| 释义 |
human, a. (n.)|ˈhjuːmən|
Forms: 5–6 humayn(e, 5–7 humain(e, 6–8 humane, 8– human.
[a. F. humain (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.) = It. umano, Sp., Pg. humano:—L. hūmān-us of or belonging to man, human, a derivative of the same root as homo, homin-em man. The stress was orig. as in OF. on the last syllable, but, in accordance with Eng. usage, was at an early date shifted to the first. The spelling humane remained, however, down to the beginning of the 18th c. (in Dicts. to c 1730), when human (of which isolated examples occur in 17th c.) was substituted in the senses following, leaving humane with distinctive pronunciation as a distinct word. Cf. the history of divers, diverse.]
A. adj.
1. Of, belonging to, or characteristic of mankind, distinguished from animals by superior mental development, power of articulate speech, and upright posture.
α1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. i. (1495) 6 This creatour thenne made man, and nature humayne comune. c1475Partenay 951 Neuer humain ey saw to it egal! c1566J. Alday tr. Boaystuau's Theat. World B, Others have bewailed..the humaine calamities. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 762 They thinke that all the gods are of humane shape. 1657W. Coles Adam in Eden To Rdr., Our humane frailties. 1710Steele Tatler No. 120 ⁋1 The Contemplation of Humane Life. 1758S. Hayward Serm. xiii. 370 The devil..knows humane nature.
β1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 604 Conceal'd from Human Eyes. 1736Butler Anal. Introd. 5 The Structure of the human Body. 1799Wordsw. Lucy Gray ii, Beside a human door. 1814Byron Lara ii. xxii, Is human love the growth of human will? 1878Morley Crit. Misc. Ser. i. Carlyle 202 Human nature is not led for so long by lies.
2. a. Of the nature of humans; that is human or consists of human beings.
1484Caxton Fables of æsop vi. xii, Iupyter loued the humayn lygnage. c1500Melusine i. 15 Thou shalt..dey as a naturel & humayn woman. c1566J. Alday tr. Boaystuau's Theat. World B iv, All humaine creatures. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 320 Humane Sacrifices were offered to Diana. 1728–46Thomson Spring 1146 By degrees, The human blossom blows. 1804Med. Jrnl. XII. 340 The calamities of the human race. 1807Ibid. XVII. 553 To make a mere experiment on a human subject. 1858Kingsley Lett. (1878) II. 54 Wherever human beings are concerned.
b. Astrol. Applied to those signs of the zodiac, or constellations in general, which are figured in the form of men or women.
1658in Phillips. 1679Moxon Math. Dict., Humane Signs,..those Signs of the Zodiack, which have, as it were, the form of Man, as Gemini, Virgo, Aquarius, and the first half of Sagittarius;..also such Asterisms without the Zodiack, as are usually represented in humane shape, as Perseus, Andromeda, Cassiopœa, Cepheus, Orion, etc... Ptolomy [says]..Whoever has neither the Lords of his Geniture, nor the Ascendent, in Humane Signs, will himself be a stranger to Humanity, or of churlish savage behaviour. 1819Wilson Compl. Dict. Astrol. s.v., The lord of an eclipse being in any human sign, its evil effects will fall on mankind.
3. a. Belonging or relative to human beings as distinguished from God or superhuman beings; pertaining to the sphere or faculties of mankind (with implication of limitation or inferiority); mundane; secular. (Often opposed to divine.)
αa1533Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) B vj b, I haue vsed in this wrytyng, the whiche is humayne, that that diuers tymes hath bene vsed in diuinitie. 1590Shakes. Com. Err. v. i. 189 Past thought of humane reason. 1600J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa ii. 392 There are two natures in Christ, one divine..the other humane. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 320 Humane and Divine learning. 1709Pope Ess. Crit. 527 To err is humane, to forgive divine.
