| 释义 |
▪ I. cañon, n.3|ˈkænjən|
Also cannon, canon, canyon.
[a. Sp. cañon tube, pipe, conduit, barrel, cannon, etc. (augm. of caña:—L. canna reed, pipe, quill, cane; thus the same word as It. cannone, Pg. canhão, Pr. and F. canon, Eng. cannon, and canion), but spec. applied by the Spaniards of New Mexico in the sense in which it has been adopted from them by their English-speaking neighbours. In order to retain the pronunciation and prevent confusion with canon, which would result from the frequent want of the Spanish letter ñ, ñ (enye), in English typography, the word is frequently spelt canyon, q.v.]
A deep gorge or ravine at the bottom of which a river or stream flows between high and often vertical sides; a physical feature characteristic of the Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada, and the western plateaus of North America.
1834A. Pike Sketches 20 Two cañons ran up into the bosom of the ridge (by which word cañon the Spaniards express a deep, narrow hollow among the mountains). 1846R. B. Sage Scenes Rocky Mts. 111 The Platte forces its way through a barrier of table lands, forming one of those striking peculiarities incident to mountain streams, called a ‘cañon’. 1850B. Taylor Eldorado xxvii. (1862) 287 The word cañon (meaning, in Spanish, a funnel) has a peculiar adaptation to these cleft channels through which the rivers are poured. 1863Let. fr. Vancouver's Isl. in Daily Tel. 17 Nov. 7/2 Through what is called a cannon (pronounced kanyon), a vast gorge formed by perpendicular rocks. 1874Coues Birds N.-W. 228 Deep, rocky cañons, where the dense foliage and precipitous walls shut out the sun, and a perpetual twilight prevails. 1882Geikie Geol. iii. ii. ii. §3. 379 The Grand Cañon of the Colorado river is 300 miles long, and in some places more than 6000 feet in depth.
attrib.1879Beerbohm Patagonia v. 65 The tracks suddenly turned and went up the cañon-side on to the plain.
▪ II. cañon, v.1|ˈkænjən|
[f. cañon n.3]
1. intr. To form, or flow in, a cañon.
1851Mayne Reid Scalp-hunters I. v. 58 The stream, after running parallel to the ridge, swept round and cañoned through it. 1911J. S. Chase Yosemite Trails 208 Above it ‘cañons’ to the long gorge that is known as the Grand Cañon.
2. trans. To pierce with cañons.
1889J. S. Diller in 8th Ann. Rep. U.S. Geol. Surv. 1886–87 i. 426 Deeply cañoned by numerous streams. |