释义 |
▪ I. detail, n.|dɪˈteɪl, ˈdiːteɪl| [a. F. détail (12th c. in Hatzf.) the action of detailing, the result of this action, retail, f. stem of détailler: see next. App. first adopted in the phrase in detail, F. en détail, opposed to en gros in the gross, wholesale. Sense 5 represents the F. détail du service, distribuer l'ordre en détail, Feuquieres, a. 1711.] 1. a. The dealing with matters item by item; detailed treatment; attention to particulars. Esp. in phrase in († the) detail, item by item; part by part; minutely; circumstantially. So to go into detail, i.e. to deal with or treat a thing in its individual particulars.
1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 306 (R.) As if a man would say, that necessary it is for him to offer wrong in detaile, who mindeth to do right in the gross. 1706Phillips Detail (Fr.), the particular Circumstances of an Affair; as These advantages need not be offered in Detail to your View. 1734Pope Ess. Man, Introd., I was unable to treat this part of my subject more in detail. 1769Goldsm. Rom. Hist. (1786) I. 320 They..perhaps condemned them in the gross for defects, which they thought it not worth while to mention in the detail. 1785Cowper Wks. (1837) XV. 163 The consequences need not, to use the fashionable phrase, be given in detail. 1840Gladstone Ch. Princ. 69 The fear of punishment in the gross or in the detail. 1847Emerson Repr. Men, Swedenborg Wks. (Bohn) I. 332 His revelations destroy their credit by running into detail. 1868M. Pattison Academ. Org. iv. 110 Relieved from the drudgery of detail. 1870Freeman Norm. Conq. (ed. 2) I. App. 558 The tale, which is told in great detail, is doubtless mythical in its details. 1884Law Times Rep. 16 Feb. 773/2 We had to go into detail, so as to make the case clear. b. Mil. in detail: by the engagement of small portions of an army or force one after another. war of detail, a war carried on after this fashion, instead of by general engagements. (Often fig.)
1841Miall Nonconf. I. 1 Their war has been one of detail, not of principle. 1842H. Rogers Introd. Burke's Wks. 85 Pursuing a war of detail instead of acting on some uniform scheme. 1845Ford Handbk. Spain 2 Being without union [it] is also without strength and has been beaten in detail. 1858Froude Hist. Eng. III. xiii. 116 Without concert..without a leader they would be destroyed in detail. 1886Stokes Celtic Ch. 293 He [Brian Boru] defeated his enemies in detail. 2. A minute or circumstantial account; a detailed narrative or description of particulars.
1695Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth iv. (1723) 238 But I must be forced wholey to wave and supersede the Detail of these. 1726Adv. Capt. R. Boyle Pref. A iv, The following Sheets are a detail of Fortunes I have run through. 1810(title), A Chronological detail of events in which Oliver Cromwell was engaged, from 1642 to 1658. 1815T. Forster Atmosph. Phænom. p. ix, Aristotle..appears to have given a more minute detail of the various appearances of clouds..and other phænomena. 1825Lytton Falkland 9 But my detail must be rather of thought than of action. 3. a. An item, a particular (of an account, a process, etc.); a minute or subordinate portion of any (esp. a large or complex) whole. (See also 4 a.) ‘But that is a detail!’ was (c 1897) a current phrase humorously making light of what was perhaps really an important element in the matter in question.
1786T. Jefferson Writ. (1859) I. 560 It has given me details..which are very entertaining. 1832H. Martineau Demerara ii. 16 The details of the management of a plantation. 1851J. S. Macaulay Field-Fortif. 267 Hedges..skirted by details of ground that may render them obstacles. 1853J. H. Newman Hist. Sk. (1873) I. i. iv. 194 In the details of dress, carriage, and general manners, the Turks are very different from Europeans. 1863F. A. Kemble Resid. in Georgia 17, I shall furnish you with no details. 1868Dickens Lett. (1880) II. 393 Be particular in the minutest detail. b. collective sing. The particulars or items of any whole considered collectively.
1861Mill Utilit. v. 71 Nobody desires that laws should interfere with the whole detail of private life. 1886Law Times LXXX. 193/2 Legal questions..full of dry and uninteresting detail. 4. Fine Arts. a. A minute or subordinate part of a building, sculpture, or painting, as distinct from the larger portions or the general conception. b. collective sing. Such minute parts collectively, or the manner of treatment of them. (Also transf. in reference to natural objects.)
1823P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 309 The detail of both sculpture and masonry on the building. 1846Ruskin Mod. Paint. I. ii. ii. v. §15 The detail of a single weedy bank laughs the carving of ages to scorn. 1870F. R. Wilson Ch. Lindisf. 85 There are no architectural details of interest. 1882Hamerton Graphic Arts iv. 29 The most careful study of antiquarian detail is united to an artist's vivid recollection of the colour and sunshine of the South. 1865J. Fergusson Hist. Archit. I. i. iii. ii. 232 The Assyrian honeysuckle..forms as elegant an architectural detail as is anywhere to be found. c. Arch. Short for detail drawing(s, working drawings.