β1639T. Brugis tr. Camus' Mor. Relat. 183 The divine disposings agree not alwayes with human purposes. 1712W. Rogers Voy. 255 In all human probability. 1860Motley Netherl. (1868) I. i. 1 An authority which seemed more than human. 1878Browning La Saisiaz 154 To..Pass off human lisp as echo of the Sphere-song out of reach.
b. Belonging or relative to humans, relating to or characteristic of activities, relationships, etc., which are observable in mankind, as distinguished from (a) the lower animals; (b) machinery or the mechanical element; (c) mere objects or events, as human affairs, human angle, human chain, human condition, human document, human element, human factor, human fly, human interest, human note, human period, human relations, human rights, human situation, human story, human torch, human torpedo. Also human engineering orig. U.S., the scientific study of the interaction of human beings and their working environment and the exploitation of this interaction in the interests of efficiency; the application of the human sciences to the design of machines; so human engineer; human equation: see equation 3 b; human-factors engineering = human engineering; so human-factors engineer; human resources n. pl. (orig. U.S.), people (esp. personnel or workers) considered as a significant asset of a business or other organization, as opp. to material resources, etc.; manpower; freq. attrib. (also in sing.); human sciences n. pl. [cf. G. geisteswissenschaften, W. Dilthey (1883)], the sciences that treat of mankind, esp. those concerned with historical or social factors, as religion, the social sciences, literature, etc. (as opp. to natural and physical sciences).
1741Hume Ess. Moral & Pol. I. 176 Such mighty Revolutions have happened in human Affairs..as are sufficient to beget the Suspicion of still farther Changes. 1798Human affairs [see affair n. 2 a.]. 1877L. H. Morgan Anc. Society iii. i. 399 From its limited prevalence it made but little impression upon human affairs. 1949W. L. Warner in M. Fortes Social Struct. 2 Current procedures for class stratification..require too large a field staff of experts, often making it impossible for the interested student of human affairs to use a knowledge of social class to understand his particular problem.
1941Ann. Reg. 1940 317 The Press mirrored the age, copying from America tabloid news, the ‘human angle’, and..illustrations.
1908Pop. Mechanics Jan. 15/2, 50 men formed a human chain and pulled him out. 1926B. A. McKelvie Huldowget iii. 40 Every male in the village was a link in the human chain. 1963Human chain [see chain n. 5 f].
1814Edin. Rev. XXII. 199 The means of bettering the human condition. 1957P. Coveney Poor Monkey xii. 276 Lawrence's perception of the ‘human condition’. 1960C. Day Lewis Buried Day v. 87, I could not myself opt out of the human condition, as to some degree the pacifist must do.
1892W. H. Mallock (title) A human document. 1896Badminton Mag. 195 Regarded as a human document my guide looked dog-eared, thumbed and a trifle mildewed. 1938Ann Reg. 1937 320 Dr. Roberts' book is a ‘human document’ of great value.
1887Scribner's Mag. I. 93/2 He managed, with masterly ingenuity, so to leave out the human element..that he gave hardly a glimpse of what it really is. 1897Trans. Inst. Naval Architects 111 It is all very well to say the men are careless, but the human element has to be reckoned with. 1907R. Herriot (title) The human element. A novel. 1908Modern Business Aug. 65/1 System and organisation may be perfect on paper..but this does not necessarily lead to..efficiency. There is another element—the human element. 1913Pall Mall Mag. July 46/2 You must remember that in regard to the human element, we are..behind Germany. The point is that they have the human element—a large body of pilots, observers, artisans, trained during the last sixteen years. 1944Electronic Engin. XVI. 334 The additional errors due to the human element (observation and reaction times) can be eliminated.
1957Goode & Machol System Engin. xxx. 500 Selection and training of operators..come within the province of the human engineer.
1934Webster, Human engineering. 1944Amer. N. & Q. June 48 Los Angeles..has more than its quota of ‘spiritual engineers’..not to mention a ‘School of Human Engineering’ in a college curriculum... Such an academic unit might legitimately concern itself with anything..from anatomy and physiology to sociology. 1950Lancet 1 Apr. 645/2 The field which has variously been described as ‘fitting the machine to the man’, human engineering, that part of industrial psychology not concerned with vocational guidance, etc. 1957Goode & Machol System Engin. xxx. 481 The primary object of attention in human engineering is the man-machine link. 1970New Scientist 23 July 199/3 Human engineering..involves a careful moulding of an educational system to nurture what is most useful and beneficial in each individual.
