| 释义 |
▪ I. colt, n.1|kəʊlt|
Also 3–6 colte, 5 collt, kowlt, 6–7 coult, 7 coalt, 9 dial. cowt, cout.
[OE. colt, applied to the young ass and young camel (see quot. c 1000); of obscure origin. Cf. Sw. dial. kult pig, hardy boy, also Sw. kull, Du. kuld, brood, family, Sw. kulter, kulting, Da. koltring big lad; no related words appear in Icelandic.]
1. The young of the horse, or of animals of the horse kind. In Scripture applied also to the young of the camel.
The sense ‘young ass’ is now perh. only dialectal. While the young of the horse is still with the dam it is usually called a foal; afterwards the young horse is a colt to the age of 4, or in the case of a thoroughbred, 5 years, while the young mare is a filly. On Dartmoor the name is used to include ponies or moorland horses generally.
c1000ælfric Gen. xxxii. 15 Þritiᵹ ᵹefolra olfend myrena mid heora coltum..and xx ass myrena mid heora tyn coltun. c1290Lives Saints Laud MS. (1887) 482 Wilde coltes and strongue. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. xli. (1495) 802 Whyle he is a colte he maye touche his heed wyth his hynder fote. 1481Caxton Reynard xxvii. (Arb.) 62 There sawe we goo a rede mare, And she had a black colte or a fool of iiij monethis olde. 1611Bible Gen. xxxii. 15 Thirtie milch camels with their colts..twenty shee asses, and ten foales. ― John xii. 15 Behold, thy King commeth, sitting on an asses colt. 1632Sanderson Serm. 366 Like an vnruly coult that will ouer hedge and ditch. 1730Bailey (folio) Colt, a young Horse, Mare or Ass. 1846J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. I. 425 At two years old, the colt, if for harness, may be put to plough or harrow. 1887W. F. Collier Venville Rights on Dartmoor 6 (in Trans. Devonsh. Assoc. XIX.) A messenger is sent very early in the morning..to the moorman of a quarter, ordering him to drive his quarter, say for ponies, or colts, as they are called in drift language.
fig.1590Marlowe 2nd Pt. Tamburl. iv. iii, Nay, we will break the hedges of their mouths, And pull their kicking colts out of their pastures.
2. fig. (mostly humorous or slang.) Applied to persons having the characteristics of a colt:
a. A young or inexperienced person, a ‘green hand’; now in Sport (orig. Cricket), a young or inexperienced player; a member of a junior team; also in pl., the team itself; in dial. an awkward young person who needs to be broken in;
b. A lively or spirited person;
†c. A lascivious fellow, a wanton.
a1225Juliana 54 Euer beo acurset colt of swuch cunde. 1586Cogan Haven Health (1612) 247 The surest remedy that can be deuised for Cupids colts. a1592Greene & Lodge Looking Glasse Wks. (1861) 119 Come on, in faith, my colts. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. i. ii. 44 That's a colt indeede, for he doth nothing but talke of his horse. 1665J. Webb Stone-Heng (1725) 56 Every Colt in Masonry assigns the Weight of a Stone by Measure. c1690B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Colt..also a Lad newly bound Prentice. 1722De Foe Col. Jack (1840) 209 She was a wild, untamed colt. 1789in Lillywhite's Cricket Scores (1862) I. 90 At Moulsey Hurst, in Surrey, June 1, 1789. Colts of Hampshire [against] Colts of Surrey. 1846W. Denison Cricket 19 Edward Bushby..was regarded as the most promising ‘colt’, who had come out for several years. 1847Tennyson Princess v. 445 She's yet a colt—Take, break her. 1858E. Waugh Chirrup, Young Chirrup wur a mettled cowt. 1873Slang Dict., Colt, a person who sits as juryman for the first time. Ibid., Colt, a professional cricketer during his first season. 1931Daily Express 18 Mar. 16/2 They entered their colts' team for the Birmingham League this season. This team is composed mainly of lads all keen on making a name for themselves. 1976Leicester Mercury 14 Oct. 46/4 Young John Barradel dropping down to the colts where he hopes to make his mark at representative level this season. 1986Rugby Internat. July 6/3 The RFU will expect clubs promoted to higher leagues to..run a colts team.
d. transf. Coltish nature (cf. beast 1 c.).
1727C. Threlkeld Stirpes Hibern. B v, [A birch rod] to drive the Colt out of the man.
†3. A cunning fellow, a cheat. Obs. rare. (Cf. colt v. 2.)
1624Sanderson Serm. I. 109 An old trick, by which C. Verres, like a cunning colt, often holp him at a pinch. c1690B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Colt, an Inn-keeper that lends a Horse to a Highway-man.
4. Legal slang. The barrister that attended on a serjeant-at-law at his induction.
1765E. Wynne Observ. Degree Serj. at Law 102 Then Mr. Bailey, his colt, delivered his rings to the Lord Chancellor. 1843Sir F. Pollock Remembr. (1887) I. 212 In April I accompanied the newly made Chief Baron as his Colt. 1889Serj. Robinson Bench & Bar, The colt..walks in [pone] behind his principal, and it is said that the term ‘colt’ is merely a parody on that Latin word.