1819P. Nicholson Archit. Dict. I. 383 Detail, the delineation of all the parts of an edifice, so as to be sufficiently intelligible for the execution of the work. The detail is otherwise denominated the working drawings. 1876Gwilt Encycl. Archit. Gloss., Details, a term usually applied to the drawings on a large scale for the use of builders, and generally called working drawings. 1892Archit. Publ. Soc. Dict. VIII. s.v. Working Drawings, Working drawings..consist of plans, elevations, sections, details of construction..many being to the full size. 5. Mil. a. The distribution in detail, to the different officers concerned, of the Daily Orders first given in general, with apportionment to each division and subdivision of the force (and finally to individual officers and men) of the share of duty falling upon them in their order; hence, the list or table showing the general distribution of duty for the whole force (general detail or † grand detail), or the particular distribution of that falling upon any division or subdivision of it (particular detail). office of detail (in U.S. Navy Dept.), the office where the roster of officers is kept, and from which orders as to duty are issued.
1703–8Order Dk. Marlborough in Kane Camp Disc. (1757) 4 The Adjutant-General is to keep all the Details and an account of all things that happen in the Army. 1708― Order ibid. 4 Of Details, Whereas great Inconveniences have happened in changing the Details after made, it is agreed..by all the Generals of the Army, that all Details made at orderly Time should stand, though several other Details came afterwards; and that they should march accordingly, though the others made before did not march. a1711Ibid. 3 The Brigadier of the Day is to distribute the Orders he received immediately to the Majors of Brigade; and see that all the Details are made upon the Spot. 1727H. Bland Milit. Discip. 281 (ch. xix, Title) Of the Method in Flanders for the Receiving and Distributing of the Daily Orders; General Detail of the Army (by which is meant the General Duty to be perform'd by the Officers and Soldiers) with the Form of a Roster, or Table, by which the Duty of Entire Battalions, and the Officers, is regulated. Ibid. in Simes Milit. Medley (1768) 69 Our late Monarch, the glorious King William..was perfectly knowing in the small as well as the grand detail of an army. c1745Kane Camp. Disc. (1757) 16 Whenever the Quarter-master General demands a Detachment, to go along with him to reconnoitre, they are to be furnished immediately from the nearest Troops, and it will be allowed them in the next Detail. 1778Orderly book, Maryland Loyalists, 28 Aug., Detale for outline pickett this evening. 1779U.S. Army Regulation, [The adjutant] must assemble the first serjeants of the companies, make them copy the orders, and give them their details for the next day. 1779Capt. G. Smith Univ. Milit. Dict. s.v., Detail of Duty is a roster or table for the regular..performance of duty, either in the field, garrison, or cantonments. The general detail of duty is the proper care of the majors of brigade, who are guided by the roster for the officers, and by the tables for the men to be occasionally furnished. The adjutant of a regiment keeps the detail of duty for the officers of his regiment. 1781T. Simes Milit. Guide (ed. 3) 9 The Major of Brigade is charged with the particular detail in his own brigade in much the same way as the Adjutant-general is charged with the general detail of the army. 1853Stocqueler Milit. Encycl. s.v. Detail of Duty. 1894 Brigade Orders, Aldershot (MS.) 1. Detail, 14.10.94. Brigade Captain, Adjutant and Picquet: 2nd Worc. R. Special Picquet Hospital Hill: 2nd Lein. R. Brigade Quartermaster: 2nd Ches. R. Drums: 2 Lein. R. Company for Fire Screen Drill: none. Duties No. 1 Canteen: 2nd Ches. R. Duties No. 2 Canteen: 2nd Lein. R. Visitor to Bde. Schools (a Captn.): 2nd Ches. R. b. The detailing or telling off a small party for a special duty. c. concr. A small body detached for a particular service or duty; a small detachment. Originally military, but extended to the police, etc.
[1708see under a above.]
1780Gen. Washington Order 14 Mar., The fatigue party for finishing the new orderly room is to be furnished by detail from the line of the army. 1828Webster, Detail 2, A selecting of officers or soldiers from the rosters. 1862Beveridge Hist. India II. v. vii. 458 A small body of cavalry, and a detail of European artillery. 1884Daily News 3 Mar., The ground..was explored..by the Mounted Infantry and by details from the regular Cavalry. 1885Gen. Grant Pers. Mem. I. xx. 278 Details that had gone to the front after the wounded. 1888Troy Daily Times 6 Feb., An extra detail of police is always made..and the crowd is not allowed to block the exit. 6. attrib. and Comb., as detail work; detail man U.S. (see quot. 1961).
