| 释义 |
▪ I. floor, n.1|flɔə(r)|
Forms: 1 flór, 3 flor, 4–7 flore, flour(e, 5–6, 9 dial. flur(e, 6 Sc. fluire, (6 floyyre), 6–7 floar(e, 6–8 flower, 7 floore, 7– floor.
[OE. flór str. masc. and fem., corresponds to MDu., mod.Du. vloer, MHG. vluor masc. and fem. (mod.Ger. flur fem. field, plain, masc. floor), ON. flór floor of a cowstall:—OTeut. *floru-s:—pre-Teut. *plāru-s or *plōru-s. Cf. OIr. lár, Welsh llawr of same meaning:—pre-Celtic *plār-.]
I. In a house or other structure.
1. a. The layer of boards, brick, stone, etc. in an apartment, on which people tread; the under surface of the interior of a room. Phr. to mop or wipe the floor with: see mop v.2 1 b, wipe v. 9 e.
Beowulf 725 (Gr.) On faᵹne flor feond treddode. c888K. ælfred Boeth. i, He ᵹefeoll niwol of dune on þa flor. c1200Ormin 15566, & all he warrp ut i þe flor þe bordess & te sillferr. 1297R. Glouc. (1724) 288 Þe flor to brac vnder hem. a1400Isumbras 653 The knyghtes..fande the golde right in the flore. 1528Lyndesay Dreme 13 Sumtyme, playand fairsis on the flure. 1681R. Knox Hist. Ceylon 116 They dig an hole in the floar of their house. 1718Freethinker No. 17 ⁋8 She..walks two or three Turns in a Fret over the Floor. 1828Scott F.M. Perth xxiii, He threw his glove upon the floor of the church. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. v. 40 The stone floor was dark with moisture.
b. In extended sense: The base of any cavity; the bottom of a lake, sea, etc. Also fig.: a minimum, esp. of prices or wages. Cf. ceiling vbl. n. 6 d.
a1000Satan 318 (Gr.) Flor attre weol. c1586C'tess Pembroke Ps. lxxviii. vi, Where the deepe did show his sandy flore. 1844Emerson Lect. New Eng. Ref. Wks. (Bohn) I. 268 They would know the worst, and tread the floor of hell. 1866Tate Brit. Mollusks iii. 48 The tongue forms the floor of the mouth. 1869Rawlinson Anc. Hist. 2 Found underneath the floors of caves. 1938Reader's Digest Sept. 1 Even fair price ceilings and quality floors won't answer real needs unless an adequate supply of goods is made available. 1941Time 21 July 70/3 Excuse for the silver-buying program and its artificial price floor..was to keep Western miners at work. 1949Economist 24 Sept. 670/1 Price-floors were set for bituminous coal. 1959Ibid. 11 Apr. 106/2 A floor of only {pstlg}12 a week on the wages of British artists.
†c. metonymically. Those who sit on the floor, as opposed to those who occupy elevated seats in token of rank or dignity. Obs.
1655–62W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. (1669) 296/2 We are in their condition and rank, being of the floor and lowest of the people. 1683R. North in State Trials (1811) IX. 193 Differences between him [the lord mayor] and the aldermen on the one side, and the floor or livery men on the other.
d. spec. The floor of a studio where films or television programmes are shot; hence used allusively: (a) a film or television studio; (b) in phr. on the floor, of a film: in production.
1937M. Robinson Continuity Girl v. 89 Rene was to be continuity. Mr. Kimmins asked me to come on the floor as her assistant. 1948Ann. Reg. 1947 443 The inauguration of the modern Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer floors at Elstree. 1948Observer 22 Feb. 5/1 At Elstree, only one film, the Guinea Pig, is on the floor. 1950‘E. Crispin’ Freq. Hearses i. 15 ‘How far has it [sc. a film] got?’ ‘It's not on the floor yet... I mean that they haven't actually started making it yet.’ 1957M. Kennedy Heroes of Clone i. i. 13 I'll make a shooting script... It'll be something you can go on the floor with. 1971R. Busby Deadlock xiii. 200 [He's] down there on the floor. We're doing one for the can and then he goes out live.
2. a. The framework or structure of joists, etc. supporting the flooring of a room.
