| 释义 |
▪ I. dimension, n.|dɪˈmɛnʃən|
Also 5–6 dy-, -sioun, -cion, -cyon, 6–7 dimention, 7 demension, -tion.
[a. F. dimension (1425 in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. L. dīmensiōn-em, n. of action from dīmetīri (ppl. stem dīmens-): see prec.]
†1.
a. The action of measuring, measurement. Obs.
1555Eden Decades 243 Accordynge to the ordinarie accoumpte and dimension which the pylotes and cosmographers doo make. 1589Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 80 Things infinite, I see, Brooke no dimension. 1656Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 183/2 If a Man pursue it [geometry] not only for Mechanical Dimension, but that he may by the help thereof ascend [etc]. 1793Smeaton Edystone L. §97 Taking such dimensions as would enable me to make an accurate model..of the rock.
†b. Mus. The division of a longer note into shorter notes, constituting ‘time’ or rhythm; pl. ‘measures’, measured strains. Obs.
1597Morley Introd. Mus. 13 Phi. What call they time? Ma. The dimension of the Breefe by semibreeues. 1635R. Brathwait Arcad. Pr. i. 165 Harmonious reports in these Musicall dimensions.
2. a. Measurable or spatial extent of any kind, as length, breadth, thickness, area, volume; measurement, measure, magnitude, size. (Now commonly in plural: cf. proportions.) Also fig. Magnitude, extent, degree (of an abstract thing).
1529More Dyaloge ii. Wks. 188/1 Though thei be not cyrcumscribed in place, for lack of bodily dymencion and measuring, yet are..angels..diffinitively so placed where thei be for the time. 1596Davies Orchestra xcv, Whose quick eyes doe explore The just dimension both of earth and heaven. 1615J. Stephens Satyr. Ess. 292 Confounding (like a bad Logician) the forme and the dimention. 1651Hobbes Leviath. iii. xxxiv. 208 Whatsoever has dimension, is Body. 1660Barrow Euclid i. xxxv. Schol., The dimension of any Parallelogram is found out by this Theorem. 1663Gerbier Counsel 6 He will never rightly describe the dimensions of solid Bodies..his Circles will seem Ovals in Breadth, and his Ovals Circles. 1667Milton P.L. ii. 893 A dark Illimitable Ocean without bound, Without dimension, where length, breadth, and highth, And time and place are lost. a1745Swift (J.), My gentleman was measuring my walls, and taking the dimensions of the room. 1756Burke Subl. & B. ii. vii, Greatness of dimension is a powerful cause of the sublime. 1772Hist. Rochester 44 All the beams..ought to be of large dimensions. 1847Emerson Repr. Men, Shaks. Wks. (Bohn) I. 360 That imagination which dilates the closet he writes in to the world's dimension. 1893Law Times XCV. 104/2 Posts of the dimensions of 3 in. by 2½ in.
fig.1660Hickeringill Jamaica (1661) 51 The Expedition against Hispaniola;..The Dimensions of this great Preparation vastly exceeding the difficulties. 1676Hale Contempl. i. 106 The Afflictions of his Soul..were of a higher Dimension in the Garden. 1889Pall Mall G. 17 Oct. 2/3 That passion for athletics which in Oxford has now almost reached the dimensions of a mania.
†b. transf. Extension in time, duration.
1605Bp. Andrewes Serm. II. 170 The cross..is mors prolixa, a death of dimensions, a death long in dying. 1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. iv. ii. 308 We have no reason to imagin that the sixth day was of any other dimension than the seventh day.
c. fig. Any of the component aspects of a particular situation, etc., esp. one newly discovered; an attribute of, or way of viewing, an abstract entity. Cf. aspect 9, 12.
1929R. S. & H. M. Lynd Middletown xviii. 263 Like the automobile, the motion picture is more to Middletown than simply a new way of doing an old thing; it has added new dimensions to the city's leisure. 1952Times 1 Aug. 7/3 It is in helping nations to provide the material for their own or for one another's defence, instead of having it provided direct from America, that the value of off-shore purchasing lies. Here, in another dimension, is the principle of ‘trade, not aid’. 1956R. Macaulay Towers of Trebizond xxv. 287 A dimension has been taken out of my life, leaving it flat, not rich and rounded. 1961A. O. J. Cockshut Imagination of Dickens xi. 158 The religious dimension, which would have given coherence and deeper meaning to the withered and touching scraps of virtue displayed by Flora and Mrs. Plornish, and even by Mrs. Clennam—a triumph of fairness—this is absent. 1973P. White Eye of Storm vi. 237 This work of ours..will add another dimension to the art of theatre. 1985Times 24 Jan. 14/4 The effect of ‘sub-clinical’ nutrient deficiencies too small to cause acute illness is another elusive dimension.
