| 释义 |
transient, a. (n.)|ˈtrɑːnsɪənt, ˈtræns-, -nz-; ˈtrɑːnʃənt, ˈtrænʃ-, -nʒ-|
Also 7 erron. transeant, -scient; 7– (chiefly in sense 2) transeunt.
[f. L. transiens (in oblique cases transeunt-, whence the form transeunt), pr. pple. of L. transīre, f. trans across + īre to go.]
A. adj.
1. a. Passing by or away with time; not durable or permanent; temporary, transitory; esp. passing away quickly or soon, brief, momentary, fleeting; spec. in Electr. (cf. sense B. 3 below).
1607Schol. Disc. agst. Antichr. i. i. 17 Whose parts are transeunt and aereall, and presently vanishing. 1612Sturtevant Metallica v. 56 Instruments and means are said to be Transient, when in respect of their vse, they serue but once. 1659Pearson Creed (1839) 380 It containeth two distinct parts; one transient, the other permanent. 1662J. Davies tr. Mandelslo's Trav. 261 They are transient showers soon over. 1713Berkeley Guardian No. 70 ⁋8 The transient enjoyments of this life. 1813Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. (1814) 282 This manure is transient in its effects, and does not last for more than a single crop. 1853Proc. Philos. Soc. Glasgow III. 285 (heading) On transient electric currents. 1870Phil. Mag. XXXIX. 428 The galvanometer takes account of the induced transient current as a whole. 1873Hamerton Intell. Life iv. v. (1875) 166 The few and transient hours that we can call our own. 1962Newnes Conc. Encycl. Electr. Engin. 821/2 The transient current consequent upon the switching-on of a filament lamp. 1969J. J. Sparkes Transistor Switching v. 124 With the pulse steering circuits added..a transient current may flow.
b. transient equilibrium (Nuclear Sci.), the condition in which the half-life of a parent isotope is greater than that of the daughter but comparable to the period of observation, so that after an initial increase the total radioactivity decays with the parent's half-life and the ratio of parent atoms to daughter atoms remains constant.
1912Makower & Geiger Practical Measurement in Radioactivity viii. 111 The name transient equilibrium has been given to this state of apparent equilibrium, which exists whenever the life of a product is not negligibly short compared with that of the preceding substance which controls the decay. 1961G. R. Choppin Exper. Nucl. Chem. vi. 84 For a parent with a 1 month half life, observation over a few days will seem to be secular equilibrium, whereas observation over a 3 month period will show transient equilibrium.
2. Passing out or operating beyond itself; transitive; opposed to immanent. (Often spelt transeunt for distinction from sense 1.)
1613Purchas Pilgrimage i. i. 4 The workes of God, which are either inward and immanent, or outward and transient. 1625Gill Sacr. Philos. i. 98 You may observe a difference of actions, of which some are immanent, or indwelling in the doer..: some againe are transeunt, or passing from the doer upon that which is done. a1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. 35 Those two great transeunt or emanant acts or works, the works of Creation and Providence. 1836–7Sir W. Hamilton Metaph. (1870) II. xxv. 118 An act of the mind going out of itself, in other words, a transeunt act. 1847De Quincey Milton v. Southey & Landor Wks. XII. 177 In metaphysical language, the moral of an epos or a drama should be immanent, not transient. 1890Athenæum 8 Nov. 631/1 Volitionally reactive redintegration with its two stages, immanent and transeunt action. 1903F. C. S. Schiller Humanism iv. 64 The impossibility of explaining such transeunt causation compels to the inference that things are not really separate and independent. 1933Mind XLII. 155 The more responsive Pn is to Pm the more transeunt action there is between the two. 1942R. G. Collingwood New Leviathan xx. 140 It [sc. the process of ruling] is transeunt when that which rules rules something other than itself. 1949H. W. B. Joseph Lect. Philos. Leibniz iii. 107 That is the difficulty of transeunt causation—an effect produced in one thing by what is just another.
3. Passing or flowing through; passing from one thing or person to another. Now rare.
1619Denison Heav. Banq. 341 If the worship at our receiuing did determine in the Sacrament, or were transient by it to God. 1644[H. Parker] Jus Pop. 57 They lurke between scripture and reason, and remain in a kind of transcient posture. 1671Grew Anat. Plants i. (1682) 7 A Filtre to the transient Sap. a1703Burkitt On N.T. 1 Thess. ii. (1818) 16 Hereditary, and..transient from one generation to another. 1847Tennyson Princess v. 37 Away we stole, and transient in a trice From what was left of faded woman-slough To sheathing splendours..issued in the sun.
4. Passing through a place without staying in it, or staying only for a short time; in quot. 1731 of birds, migratory; spec. (U.S. colloq.) applied to a guest at a hotel, etc. (often ellipt. as n.: see B. 2). Also transf., for transient guests, short-stay.