1703Moxon Mech. Exerc. 160 Floor, in Carpentry, it is as well taken for the Fram'd work of Timber, as the Boarding over it. 1823P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 220 Bridging Floors, floors in which bridging joists are used. 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Floor, the timber, bricks &c. of the platform..on which the planks or flooring is laid.
b. Applied to the ceiling of a room, in its relation to the apartment above. Also transf. of the sky.
1596Shakes. Merch. V. v. i. 58 Looke how the floore of heauen Is thick inlayed with pattens of bright gold. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 931 Sticking up a broch or spit..to the floore over head. 1887Bowen Virg. æneid i. 287 Then Cæsar..Bounding his throne by Ocean, his fame by the firmament floor.
3. Naut.
a. (see quot. 1867).
†b. The deck.
c. pl. = floor-timbers.
a1618Raleigh Invent. Shipping 18 We have given longer Floares to our Ships, then in elder times, and better bearing under Water. 1683W. Hacke Collect. Orig. Voy. (1699) I. 37 We took up our Water Cask from out of the Main Hatch to the Floor, and cleared the Timbers amid-Ships. 1805D. Steel Naval Archit. 378 In the Royal Navy..the floors are bolted through the keelson and keel. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Floor, the bottom of a vessel on each side of the kelson; but strictly taken, it is only so much of her bottom as she rests upon when aground. Ibid., Floors or Floor-Timbers.
4. a. In legislative assemblies, the part of the house where the members sit, and from which they speak.
Hence fig. The right of speaking; as to get or obtain the floor. to take the floor: to get up to address a meeting; to take part in a debate. Chiefly U.S.
1774J. Q. Adams in Fam. Lett. (1876) 12 He came upon the floor, and asked a member, ‘What state are you now in?’ 1804Pitt Speeches (1806) IV. 354 The right honourable gentleman on the floor. 1811B. Rush in J. Q. Adams' Wks. (1854) IX. 638 note, It blazed forth..in the year 1776 upon the floor of Congress. 1816Pickering Voc. s.v., To get the floor; that is, to obtain an opportunity of taking part in a debate. 1880McCarthy Own times III. xlvi. 391 The Conservatives get what American politicians call ‘the floor’. 1885Manch. Exam. 15 May 6/1 Sauntering boldly up the floor of the House. 1886Lit. World (U.S.) 11 Dec. 469/1 The President took the floor to second the above resolutions. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. I. xii. 157 The senator from Minnesota has the floor. Ibid. I. xiii. 177 The member who first ‘obtains the floor’.
b. In Courts of Law (see quot.).
1867Wharton Law Lex. (ed. 4), Floor of the court, the part of the court between the judges and the first row of counsel. Parties who appear in person stand there.
c. from the floor: of a question, speech, etc.: delivered by an individual (member, spectator, etc.), as opp. to the governing body, the ‘platform’.
1966Rep. Comm. Inquiry Univ. Oxf. I. 234 Resolutions moved not by Council, but from the floor.
5. A set of rooms and landings in a house on the same or nearly the same level; a story. See first-floor.
1585Higins Junius' Nomenclator 181 Trisiega..an house of three sollers, floores, stories or lofts one ouer another. 1611B. Jonson Catiline i. i, He that, building, stayes at one Floore or the second, hath erected none. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 161 ⁋5 The lodgers on the first floor had stipulated that [etc.]. 1830Tennyson Mariana vi, Old footsteps trod the upper floors. 1831Sir J. Sinclair Corr. II. 330 Many buildings..are let in floors to mechanics.
II. A level space or area.
6. a. An artificial platform, or levelled space, for the carrying on of some industry, esp. threshing. Cf. threshing floor. Also, a dance-floor; to take the floor: to take part in a dance. † Rarely, a structure to walk over.
c1000Ags. Gosp. Luke iii. 17 He feormað his bernes flore. c1300K. Alis. 6104 Of hurdles of bruggen they made flores, And so they wente into the mores. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xviii. 83 Þan þai gader þe fruyt and..layez it apon a flure til it becom blakk and runkled. 1573Baret Alv. F 721 A floore where corne is threshed, area. 1702in Lond. Gaz. No. 3790/4 Every Cistern..Kiln, Floor, Room, or other Place..made use of for the Wetting or Steeping of Corn. 1775Romans Hist. Florida 166 One or two platforms..called drying floors. 1839W. Carleton Fardorougha (1848) iv. 46 Answer Mrs. Fogarty, statin' fedher you'll take a month's larnin' on the flure. 1851Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. I. vii. 99 We returned to our seats again; and after refreshing..again ‘took the floor’. 1884C. T. Davis Bricks, Tiles, etc. v. (1889) 128 The ‘floors’..the level places where the bricks are moulded. 1884L. Troubridge Life amongst Troubridges (1966) 171 We all went to the New Club Ball..such a floor, such music, and such a partner. 1888Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin., Floor, the sand bed of a foundry is termed the floor. 1938[see cabaret1 2 b]. 1967R. Rendell New Lease Death viii. 82 ‘Hard to make conversation when you're dancing.’.. ‘Like ‘Don't you think this is a good floor’?’
