| 释义 |
cup and ball, cup-and-ball
1. A toy consisting of a cup at the end of a stem to which a ball is attached by a string, the object being to toss the ball and catch it in the cup or on the spike end of the stem. Also the game played with this. = bilboquet 2.
1760Goldsm. Cit. W. lxxxix, Indolence..tosses the cup-and-ball with infantine folly. 1799Southey Amatory Poems Sonn. i, She held a Cup and Ball of ivory white. 1836T. Hook G. Gurney III. 131 Where sat Mrs. Nubley, alone, on a sofa, playing at cup-and-ball.
2. attrib. Of a joint or bones: = ball and socket; see ball n.1 19.
1854R. Owen in Circ. Sc. (c1865) II. 57/2 The cup-and-ball vertebræ in batrachian larvæ. |