| 释义 |
fraction, n.|ˈfrækʃən|
Also 4–6 fraccion, -yon.
[a. OF. fraccion (Fr. fraction), ad. eccl.L. fractiōn-em, n. of action f. frangĕre to break.]
1. The action of breaking:
a. in the Eucharist: the breaking or dividing of the bread.
1504W. Atkynson tr. De Imitatione ii. xi. 190 Many foloweth hym to be parteners of the fraccyon of his brede. 1602T. Fitzherbert Apol. 50 Though it may be said..that he suffreth fraction or breaking in the Sacrament when it is broken..yet [etc.]. 1737Waterland Eucharist 67 The distributing the Bread to the Company, after the Benediction and Fraction, was customary among the Jews. 1877J. D. Chambers Div. Worship 377 The Fraction is the most solemn, ancient, and significant Action of the whole of the Formulary of Consecration.
†b. with reference to material things in general, and to lines, etc.; also, refraction (of light). Obs.
1571Digges Pantom. i. xxi. G j b, Glasses transparent, whiche by fraction should vnite or dissipate the images. 1612Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 271 Fraction is the breaking of some matter with ones hand, or with an instrument. 1656tr. Hobbes' Elem. Philos. (1839) 195 The bending or curvation of a strait line into the circumference of a circle..is fraction continually increasing. 1684Burnet Th. Earth i. iii. 30 Several parcels of Nature that retain still the evident marks of fraction and ruine. 1813T. Busby Lucretius i. Comment. xxi, Had compound bodies been subject to unlimited fraction.
c. with reference to immaterial things; chiefly in obsolete uses, e.g. a disturbance (of the mind), an infraction or rupture (of the peace).
1547Boorde Brev. Health 27 This impediment [dreames]..may come..specially of fraction of the mynde. 1627–77Feltham Resolves ii. v. 170 When the Affections are glewed to the world, Death makes not a Dissolution, but a Fraction. 1721Strype Eccl. Mem. I. iv. 51 The French king having lost his friendship by divers fractions of the peace with England. 1842Sir H. Taylor Edwin the Fair i. v, The blackbird sang us forth..loud and full at first..then with pause And fraction fitfully.
†2. The result of breaking; the state of being broken; a broken place, breach, fissure, rupture; spec. in Surg. a fracture. Obs.
1587Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1349/1 Healing of bones broken, termed commonlie fractions. 1658A. Fox Wurtz' Surg. ii. vii. 67 Carefully feel with your finger, whether there be any fraction. 1685Travestin Siege Newheusel 20 We..made large Fractions in the Bastion. 1690T. Burnet Th. Earth iii. 36 If we had seen the mountains..when the earth was fresh broken..the fractions..of them would have appear'd very gastly. 1705Cherry in Hearne Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) I. 22 A fall..caus'd a great fraction in my nose. 1798W. Blair Soldier's Friend 74 Wounds, fractions, and dislocations.
†3. An interruption of good feeling or harmony; discord, dissension; a rupture. In early use also: A breach of the peace, brawling. Obs.
1502Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W. 1506) iv. ix. 193 Whiche taketh wylfully ony persone..in the chyrcheyarde..or y⊇ whiche there maketh ony fraccion. 1591Horsey Trav. (Hakl. Soc.) 262 Betwen the Poll and them fractions, and factions among themselves. 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. ii. iii. 107. 1670 Cotton Espernon ii. vi. 262 By which means..a fraction betwixt them must of necessity ensue. a1713Shaftesbury Char. (1749) III. 143 Fractions at Court.—Ship⁓wreck of Ministrys. 1721[see 1 c].
4. a. Something broken off; a disconnected portion; a fragment, scrap, small piece. Said with reference both to material and immaterial things. by fractions: piecemeal, by halves. Now rare.
1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. ii. 158 The fractions of her faith, orts of her loue. 1607― Timon ii. ii. 220. 1641 Prynne Antip. To Rdr., My primitive intention was, to have presented thee with this..Antipathy intirely at the same instant without fractions. 1656Davenant Siege Rhodes i. To Rdr., Why my numbers are so often diversify'd and fall into short fractions. 1657Sanderson Pref. to Serm. (1681) §23 Whilest they are still crumbling into Fractions and Factions. 1796H. Hunter tr. St. Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) II. 19 No one is disposed to be a friend by fractions. 1840Carlyle Heroes (1858) 233 Mahomet's followers found the Koran lying all in fractions.
†b. ? A paragraph or section (of a book). Obs.
1625Burges Pers. Tithes 44 In the next Fraction after that branch of the Statute..it is said; Prouided alwaies [etc.].
