| 释义 |
Black Maria colloq.
1. A van for the conveyance of prisoners. orig. U.S.
1847Boston Even. Traveller 25 Sept. 2/3 A new Black Maria,..a new wagon for the conveyance of prisoners to and from the courts of justice. 1869J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London ii. vi. 87 The van that conveys prisoners to gaol—Black Maria. 1924Punch 17 Sept. 309 A Black Maria containing twelve prisoners.
2. A name used by soldiers in the war of 1914–18 for a German shell that on bursting emitted volumes of dense smoke, and for a German gun.
1914Scotsman 12 Oct. 10/5 The 16-inch ‘Black-Maria’ shells of the heaviest German artillery. 1916E. W. Hamilton First 7 Div. 125 The enemy were all this time steadily outranging our artillery with its big eleven-inch guns, popularly known as ‘Black Marias’. 1919Athenæum 11 July 583/2 For high or low velocity German shells, as substitutes for ‘marmite’, the British soldier came out with ‘coalbox’, ‘Black Maria’, ‘Jack Johnson’, ‘heavy stuff’. |
