| 释义 |
chestnut, chesnut, n. (and a.)|ˈtʃɛsnʌt|
Forms: 6 chesten nut, chest nut, chestnutte, chestnot-(tree), chesse nut(te, ches-nut, chesnutte, 6–7 chesse-nut, 6–8 chest-nut, 7 chessenut, 8 chessnut, 6– chestnut, chesnut.
[f. chesten, late form of chesteine + nut. Chesten-nut was soon reduced to chestenut, chestnut, and chesnut: the last was the predominant form (82 per cent. of instances examined) from 1570 to c 1820, and is used in all the editions of Bailey; chestnut was adopted by Johnson, and prevails in current use.]
A. n.
1. a. The large edible seed or ‘nut’ of the chestnut-tree (see 2), two or more of which are inclosed in a prickly pericarp or ‘burr’.
1519W. Horman Vulg. xvii. 165, I haue getherde chesten nuttis. 1534Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) Fj a, The chestain tres bring forth the soft swete chest nut. 1570Levins Manip. 195 A chesnutte, castanea. 1579Langham Gard. Health (1633) 138 Chestnuts of all wilde fruits are the best and meetest to be eaten. 1580Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 365 That will..refuse the sweete Chesnut, for that it is couered with sharpe huskes. 1580Baret Alv. C 442 A chesten nut. 1585Lloyd Treas. Health Introd. 2 Take..the quantitye of a Chesse Nutte. 1714Gay Trivia iii. 46 Boars..on Westphalia's fatt'ning Chest-nuts fed. 1732Arbuthnot Rules of Diet 258 Chesnuts..afford a very good Nourishment. 1813Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. (1814) 238 Young chesnuts..afforded..a matter which appeared to be a combination of albuminous matter and tannin. 1861Bryant Poems, Third of November iii, Children..Gathering tawny chestnuts.
b. to pull the chestnuts out of the fire: see fire n. 5 f.
2. a. The tree which bears these, Castanea vesca, family Corylaceæ, now growing naturally all over Southern Europe, though said to have been introduced, within the historical period, from Asia Minor. Both the tree and the ‘nut’ are also called Spanish or sweet chestnut.
1578Lyte Dodoens 729 The Chesnut delighteth in shadowie places. 1664Evelyn Sylva vii. §1 The Chesnut of which Pliny reckons many kinds. 1784Cowper Task i. 263 These chesnuts ranged in corresponding lines. 1794Sullivan View Nat. II. 65 A chesnut, or any other tree with pointed leaves. 1814Southey Roderick xv, The chesnut's fretted foliage grey. 1875Emerson Lett. & Soc. Aims, Comic Wks. (Bohn) III. 204 An oak or a chestnut undertakes no function it cannot execute.
b. The wood of the chestnut-tree.
1823P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 262.
3. a. Applied to the tree æsculus Hippocastanum, or to its seed; more fully called horse-chestnut.
1832Tennyson Miller's Dau. vii, Those three chestnuts near, that hung In masses thick with milky cones. 1871Member for Paris II. 207 (Hoppe) The spreading chestnuts..dotted the..sand..with white flowerlets like snow-flakes. Mod. Newspr. Yesterday was ‘Chestnut Sunday’ at Bushey Park, and the day being fine, the chestnuts were visited by admiring crowds.
b. Cape (or wild) chestnut, an evergreen tree, Calodendron capense, belonging to the family Rutaceæ and native to South Africa.
1854L. Pappe Silva Capensis 7 Calodendron capense..wild chesnut. 1868J. Chapman Trav. II. 450 The Wild Chestnut..well deserving its name for its exquisitely-pencilled delicate pink flowers. 1909East London Dispatch 3 July 5 (Pettman), The beautiful lilac flowers of the wild chestnut. 1912Ibid. 12 Apr. 7 (ibid.), It is very seldom that the Cape chestnut and the Wild fig become altogether devoid of leaves. 1951L. E. W. Codd Trees Kruger Nat. Park 82 Well known South African examples [of the Rutaceæ] are the Buchu (Barosma) and the Cape Chestnut (Calodendrum capense).
†4. earth chestnut: the roundish edible tuber of Bunium flexuosum (including B. Bulbocastanum), or the plant itself; = earth-nut. Obs.
