| 释义 |
ˈtrip-wire
Also trip wire, tripwire.
[f. trip n.1 or v. + wire n.]
1. a. A wire stretched near the ground in order to trip up enemies, trespassers, etc. Hence, a wire placed so that contact with it operates a weapon, flash-light, or other device.
1916A. Knebworth Let. 24 Feb. in Ld. Lytton Antony (1935) i. 21 He walks forward, he has found his landmark. He thinks he knows where the Huns are. He is coming to the Hun trip wire. He has cut the German trip wire. 1928Daily Mail 3 Aug. 8/3 Trip-wires to ensnare the enemy. 1928Daily Tel. 16 Oct. 18 A flash-light operated by means of a ‘trip wire’. 1941Illustr. London News 22 Feb. 233/1 (caption) The mine can be fired by various methods such as electric contact or time fuse—trip wire or impact. 1947D. M. Davin Gorse blooms Pale 124 They had time..to lace the stumps with barbed trip⁓wires. 1960C. Day Lewis Buried Day v. 100 The window⁓cleaner's tricycle was built up to represent a German tank, which was laagering in a dell I had privily surrounded with trip-wires. 1974Times 21 Jan. 12/5 There's a series of trip wires which set off rockets and flares if they are touched. 1978‘F. Parrish’ Sting of Honeybee vi. 83 Dan wondered about dogs, electric fences, trip-wires, gin-traps.
b. transf. and fig.
1971P. O'Donnell Impossible Virgin vi. 117 He was operating on more than one level. He may have meant his offer, but he was laying trip-wires at the same time. 1976Ld. Home Way Wind Blows xiv. 195 A Prime Minister..is well-advised to search every question for the trip-wire which is usually well-concealed, but almost sure to be there, and to think up the riposte which will turn the tables on the Opposition. 1979P. Niesewand Member of Club ix. 63 One other type of sensor..sets up an invisible light beam... If someone walks across it, they interrupt the beam. It's a kind of optical tripwire.
2. fig. A comparatively weak military force employed as a first line of defence, whose involvement in hostilities will trigger the intervention of stronger forces. Freq. attrib. orig. U.S.
1957Observer 1 Sept. 8/3 The German electorate are baffled as to whether Nato is meant to defend their soil, or provide the tripwire for a Soviet-American suicide pact. 1960Washington Post 4 Apr. a 19 Stans suggested that a switch be made to the ‘trip-wire’ defense theory which would require but one American division. 1966Schwarz & Hadik Strategic Terminology 115 Advocates of this modification ridicule the simple tripwire concept by saying that to all intents and purposes a single U.S. soldier could act as tripwire. 1969New Statesman 11 Apr. 500/3 He [sc. King Hussein] is anxious to make a separate peace with the Israelis on the basis of a demilitarised West Bank, with an Israeli military tripwire on the Jordan. 1976Ld. Home Way Wind Blows xii. 167 There was, however, a running argument among the professionals as to whether the line between the Warsaw Pact and the NATO forces should be thinly held (by a trip⁓wire) or more strongly manned. 1979Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts CXXVII. 550/2 From the mid 1950s to the late '60s, the West relied on the so-called ‘tripwire’ strategy. Stated simply, this meant that any aggressive adventure on the part of the Soviet Union would be met by an overwhelming nuclear response. 1980Times 24 May 15/2 What is profoundly discouraging is to find our work impeded by the old discredited trip-wires of the Cold War. |