3. Math.
a. Geom. A mode of linear measurement, magnitude, or extension, in a particular direction; usually as co-existing with similar measurements or extensions in other directions.
The three dimensions of a body, or of ordinary space, are length, breadth, and thickness (or depth); a surface has only two dimensions (length and breadth); a line only one (length). Here the notion of measurement or magnitude is commonly lost, and the word denotes merely a particular mode of spatial extension. Modern mathematicians have speculated as to the possibility of more than three dimensions of space.
1413Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) v. xiv. 107 Ther is no body parfit withouten thre dymensions, that is breede, lengthe, and depnesse. c1430Art of Nombryng (E.E.T.S.) 14 A lyne hathe but one dymensioun that is to sey after the lengthe..a superficialle thynge hathe .2. dimensions, þat is to sey lengthe and brede. 1570Billingsley Euclid i. def. ii. 1 There pertaine to quantitie three dimensions, length, bredth, and thicknes. 1635N. Carpenter Geog. Del. ii. ii. 14 These two Dimensions are length and breadth, whereof euery plaine figure consists. 1794Sullivan View Nat. I. 100 All physical magnitude must have three dimensions, length, breadth, and thickness. 1858Whewell Hist. Sci. Ideas ii. viii. §§4–5 (L.) Time is conceived as a quantity of one dimension..Indeed the analogy between time, and space of one dimension, is so close, that the same terms are applied to both ideas. Ibid. vi. The eye..sees length and breadth, but no third dimension. In order to know that there are solids, we must infer as well as see. 1873Clifford Pure Sciences in Contemp. Rev. Oct. (1874) 716 Out of space of two dimensions, as we call it, I have made space of three dimensions. 1878Stewart & Tait Unseen Univ. vii. §220. 221 Suppose our (essentially three-dimensional) matter to be the mere skin or boundary of an Unseen whose matter has four dimensions.
b. Alg. Since the product of two, or of three, quantities, each denoting a length (i.e. a magnitude of one dimension), represents an area or a volume (i.e. a magnitude of two, or of three, dimensions), such products themselves are said to be of so many dimensions; and generally, the number of dimensions of a product is the number of the (unknown or variable) quantities contained in it as factors (known or constant quantities being reckoned of no dimensions); any power of a quantity being of the dimensions denoted by its index. (Thus x3, x2y, xyz are each of three dimensions.) The dimensions of an expression or equation are those of the term of highest dimensions in it. (The number of dimensions corresponds to the degree of a quantity or equation: see degree n. 13.)
1557Recorde Whetst. H ij, The nomber that doeth amounte thereof (3 × 3 × 3) hath gotten 3. dimensiones, whiche properly belongeth to a bodie, or sound forme. And therfore is it called a Cube, or Cubike nomber. 1690Leybourn Curs. Math. 334 Every Power hath so many Dimensions as the Letters wherewith it is written. 1706W. Jones Syn. Palmar. Matheseos 40 The Quantity produc'd by the Multiplication of Two, Three, etc. Quantities, is said to be of Two, Three, etc. Dimensions. 1806Hutton Course Math. I. 190 To find the Greatest Common Measure of the Terms of a Fraction..Range the quantities according to the dimensions of some letters. c1865in Circ. Sc. I. 476/1 When the..equations are..of two dimensions.
c. [a. F. dimension (J. B. J. Fourier Théorie anal. de la Chaleur (1822) ii. §ix. 154).] The power to which any one of the fundamental quantities or units is raised in the expression defining a derived quantity or unit in terms of them; also (in pl.), all the fundamental quantities in such an expression, each raised to its appropriate power, which together show how the unit of the derived quantity depends on the fundamental units; method of dimensions, dimensional analysis.
The ‘fundamental quantities’ are usually taken to be mass, length, and time, with the addition of one or more other quantities in certain cases (such as electrical and magnetic phenomena).
