| 释义 |
▪ I. moth, n.1|mɒθ|
Forms: 1 moþþe, Northumb. mohðe, mohða, 2 moȝðe, 2–3 mohþe, 4 moghe, moȝhe, moȝte, moththe, mouȝthe, mouthe, mowȝhe, 4–5 motthe, moþþe, moughte, mouȝte, 5 moghte, mote, mougthe, mowght(e, 5–6 mought, 5–7 mothe, 6 moght, mowthe, 6–7 moath, 6– moth. Also Sc. moch n.
[OE. moþþe, mohðe wk. fem., corresponds to MDu. motte (mod.Du. mot fem.), late MHG. and mod.G. motte fem. (? from LG.), ON. motte wk. masc. (Sw., Norw. mott maggot, weevil).
The phonology is obscure. The word has usually been supposed to be cogn. w. OE. maða maggot (see mathe), which is plausible as regards the sense; but the OE. form mohð e points rather to the Teut. root *mug- as in midge.]
1. a. A small nocturnal lepidopterous insect of the genus Tinea, which breeds in cloth, furs, etc., on which its larva feeds; a clothes-moth. In early use, the name seems to have been applied rather to the larva than to the insect itself. From the 16th c. it has been taken to denote primarily the insect in its winged state, and applied to any nocturnal lepidopterous insect of similar appearance.
† false moth (tr. mod.L. pseudo-tinea, Réaumur): an insect closely resembling the clothes-moth, but feeding on leaves.
c950Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. vi. 20 Ðer ne hrust ne ec mohðe ᵹespilles. c1000Ags. Gosp. Luke xii. 33 Þyder ðeof ne ᵹe-nealæcð ne ne (sic) moððe [c 1160 Hatton moȝðe] ne ᵹe-wemð. c1230Hali Meid. 29 Mohðe fret te claðes & cwalm slað þat ahte. 1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 5572 And wormes and moghes on þe same manere, Þat in þair clathes has bred here. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. cv. (1495) 849 A moughte hyght Tinea and is a worme of clothes. c1412Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 225 As motthes to a cloþe annoyen, And of his wolle maken it al bare. c1440Promp. Parv. 346/1 Mowȝte, clothe wyrme (K. mowhe, S. mow, P. mowghe), tinea. c1520Andrew Noble Lyfe iii. xvi, The Asshes of hym is gode to make white tethe & to kepe the motes out of the clothes. 1534Inv. Wardr. Kath. Arragon in Camden Misc. (1855) 30 Oone counterpoynte..sore perisshid withe mowthis. a1586Sidney Ps. vi. vi, Woe, lyke a moth, my face's beauty eates. 1626Bacon Sylva §696 The Moath breedeth upon Cloth;..It delighteth to be about the Flame of a Candle. 1683Soame & Dryden tr. Boileau's Art Poetry iii. 48 Neglected heaps we in by-corners lay, Where they become to Worms and Moths a prey. 1755Johnson, Moth, a small winged insect that eats cloths and hangings. 1763Mills Syst. Pract. Husb. III. 53 False Moth. 1857Mrs. Carlyle Lett. (1883) II. 313 She let the moths get into my fur last year.
b. fig. Something that eats away, gnaws or wastes gradually and silently. Now rare.
1577Whetstone Life Gascoigne xxvi, The valiant man, so playes a pleasant parte: When mothes of mone, doo gnaw vppon his hart. 1605Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. ii. §4 The Corruptions and Mothes of Historie, which are Epitomes. c1680Beveridge Serm. (1729) I. 535 That which ye have unlawfully gotten..will be a moth in your estates, which will..eat them up. 1861D. Greenwell Poems 208 This garment old And fretted by the moth Thy love hath borne Upon Thee.
c. in allusion to the insignificance or fragility of the moth, or to its liability to be attracted by the flame of a candle to its own destruction.
1596Shakes. Merch. V. ii. ix. 79 Thus hath the candle sing'd the moath. 1613Chamberlain in Court & Times Jas. I (1848) I. 264 But you had not need meet with many such poor moths as Master Pory, who must have both meat and money. 1784Cowper Task vi. 211 So man, the moth, is not afraid, it seems, To span Omnipotence. 1866Ruskin in Collingwood Life (1893) II. 63 We don't deserve either such blessing or cursing, it seems to poor moth me.
†d. Applied vaguely to various kinds of animal parasites or ‘vermin’, as lice, bugs, cockroaches.
c1460J. Russell Bk. Nurture 280 Ne youre heere ye stryke, ne pyke to pralle for a flesche mought. 1578Lyte Dodoens ii. xxxvii. 196 This herbe dryueth away and killeth the stinking wormes or Mothes called Cimici. 1658Rowland tr. Moufet's Theat. Ins. 998 There are three sorts of Blattæ; the soft Moth, the mill Moth, and the unsavoury or stinking Moth. 1748tr. Vegetius' Distemp. Horses 83 Small Maggots or Moths, which others call Lice cause an intolerable Pain in the Intestines.
