| 单词 |
colossus |
| 释义 |
colossus|kəʊˈlɒsəs, kə-|
Also 5 colosus, (6 collossy, colossie). Plural -i (obs. -ie), -uses.
[a. L. colossus, a. Gr. κολοσσός (-οττός) gigantic statue, orig. applied by Herodotus to those of Egypt, but most celebrated in connexion with that at Rhodes. Besides this Latin form, the It. colosso, and F. colosse (partly adapted as coloss) were also formerly naturalized, the last being the prevalent form in the 17th c. A form collossy (colossie) also occurs (see quot. 1577), app. due to some confusion with colosseum: cf. colossee.]
1. A statue or image of the human form of very large dimensions; the most famous in antiquity being the bronze statue of Apollo at Rhodes, one of the seven wonders of the world, reputed to have stood astride the entrance to the Rhodian harbour (whence the ref. in Shakes.), and stated by Pliny to have been seventy cubits high.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xv. cxxix. (1495) 537 In this cite of Rodus was a colosus of bras seuenty cubites hye, and in this same yle..were an hundred lesse Colosus. 1555Eden Decades W. Ind. (Arb.) 49 Horryble great Images cauled Colossi. 1577Holinshed Descr. Brit. i. iv. 4 b/1 The ymage..appeared rather an huge collossy [ed. 1587 colossie] then the true representation of the carcasse of a man. 1601Shakes. Jul. C. i. ii. 136 He doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus. 1631Dekker Match me in Lond. Wks. 1873 IV. 202 On Kings shoulders stand The heads of the Colossie of the Goddes (Aboue the reach of traitors). 1730A. Gordon Maffei's Amphith. 39 There were above 88 Colossus's in Rome of Marble and Metal. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. III. li. 208 The colossus of Rhodes was overthrown by an earthquake. 1877A. B. Edwards Up Nile x. 282 The syenite Colossus of the Ramesseum..was the largest detached statue in the world.
fig.1632Sir T. Hawkins tr. Mathieu's Unhappy Prosper. 212 To behold these great Colossuses overthrown in an instant. 1827Carlyle Misc. (1857) I. 11 Richter has been called an intellectual Colossus. 1830D'Israeli Chas. I, III. v. 76 Laud stood the colossus of his own cast.
2. transf. and fig. Anything vast or gigantic, or which overawes by its greatness.
1794Sullivan View Nat. II. 166 A huge colossus..of an inferior kind of porphyry. 1831Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) I. 431 The Colossus of the North [Russia] put its legions in movement. 1864Burton Scot Abr. I. v. 250 Intellect and knowledge were the weapons with which the blind colossus [Roman Catholicism] was to be attacked.
3. attrib. and Comb., as colossus-bully, colossus-head, etc.; also colossus-wise adv., like the Rhodian Colossus, astride.
1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. v. 9 Margarelon Hath Doreus prisoner, And stands Calossus-wise wauing his beame. 1631H. Shirley Mart. Soldier v. in Bullen O. Pl. I. 250 The mightiest kings on Earth..Carry Colossi heads. 1675T. Turnor Case of Bankers & Creditors 42 All these grand and Colossus objections. 1705Elstob in T. Hearne Collect. 30 Nov. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) I. 107 Grac't on it's Top with a Colossus Head. 1759Dilworth Pope 2 The Colossus-bully of literature [Dr. Johnson]. |
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