1864Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1863 132 The value of a force is directly proportional to a length and a mass, but inversely proportional to the square of a time. This is expressed by saying that the dimensions of a force are LM/T2. 1877Ld. Rayleigh Theory of Sound I. iii. 47 From the necessity of a complete enumeration of all the quantities on which the required result may depend, the method of dimensions is somewhat dangerous. 1878A. Freeman tr. Fourier's Anal. Theory of Heat ii. 128 Every undetermined magnitude or constant has one dimension proper to itself, and..the terms of one and the same equation could not be compared, if they had not the same exponent of dimension. We have introduced this consideration..in order to make our definitions more exact, and to serve to verify the analysis. Ibid. 129 The dimensions of x, t, v with respect to the unit of time are 0, 1, 0, and those of K, h, c are -1, -1, 0. 1911Encycl. Brit. XXVII. 736/2 Velocity is of +1 dimension in length and -1 dimension in time. 1925Phil. Mag. 6th Ser. L. 32 The dimensions of the viscosity, η, are ML-1T-1, of the density, ρ, ML-3, whilst σ/σ′ is of no dimensions. Ibid. 31 Much information can be obtained concerning F by means of the method of dimensions. 1933A. W. Porter (title) The method of dimensions. 1960McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. IV. 197/2 Quantities with the same dimensions can be expressed in the same units. 1964H. S. Hvistendahl Engin. Units i. 7 For example, in the case of force, the term ‘dimensions’ is now generally understood to mean LMT-2, and not merely 1, 1, -2. 1969L. Young Syst. Units Electr. & Magn. i. 7 Area has dimensions of length squared; denoting ‘dimensions of’ by square brackets, we write [A] = [L]2. 1970Nature 29 Aug. 935/2 In SI units the constant µ0 = 4π × 10-7 is indispensable in many formulae, if the dimensions are to balance.
†4. Measurable form or frame; pl. material parts, as of the human body; ‘proportions’. Obs.
1596Shakes. Merch. V. iii. i. 62 Hath not a Iew hands, organs, dementions, sences, affections, passions? 1601― Twel. N. i. v. 280, I..know him noble..And in dimension, and the shape of nature, A gracious person. 1605― Lear i. ii. 7 My dimensions are as well compact, My minde as generous, and my shape as true. 1634W. Wood New Eng. Prosp. i. viii, The Humbird is..no bigger than a Hornet, yet hath all the dimensions of a Bird, as bill, and wings, with quills, spider-like legges, small clawes. 1667Milton P.L. i. 793 In thir own dimensions like themselves The great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim In close recess and secret conclave sat.
fig.1653A. Wilson Jas. I 162 The Younger having all the Dimensions of a Courtier. 1660Waterhouse Arms & Arm. 28 Nations, whose polity had all the dimensions of order in it.
5. Comb., as dimension lines, straight lines usually having an arrow at each end, indicating the parts or lines to which the figured dimensions refer in a technical drawing; dimension-lumber, -timber, -stone, i.e. that which is cut to specified dimensions or size; dimension-work, masonry built of ‘dimension-stones’. (Chiefly U.S.)
1864Thoreau Cape Cod vii. (1894) 156 Houses built of what is called ‘dimension timber’, imported from Maine, all ready to be set up. 1874Knight Dict. Mech., Dimension Lumber, lumber sawed to specific sizes to order. 1887D. A. Low Machine Drawing 5 Dimension lines and centre lines are best put in of different colour. 1902P. Marshall Metal Tools 18 The marking of dimension lines on metal surfaces is generally done with a steel scriber. 1927G. E. Draycott Technical Drawing xii. 184 No dimension line should run closer than 1/4{pp} to a line to which it is parallel. 1961Bellis & Schmidt Archit. Drafting xiii. 81/2 Use a 2H pencil for extension and dimension lines.
▪ II. diˈmension, v.
[f. prec. n.]
1. trans. To measure or space out; to reduce to measurement. rare.
1754H. Walpole Lett. I. 335 (D.), I propose to break and enliven it by compartments in colours, according to the enclosed sketch, which you must adjust and dimension.
2. trans. To mark the dimensions on (a working drawing, diagram, or sketch). Chiefly in pa. pple. or ppl. a. So diˈmensioning vbl. n., the action of marking dimensions; the dimension lines, etc., on a drawing.
1885Marine Engineer 1 Apr. 27/1 Twenty-five large plates of fully dimensioned drawings. 1887D. A. Low Machine Draw. 5 Many a good drawing has its appearance spoiled through being slovenly dimensioned. 1892Ibid. 99 Rough dimensioned sketches. 1904Westm. Gaz. 28 July 2/1 All parts being carefully illustrated by dimensioned drawings. 1907Install. News Oct. 1/2 Diagrams are more valuable when dimensioned. 1927G. E. Draycott Technical Drawing xiv. 219 (heading) Inking-in and dimensioning drawings. 1966McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. IV. 611/1 Working types of drawings may differ in styles of dimensioning. 1966G. K. & H. J. Stegman Archit. Drafting ix. 211/1 A modular detail requires fewer small fractional dimensions than a detail dimensioned in the regular method. |