fig.1782Cowper Expost. 302 Where flails of oratory thresh the floor.
b. transf. The corn, etc. placed on a ‘floor’. In Malting, A batch or quantity of grain laid at one time for steeping, a ‘piece’.
1382Wyclif Ruth iii. 2 In this nyȝt he wynnewith the flore of his barli. 1832W. Champion Maltster's Guide 43 The turning of his floors or pieces, by which alone the proper form of the root can be acquired. 1876Wyllie in Encycl. Brit. IV. 268 Each steeping is called a ‘floor’ or piece, and must be laid in succession according to age.
7. a. A naturally level space or extended surface. Also = the ground (obs. exc. dial.).
a1400Morte Arth. 3250 With þe drowghte of þe daye alle drye ware þe flores! 1555Eden Decades 234 The vpper crust or floure of the earth. 1637Milton Lycidas 167 Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor. 1692Ray Dissol. World iii. v. (1693) 302 Great Banks or Floors of Earth. 1697Dryden Virg. Past. vi. 25 His rosie Wreath was..Born by the tide of Wine, and floating on the Floor. 1820Shelley Cloud 47 The moon Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor. 1839Longfellow Celestial Pilot 3 Down in the west upon the ocean floor. 1865Garland in Jrnl. Roy. Inst. Cornw. Apr. 48 Floor, a grass meadow. 1871L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. ix. (1894) 198 Forests of pine rise steeply from the meadow floor.
b. the floor (Cricket colloq.): the ground. So to put a catch on the floor: to fail to hold it.
1903Strand Mag. XXV. 624/2 A large majority of them [sc. catches] were ‘put on the floor’. 1960Times 14 June 16/1 With the field drawn tight around the bat and catches being snapped up off the floor.
†8. An area or region. Obs.—1
1626Bacon Sylva §255 Both of them [visibles and audibles] spread themselves in Round, and fill a whole Floare or Orbe vnto certaine Limits.
†9. = bed n. 8. Obs. rare. [Cf. MHG. vluor sown field.]
1600Surflet Countrie Farme ii. iv. 206 Of the disposing or appointing of the floores of the kitchin garden.
III. 10. A surface on which something rests; a foundation.
1556Withals Dict. (1566) 39 b/1 A flore, or foundacion, wherevpon buildynge is set. 1768Smeaton Reports (1797) I. 330 The arches I would recommend are of 12 feet wide, and 6 feet from the floor to the springer. 1969Jane's Freight Containers 1968–69 18/3 Freight Container Components... Floor. Component supporting the payload.
11. The stratum upon which a seam of coal, etc. immediately lies.
1869R. B. Smyth Goldf. Victoria 611 Floor, a false bottom, with washdirt lying on it. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 235 Vegetable remains are also met with in rocks beneath the coal, forming what is called the floor. 1883in Gresley Gloss. Coal Mining s.v.
IV. A layer = bed III.
12. A layer, a stratum; a horizontal course.
1692Ray Dissol. World ii. iv. (1732) 127 Many Beds or Floors of all kinds of Sea-Shells. 1778Pryce Min. Cornub. 321 A Floor is a bed of Ore in a Lode. 1851Richardson Geol. i. 7 In the case of tin it occasionally spreads out into a flat mass, technically called a floor.
13. A unit of measurement used for embankment work (see quots.).
1707Mortimer Husb. xv. 309 Banks are measured by the..Floor, which is eighteen Foot square and one deep. 1797Trans. Soc. Encourag. Arts XV. 148 A floor of earth is twenty feet square, and one foot deep. 1877in N.W. Linc. Gloss. [= 400 cubic feet].
V. attrib. and Comb.
14. Simple attrib., as floor area, floor-covering, floor-joist, floor level, floor-slab, floor-space, floor-stone, floor-tile; floor-mounted adj.
