‖ banderilla
(bandeˈriʎa)
Also banderillo.
[Sp., dim. of bandera banner.]
A little dart, ornamented with a banderole, which dexterous bull-fighters stick into the neck and shoulders of the bull; also fig.
| 1797 [see next]. 1865 Pall Mall G. 23 Nov. 3 He will begin to see the barb of the banderilla under its paper disguise. 1882 H. de Windt On Equator ix. 138 Each was armed with the banderillo, small barbed darts, about a foot long. 1927 Hemingway Men without Women 44 Fuentes..sank the banderillos straight down. 1939 Spender & Gili tr. Lorca's Poems 123 How tremendous with the final Banderillas of darkness. 1948 L. MacNeice Holes in Sky 61 Gaudy banderillas May quiver in our flanks. |
Hence as v. trans. and intr. (also in Sp. form banderillear), to stick a banderilla into (a bull). So bandeˈrilling vbl. n.
| 1932 Hemingway Death in Aft. xvii. 197 Bulls which will not charge..are banderilla-ed by..the media-vuelta or half-turn. Ibid. 198 Very rarely..a man is able to banderillear properly from both sides. 1932 R. Campbell Taurine Provence iii. 70 The art of banderilling is not only a matter of speed. |