| 释义 |
▪ I. deflect, v.|dɪˈflɛkt|
[ad. L. dēflect-ĕre to bend aside, or downwards; f. de- I. 1, 2 + flectĕre to bend.]
I. trans.
1. To bend down. Cf. deflected 2.
1630Lord Banians 72 They pray with demissive eyelids..and with their knees deflected under them.
2. To bend or turn to one side or from a straight line; to change the direction of; to cause to deviate from its course.
c1630Jackson Creed iv. v. Wks. III. 57 It would argue no error sometimes to deflect our course. 1845Darwin Voy. Nat. xxi. (1852) 491 The current seemed to be deflected upward from the face of the cliff. 1860Tristram Gt. Sahara xvii. 287 The French..will do all in their power to deflect the stream of commerce to a more northerly channel. 1879G. B. Prescott Sp. Telephone 1 In 1820, Oersted discovered that an electric current would deflect a magnetic needle.
b. Optics. To bend (a ray of light) from the straight line; esp. to bend away from a body.
1796Brougham in Phil. Trans. LXXXVI. 264 The first knife deflected the images formed by the second, in precisely the same degree that it inflected those images which itself formed. 1811A. T. Thomson Lond. Disp. (1818) p. xxxvii, When a ray of light moving in a straight line passes within a certain distance of a body parallel to its direction, it bends towards the body, or is inflected; but when the body parallel to its course is at a greater distance, the ray is bent from it, or deflected. 1879G. C. Harlan Eyesight iii. 36 If we look at an object through a prism, the rays of light coming from it are deflected.
3. fig. (in reference to a course of action, conduct, and the like.)
c1555Harpsfield Divorce Hen. VIII (1878) 66 To averte and deflect him from this enterprise. 1620Shelton Quix. iv. ix. II. 118 Let me cleave to the Supporter from whom neither thy Importunity nor Threats..could once deflect me. 1863Kinglake Crimea I. i. 7 The personal and family motives which deflect the state policy of a prince who is his own minister. 1878Lecky Eng. in 18th C. II. ix. 540 The evil of all attempts to deflect the judgment by hope or fear.
4. To turn or convert (a thing) to something different from its natural quality or use.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage vii. iii. (1614) 670 That Title of Prestegian (easily deflected and altered to Priest Iohn). a1711Ken Hymns Evang. Poet. Wks. 1721 I. 109 How God's All-wise Superintending Will To greatest Good deflected greatest ill.
II. intr.
5. To turn to one side or from a straight line; to change its direction; to deviate from its course.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. ii, At some parts of the Azores it [the needle] deflecteth not, but lyeth in the true meridian. 1696Whiston Th. Earth i. (1722) 53 They seem to deflect from that great Circle in which they before were seen to move. 1726tr. Gregory's Astron. I. 155 The same part of the Moon is turned towards the Earth, or at least does not deflect much from it. 1879R. H. Elliot Written on Foreheads II. 6 Then deflecting a little to their right, they got on a long ridge of grassy hill.
6. fig.
1612T. James Jesuits Downfall 59 Kings do deflect from the Catholike Religion. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. vi. x, Many creatures exposed to the ayre, deflect in extremity from their naturall colours. 1753–4Warburton Nat. & Rev. Relig. ii, The Mind..can, every moment, deflect from the line of truth and reason. 1879M. Arnold Equality Mixed Ess. 81 The points where this type deflects from the truly humane ideal.
▪ II. deflect, ppl. a.|dɪˈflɛkt|
[f. as prec. after ppl. forms in -ct, as erect.]
Deflected, bent aside.
1851Mrs. Browning Casa Guidi Windows 105 So swept..The marshalled thousands,—not an eye deflect To left or right. |