1685Baxter Paraphr. N.T., Mark (1701) Introd., Whether this Mark was Bishop of Alexandria, or only a transient Evangelist there a while, is an Historical Controversie. 1713Swift Cadenus & Vanessa 768 Love, hitherto a transient guest, Ne'er held possession of his breast. 1731Sir J. Clerk in Mem. W. Stukeley (Surtees) I. 247 There are many transient fowls that come into Britain at certain seasons. 1740W. Douglass Disc. Curr. Brit. Plant. Amer. 3 The Author is not a transient Person, who from Humour or Caprice..may expose the Province. 1788Massachusetts Spy 11 Dec. 3/2 A transient jockey came to the house of Mr. Jonathan Hubbey, and agreed to purchase a horse of him. 1818H. B. Fearon Sk. Amer. 44 Boarding..is 8 dollars a week, for what is termed ‘a transient man’. 1822Montgomery Hymn, ‘This stone to Thee in faith we lay’ v, But will, indeed, Jehovah deign Here to abide, no transient guest? 1879F. R. Stockton Rudder Grange xi. 121 We had no accommodations for them, neither had we any desire for even transient visitors. 1891Fur, Fin & Feather Mar. 185 The transient rate for travelers at the Hilsabeck Hotel in Springfield is $1 a day. 1903N.Y. Even. Post 19 Oct. 3 A 12-story transient hotel. 1906Springfield (Mass.) Weekly Republican 9 Aug. 16 They will then rent apartments with or without board to transient and permanent guests. 1942E. Paul Narrow St. xxii. 175 Would that..some Turk would..rush me to a transient hotel. I am past that age, and never enjoyed a clandestine situation. 1976Times 29 May 1/8 Was placed in transient barracks, a form of solitary confinement. 1981Sci. Amer. Nov. 37/3 More intensive canvassing of places such as pool halls and transient hotels was done in an attempt to include a greater proportion of people who have no permanent address.
5. Mus. Introduced in passing, as a note, chord, etc. not belonging to the harmony, or to the key, of the passage; passing.
1801in Busby Dict. Mus. 1838G. F. Graham Mus. Comp. 29/2 Passing notes, changing notes, transient notes, etc. 1878F. Taylor in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 75/1 A so-called ‘auxiliary note’ (sometimes ‘transient’ or ‘changing’ note).
6. U.S. (Esp. of printed matter) occasional, isolated, individual.
1831Boston Transcript 18 Apr. 2/3 We shall use all patrons alike, whether they are annual or transient advertisers. 1841Lowell (Mass.) Offering I. 245 The clerk asked her if it was a transient paper. 1857Harper's Mag. Feb. 403/1 The prepayment of postage on transient printed matter has been made compulsory. 1857Lawrence (Kansas) Republican 28 May 1 All transient advertisements must be paid for in advance. 1904Philadelphia Friends' Intelligencer 15 Oct. p. ii, For transient advertisements, 5 cents per line.
B. n.
1. A transient thing or being; something passing or transitory, not permanent.
1652Sparke Prim. Devot. (1663) 279 If we (meanwhile) but rise from graves of sin And transients (which the most are buried in !). 1661Glanvill Van. Dogm. 81 A kind of stop or arrest, by the benefit of which the Soul might have a glance of the fugitive Transient. a1674Traherne Poet. Wks. (1903) 18. 1860 Boyd Recr. Country Parson ii. 27 These gray transients have changed to shivering skeletons.
2. colloq. (orig. U.S.). A person who passes through a place, or stays in it only for a short time; spec. a ‘transient guest’ at a hotel or boarding-house. Also, a traveller, a tramp, a migrant worker.
1880E. C. Rollins New Eng. Bygones (1883) 84 My grandmother held these transients in low esteem. 1893K. A. Sanborn S. California 20 On an open, sunny site, and..frequented by ‘transients’ and business men of moderate means. 1894Outing (U.S.) XXIV. 260/1 Summer residents, transients, and all, had turned out early. 1941H. G. Wells You can't be too Careful ii. xv. 104 Whenever Doober's had rooms to spare a card was put into the ground floor window, and there would be transients for three or four days. 1946W. S. Maugham Then & Now vi. 33 Piero and the courier were to share a straw mattress in a corridor along with a number of transients only too glad to have a roof over their heads. 1959M. Renault Charioteer vi. 114 A respectable tenement full of transients in a time of flux. 1963C. D. Simak They walked like Men iii. 17 He was snoring gently and he looked..like a transient who might have wandered in to find a place to sleep. 1978Beautiful British Columbia Winter 17 Transients pile in each winter to work the oil patch as soon as the muskeg freezes.
3. Physical Sci. A transient variation in current or voltage, or in any waveform; a transient condition.
1911C. P. Steinmetz Elem. Lect. Electr. Discharges i. 2 The transient..appears as intermediate between two permanent conditions. 1911― in Jrnl. Franklin Inst. CLXXII. 41 Transients are not a specifically electrical phenomenon, but occur in any system of forces, where energy storage occurs. 1936Physical Rev. XL. 522/1 Thus Γ′ is of importance only in determining the initial transients but not the steady rate of absorption. 1947R. Lee Electronic Transformers & Circuits iv. 102 Transients occur when the load is applied..or removed..causing respectively a momentary drop or rise in plate voltage. 1970V. M. Albers World of Sound ix. 143 The transients from percussion instruments and a piano are quite severe. 1972Nature 21 Apr. 384/1 Total surface fields of over 100 gammas have been observed when large solar field transients pass the Moon. 1979Guardian 25 Oct. 20/1 Accidental abrupt changes of conditions in reactors—these are called transients.
attrib.1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 248 In such [microphone] designs..there are minimal inertial effects and therefore a very good transient response. 1975G. J. King Audio Handbk. v. 117 A useful signal for transient appraisal is the square wave provided its rise time is significantly smaller than that of the amplifier. |