| 单词 | monkey's fist |
| 释义 | > as lemmasmonkey's fist monkey's fist n. chiefly Nautical †(a) something difficult to understand, a puzzle (obsolete); (b) a large weighted knot made at the end of a rope to assist throwing it; cf. monkey fist n.Although recorded earlier, sense (a) probably derives from the complexity of the knot described at sense (b). ΚΠ 1901 G. Goodenough Handy Man Afloat & Ashore 162 A ‘monkey's fist’ is anything that puzzles us [sc. sailors], of which we can't make out the meaning or reason. 1906 Railroad Telegrapher June 784/2 'Twould be a monkey's fist to me were you not now cruising under water rather than being aboard the brig Madison. 1917 Pop. Mech. Sept. 328/1 The students, one at each rope, rehearse the endless varieties of knots, each denominated in seagoing language, including the ‘bosun's eye’, the ‘monkey's fist’, the ‘devil's elbow’, [etc.]. 1927 G. Bradford Gloss. Sea Terms 115/2 Monkey's fist, a complicated knot with weight enclosed, used at the end of a heaving line. 1974 Islander (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 29 Sept. 10/2 They were so high above us that we had to crane back our necks to look at them, waiting for the lethal lead-filled monkey's fists at the end of their lines to come whistling down. 1990 T. Griggs Quickening i. 15 One nurse there, her old man a sailor, used to tie him up in blood knots and monkey's fists, and Grampy still got out of them. 2008 W. Thomas Black Hand xxv. 237 I'd prefer dock weapons—sticks, belaying pins, staves, boat hooks, monkey's fist knots, and the like. < as lemmas |
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