1928Proc. 17th Ann. Meeting Amer. Drug Mfrs. Assoc. i. 96 With the detail man, we tell our message through the human ambassador. 1961Webster, Detail man, a representative of a drug manufacturer who introduces new drugs to professional users (as physicians or pharmacists). 1964New Statesman 12 June 906/3, I..became a drug pedlar, or more politely a medical representative. The American-owned company I joined preferred the term ‘detailman’, because it indicated the essential purpose of the work: to persuade the General Practitioner to prescribe the company's drugs by serving him with suitably tempting details.
1907Daily Chron. 8 June 3/4 The parish councils would..be competent to relieve the controlling authorities of much detail work. 1922H. Crane Lett. (1965) 97 The infinite and distasteful detail work I have been doing at the office. 1937Burlington Mag. May 251/2 Inscription and detail-work are examples of the best Netherlandish engraving. ▪ II. detail, v.1|dɪˈteɪl, ˈdiː-| [a. F. détailler (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), to cut in pieces, retail, deal with or relate circumstantially, f. de- I. 3 + tailler to cut in pieces. Adopted in English only in the transferred uses.] 1. trans. To deal with, give, relate, or describe minutely or circumstantially; to give particulars of; to enumerate, mention, or relate in detail.
1637–50Row Hist. Kirk (1842) p. xliii, The proceedings..are too long to be here detailed. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 177 ⁋3 When I delivered my opinion, or detailed my knowledge. 1802E. Parsons Myst. Visit I. 1 He was too modest to..detail news and scandal from house to house. 1875Lyell Princ. Geol. II. ii. xxvii. 62 From the whole of the facts above detailed, it appears [etc.]. 1875Scrivener Lect. Text N. Test. 10 Certain peculiarities to be detailed hereafter. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 90/1 We have now detailed all the various coverings ordinarily put upon books. absol.1841D'Israeli Amen. Lit. II. 7 There were occasions when they [monastic writers] were inevitably graphic,—when they detail like a witness in court. 2. Mil. To appoint or tell off for a particular duty. (See detail n. 5.)
1793Laws of Mass. c. 1 §32 Whenever a detachment is made, the officers, non-commissioned officers and privates, being able of body, shall be detailed from the rosters or rolls for the purpose. 1810Ibid. c. 107 §31 The officers, ordered to be detailed to serve on courts martial shall be detailed in the following manner. 1828Webster, Detail, to select, as an officer or soldier from a division, brigade, regiment, or battalion. 1861Swinhoe N. China Camp. 329 The First Division, under General Michel, was detailed for this work of destruction. 1861W. H. Russell in Times 14 May 10/3 His cartridges were out, and he was compelled to detail some of his few men to make them out of shirts, stockings and jackets. 1868Sir R. Napier in Morn. Star 30 June, I trust she is now recovering under the care of the medical officer..who has been detailed by me to provide for her comfort. 1885Gen. Grant Pers. Mem. I. xxi. 293 Soldiers who had been detailed to act with the navy. 1886Manch. Exam. 19 Jan. 5/6 The field officers of the Royal Horse Guards detailed for the escort of Her Majesty. b. transf.
1837–40Haliburton Clockm. (1862) 248 We propose detailing you to Italy to purchase some originals for our gallery. 1868Daily News 2 Sept., The dry dock..will start on its..voyage across the Atlantic, being towed by five vessels to be detailed for the purpose. 1874M. Collins Transmigr. III. xviii. 269 A trim little waiting-maid..whom I detailed to wait upon Grace. 3. Arch. to detail on the plane: to be exhibited in profile by abutting against the plane; said of a moulding. (Ogilvie.)
1875Encycl. Brit. II. 403/2 At the base they detail on the pavement or floor of the stylobate. Ibid. 404/1 The glyphs detail on the tænia of the architrave, but are variously finished above. ¶4. ? Confused with entail v.2 (sense 4).
1794Godwin Cal. Williams 289 Who had..sworn to detail upon me misery without end.
▸ trans. N. Amer. To clean (a motor vehicle) thoroughly.
1981Los Angeles Times 21 May ix. 9/2 The proposed auto center..would be used for detailing cars imported through the port before trucking them to dealer showrooms. 1988Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 17 Oct. When we get through detailing your car..it's cleaner than the day you bought it. 1995R. Newton How to Restore & Modify Your Corvette 237/2 Detailing the Corvette is enjoyable. Driving the car is fun. 2007Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 2 Sept. iv. 9/4 It's not different than what a used-car dealer does—they detail it, they wax it, steam clean the carpet, those kinds of things. |