| 释义 |
degradable, a.|dɪˈgreɪdəb(ə)l|
[f. degrade v. + -able.]
Capable of being degraded. spec. Susceptible to chemical or biological degradation (cf. biodegradable adj. s.v. bio-).
[1867H. Kingsley Silcote of S. xxxvii. (1876) 255 The labourer..is undegradable, being in a chronic state of bankruptcy.] 1963Economist 22 June 1257/1 The detergent industry is..spending $5 million a year to find a more soluble, or ‘degradable’, ‘surface active ingredient’. 1971Sci. News 7 Aug. 92 Public indignation over litter and garbage has caused industry to ask chemists whether self-destroying, or quickly degradable, plastics might be devised to replace indestructible, unburnable and incompressible glass, aluminum and plastics.
Hence degradaˈbility.
1969Rep. Secretary's Comm. Pesticides (U.S. Dept. Health) ii. 141 The problem to the consumer..depends upon the degradability of the pesticide. 1971Nature 2 Apr. 326/1 Concern about the persistence of some insecticides in mammals and in the environment has stimulated a consideration of the degradability of widely used compounds. 1974Daily Tel. 11 Oct. 2/6 Assuming that five per cent of the refuse were to be composted it would cost 10 times as much to introduce degradability..as would be saved on the compost. |