| 释义 |
end-ˈproduct
[f. end n. + product n.1 3.]
1. Chem. A stable, non-radioactive nuclide that is the final product of a radioactive series.
1905Rutherford in Phil. Mag. X. 306 The view that lead is the final or end product of the transformation of radium is supported by the fact that lead is always found in the radioactive minerals in about the amount to be theoretically expected from the content of uranium, when the quantity of helium, present in the mineral, is used to compute its probable age. 1907B. C. A. Windle Sci. Facts 10 The element thorium appears to be constantly engaged in generating from itself another solid element which again decays, its end-product being so far unknown. 1922Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 221/2 The atomic weight of the end-product of uranium is close to that of lead. 1958F. E. Zeuner Dating the Past (ed. 4) 320 Actinium..decays until finally, after the emission of 7 atoms of helium, the inactive end-product is reached, which..is actinium-lead with the atomic weight of 207.
2. A finished article in a manufacturing process.
1939Fortune Apr. 1 An automobile..is the end-product of a long line of manufacturing, mining and farming activities. 1950Engineering 24 Feb. 222/2 The..engineering product..may be an end-product or a component. 1958Listener 5 June 931/2 We speak of the end-product in a factory. 1959Times Lit. Suppl. 13 Mar. 140/4 Miró..can rely on the interpretative sensibility of craftsmen..whose end-products he describes as..‘authentic in their plastic statement’.
3. transf. and fig.
1923J. S. Huxley Ess. Biologist ii. 79 His adult self, the end-product of that development. 1924J. Glover in E. Jones Social Aspects Psycho-Analysis 44 The earliest nascent manifestations of these instincts and their most complicated and remote end products. 1931Nature 7 Feb. 214/2 The end-products of soil formation are closely similar from the two contrasted types of parent rock. 1942M. McCarthy Company she Keeps (1943) v. 131 The prodigality was merely an end-product of asceticism. 1961J. Wilson Reason & Morals ii. 112 Of course ‘I must not fight’ might be the end product of a calculation: perhaps for some pacifists it is. |