5. a. Naut. A piece of rope used as an instrument of chastisement. b. slang. A piece of rope with something heavy fastened to the end, used as a weapon.
1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) Bouts de corde, a cat of nine tails, colt or rope's end for punishment. 1830Marryat King's Own viii, He always carried in his pocket a colt (i.e. a foot and a half of rope, knotted at one end, and whipped at the other) for the benefit of the youngsters. 1873Slang Dict., Colt, a murderous weapon, formed by slinging a small shot to the end of a rather stiff piece of rope. 1878Yates Wrecked in Port xxx. 340 A cabin-boy, about to receive the punishment of the ‘colt’ from the mate.
6. A third swarm of bees in the season.
1750W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman IV. i. 182 (Britten) The swarm is the first and greatest number, the cast is the next, the colt the next, and the spew the least of all.
†7. The plant Lepidium latifolium, otherwise called Dittany. Obs.
1585Lloyd Treas. Health G ij, Colt or detin plasterid vpon the goute, and disese called sciatica, healyth the same.
8. colt's tooth.
a. lit. One of the first set of teeth of a horse (or ass).
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 435 If they [Asses] do not breed..before the casting of their Colts-teeth, they remain steril..all their life. 1626Bacon Sylva §754 Horses have, at three years old..the Colts-tooth. 1689Lond. Gaz. No. 2421/4 A brown bay Gelding..with Colts Teeth in his Head.
b. fig. Youthful tastes or desires; inclination to wantonness: in certain phrases.
c1386Chaucer Wife's Prol. 602 But yit I had alway a coltis tothe. ― Reeve's Prol. 34 And ȝit haue I alwei a coltes toþe. 1588Greene Perimedes Wks. (ed. Grosart) VII. 91 Hee hath beene a wag, but nowe age hath pluckt out all his Coltes teeth. 1613Shakes. Hen. VIII, i. iii. 48 Well said Lord Sands, Your Colts tooth is not cast yet? 1709Steele Tatler No. 151 ⁋4 About Sixty, which generally produces a Kind of latter Spring in amorous Constitutions, my Aunt Margery had again a Colt's-Tooth in her Head. 1800Wolcott (P. Pindar) Ld. Auckland's Triumph Wks. 1812 IV. 317 His Majesty..Had a Colt's tooth and loved another Dame. 1841J. T. J. Hewlett Parish Clerk I. 81 They not shedding their colt's teeth yet.
9. Comb., as † colt-bridle, colt-like adj.; colt-drift, the drift of ‘colts’ or ponies on Dartmoor (see drift); † colt-herb, † colt's-hoof = colts-foot. See also colt-evil, colts-foot, colt's tail.
1483Cath. Angl. 72 A Colte brydylle, lupatum. 1565–73Cooper Thesaurus, Chamæluce, the herbe called coltes hoofe..with a broad leafe like a poplar. 1587L. Mascall Govt. Cattle (Britten & H.), Colt-herb. 1842Tennyson St. Sim. Styl. 174 With colt-like whinny and with hoggish whine. 1885Sat. Rev. 5 Sept. 322 Some..remnants of authority still left..of the old Forest laws, amongst which is the colt-drift, the ponies being locally called colts.
▪ II. colt, v.|kəʊlt|
[f. prec. n.]
†1. intr. To frisk or run wild as a colt (usually implying wantonness). Obs. rare.
1596Spenser State Irel. Wks. (Globe) 611/2 Shooke of theyr bridels, and began to colt anew, more licentiously then before. 1746Exmoor Scolding (E.D.S.) 30 A colting Hobby-horse [said of a woman].
†2. trans. To befool, cheat, ‘take in’. Obs.
1580North Plutarch (1676) 728 There was Cicero finely colted, as old as he was, by a young man. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. ii. 39. 1616 Beaum. & Fl. Little Fr. Lawyer ii. i, Am I thus colted? 1618Fletcher Loyal Subj. iii. i, What, are we bob'd thus still, colted and carted?
†3. (See quot.)
1611Shakes. Cymb. ii. iv. 133 She hath bin colted by him.
†4. Of bees: To throw off a ‘colt’ or third swarm. Obs.
1750W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman III. ii. 115.
5. trans. To beat with a ‘colt’ (see colt n. 5).
1732Derby Mercury I. No. 21 A parcel of Nailers..seizing upon a poor young Fellow colted him up to Kilmainham. 1836Marryat Midsh. Easy xii, He colted me for half an hour.
6. intr. To fall or ‘cave’ in, as a bank of earth; to collapse, give way. dial. (Cf. colsh, v.)[There is perhaps some association between calve and colt thus used.] 1679Plot Staffordsh. (1686) 133 If the coal be full of rifts, it is so much the more apt to colt in upon the Workmen. Ibid. 306 [The earth]..suddenly coped or colted down upon him. 1884R. Lawson Upton-on-Severn Wds., Colt, to fall in, as the side of a grave or pit. |