1578Lyte Dodoens 579 The small Earth Chestnut..The roote..in taste..is muche lyke to the Chestnut. 1597Gerard quoted by Britten & Holl. 1884Miller Plant-n., Earth-nut, or Earth-chestnut, Bunium flexuosum.
†5. Name of a variety of apple. Obs.
1664Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 223 Apples..Pear-Apple, Cardinal, Winter-Chestnut. Ibid. 232.
6. The hard knob in the skin of the horse at the inner side of the fore-legs; supposed to represent the thumb-nail of other animals. Cf. castor4.
1859Rarey Taming Horses iv. 45 To tame the horse, sometimes using the chestnut of his leg, which they dry, grind..and blow into his nostrils. 1876Steel Equine Anat. 208 The circular horny process or chestnut found opposite the inferior part of the radius. 1888Veterinarian May 304 Another organ in process of disappearance is that piece of horn inside the fore-arm, where it is termed the chestnut, and that inside the hock, where it is termed the castor; it corresponds to the finger-nail of the thumb of our hand, and of the foot of the five-toed ancestor of the horse.
7. slang. A story that has been told before, a ‘venerable’ joke. Hence, in extended use, anything trite, stale, or too often repeated. Also attrib.[Origin unknown: said to have arisen in U.S. The newspapers of 1886–7 contain numerous circumstantial explanations palpably invented for the purpose. A plausible account is given in the place cited in quot. 1888.] [1816W. Dimond Broken Sword i. 13 Zavior... When suddenly from the thick boughs of a cork tree―Pablo. (Jumping up.) A chesnut, Captain, a chesnut... Captain, this is the twenty-seventh time I have heard you relate this story, and you invariably said, a chesnut, till now.] 1880D. K. Ranous Diary of Daly Débutante (1910) 199 Think of doing that awful Nancy Lee—such a chestnut!—..and following it up with that..romping dance! 1886in Dram. Rev. 27 Mar. 86/2 Minnie Palmer will give {pstlg}1,000 to any one who will submit to her an idea for legitimate advertising..Chestnut ideas not wanted. 1887Pall Mall G. 10 June 6/2 This story is what the Americans would call a ‘chestnut’. 1887Sat. Rev. 1 Oct. 467 There are, of course, good things here, and some venerable chestnuts. [1888in J. Hatton Remin. Toole, ‘When suddenly from the thick boughs of a cork-tree—’ ‘A chestnut, Captain; a chestnut.’ ‘Bah! booby, I say a cork-tree!’ ‘A chestnut,’ reiterates Pablo: ‘I should know as well as you, having heard you tell the tale these twenty-seven times’.] 1948Time 5 Apr. 106/2 He has omitted such chestnuts as The Raven and O! Captain! My Captain! 1962Listener 6 Sept. 369/3 Souzay's recital [of songs]..is a rare and welcome experience—the more so as on this occasion the chestnuts of the repertoire are avoided.
B. as adj.
1. a. Of the colour of a chestnut; deep reddish-brown.
1656Cowley Davideis iii. (1684) 98 Merab's long Hair was glossy Chestnut Brown. 1684Lond. Gaz. No. 1960/4 A Chesnut Sorrel Gelding. 1805Scott Last Minstr. i. xxviii, Like the mane of a chestnut steed. 1835A. Fonblanque Eng. under 7 Administr. III. 271 As much akin..as a horse chesnut proverbially is to a chesnut horse. a1855C. Brontë Professor I. xi. 187 Her rich chestnut locks.
b. absol. = Chestnut colour.
1600Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. iv. 12 His haire is of a good colour..Your Chessenut was euer the onely colour. 1832L. Hunt Sir R. Esher (1850) 12 My hair would be a fine chesnut still. 1878Morley Diderot II. 122 Her hair of resplendent chestnut.
c. Short for chestnut horse. (colloq.)
[1636chestnut-coloured: see C below] .1670Denton in M. M. Verney Mem. (1899) IV. vii. 228 The horse..was a chestnutt. 1840Lever Harry Lorrequer (Hoppe) The horses were dark chestnuts, well matched. 1882M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal I. ii. 41 Mrs. Tregonell's landau..with a pair of powerful chestnuts. 1883A. Robson Old World Idylls 27 Jumped on his chestnut.