†e. transl. of L. tinea: A disease of the scalp.
1600Surflet Country Farm i. xii. 84 For the falling of the haire called the moth, wash the head [etc.].
f. A prostitute. slang.
1896in Farmer & Henley Slang IV. 360/1. 1935 A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 78/1 Moth, a female of easy virtue.
2. Ent.
a. Any insect of that one of the two great divisions of the Lepidoptera which includes the ‘moths’ in the older sense.
According to the ordinary modern use, the ‘moths’ are the same as the Heterocera, which are distinguished from the Rhopalocera (‘butterflies’) in that their antennæ are not clubbed. Most of them are of nocturnal habit.
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., Phalenæ..the name by which authors distinguish those butterflies which fly by night, and which the French thence call papilions nocturnes, and we vulgarly moths. Ibid., Those moths which have large and heavy bodies..always make a great noise in flying. 1759Johnson Idler No. 64 ⁋5, I happened to catch a moth of peculiar variegation. 1847Tennyson Princess ii. 5 When these were on, And we as rich as moths from dusk cocoons. 1902Cornish Naturalist Thames 43 The first butterfly, to use an Irishism, was a moth, a sphinx moth.
b. With defining word, in popular names of particular species or genera, as burnet-moth, codling-moth, gipsy-moth, hawk-moth, etc.
3. attrib. and Comb., as moth-face, moth-flit, moth-grub, moth-hour, moth-light, moth-repellent, moth-trap, moth-wing; moth-coloured, moth-hung, moth-resistant, moth-soft, moth-white adjs.; moth-like adj. and adv.; moth-hunting vbl. n.; moth-blight, various species of homopterous insects of the genus Aleurodes, which are destructive to plants; moth-borer, the larval forms of various moths which damage plants by boring into stems, etc., esp. the sugar-cane borer, Diatræa saccharalis; moth-fly = moth-gnat; moth freckle, ‘a term for Chloasma’ (Syd. Soc. Lex. 1891); † moth-fretten a., moth-eaten; moth-gnat, a dipterous insect of the family Psychodidæ; moth-hunter, (a) one who hunts for moths; (b) a name for the Nightjar; moth-miller, one of several moths with white-flecked, powdery-looking wings; moth orchid, an orchid of the genus Phalænopsis, the flower of which resembles a moth; moth patch, ‘a synonym of Chloasma’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.); moth sphinx, ‘a moth of the family Castniidæ’ (Cassell's Suppl. 1902); moth spot = moth patch; moth-time, the time of evening when moths abound; † moth-weed = mothwort; moth-worm, the larva of a moth; † mothwort, the plant Helichrysum Stœchas.
1855Ogilvie Suppl., *Moth-blight.
1900Nature 21 June 182/2 A considerable number of the eggs of the *moth borer (which are laid in patches on the leaves of the sugar-cane) are attacked by parasites. 1931Discovery Sept. 300/1 The attacks of the giant moth⁓borer..and many other pests began in comparatively recent times [in the West Indies]. 1957Encycl. Brit. XXI. 525/2 The giant moth borer (Castnia licoides) is particularly destructive in Trinidad and the Guianas. 1974Encycl. Brit. Macropædia XVII. 771/1 The moth borer, Diatraea saccharalis, which is widely distributed throughout cane-growing areas, is capable of causing extensive damage when out of control.
1931V. Woolf Waves 254 Jinny's yellow scarf is *moth-coloured in this light.
a1963S. Plath Crossing Water (1971) 38 The *moth-face of her husband, moonwhite and ill, Circles her.
1921W. de la Mare Veil 68 Soundless the *moth-flit, crisp the death-watch tick.
1668Charleton Ornomast. 47 Blatta..the *Moth-fly, produced out of the Meal-Worm. 1791Trans. Soc. Arts IX. 114 The moth-fly..gets in and lays her eggs in the comb. 1899D. Sharp Insects ii. 470 Fam. 7—Psychodidae (Moth Flies).—Extremely small, helpless flies [etc.].
13..St. Erkenwolde 85 in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1881) 268 Oþer of moulynge oþer of motes oþir *moght fretene.
1855Ogilvie Suppl., *Moth-gnats.
1890W. B. Yeats Countess Kathleen (1892) 108 At the *moth-hour of eve. 1909E. Pound Personae 23 The moth-hour of our day is upon us Holding the dawn.
1933W. de la Mare Fleeting 161 The secret scent of the *moth-hung flower.
1840Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 196 The *Moth-hunters bear the same relationship to the Swifts (not to the Swallows) that the Owls do to the Hawks.
1910W. de la Mare Three Mulla-Mulgars 166 Andy's eyes was never made for *moth-hunting.
1930E. Blunden Poems 326 The fete grows late and dark, The King in *moth-light traverses the park. 1934T. S. Eliot Rock ii. 84 Moon light and star light, owl and moth light.
