Edward William Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon, ض

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ضَبُعٌ ذ (S, Mgh, O, Msb, K) and ↓ ضَبْعٌ , (Msb, K,) the former of the dial. of Keys and the latter of the dial. of Temeem, (Msb,) [The female hyena; or the hyena, male and female;] a certain animal of prey, (سَبُعٌ, [but see what follows,]) (K,) well known, (S, O,) the worst, or most abominable, of سِبَاع, (Mgh,) resembling the wolf, except that, when it runs, it is as though it were lame, wherefore it is called العَرْجَآءُ: it flees from him who holds in his hand a colocynth: [and they assert that] the dogs bark not at him who retains with him its teeth: if its skin is bound upon the belly of her that is pregnant, she casts not her young: if seed is measured in a measure covered with its skin, the seed-produce is secure from the banes thereof: and the application of its gall-bladder as a collyrium sharpens the sight: (K:) it is not reckoned among the hostile animals to which the appellation of سَبُعٌ is applied, wherefore the Sunneh allows that its flesh may be eaten, and requires that a compensation be made for it [by the sacrifice of a ram] if it be smitten [and killed] in the sacred territory by a person in the state of ihrám: (TA voce سَبُعٌ:) the word is of the fem. gender, (S, * Mgh, * O, * Msb, K, *) and is [said to be] applied peculiarly to the female; (Msb;) the male being called ↓ ضِبْعَانٌ , (S, Mgh, O, Msb, K,) of which the pl. is ضَبَاعِينُ; (S, O, Msb, K;) but AHát disapproved this pl.; (O;) and the female is called [also] ↓ ضِبْعَانَةٌ , of which the pl. is ضِبْعَانَاتٌ; (S, O, K;) or ضِبْعَانَةٌ has not been heard applied to the female, but ضَبُعٌ only, and it seems that J has mentioned ضِبْعَانَةٌ as applied to the female from his having supposed ضِبْعَانَاتٌ to be pl. of ضِبْعَانَةٌ, whereas it is pl. of ضِبْعَانٌ, being like رِجَالَاتٌ and جِمَالَاتٌ: (IB in a marginal note in one of my copies of the S:) but some say that ضَبُعٌ or ضَبْعٌ is applied to the male; and the female is termed ضَبْعَةٌ, thus with a quiescent letter: (Msb:) or, accord. to Ibn-'Abbád, the female is termed ضَبُعَةٌ, and its pl. [or rather the coll. gen. n.] is ضَبُعٌ; (O, K;) or ضَبَعَةٌ is not allowable: (S, K:) the pl. of ضَبُعٌ or ضَبْعٌ is أَضْبُعٌ, (K,) a pl. of pauc., (TA,) and ضِبَاعٌ, (K,) or the former is pl. of ضَبْعٌ, (Msb,) and the latter is pl. of ضَبُعٌ, (Mgh, Msb,) and is of the male and of the female, (S, K,) and ضُبُعٌ, (K,) as though this were pl. of ضِبَاعٌ, (AAF, TA,) and ضُبعٌ [a contraction of ضُبُعٌ] (K) and ضُبُعَاتٌ and ضُبُوعَةٌ (TA [in which it is indicated that this last is pl. of ضَبْعٌ]) and [quasi-pl. n.] ↓ مَضْبَعَةٌ . (O, K.) One says أَمْدَرُ ↓ ضِبْعَانٌ , [in the CK, erroneously, ضَبْعَانُ,] meaning, [A male hyena] inflated in the sides, big in the belly: or, accord. to some, whose sides are defiled with earth, or dust. (S.) And سَيْلٌ جَارُّ الضَّبُعِ A torrent that draws forth the ضَبُع from its den; (O, K; in the CK, جارٌّ الصَّبُعَ;) hence meaning (assumed tropical:) a torrent produced by vehement rain. (TA.) And دَلْجَةُ الضَّبُعِ [The night-journeying of the hyena]; because the ضَبُع goes round about until midnight. (O, K.) And مَا يَخْفَى ذٰلِكَ عَلَى الضَّبُعِ [That is not unapparent to the hyena]: because the ضَبُع is deemed stupid. (TA.) أَحْمَقُ مِنَ الضَّبُعِ [More stupid than the hyena] is a prov. (Meyd.) And أَكَلَتْهُمُ الضَّبُعُ (tropical:) [The hyena devoured them] is said of such as are held in mean estimation. (TA.) [But this may be otherwise rendered, as will be seen from what follows.] The saying of a poet, “ تَفَرَّقَتْ غَنَمِى يَوْمًا فَقُلْتُ لَهَا
يَا رَبِّ سَلِّطْ عَلَيْهَا الذِئْبَ وَالضَّبُعَا
” [My sheep, or goats, dispersed themselves, one day, and I said in relation to them, O my Lord, set upon them the wolf and the hyena], is said to mean an imprecation, that the wolf might kill the living of them, and the hyena devour the dead of them: or, as some say, it means that the speaker prayed for their safety; because, when both fall upon the sheep, or goats, each of them is diverted from the sheep, or goats, by the other; and thus means the saying, اَللّٰهُمَّ ضَبُعًا وَذِئْبًا [O God, send a hyena and a wolf]: but the more probable meaning of the poet is an imprecation, the consequence of his anger and fatigue; and the word سَلِّطْ imports a notification of this meaning. (IB, TA.) ― -b2- [The pl.] الضِّبَاعُ is applied to (assumed tropical:) Numerous stars below بَنَات نَعْش: (O, K:) or [the stars beta, gamma, delta and mu, of Bootes; i. e.] the star upon the head, and that upon [each of] the shoulders, and that upon the club, of العَوَّآء: and the name of أَوْلَادُ الضِّبَاعِ is given to [The stars q, i, k, and l, app. with some other faint stars around these, of Bootes; i. e.] the stars upon the left hand and fore arm, and what surround the hand, of the faint stars, of العَوَّآء. (Kzw.) ― -b3- الضَّبُعُ also signifies (tropical:) The year of drought or sterility or dearth; (S, IAth, O, Msb, K, TA;) that is destructive; severe: of the fem. gender. (TA.) So in a verse cited in art. اما [voce أَمَّا, and again, with a variation, voce إِِمَّا]. (S, O. [But it is here said in the TA that الضَّبُعُ in this instance means the animal of prey thus called.]) [Hence also,] it is related in a trad. of Aboo-Dharr, that a man said, يَا رَسُولَ ا@للّٰهِ أَكَلَتْنَا الضَّبُعُ (tropical:) [O Apostle of God, the year of drought has consumed us]: and he prayed for them. (TA.) [See also two other exs. voce ذِئْبٌ.] ― -b4- Also (tropical:) Hunger. (Ibn-'Abbád, O, TA.) ― -b5- And (assumed tropical:) Evil, or mischief. (TA.) El-'Okeyleeyeh said, “ When a man whose evil, or mischief, we feared removed from us, we used to light a fire behind him: ” and being asked “ Why? ” she said, لِيَتَحَوَّلَ ضَبُعُهُ مَعَهُ, i. e. (assumed tropical:) In order that his evil, or mischief, might go away with him. (IAar, TA.)