1887Pall Mall G. 9 Nov. 13/2 The..*floor area of the large hall having been fully occupied.
1885List of Subscribers, Classified (United Telephone Co.) (ed. 6) 122 Corticine *Floor Covering Co., Limited, 112 Queen Victoria Street, E.C. 1986K. Moore Moving House x. 121 She was also taking over the dull but still serviceable floor-covering of the flat which she meant to enliven by a couple of her favourite rugs.
1859Geo. Eliot A. Bede 183 A difficulty about a *floor-joist or a window⁓frame.
1874J. T. Micklethwaite Mod. Par. Churches 127 The steps and *floor levels.
1962Times 25 May 18/5 The cranked, *floor-mounted gear lever.
1936Discovery Feb. 56/1 The two principal *floor-slabs..were of a specially hard kind of granite. 1963Gloss. Build. Terms (B.S.I.) 18 Floor slab, a slab forming the continuous loadbearing structure of a floor and spanning between supports or laid on the ground.
1876J. S. Ingram Centenn. Exposition v. 150 It occupied about one-seventh of the entire *floor-space in that structure. 1930Times Educ. Suppl. 23 Aug. 363/2 The small floor-space of the war museum.
1927Blackw. Mag. Apr. 527 Little of the *floorstone remains. 1956E. Pound tr. Sophocles' Women of Trachis 30 Seemed to corrode of itself. Ate itself up, there on the floor-stones.
1894Antiquary Aug. 41 the *floor-tiles of these hearths..have been burnt white.
15. Special comb., as floor-arch (see quot.); floor-bank (see quot. 1750); floor-board, a board used for flooring, also attrib.; hence as vb.: to press (the accelerator pedal of a motor vehicle) down until it reaches the floor; to accelerate, drive very fast; so floor-boarding; floor-frame, (a) the framework of the floor in a vessel; (b) U.S. the main frame of the body of a railway-carriage underneath the floor; floor-guide, floor-hanger (see quots.); floor-head, (a) the upper end of one of the floor-timbers in a vessel; (b) (see quot. 1867); floor-hollow (see quot.); floor lamp, one that stands on the floor; U.S., a tall lamp designed to stand on the floor; floor-layer, U.S. a workman who lays down floors; floor-laying, the operation of laying down floors; floor-leader U.S., a leader in debate, esp. in legislative assemblies; floor-length a., reaching to the floor; floor-light (see quot.); floor man, one who helps to attract customers to a mock auction; floor manager, (a) U.S., a ‘master of ceremonies’ at a dance; (b) orig. U.S., a shop-walker; (c) U.S., one who organizes support for a candidate in the hall of a political convention; (d) in television production: see quot. 1961; floor pattern (see quot. 1964); floor-pipe, a hot-air pipe laid along the floor of a conservatory; floor-plan, (a) Shipbuilding (see quot. 1867); (b) Arch. (see quot. 1874); floor-plate, (a) Shipbuilding (see quot. 1883); (b) Mech. Engin. = foot-plate; floor polish, a manufactured substance for rendering floors glossy; hence floor-polisher; floor-riband (see quots.); floor-rider (see quot.); floor show, an entertainment presented on the floor of a restaurant, night-club, etc.; floor-sweep (see quot.); floor-timber(s (see quot. 1867); floor-waiter, a waiter who serves on one floor of a hotel; floor-walker, U.S. = shop-walker; floorward a., directed towards the floor; floor-ward(s adv., towards the floor.
1884Knight Dict. Mech IV. 349/1 *Floor Arch, an arch with a flat extrados.
1750Ellis Mod. Husbandm. I. i. 93 What we call a *Flower-bank; that is, some earth that lies next the hedge, thrown over the roots with a spade..so that with the first Original or first raised Flower-bank, the whole Rise of Earth is not above a foot. 1805Priest in Young's Ann. Agric. XLIII. 586 The ditches will be filled up, so as to form what are called floor-banks.
1881Young Every Man his own Mechanic §146 *Floor boards are, or ought to be, an inch in thickness. 1884Health Exhib. Catal. 83/2 Parts of a Solid Floor of fire-proof construction, with a floor-board surface. 1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §728/4 Drive fast..floorboard, give 'er the gas. 1971Scope (S. Afr.) 19 Mar. 59/2 (Advt.), You slice her into second gear—all clear ahead—and floorboard the pedal. 1971Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 16 May 10/3 As he floor-boarded the throttle he noticed his quarry had turned a corner.