1797M. Wollstonecraft in C. K. Paul W. Godwin (1876) I. 242, I spare the *moth-like appearance. 1804–8Blake Milton i. xi, in Compl. Writings (1972) 492 Her moth-like elegance shone over the Assembly. 1839Bailey Festus ix. (1852) 121 From him who hovereth, mothlike, round the sun To six-mooned Ouranus. 1885W. B. Yeats in Dublin Univ. Rev. July 136/1 Gently shook their moth-like wings. 1904W. H. Hudson Green Mansions xiii. 174 She, too, moth-like, had vanished from my side. 1934S. Spender Poems (ed. 2) 36 The mothlike lips at dusk.
1865Harper's Weekly 25 Nov. 747/3 If there is one little hole in your linen or paper, some industrious *moth-miller is pretty sure to discover it. 1885S. O. Jewett Marsh Isl. xiii, Come and sit down, and don't flit about so, mother; you make me think of a singed moth-miller.
1880F. W. Burbidge Gardens of Sun ii. 18 In Singaporean gardens the rarest of *moth orchids are planted in cocoanut-shells.
1942G. G. Denny Fabrics (ed. 5) ii. 119 Dry cleaners and laundries may apply *moth-repellent treatment. 1958S. Hyland Who goes Hang? xli. 200 Paradichlorbenzene was sold for the first time in the shops as moth repellant in 1932. 1964N. G. Clark Mod. Organic Chem. xix. 390 It [sc. naphthalene] has been employed in the manufacture of fire⁓lighters, and as a moth-repellent and insecticide.
1970Which? Sept. 265/2 The carpet is moth-resistant.
1876G. M. Hopkins Wreck of Deutschland xxvi, in Poems (1967) 60 Or night, still higher, With belled fire and the *moth⁓soft Milky Way. 1958L. Durrell Balthazar i. 17 Brightly lit up in the moth-soft darkness of the Aegean night.
1922F. Courtenay Physical Beauty 26 The so-called ‘*moth spots’, brown spots or patches which appear after middle life, are due to this tan pigment.
1819Keats Lamia i. 222 Now on the *moth-time of that evening dim He would return that way.
1890Cent. Dict., *Moth-trap. 1928Metcalf & Flint Destructive & Useful Insects ix. 263 Mechanical devices, such as..fly traps, moth traps, maggot traps,..have been used successfully for catching and killing a variety of insects. 1970Daily Tel. 19 Oct. 11/8 A moth new to Britain, Plusia accentifera, has been caught in Mr Terry Dillon's moth-trap at Halsted.
1597Gerarde Herbal ii. cxcvi. 520 The branches and leaues laid among clothes keepeth them from moths, whereupon it [Eliochryson] hath bene called of some *Mothweede or Mothwoort.
1920D. H. Lawrence Lost Girl xi. 275 Irises rearing purple and *moth-white.
1612Ainsworth Annot. Ps. vi. 8 Ghnash is a *moth-worme, Psalm 39. 12. that fretteth garments. 1885H. C. McCook Tenants of Old Farm 91 The moth-worms pass the summer within these silk-lined rolls.
1578Lyte Dodoens i. lxi. 89 Called..in English Golde floure, *Motheworte, or Golden Stechados. 1597Gerarde Herbal ii. cxcvi. 519 Of Golden Mothwoort, or Cudweede.
▪ II. moth, n.2
[f. Hind. moth moth bean.]
In full, moth bean. An Indian bean, Phaseolus aconitifolius, of the family Leguminosæ, cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical countries as food for both man and livestock.
[1832W. Roxburgh et al. Flora Indica III. 299 P[haseolus] aconitifolius... Hind. Moot. This plant I have reared from seed sent me by Dr. Hunter from the province of Oude where it is much cultivated..and used for feeding cattle. ]1840Penny Cycl. XVIII. 58/1 P[haseolus] aconitifolius, Moth of the natives, is cultivated in the north-western provinces, and used for feeding cattle. 1884tr. A. de Candolle's Origin of Cultivated Plants v. 345 Moth, or Aconite-leaved Kidney Bean... An annual species grown in India as fodder, and of which the seeds are eatable, though but little valued. The Hindustani name is mout, among the Sikhs moth. 1886A. H. Church Food-Grains of India 152 The moth-bean..is found from the Himálaya to Ceylon... It is not esteemed as a food for man, for although it is rich in nutrients, it is generally thought to possess heating properties. 1923H. C. Thompson Veg. Crops xxiv. 334 The term ‘bean’ as used in the United States includes..several species of oriental beans, including adsuki,..moth and rice beans belonging to the genus Phaseolus. 1972G. A. C. Herklots Vegetables in South-east Asia 244 (heading) Moth bean... A slender annual with decumbent branches growing to 18 inches or a foot in length.
▪ III. moth, v.|mɒθ|
[f. moth n.1]
intr. To hunt for moths. Chiefly in ˈmothing vbl. n.
1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. l. 518 The former colour..is most proper for mothing in the night. 1894Naturalist 14 Geometræ have been on the whole very scarce, and mothing at and after dusk uniformly unproductive.
▪ IV. moth
obs. form of mote n.1, mouth n. |
