on his native moor-side. |