| 释义 |
eliminate, v.|ɪˈlɪmɪneɪt|
[f. L. ēlīmināt- ppl. stem of ēlīmināre to thrust out of doors, expel, f. ē out of + līmen, līmin-is, threshold.]
1. trans. To thrust out of doors, expel. Now somewhat humorous.
1568Abp. Parker Lett. (1852) 314 To help eliminate out of his [God's] house this offendicle. 1610G. Fletcher Christ's Vict. To Rdr., The secound sorte thearfore, that eliminate Poets out of their citie gates. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair xiv, From which [room], with the most engaging politeness, she eliminated poor Ferkin.
†b. To carry out of doors, divulge (secrets). Obs. [Cf. Hor. Ep. i. v. 5.]
1608Tuvil Essayes 115. a 1619 M. Fotherby Atheom. i. x. §4 (1622) 100 He did eliminate, and divulge the mysteries of their gods. 1618Hales Gold. Rem. (1673) II. 64 Whatsoever..we do, is..presently eliminated and carried to them.
†c. To release, set at liberty. Obs. rare—1.
1742Young Nt. Th. ix. 588 Eliminate my spirit, give it range Through provinces of thought yet unexplor'd.
†2. To pass the threshold of, come out of. rare—1.
a1658Lovelace Snail in Poems (1864) 209 Th'art hood all ore, And ne'r eliminat'st thy dore.
3. a. Phys. To expel from the body; esp. to get rid of (waste matter, foreign substances, etc.) from the tissues by excretion. b. Chem. To disengage, expel (a constituent) from a compound.
1794–6E. Darwin Zoon. (1801) I. 496 A week or two are required to eliminate the mercury from the constitution. 1835–6Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 66/1 The infant just eliminated from the uterus. 1859Darwin Orig. Spec. iv. (1878) 73 Certain plants excrete sweet juice..for the sake of eliminating something injurious from the sap. 1877Rosenthal Muscles & Nerves 87 An acid is formed, which is..again eliminated and carried away by the blood.
4. gen. To expel, exclude, remove, get rid of. Used both with reference to material and non-material objects.
1714Lowth Comm. Isa. Prel. Diss. 62 To be able to discharge and eliminate the errors. 1846Grote Greece i. xvi. I. 533 The..tendency of Herodotus to eliminate from the myths the idea of special aid from the gods. 1861Goschen For. Exch. 19 Eliminating middle men and intermediate profits. 1871R. H. Hutton Ess. II. 306 Miss Brontë finds it needful to eliminate the supernatural. 1877W. Thomson Voy. Challenger I. i. 30 Which enables the potash to be eliminated from the apparatus. 1877J. E. Carpenter tr. Tiele's Hist. Relig. 32 All mythological expressions have probably been eliminated.
b. fig. To ignore, treat as non-existent, set aside as irrelevant (certain elements of a question or concept).
1850Kingsley Alt. Locke ii. (1879) 30, I forgot the Corsair's sinful trade..I honestly eliminated the bad element. 1859Thackeray Virgin. vi. (1878) 47 Eliminating him from the argument. 1870Lubbock Orig. Civiliz. i. (1875) 3 We must eliminate these customs from our conception of that condition.
5. Algebra. To get rid of (one or more quantities) from an equation or set of equations; esp. to get rid of (one or more of the unknown quantities) in simultaneous equations by combining two or more of the equations; also, to get rid of (one or more of the variables) from an analytical equation.
1845Penny Cycl. 1st Suppl. I. s.v., If by means of one of these we eliminate p from the rest, the process..would allow of our eliminating both x and y by one equation only. 1875Todhunter Algebra 89 By this process we are said to eliminate the unknown quantity which does not appear in the single equation. 1882Minchin Unipl. Kinemat. 237 Eliminate x between the given relations.
fig.1844Gladstone Glean. V. ii. 82 The Church..might be eliminated like a constant quantity from among those fluent materials with which history is conversant.
¶6. Incorrectly used for: To disengage, isolate, extract (particular elements) from a compound; to disentangle (a fact, a principle) from a mass of confused details; hence, to elicit, deduce.
1843For. & Col. Q. Rev. II. 337 It being..impossible that such infinite ideas as God, eternity, etc...could ever be eliminated by either the will, the reason, or the finite evidence of the finite senses. 1850McCosh Div. Govt. iv. i. §2. 455 We have sought to eliminate the truth by exhibiting nature in its full and living action. 1855Bain Senses & Int. iii. ii. §33 (1864) 523 He would..eliminate the main fact from all the confusing circumstantials. 1872H. Macmillan True Vine iii. 97 The roots, indeed, eliminate nourishment from the soil. 1877E. Conder Bas. Faith iv. 183 The corrupt use of ‘eliminate’ for ‘educe’. |