| 释义 |
deadfall, dead-fall Chiefly U.S.|ˈdɛdfɔːl|
1. a. A kind of trap used esp. for large game, in which a weighted board or heavy log is arranged to fall upon and kill or disable the prey. Also attrib. with trap.
1611Markham Countr. Content. i. xvi. (1668) 78 Some do use to take them with hutches, or dead-falls, set in their haunts. 1829Massachusetts Spy 8 July (Th.), In the act of getting in, the log or dead-fall fell upon his back and held him fast. 1843Carlton New Purchase I. 2 We..were setting dead-falls and snares. 1877Coues Fur Anim. vi. 175 In addition to our steel traps, we built numerous deadfalls. 1902S. E. White Blazed Trail xvii. 128 He had bound together..several of the oddly shaped pine timbers to form a species of dead-fall trap. 1959J. D. Clark Prehist. S. Afr. vi. 132 The use of dead-fall traps.
b. fig. A trap, snare (cf. trap n.1 1 b).
1860Richmond Enquirer 23 Nov. 1/8 (Th.), A continuance on the part of the Banks to issue specie would..catch us completely under the dead fall of Northern absorptive predominance. 1962K. Orvis Damned & Destroyed xvi. 113 This rendezvous is a deadfall.
2. a. A tangled mass of fallen trees. Also attrib.
1883Century Mag. XXIX. 195/1 Extensive ‘dead-falls’ of trees thrown pell-mell over, under, and astraddle of each other by gales. 1898Westm. Gaz. 12 Sept. 8/2 Travelling painfully over deadfall timber. 1968R. M. Patterson Finlay's River 89 Then through deadfall and around small canyons they made their way down the west slope of the main range.
b. (See quot.)
1874Knight Dict. Mech., Dead-fall, a dumping-platform at the mouth of a mine.
c. ‘A low drinking or gaming-place. Western U.S.’ (Cent. Dict.). Also, see quots.
1837A. Wetmore Gaz. Missouri 337 A small pot-house grocery or dead-fall of the village. 1867Harper's Mag. June 131/1 In California, old Judge C― kept a little dead fall, as they call a rum-mill out there. 1903A. Adams Log Cowboy xvi. 251 There's a deadfall down here on the river..that robs a man coming and going. 1937D. Runyon More than Somewhat v. 100 The Bohemian Club is nothing but a deadfall. |