- 1滴水獸（屋頂用來排水的怪獸石像；不是單純嚇人的裝飾石像）
A gargoyle is a stone creature on the edge of an old roof — often a church — with a mouth that rain runs through. The water shoots out and falls away from the wall, so the stone below stays drier. The figure is usually strange or ugly on purpose: a grinning face, a dragon, a hunched beast. Though actually, a lot of people call any ugly stone monster on a building a gargoyle. Strictly, if rain does not pass through it, it is only a decoration (architecture teachers say grotesque). Everyday English is looser; even mix the two. You meet the word in travel writing, history, and Halloween jokes. It is not a word for a plastic toy unless you are being playful.
組成From Old French gargouille, from Latin. Doublet of gargle — both carry the idea of a throat and a rush of liquid. The Académie Française gives an early form gargoule in 1294.
同家族的字
- gargledoublet: same Old French/Latin ‘throat and rushing liquid’ story
原始詞典資料4 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
gargoylenoun/ˈɡɑːɡɔɪl/
- 1
A carved grotesque figure on a spout which conveys water away from the gutters.
- As we went, however, I took the precaution of noting our route as well as I could; and this was not so very difficult, owing to the extraordinary and most fantastic shape of the rocks that were strewn about, many of which in that dim light looked more like the grim faces carven upon mediæval gargoyles than ordinary boulders.
- From between set teeth came now a flow of oaths and imprecations as steady as the flow of water from the gargoyle overhead.
- 2
Any decorative carved grotesque figure on a building.
- The long-closed G.W.R. station alongside has a decidedly derelict-looking frontage, with eight gargoyles or figureheads still clinging to the portico.
- 3
A fictional winged monster.
- Almost immediately one of the gargoyles swept down from the sky and attacked him. The gargoyle's momentum drove them both over the side.
- 4
derogatoryAn ugly woman.
- Above all, in what reckless moment had she encouraged that person and her gargoyle of a mother to move to Mayfair, and set up house around the corner?
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。