| 释义 |
trilateral, a. and n.|traɪˈlætərəl|
[f. L. trilater-us three-sided + -al1. Cf. F. trilatéral.]
A. adj.
1. Contained by three sides; three-sided.
1660Barrow Euclid i. Def. xx, Three sided or Trilateral figures are such as are contained under three right lines. 1788T. Taylor Proclus I. 173 Euclid appears to me to have made a separate division into angles and sides, from considering this alone, that every triangle is not also trilateral. 1828Hutton's Course Math. II. 136 The quadrilateral space EAA′E′ is double the trilateral space AA′F. 1875Merivale Gen. Hist. Rome xviii. (1877) 102 Two powers now remained to struggle for the dominion of the trilateral island [Sicily].
2. Pertaining to or concerning three countries, parties, etc., esp. with reference to the relations between Europe, the United States, and Japan; the Trilateral Commission (see quots. 1973, 1981).
1965Economist 20 Feb. 758/1 Ethiopia. A trilateral agreement is being negotiated with the object of harnessing German and American help in forming an Ethiopian frontier defence force. 1973N.Y. Times 2 Mar. 35/1 A group of distinguished private citizens in the United States, Japan and Europe are now organizing what they call ‘the trilateral commission’ to study the common problems of these three power centers. 1977Times 28 Apr. 7/4 Mr Jimmy Carter..really believes in what has been called the trilateral system of America, Europe and Japan. 1981Washington Post 18 Mar. a1/2 For the record, the Trilateral Commission is a New York-based policy group formed by Rockefeller in 1973 in a reaction to the nationalistic foreign economic policy of President Nixon, which disturbed some traditional U.S. allies. 1984Times 5 Mar. 12/2 It was thanks to the complicated trilateral arrangement worked out in secret..that he was taken to Pakistan.
B. n. A three-sided figure; a triangle.
1766Compl. Farmer s.v. Surveying, Triangles are figures comprehended under three right lines, and..might be better called trilaterals. 1870Observer 9 Oct., From the canal, round the trilateral of St. Denis, to the Seine about Argenteuil, the Prussian Guards..have their stations. 1885C. Leudesdorf Cremona's Proj. Geom. 31 It follows that the triangles (trilaterals) bcd, b′c′d′ are also in perspective.
Hence triˈlateralism; triˈlateralist; also trilateˈrality, triˈlateralness, the quality of being trilateral; triˈlaterally adv., in a trilateral form, triangularly.
1727Bailey vol. II, Trilateralness, the having three Sides. 1837–8Sir W. Hamilton Logic xi. (1866) I. 208 [A] triangle [is distinguished] from every other class of mathematical figures, by the single character of trilaterality. 1847Webster, Trilaterally. 1976R. H. Ullman in Foreign Affairs Oct. 1 ‘Trilateralism’..is the latest attempt both to describe and to prescribe for the relationship between the United States and the other principal democratic, industrialized, market-economy states. 1977Studia Diplomatica XXX. 231 Dr Kissinger can hardly be said to have been unaware of the ‘Trilateralists’. 1977Foreign Policy No. 29. 90 The original trilateralism, which links prominent citizens of the United States, Western Europe, and Japan in an international ‘commission’, arises from the shared ideological commitment of its members to liberal values and politics. The goals of Arab trilateralism, however, are not expressed in ideological terms. 1981Washington Post 18 Mar. a1/2 Remember those dreaded, three-sided Trilateralists, the international conspirators headed by David Rockefeller who were going to take over the world? Ibid. a5/6 But old fears die hard, and the far right is ever-vigilant for signs of creeping Trilateralism within the citadel. |