| 释义 |
rectangular, a.|rɛkˈtæŋgjʊlə(r)|
[ad. L. type *rectangulār-is: see rectangle n. and -ar. Cf. F. rectangulaire (1571).]
1. a. Shaped like a rectangle; having four sides and four right angles.
1624Wotton Archit. 19 To resolue vpon Rectangular Squares, as a mean betweene too few, and too many Angles. 1718Quincy Compl. Disp. 33 In Sugar, the same Pyramids, with oblong and rectangular Bases. 1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v. Windmill, A common windmill, whose sails are rectangular, and their length about five times their breadth. 1831Brewster Optics xi. 98 When the termination is rectangular, what are called the crested fringes of Grimaldi are produced. 1861Lewin Jerusalem 197 The platform..was a rectangular space surrounded by a wall of its own.
Comb.1898F. Davis Silchester 23 Their practice of building city walls rectangularwise. 1960Farmer & Stockbreeder 8 Mar. (Suppl.) 10/3 Rectangular-shaped pods which should be gathered when 1 to 1½ in long. 1976Private Eye 24 Dec. 8/1 They must be true, rectangular-type icebergs, without cracks or crevasses.
b. Of a solid body: Having the sides, base, or section in the form of a rectangle, or with right-angled corners.
1624Wotton Archit. 47 Bricks moulded in their ordinary Rectangular forme. 1805–17R. Jameson Charac. Min. (ed. 3) 116 The rectangular hexahedron is named cube. 1812–16Playfair Nat. Phil. (1819) I. 161 When a rectangular beam is supported at both ends [etc.]. 1871Roscoe Elem. Chem. 276 Mercuric Chloride..is soluble in water, crystallizing in rectangular octahedra.
c. fig. Formal, stiff, rigid.
1842Poe Marie Roget Wks. 1864 I. 236 Lawyers, who, for the most part, content themselves with echoing the rectangular precepts of the courts.
†2. Of a triangle: Right-angled. Obs.
1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. v. 653 Nor doth every one, who hath an idea of a rectangular triangle, presently understand that the square of the subtense is equal to the squares of both the sides.
3. a. Placed or lying at right angles. (Said also of the relative position of two things.)
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 179 The thighes of other animals doe stand at angles with their spine, and have rectangular positions in birds. 1675Ogilby Brit. Introd. I. P ij b, The acute Way on the Left leads to Hogsdon, and the Rectangular Way..over the Fields to Old-Street. 1812–16Playfair Nat. Phil. (1819) II. 267 The Sun..and..two planets referred to the plane of the ecliptic, each by three rectangular co-ordinates..parallel to the three axes. 1869Tyndall Notes Lect. Light §465 The elasticity of the ether is different in these two rectangular directions. Ibid. §479 The function of the analyzer is to reduce the two rectangular wave-systems to a single plane.
b. Math. (See quot.) ? Obs.
1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v., If a cone, cylinder, etc., be perpendicular to the plane of the horizon, it is called a rectangular or right cone, cylinder, etc.
4. a. Having parts, lines, etc. at right angles to each other; characterized or distinguished by some arrangement of this kind.
rectangular hyperbola, a hyperbola having its asymptotes perpendicular to one another. rectangular staff, a lithotomic staff bent at right angles.
1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v. Barometer, Horizontal or rectangular Barometer,..the tube whereof is bent, in form of a square. 1872T. Bryant Pract. Surg. lii. 558 Buchanan's operation with the rectangular staff, bent three inches from the point. 1882Minchin Unipl. Kinemat. 173 The curve denoted by this last equation is a rectangular hyperbola. 1887W. C. Ford Amer. Cit. Man. ii. 55 The surveys are conducted on a uniform plan, known as the rectangular system.
†b. Of a windmill: Having rectangular sails.
1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v. Windmill, Best form and proportion of rectangular Wind-Mills. |