| 释义 |
crocodile, n.|ˈkrɒkədaɪl|
Forms: α. 4–5 cokadrille, -yll(e, cokedril, -ill(e, 4–6 cocodrill(e, -yll(e, 5 cocodrile, coko-, coquodrille, cockadrylle, 5–6 cocadryll(e; β. 6– crocodile, (6 crocodrille, 6–7 -dil(l, 7 crockadell, crocadile, crokidile, -odile, 8 crocodyle).
[ME. cocodrille, cokadrill, etc. a. OF. cocodrille (13–17th c.) = Pr. cocodrilh, Sp. cocodrilo, It. coccodrillo, med.L. cocodrillus, corruption of L. crocodīlus (also corcodilus), a. Gr. κροκόδειλος, found from Herodotus downward. The original form after Gr. and L. was restored in most of the mod. langs. in the 16–17th c.: F. crocodile (in Paré), It. crocodillo (in Florio), Sp. crocodilo (in Percival).]
1. a. A large amphibious saurian reptile of the genus Crocodilus or other allied genera. The name belongs originally and properly to the crocodile of the Nile (C. niloticus or vulgaris); but is extended to other species of the same or allied genera, and sometimes to the whole of the Crocodilia, including the Alligators of America and the Gavial or ‘crocodile’ of the Ganges.
c1300K. Alis. 6597 What best is the cokadrille. 1382Wyclif Lev. xi. 29 A cokedril..that is a beest of foure feete, hauynge the nether cheke lap vnmeuable, and meuynge the ouere. 1483Caxton Cato E viii b, The cockadrylle is so stronge and so grete a serpent. a1533Ld. Berners Huon xxxvi. 112 The grete multytude of serpentes and cocodrylles. 1578T. N. tr. Conq. W. India 184 Crocodrilles which they call Caymanes or Lizards of twenty foote long, with such Scales..as a Dragon hathe. 1684Evelyn Diary 22 Oct., A crocodile, brought from some of the West India Islands, resembling the Egyptian Crocodile. a1711Ken Hymnotheo Poet. Wks. 1721 III. 271 As a young Brood of Crocodiles, who swim In Ganges stream. 1842H. Miller O.R. Sandst. iii. (ed. 2) 63 Some huge salamander or crocodile of the Lias. 1847Carpenter Zool. §491 This family..is divided into three genera, the Crocodiles, Alligators and Gavials..The true crocodiles are inhabitants of Africa, India, and the hotter parts of America.
†b. Formerly applied with qualifications to various small saurians or lizards. Obs.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 693 A Scink or a Crocodile of the earth. Ibid., Of the Land Crocodile of Bresilia.
c. = crocodile-skin (see also quot. 1968).
1907Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 389/2 The ‘Gadabout’ writing case... Crocodile, lined sheep..67/6. 1908Daily Chron. 15 Aug. 3/2 A large crocodile letter-case. 1908Westm. Gaz. 19 Nov. 4/2 All the upholstering is in crocodile. 1968J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet 237 Many so-called ‘crocodile’ accessories are in fact made from alligator skins, crocodile being particularly difficult to tan and preserve.
2. a. The crocodile was fabulously said to weep, either to allure a man for the purpose of devouring him, or while (or after) devouring him; hence many allusions in literature. (See also 5.)
c1400Mandeville (1839) xxviii. 288 In that contre..ben gret plentee of Cokadrilles..Theise Serpentes slen men, and thei eten hem wepynge. 1565Sir J. Hawkins' Voy. in Hakluyt (1600) III. 512 In this riuer we saw many Crocodils..His nature is euer when hee would haue his prey, to cry and sobbe like a Christian body, to prouoke them to come to him, and then hee snatcheth at them. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. v. 18. 1604 Shakes. Oth. iv. i. 257 If that the Earth could teeme with womans teares, Each drop she falls, would proue a Crocodile. 1607Topsell Serpents (1608) 688. 1623 Cockeram iii. s.v. 1676D'Urfey Mad. Fickle iii. iii, More false than Crocodills, That mourn the Slain, and yet delight to kill 'em. 1700Blackmore Paraphr. Job v. 23 His plighted faith the crocodile shall keep, And seeing thee, for joy sincerely weep.
b. Hence fig. A person who weeps or makes a show of sorrow hypocritically or with a malicious purpose.
1595Barnfield Cassandra lxii, He..Sweetely salutes this weeping Crocodile. 1609B. Jonson Sil. Woman v. iv, O, my nephew knowes you belike: away crocodile. 1665Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 199 Down he goes without hostages, where he finds the Crocodile ready to embrace him with tears of joy. 1863Reade Hard Cash xliii, The amorous crocodile shed a tear, and persisted in her double-faced course.
