| 释义 |
tourbillion, ‖ tourbillon|tʊəˈbɪljən|, |turbijɔ̃|
Also 5 turbilloun, 8 -billion.
[a. F. tourbillon whirlwind, in OF. torbeillon (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), torbillon, app., from the sense, an irregular derivative of L. turbo, -inem ‘whirlwind’; though the form seems to connect it with vulgar L. turbēla, turbella ‘bustle, stir’, deriv. of turba crowd. See Hatz.-Darm., Littré, and Scheler.]
1. A whirlwind; a whirling storm. Also fig. rare. ? Obs.
c1477Caxton Jason 57 A meruaillous turbilloun of winde roose in the see. 1585T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. i. xi. 13 A wind called..vulgarly Tourbillon or whirlewinde. 1751Eliza Heywood Betsy Thoughtless III. 138 With the more violence those tourbillions of the mind rage for a while, the sooner they subside. 1819W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd (1827) 57 A scharp-ee'd man, whase sicht was clear, Beneath the stowry tourbillon Micht see [etc.].
2. transf. A whirling mass or system; a vortex; a whirl; an eddy, a whirlpool. Also fig.
1712Steele Spect. No. 472 ⁋4 Each of them [the fixed stars] is a Sun moving on its own Axis in the Centre of its own Vortex or Turbillion. 1753Chesterfield Lett. 26 Nov., I am very glad, that you are whirled in that tourbillon of pleasures. 1779H. Walpole Let. to C'tess Ossory 27 Oct., The tourbillon of Ranelagh surrounds you. 1824Scott St. Ronan's iii, All things were engaged in the tourbillon, of which she formed the pivot and centre. 1891‘Mark Twain’ Lett. (1917) II. xxxi. 557 We were allowed to go through the wrong arch, which brought us into a tourbillon below which tried to make this old scow stand on its head. 1931R. Graves To whom Else? 19 Such portents are not to be wondered at Being tourbillions in Time made By the strong pulling of her bladed mind Through that ever-reluctant element. 1972J. Wain in Cox & Dyson 20th-Cent. Mind i. xi. 374 In the history of any art there are unexpected eddies and tourbillions.
3. A kind of firework which spins as it rises, describing a spiral.
1749Descr. Machine for Fireworks 15 Tourbillons..88. 1765R. Jones Fireworks iv. 121 When you fire tourbillons, lay them on a smooth table, with their sticks downwards. 1842G. Francis Dict. Arts, etc., s.v., Fire will issue from four holes; that from the two lower holes will drive the tourbillion into the air, and that from the side holes will spin it round. 1873E. Spon Workshop Receipts Ser. i. 135/1 The tourbillon is a species of firework very ingeniously contrived to represent a spiral column of fire.
4. (See quot.)
1884F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 266 Tourbillon..a carriage in which the escapement of a watch is fitted so that it revolves round the fourth wheel. The idea of the tourbillon..is to get rid of position errors. |