| 释义 |
bull-pen
[f. bull n.1 + pen n.1]
1. A pen or enclosure for bulls; spec. a square enclosure made of logs, freq. used in early times as a place of confinement; hence, a lock-up or prison. Also transf., any enclosure or enclosed area. orig. and chiefly U.S.
1809M. L. Weems Life F. Marion xxv. 214 The tories were all..confined together under a centinel, in what was called a bull pen, made of pine trees. 1820in Pubn. Col. Soc. Mass. (1906) VIII. 391 A circumscribed valley within the mountains, called the Bull-pen. 1865Nation I. 15 A guardhouse..which appears to have gone by the name of the ‘Bull-pen’. 1912N.Y. Even. Post 5 Sept. 2/5 Rioting convicts who broke out of ‘bull pens’ here are gathered in the prison yard, considering further steps. 1926J. Black You can't Win vii. 76, I was taken downstairs and locked in a cell; I saw no more of the ‘bull pen’ where I spent the night. 1931Amer. Speech VII. Oct. 49 [Lumberjacks'] ‘free-for-all’ when the ‘shanty men’ join the ‘bull pen boys’ around the box stove. 1933Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XXXVII. 14 To erect in front of the terminal building a semi-circular fence enclosing an area colloquially known as the ‘bull pen’.
b. In baseball, a place outside the playing limits where pitchers are exercised for possible use during a game. N. Amer.
1924Chicago Tribune 5 Oct. ii. 1/1 Blake was rushed from the battlefield and Rip Wheeler from the bullpen. 1957O. Nash You can't get there from Here 93 The pitcher too unrenowned, Who is always in the bull pen, But never reaches the mound.
2. A schoolboys' ball game, played by two groups, one group outlining the sides of a square enclosure, called the ‘bull-pen’, within which are the opposing players. U.S.
1857Spirit of Times 19 Dec. 241/1 Some playing—the boys at bull-pen, the girls at jumping the rope. 1944Duncan & Nickols Mentor Graham 99 Sometimes he joined the boys at ‘bull pen’. |