| 释义 |
ˈhigh ground, n. phr.
[f. high a. + ground n.]
1. Ground which is naturally elevated in relation to the surrounding area. Freq. in Mil. tactics, as affording an important strategic advantage to a force occupying it.
1607J. Norden Surveyors Dialogue iv. 183 Molland is up-land, or high ground. 1869M. W. Smith Mod. Tactics of Three Arms 63 The French divisions..continued to force their way forward in the direction of the high ground between Blasowitz and Pratzen. 1898tr. Griepenkerl's Lett. Appl. Tactics x. 213 If the enemy advance viâ Moulins-by-Metz,..he has to traverse a difficult uphill road to the high ground by Le Point-du-Jour, before he overtakes the flanking detachment. 1959H. A. Boushey in E. M. Emme Impact of Air Power 871 For the moon vs. earth from an energy point of view, the moon represents the age-old military advantage of ‘high ground’. 1990A. S. Byatt Possession xix. 338 There are still some wolves roaming the high ground and the moorland in this part of the world.
2. fig., esp. a position of advantage or superiority in a debate, moral issue, question of policy, etc. (often as moral high ground).
1882G. M. Hopkins Lett. to R. Bridges (1955) 148 Let me say, to take no higher ground, that without earnestness there is nothing sound or beautiful in character. 1890W. James Princ. Psychol. I. vi. 163 The Hegelizers amongst them will take high ground at once, and say that [etc.]. 1964Financial Times 3 Mar. 3/1 Further new all-time high ground was reached on Wall Street to-day, but most gains were limited to around $1. 1978Economist 16 Sept. 20/3 Most delegates showed little inclination to make unemployment their high ground for the next election. 1983N.Y. Times Mag. 6 Mar. 12/2 Rarely does one side in a controversy grab the moral high ground by the coinage of a phrase. 1988New Encycl. Sci. Fiction 116/1 In its obsession with seizing the technological high ground it [sc. cyberpunk] goes against the antitechnological drift toward contemporary fantasy exhibited by the descendants of the New Wave. |