释义 |
detachment|dɪˈtætʃmənt| [a. F. détachement (1642 in Hatzf.), f. détacher: see -ment.] 1. The action of detaching; unfastening, disconnecting, separation.
1669Woodhead St. Teresa i. Pref. 35 A perfect Detachment, and clearing of our affections from the friendships of the creature. 1699J. Woodward in Phil. Trans. XXI. 208 So continual an Emission and Detachment of Water, in so great Plenty from the Parts of Plants. 1783Pott Chirurg. Wks. II. 17 A detachment of fibres from the fascia lata of the thigh. 1876W. H. Pollock in Contemp. Rev. June 55 The growth of the drama has..gone hand in hand with its detachment from the service of its parent. 1880Carpenter in 19th Cent. No. 38. 612 Bergs which show least signs of change since their first detachment from the parent mass. 2. Mil. and Naval. The separating and dispatching of part of a body of troops, etc., on special service.
1678Phillips, Detachment, a word now very much brought into use, in relations of the affairs of the French Army, and signifies a drawing off of a party from one place for the relief or assistance of some party, upon occasion, in another place. 1693Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) III. 116 They confirm the detachment of the dauphine with 25,000 men to the Rhine. 1724De Foe Mem. Cavalier (1840) 107 The army, after so many detachments, was not above nineteen thousand men. 1748Chesterfield Lett. II. clx. 75 Which would have..caused a great detachment from their army in Flanders. 1841Elphinstone Hist. Ind. I. 143 [They] had become tenants on condition of service instead of mere officers on detachment. 3. concr. A portion of an army or navy taken from the main body and employed on some separate service or expedition; any party similarly separated from a main body.
1678Butler Hud. iii. iii. 35 Haunted with detachments, sent From Marshal Legion's regiment. 1681Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) I. 89 He has sent out a detachment of six witnesses, to confound Fitzharris's discovery. 1724De Foe Mem. Cavalier (1840) 68 Detachments were made out of every regiment to search among the dead. 1739Cibber Apol. x. 273 A Detachment of Actors from Drury-Lane. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. III. lii. 256 A detachment of cavalry intercepted his march. 1838Thirlwall Greece II. xv. 291 He sent a detachment of his fleet to seize the island of Cythera. 1859F. A. Griffiths Artil. Man. (1862) 112 A gun detachment consists of one non-commissioned officer and nine gunners. attrib.1881J. Grant Cameronians I. i. 3 The smartest officers are usually selected for detachment duty. 1881Mrs. Alexander Freres iii, He was almost immediately told off for detachment duty. 4. a. A standing apart or aloof from objects or circumstances; a state of separation or withdrawal from connexion or association with surrounding things.
1862Maurice Mor. & Met. Philos. IV. iii. §36. 88 This detachment from Italian feelings might have led one to expect [etc.]. 1871Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (1879) I. iv. 126 The mountain sprang forth with astonishing solidity and detachment from the surrounding air. 1874Morley Compromise (1886) 115 Oxford, ‘the sweet city with her dreaming spires’, where there has ever been so much detachment from the world. 1883Brit. Q. Rev. Oct. 392 An apartness or detachment from self. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. II. iii. liii. 335 The detachment of the United States from the affairs of the Old World. b. A condition of spiritual separation from the world. (Cf. 1669 in 1.) More widely, freedom or aloofness from ordinary concerns or emotional commitments.
1798Lamb Rosamund Gray xi, The stronger I feel this detachment, the more I find myself drawn heavenward. 1853M. Kelly tr. Gosselin's Power of Pope I. 91 To inspire all the faithful with the spirit of detachment. 1856J. H. Newman Callista 199 A most heroic faith, and the detachment of a saint. 1865T. F. Knox Life Henry Suso 152 Let all who suffer with detachment rejoice. 1888H. James in Harper's Mag. Feb. 342/2 Her detachment, her air of having no fatuous illusions, and not being blinded by prejudice, seemed to me at times to amount to an affectation. 1891Daily News 3 Apr. 5/2 There is no such excellent cure for ‘detachment’ as an attachment. 1915R. Brooke Let. 6 Apr. (1968) 677 One just hasn't, though, the time and detachment to write, I find. 1924A. D. Sedgwick Little French Girl ii. xi, ‘C'était un bien méchant homme,’ Madame Vervier remarked in a tone of surpassing detachment. 1926W. S. Churchill in W. R. Inge Lay Thoughts of a Dean 166 That sense of detachment and impartiality, that power of comprehending the other man's point of view. 1935W. S. Maugham Don Fernando x. 201 This person seems to preserve a strangely ironic detachment: it would never occur to you that he was a mystic. ¶ Erroneously for attachment 1–2.
1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), s.v. Detachiare, To seize or take into custody another man's goods or person by writ of Detachment or other course of law. 1727Bailey vol. II, Detachment, in Law, a sort of Writ. |