1807Hutton Course Math. II. 84 In *Floor-boarding, take the length of the room for one dimension, and the breadth for the other, [etc.]. 1948Mencken Amer. Lang. (Suppl. II) xi. 719 Of the more original words and phrases of the truckmen I offer a few specimens:—floor-boarding... Running at high speed.
1775N. D. Falck Day's Diving Vessel 4 A *Floor frame of six beams athwart ship.
1855Oglivie Suppl., *Floor-guide in ship-building, a narrow flexible piece of timber placed between the floor-riband and the keel.
1884Knight Dict. Mech. IV. 349/1 *Floor Hanger, a shaft bearing fastened to the floor.
1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Rung-heads..the upper ends of the floor-timbers, which are..more properly called *floor-heads. 1856R. H. Dana Seamen's Friend 5 When the ballast is iron, it is stowed up to the floor-heads. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Floor-head, the third diagonal, terminating the length of the floors near the bilge of the ship.
c1850Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 118 *Floor hollow, the inflected curve that terminates the floor next the keel, and to which the floor-hollow mould is made.
1892Daily News 21 Nov. 2/6 The home demand for telescope *floor lamps is still growing. 1907Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 255 Polished brass telescopic floor lamps. 1940C. McCullers Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1943) i. i. 5 He walked into a store one day and hauled out a floor lamp without paying for it. 1965J. M. Cain Magician's Wife (1966) ii. 18 He..went into the living room, and without turning the floor lamps on, sat down in a chair by a window and stared out at the gathering dusk.
1863Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 10 May 4/6 The newly formed union of *floor-layers.
1884Health Exhib. Catal. 83/1 Improved method of *Floor-laying without nails.
1899Congress. Rec. 11 Feb. 1764/2 Congress has witnessed very few more successful *floor leaders. 1954Encounter Mar. 59/1 Congressman John McCormack, Democratic floor-leader in the House.
1939Ottawa Jrnl. 26 June 8/4 The bride wore a *floor-length gown of white chiffon over taffeta. 1967E. Short Embroidery & Fabric Collage iii. 74 A round table in a bedroom or drawing-room may sometimes have a floor-length cover permanently in position.
1884Knight Dict. Mech. IV. 349/1 *Floor-light, a frame with glass panes in a floor.
1928Daily Express 3 Mar. 7 Meader and Solomons were what is known as ‘*floor men’, or..‘pitch gatherers’.
1887Harper's Mag. May 967/1 Jerry, as one of the *floor-managers, was gorgeous. 1892Ibid. Feb. 439/1 Like the floor-walkers in the stores, they're all floor or aisle managers now. 1913J. London Valley of Moon iii. xiii, An' here's you makin' rough⁓house at a dance, an' I'm the floor manager, an' I gotta put you out. 1924W. S. Hayward Retail Handbk. 74 The floor manager is the first person to arrive in the department and the last to leave. 1930J. B. Priestley Angel Pavement vi. 292 Tells me she's had some bother with the buyer or floor manager. 1953Manch. Guardian Weekly 3 Sept. 3 The convention floor manager's hard-won knowledge. 1960O. Skilbeck ABC of Film & TV 55 Floor manager. 1961G. Millerson Technique Telev. Production 14 The floor-manager is the director's contact man on the studio floor, and checks staging, action and performers on his behalf. 1966S. Jackman Davidson Affair i. 17, I..saw the floor-manager's hand drop to cue me in..and turned to face the camera.
1943M. Mayo Amer. Square Dance 11 It is well also to picture clearly in the mind what the dance will look like and what the *floor pattern will be. 1958J. Winearls Mod. Dance 130 (caption) Floor Pattern. 1964W. G. Raffé Dict. Dance 374/2 Floor pattern: the track, or footsteps, traced by the dancer on the stage.
1696Evelyn Kal. Hort. (ed. 8) 162 The fresh Air..circulating thorow the Orifice of the *Floor-pipe.
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Floor-plans, longitudinal sections, whereon are represented the water-lines and ribband-lines. 1874Knight Dict. Mech. I. 889/1 Floor-plan..(Architecture) a horizontal section, showing the thickness of the walls and partitions, the arrangement of the passages, apartments, and openings at the level of the principal, or receiving floor of the house.