3. Logic. Name of an ancient sophism or dilemma; see crocodilite.
1727–51Chambers Cycl., Crocodile, in rhetoric, a captious sophistical kind of argumentation. 1798Edgeworth Pract. Educ. II. xxiii. 673 Many argue..with great..precision, who might..be caught on the horns of a dilemma, or who would..fall victims to the crocodile. 1884tr. Lotze's Logic 295 Equally curious is the old dilemma of the crocodile.
4. colloq. (orig. humorous).
a. A girls' school walking two and two in a long file. Also of a boys' school, etc.
(In use before 1870.)1891H. Atteridge in Little Folks Nov. 326/1 He saw what boys sometimes call ‘a crocodile’—a girls' school out for a walk. 1898J. K. Jerome Second Thoughts 311 We came upon a girls' school walking two and two,—a ‘crocodile’, they call it. 1922Blackw. Mag. Oct. 487/2 The crocodile of small boys in the streets. 1926I. M. Peacocke His Kid Brother ii. 37 To walk in a ‘crocodile’ of orphans. 1950F. A. Swinnerton Flower for Catherine 107 One saw her leading the long lines of schoolgirls which are called ‘Crocodiles’. 1968M. Bragg Without City Wall xx. 201 The crocodile rows of little children.
b. A long procession of moving objects close together. Also fig.
1912H. G. Wells Marriage ii. 55 She drove her little crocodile of primly sensible thoughts to their sane appointed conclusion. 1928Manch. Guardian Weekly 17 Aug. 136/2 Those roads which..do not carry an endless and snorting crocodile of cars. 1930R. Pertwee Pursuit i. xi. 55 Transport would pile up before and behind you in a ceaselessly cursing crocodile.
5. attrib. and Comb., often with allusion to the fabled weeping of the crocodile (see 2), esp. in crocodile tears; crocodile-like adj.; crocodile-bird, the Egyptian black-headed plover, Pluvianus ægyptius, so called from its habit of eating the insect parasites of the crocodile, probably the trochilos of ancient writers; crocodile shears, shears used in cutting into lengths and removing the faulty ends of steel or iron bars; crocodile squeezer, a machine with a pivoted upper jaw, used in the process of removing impurities from metals by the application of pressure.
1806G. S. Faber Dissert. II. 343 With a *crocodile affectation of clemency.
1868A. C. Smith Attractions Nile II. 255 Charadrius spinosus..in all probability the true ‘*crocodile bird’ or trochilus of Herodotus. 1966C. Sweeney Scurrying Bush x. 142 The Egyptian ‘Plover’ (Pluvianus aegyptius) or crocodile bird has been the centre of controversy.
1678Yng. Man's Call. 156 Believe him not: his *crocodile flatteries have undone thousands.
1716M. Davies Athen. Brit. iii. Crit. Hist. 5 To a greater advantage of the *Crocodyle-Jesuits.
1621in W. Foster Eng. Factories India 1618–21 (1906) 347 These viprous, dessemblinge, and *crockadillike currs. 1897A. Page Afternoon Ride x. 61 A large iguana, almost crocodile-like in its proportion.
1884W. H. Greenwood Steel & Iron 347 Puddled bars are..sheared hot either by *crocodile or guillotine shears.
1887Pall Mall G. 2 Mar. 6/1 The *crocodile-skin bag may perhaps be called fashionable.
1884W. H. Greenwood Steel & Iron 301 The single alligator or *crocodile squeezer has two broad flat jaws. Ibid. 302 The crocodile squeezer makes about 60 strokes per minute.
1563Grindal in Strype Life (1710) I. vii. 78, I begin to fear, lest his humility..be a counterfeit humility, and his tears *crocodile tears. 1623Cockeram iii. s.v., Thence came the Prouerb, he shed Crocodile teares, viz. fayned teares. 1863Sala Capt. Dangerous xvii, Saying with crocodile tears, that he was not the first who had an undutiful son.
1892Temple Bar July 348 Narrow gauge stock had also been conveyed westward in ‘crocodile’ trucks—ones with very low bodies.
Hence ˈcrocodile v. (from sense 4).
1889[Implied in crocodiling vbl. n. 1]. 1936M. Franklin All that Swagger xii. 116 The school crocodiled abroad with its instructresses. 1960News Chron. 15 Mar. 4/5 The girls crocodile in, a mistress at head and tail. 1969Guardian 25 July 9/5 The diminutive school-girls crocodiling through the Commonwealth Institute. |