释义 |
▪ I. Cuthbert1|ˈkʌθbət| The apostle of Northumbria. Hence 1. (St.) Cuthbert's beads. A popular name, originating on Holy Island and the Northumbrian coast, for the detached and perforated joints of encrinites there found. Cf. Scott, Marmion ii. xvi, St. Cuthbert sits, and toils to frame The sea-born beads that bear his name.
1697Phil. Trans. XXVII. 467 The same place afforded also some variety of Fossil Shells, and plenty of Cuthbert's Beads. 1792Gentl. Mag. LXII. i. 130 St. Cuthbert's beads..are a species of entrochi picked up among the rocks [of Lindisfarne] by the children, who sell them to travellers. 1831J. Hodgson in J. Raine Mem. (1858) II. 222. 2. (St.) Cuthbert's duck. Also Cuthbert duck. The eider duck, which breeds on the Farn Islands, and figures in the legend of St. Cuthbert.
[c1165Reginaldus Libellus, etc. (Surtees 1835) 62 Aves illæ Beati Cuthberti specialiter nominantur.] 1674Ray Coll. Words, Water Fowl 96 The Cuthbert-Duck? Anas S. Cuthberti, building only on the Farn Islands upon the Coast of Northumberland. 1845Yarrell Brit. Birds (ed. 2) III. 300 The Eider Duck is also called St. Cuthbert's Duck. 1849Eyre St. Cuthbert 44 n., The eider or Cuthbert duck arrives at its full growth at the fourth year. Hence † Cuthbert down, eider-down.
1397Status Officij Feretrarij (Soc. Antiq. MS.), Item ij parva pulvinaria quorum j est de Cuthbert doun. ▪ II. Cuthbert2 A slang name for a man who deliberately avoids military service; esp. in the war of 1914–18, one who did so by securing a post in a Government office or the Civil Service; a conscientious objector.
1917Evening News 25 Jan. [in a cartoon by ‘Poy’]. 1919Mr. Punch's Hist. Gt. War 225 As a set-off to the anti-‘Cuthbert’ campaign in the Press the War Cabinet has..declared that ‘the whole Empire owes the Civil Service a lasting debt of gratitude’. 1933J. Cary Amer. Visitor xvi. 182 All you Cuthberts are fit for is to dodge responsibility at the cost of other people's lives. 1935A. J. Cronin Stars look Down ii. xii. 372 Not good enough for you, eh? Not fancy enough for Cuthbert? |