1869E. J. Reed Shipbuild. xix. 407 The *floor-plates are now required to extend to a perpendicular height up the bilges of twice the depth of the floors amidships. 1883W. C. Russell Sailor's Lang., Floorplates, formerly plates in the bottom of an iron ship corresponding with the floor-timbers in wooden ones. 1888Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin., Floor plates, foot plates.
1907Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 18/2 *Floor polish. 1926Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 2 July 4/5 (Advt.), Floor polishes, you may say, are pretty much alike. But try ‘Poliflor’ just once and you will immediately realize what a vast difference there can be.
1895Army & Navy Co-op. Soc. Price List 184/2 *Floor Polisher, extra large, with swivel joint, including handle. 1897Westm. Gaz. 7 Dec. 10/2 One man only will be allowed on the premises—the floor-polisher. 1939–40Army & Navy Stores Catal. 114/1 Floor polisher... Double sided. One side for applying wax. One side for polishing.
c1850Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 118 *Floor riband, the riband next below the floor-heads which supports the floors.
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Floor-riders, knees brought in from side to side over the floor ceiling and kelson, to support the bottom, if bilged or weak, for heavy cargo.
1927Stage Year Bk. 69 The opportunities and scope for employment [in vaudeville] of an artist are practically unlimited, apart from the large field in musical productions, cabaret *floor shows, etc. 1931Durante & Kefoed Night Clubs 4 A floor show with six principals and no chorus. 1959Times 2 Mar. 12/7 Snippets from a night-club floor-show of resplendent tattiness.
c1850Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 119 *Floor-sweeps, the radii that sweep the heads of the floors.
1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ii. 2 They lay the Rungs, called *floore timbers..thwart the keele. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Floors or Floor-Timbers, those parts of the ship's timbers which are placed immediately across the keel.
1930A. Bennett Imperial Palace xvii. 109 Once he had memorably discovered fourth-floor silver in the fifth-floor service⁓room..which disconcerted all the *floor-waiters. 1967G. Greene May we borrow your Husband? 19 Peter's mislaid his tie. He thinks the floor-waiter has purloined it.
1876Scribner's Monthly Feb. 599/2, I next went into a store a few doors further up Broadway. When I entered I approached the *floor-walker. 1884Milnor (Dakota) Teller 30 July, These Boston merchants stationed their floor-walkers at the place appointed by the Philadelphia agent. 1942E. Paul Narrow St. iv. 32 The tenant of this room and bath was a floor-walker from the Samaritaine.
1887Pall Mall G. 12 Mar. 12/1 A constantly repeated *floor-ward glance of bashfulness and modesty.
1863Reader 31 Oct. 502 He is bundled down *floorwards.
Add:[V.] [15.] floor exercise, a physical exercise performed on the floor; spec. in Gymnastics (chiefly in pl.), a co-ordinated routine of tumbles and other exercises performed without the use of apparatus, esp. as a competitive event.
[1920Herbert & Junker tr. Knudsen's Text-bk. Gymnastics 290 Agility exercises on the floor have this advantage over many other exercises, that they claim neither gymnasium, apparatus, nor teacher.] 1957Encycl. Brit. XI. 20/2 The ‘Olympic six’ for men comprise *floor exercises, work on the horizontal bar, parallel bars and rings, pommelled horse and vaulting. 1983E. Fowler Keep Fit viii. 88 This may be followed by a floor exercise for the abdominal muscles, where the body weight is taken by the floor.
▸ floor-filler n. colloq. (orig. and chiefly Brit.) a pop or dance record which, when played at a disco or nightclub, guarantees a crowded dance floor.
1987Blues & Soul 3–16 Feb. 18/4 The first album, ‘Anthems’, boasts ten 12{pp} versions of tracks that are dead cert, sure-fire end-of-the-night singalongs or instant *floorfillers. 2001Heat 27 Oct. 94/3 Crunchy guitars and chant-along vocals make this a unique floor-filler they're already dubbing ‘punk house’.
▪ II. floor, n.2 colloq.
[f. floor v.]
Something that ‘floors’ or discomfits one; also, a fatal blunder (in a calculation, etc.).
1841R. W. Church Let. 21 Mar. in Life & Lett. (1894) 23 The Heads show that they feel it rather a floor for the present. 1846Ibid. 64 We may be caught out in some ‘floor’.