C. attrib. and Comb., as chestnut-bloom, chestnut-bud, chestnut-burr, chestnut-colour, chestnut-husk, chestnut-muncher, chestnut-seller, chestnut shade, chestnut tree; chestnut-coloured, chestnut-crested, chestnut-red, chestnut-winged, adjs.; chestnut-bread, bread made with the meal of chestnuts; chestnut-brown a. and n., (of) the deep reddish-brown colour of a chestnut; spec. designating a breed of cat (see quot. 1958); chestnut-eared finch, the Australian zebra finch; chestnut-extract, an extract from chestnut wood, used in dyeing silk black; chestnut-oak, Quercus sessiliflora and other species; chestnut-roaster, a stove used by itinerant vendors of roasted chestnuts; also, the vendor; chestnut soil (see quot. 1954).
1864Tennyson Aylmer's F. 65 That islet in the *chestnut-bloom.
1814Southey Roderick xi, The *chesnut-bread was on the shelf. 1656[see B. 1].
1797T. Bewick Brit. Birds (1847) I. 79 The hedge-chafer, or *chesnut brown beetle. 1828Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. I. 52 Fur chesnut brown back and head. 1958Times 17 Nov. 12/6 Exhibited for six years as ‘any other variety’, the Chestnut Brown cat made its first London appearance on Saturday after its recognition as a separate breed in July. The previous name of ‘Havana’ has been dropped.
1626Bacon Sylva §450 The Acorns and *Ches⁓nut-buds. 1842Tennyson Sir Launcelot & Q. Guinevere ii, Drooping chestnut-buds.
1874Roe (title) The Opening of a *Chestnut Burr.
1555Eden Decades W. Ind. (Arb.) 338 Men are of *chestnutte colour at the ryuer of Plata.
1636Massinger Gt. Duke Flor. iii. i. (R.), I mean the roan, Sir, And the brown bay; but for the *chesnut-coloured, etc. 1748Smollett Rod. Rand. (1804) 137 He had..chesnut-coloured hair.
1868Ld. Houghton Select. fr. Wks. 220 The *chesnut-crested plain.
1934A. Russell Tramp-Royal in Wild Austral. xxxv. 229 The *chestnut-eared or zebra finches..came humming down to the water-side.
1881Spon's Encycl. Industr. Arts IV. 1226 Hemlock-extract is a deep-red syrupy extract of the bark of the hemlock pine of America. *Chestnut-extract is a similar product from the rasped wood of the Spanish chestnut.
1830Scott Demonol. ix. 314 The *chestnut-muncher in Macbeth.
1703in Early Rec. Providence V. 176 The Northwest Cornner is a *Chessnut Oake Tree. 1708Sewall Diary (1879) II. 222 By the Stump grows up a fine little Chestnut Oak. 1885‘C. E. Craddock’ Prophet Gt. Smoky Mts. xi. 197 A branch, too, of the low-spreading Chestnut-oak..was visible. 1931C. H. Otis Michigan Trees (rev. ed.) 139 Chinquapin Oak. Chestnut Oak. Yellow Oak. Quercus muhlenbergii... A tree with somewhat similar characteristics, also known as the Chestnut Oak, Quercus primus L., is common to the south and east of our range.
1882Garden 16 Dec. 535/1 Bright *chestnut-red.
1909Westm. Gaz. 4 Sept. 2/2 The bowed old woman who sits hugging her *chestnut roaster at the end of the Pont Marguet. 1921Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §777 Baked chestnut man; chestnut roaster. 1923Weekly Dispatch 29 Apr. 2, I have never more than once come across a genuine old chestnut-roaster with a pierced box and lid.
1883R. Burton in Academy No. 577. 366/2 *Chestnut-sellers from Friuli.
1928Soil Research I. 132 We were already in a zone of light *Chestnut soils, near to brown ones. 1954W. D. Thornbury Princ. Geomorphol. iv. 78 Chestnut soils are brown or grayish soils that developed under short-grass vegetation in areas slightly drier than those that produced chernozems.
1535Coverdale Gen. xxx. 37 Iacob toke staues of grene wyllies, hasell and of *chest⁓nottrees. 1816Keith Phys. Bot. I. 58 Shady avenues of Chesnut-trees.
1887Pall Mall G. 15 July 5/1 Small *chestnut-winged butterflies. |