| 词汇 | plow the sands |
| 词源 | plow the sands. To undertake an impossible endless job, to waste time and energy on such a project. Farmers have long known that crops will not grow on beach and desert sands, and the expression itself goes back several centuries, first recorded in Robert Greene’s play Never Too Late (1590). Greene, now best known as a detractor of Shakespeare, wrote: “With sweaty brows I long have ploughed the sands . . . Repent hath sent me home with empty hands.” |
| 随便看 |
|
英语词源词典收录了13259条英语词源词条，基本涵盖了全部常用英语词汇的起源、历史，是研究英语词汇或通过词源学英语的必备工具。