▪ III. floor, v.|flɔə(r)|
[f. floor n.1]
1. a. trans. To cover or furnish with a floor or floors, in various senses of the word; to pave. Also with over.
c1420Pallad. on Husb. i. 334 Eke pave or floore it wele in somer tyde. c1520Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 201 Flowryng the lofte per v dies. 1581Mulcaster Positions xxxi. (1887) 114 (He) must have his ground flowred so..as in wrastling not hard to fall on. 1660Pepys Diary 4 Sept., Looking over the joiners, flooring my dining-room. 1698Fryer Acc. E. Ind. & P. 226 [Persia] is floored with vast Sands pent in by the surrounding Sprouts of Taurus. 1782Cowper Expost. 16 Fiery suns..and oceans floored with ice. 1807Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 473 The feeding and sleeping place floored with flat stones. 1823Examiner 442/2 The pit was floored over to the height of the stage. 1857B. Taylor Northern Trav. iii. (1858) 18 Thick fir forests, floored with bright-green moss.
b. To form, or serve as, the floor of.
1639G. Daniel Ecclus. i. 4 The Sands which floore the Sea. 1854Hooker Himalayan Jrnls. II. xviii. 44, 300 feet of deposit, which once floored its valleys.
2. a. To bring to the floor or ground; to knock down in boxing; to bring down (game). to be floored (of a horseman): to have a fall.
1642Lanc. Tracts. (Chetham Soc.) 79 He commanded them all to shoote at once, and flore the enemie, if possible they could. 1812Sporting Mag. XXXIX. 18 Crib..floored him with a blow of great strength. 1826Ibid. New Ser. XVII. 270 My friend was floored, and Mr. Leader..rode over him. 1829P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 10 My wild swan, that I floored yesterday. 1866Seebohm Oxf. Reformers iv. §4 Whereupon the poor boy was forthwith floored then and there, and flogged.
b. slang. (See quot.)
1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Floor'd, a person who is so drunk, as to be incapable of standing, is said to be floor'd.
3. In various figurative uses. colloq.
a. To confound, nonplus; to flabbergast, puzzle. In schoolboy slang, to be floored or get floored: to grow confused, be at a loss, fail, break down.
1830Coleridge Table T. 8 July (1884), The other day I was what you would call floored by a Jew. 1840Disraeli in Corr. w. Sister (1886) 158 My facts flabbergasted him, as well as..Hume, who was ludicrously floored. 1857Hughes Tom Brown ii. iv, ‘If you hadn't been floored yourself now at first lesson.’ Ibid. ii. v, ‘He's never going to get floored.’ 1886Ruskin Præterita I. 359 The consummate manner in which I had floored our tutor.
b. To overcome in any way; to beat, defeat, prove too much for. to floor the odds (see quot. 1893).
1827Lytton Pelham xxx, It is very singular that you who play so much better should not have floored him yesterday evening. 1834J. H. Newman in Lett. (1891) II. 22 I am floored as to the professorship. 1836Disraeli in Corr. w. Sister (1886) 50, I was the only man who could floor O'Connell. 1882Daily Tel. 16 Nov. 3/5 The odds were, nevertheless, floored from an unexpected quarter. 1893Farmer Slang, Floor (Racing), When a low-priced horse pulls off the event in the face of the betting, it is said to floor the odds.
c. To do thoroughly, get through (a piece of work) successfully. to floor a paper (Univ. slang): to answer every question in it.
1852Bristed 5 Years in Eng. Univ. I. 186 Our best classic had not time to floor the paper. 1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. x. 83 I've nearly floored my little-go work.
d. To empty, finish (a bottle, etc.).
1836–48B. D. Walsh Aristoph. Acharnians v. ii, I was the first man that floored his gallon. 1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xxiv. (1889) 228, I have a few bottles of old wine left; we may as well floor them.
e. intr. ? To commit a fatal blunder.
1835J. H. Newman Lett (1891) II. 97 We floored so miserably at the Reformation, that [etc.].
†4. trans. ‘To bring forward in argument, to table’ (Jam.). Obs.—1
a1687M'Ward Contendings (1723) 177, I know not..whom your Proposal..strikes against; save that you floor it, to fall on some, whom you mind to hit right or wrong.
5. To place upon (something) as a floor.
1871Tylor Prim. Cult. II. xiii. 68 The doctrine of a Heaven, floored upon a firmament, or placed in the upper air.
6. Art slang. To hang in the lowest row on the walls of a picture-gallery.
1884American VIII. 376 One R.A. is ‘skied’ and another ‘floored’. |