5. Math.
a. Arith. A numerical quantity that is not an integer; one or more aliquot parts of a unit or whole number; an expression for a definite portion of a unit or magnitude.
common fraction or vulgar fractions are those in which the numerator and denominator are represented by numbers placed the one above, the other below, a horizontal line. Sometimes fraction is used for ‘vulgar fraction’, or for a quantity expressed by means of a numerator and denominator; e.g. ‘the fraction 4/2 = 2’. For complex, compound, continued, decimal, proper and improper fractions, see those words.
c1391Chaucer Astrol. Prol. §3 Smallest fraccions ne wol nat ben shewed in so smal an instrument. 1542Recorde Gr. Artes 130 b, Thenne maye I boldly enstructe you in y⊇ arte of fractions or broken nomber. 1614Raleigh Hist. World ii. (1634) 214 But the very minutes and lesser fractions were to be observed by him. 1668Wilkins Real Char. 393 A Fraction may be exprest..by the Adjective Neuter. 1705Arbuthnot Coins (J.), Pliny put a round number near the truth, rather than a fraction. 1811W. Irving in Life & Lett. (1864) I. 269 This place would suit you to a fraction. 1812–16Playfair Nat. Phil. II. 243 The deflection..if reduced to feet, comes out 16 and a small fraction. 1827Hutton Course Math. I. 86 The vulgar fraction may be reduced to a decimal, then joined to the integer, and the root of the whole extracted. 1838De Morgan Ess. Probab. 30 The probability of an event is measured by the fraction which the number of favourable cases is of all that can happen. 1846Greener Sc. Gunnery 392 The Belgians too find the same result to a fraction. 1847Grote Greece i. xxviii. (1862) III. 43 The village is a fraction, but the city is an unit. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 11 The fraction which denotes the ratio of the two distances is sometimes termed the representative fraction.
b. Alg. An expression analogous to an arithmetical vulgar fraction, in which the numerator and denominator are algebraical terms or expressions.
1812–16Playfair Nat. Phil. (1819) I. 39 This fraction is a maximum, when the denominator A + B + [etc.] is a minimum.
6. A portion of a section (sense 2 e (b)) of land. U.S.
1789in C. Cist Cincinnati (1841) 209 The whole of the township and fraction to be surveyed. 1815D. Drake Cincinnati vi. 202 The principal wall or embankment, encloses an entire block of lots and some fractions. 1837J. M. Peck Gaz. Illinois i. 77 Fractions are parts of quarter sections intersected by streams or confined claims. 1847in H. Howe Hist. Coll. Ohio 206 Matthias Denman..had purchased the fraction of land on the bank of the Ohio, and the entire section adjoining it on the north. 1901S. E. White Westerners xviii. 156 Thar is a lode..over on the J. G. fraction that's shore th' purtiest bit of quartz lead you ever see.
7. Any one of the portions, differing in physical or chemical properties, into which a mixture may be separated, esp. by physical methods.
1857Phil. Mag. 4th Ser. XIII. 134, I selected the fraction boiling in the fifteenth rectification at 240°F. to make a preliminary experiment upon. 1873Ibid. XLV. 129 In such a case each fraction of the distillate will have the same composition as every other fraction and as the original mixture. 1904[see fractionally adv.]. 1913A. R. Warnes Coal Tar Distill. 52 When it is not desired to recover the anthracene, the heavy creosote and anthracene oil fractions are sometimes not separated, but worked as one fraction. 1955Sci. Amer. Aug. 92/3 Electrophoresis is the special name given to the technique of separating molecular mixtures into fractions. 1958New Scientist 9 Jan. 12/1 The purification of these liquids gives rise to aromatic fractions suitable for use as gasoline components. 1960L. Picken Organization of Cells v. 188 Five different particle fractions were..separated from the homogenate at five different speeds and times of centrifugation. 1971Nature 13 Aug. 455/2 Textural variation depends on changes in the proportions of sand and clay with the silt fraction remaining fairly constant.
8. In Communist use: see quots. 1922 and 1927. Also, a deviant or schismatic group. Hence ˈfractionism, the views or policies of such a group; ˈfractionist, a member or adherent of such a group. Also (all forms) transf. Cf. fractional a. c.
1922Communist Party Gt. Brit.: Rep. Organisation ii. 25 Besides his area group, every member will have some special task. He may be on the Speakers' Group, or working in the Local Labour Party Fraction. Ibid. 26 A Fraction is a Party organisation inside a representative or delegate body. (It is also used for a grouping of all the Communists and their followers inside a trade union or similar organisation.) 1927Communist Party Training (Communist Party Gt. Brit.) 117 A fraction is composed of all Party members inside any unit or representative committee of a non-party organisation, united for the purpose of conducting Party work in same. 1949Times 10 Jan. 6/1 Other new words recently collected from this paper include fractionist (akin to deviationist). 1952New Yorker 25 Oct. 106/2 Among Marty's other criminal fractionisms were that he thought American imperialism in France was of only secondary importance. 1952M. McCarthy Groves of Academe (1953) xiii. 262 In the fraction, I was given the assignment of recruiting Mulcahy to the Party. 1954Encounter Feb. 48/2 Last came the rank and file, whose work consisted of making speeches, distributing leaflets, attending party and fraction meetings. 1954Koestler Invis. Writing xxiii. 255 It is essential to..discredit a person or fraction ‘in the eyes of the masses’ before he or they are liquidated. 1958New Statesman 1 Feb. 136/2 The fact is that Conservatives, Liberals, Socialists and Roman Catholics all hold ‘fraction meetings’ and decide what their policy is to be in the trade unions. 1959B. & R. North tr. Duverger's Pol. Parties (ed. 2) i. iii. 174 The development of fractions is not a sign of the liberty of members..: rather does it point to differences of opinion between members of the ruling class.
Hence ˈfraction v., to break into fractions or pieces. ˈfractionlet, a small fragment.
1830Carlyle in Froude Life in Lond. (1882) II. 88 Wrote a fractionlet of verse, entitled ‘The Beetle’. 1840― Heroes ii. 47 The Nation fractioned and cut asunder by deserts. |