1921B. S. Rowntree (title) The human factor in business. 1943J. B. Priestley Daylight on Saturday x. 65 He was worried about his production figures... In the last resort it was the human factor that counted.
1967L. B. Archer in Wills & Yearsley Handbk. Managem. Technol. 130 In the U.S.A. the subject [ergonomics] is called ‘human engineering’ or ‘human factors engineering’ and the man may be described as a human factors engineer. 1969New Yorker 56/2 A group of engineers called human-factors engineers has had as much to do as anybody else with making the astronauts seem like black boxes.
1964E. J. McCormick (title) Human factors engineering.
1919Alameda (Calif.) Times-Star 11 Jan. 1/3 Besides being a ‘Human Fly’, Williams has other unusual accomplishments. 1960Observer 25 Dec. 7/6 The climber..is likely to be agile and athletic, but there is generally no need for him to be what the Press calls a cat burglar or human fly.
1824Byron in T. Medwin Conversations Lord Byron 237 There was another objection: all the human interest would have been destroyed, which I have even endeavoured to give my Angels. 1860Dickens in All Year Round 28 Jan. 321/1 Figuratively speaking, I travel for the great house of Human Interest Brothers. 1912Collier's 21 Sept. 21/3 Fu, not understanding the American newspaper idea of ‘human interest’, elected to think I had written a eulogy of him deliberately. 1913E. C. Bentley Trent's Last Case ii. 23 ‘Prostrated by the shock,’ hinted the reporter, ‘..human interest.’ 1915W. P. Livingstone Mary Slessor (1916) ii. vii. 46 Her simple but vivid style, the human interest of her story..made so great an impression that the ladies of Glasgow besought the Committee to retain her for a time. 1930Wodehouse Very Good, Jeeves! x. 263 Just one of those human-interest stories, if you know what I mean. 1933Leavis & Thompson Culture & Environment 141 What do you understand by the phrase ‘human interest’, and what..is vicious in the journalistic practice it derives from? 1970Times 27 Feb. 13/4 What about that boy with blood pouring from his eye, who has now become an extra in a ‘human interest’ story?
1920Fairgrieve & Young Brit. Isles p. vi, This series of elementary books is just what its name denotes—human. Everywhere the human note is predominant and the relation of man to his environment insisted upon.
1882A. Geikie Text-bk. Geol. 901 The long succession of Pleistocene ages shaded without abrupt change of any kind into what is termed the Human or Recent Period. Ibid. 902 The Human Period is above all distinguished by the presence and influence of man.
1916G. B. Shaw Overruled 57 Spontaneous human relations..on the one hand and the property relation..on the other. 1926B. Webb My Apprenticeship i. 52 A poisonous cynicism about human relations. 1954D. Riesman Individualism Reconsidered iv. xiv. 222 Men who take courses [in] human relations in order..[to] get along with their colleagues in the office. 1967M. Argyle Psychol. Interpersonal Behaviour x. 198 Experience with management training shows that lectures on ‘human relations’ are often very popular. Ibid. 199 Follow-up studies show that lectures on human relations lead to improved scores on questionnaires.
1961Act for Internat. Devel.: Summary Presentation (U.S. President's Task Force) (Dept. of State Publ. No. 7205) The decade can bring significant progress in launching the slow process of developing their human resources and their basic services. 1966N.Y. Times 12 Aug. 1/5 Mayor Lindsay will issue an executive order setting up the powerful Human Resources Administration. 1972Accountant 28 Sept. 386/2 The popular vogue of ‘manpower planning’ (here, for obvious reasons termed ‘human resource’ planning) must be more competently compiled where new relevant facts and figures are fed back from the human resource accounting system. 1978Times 2 Feb. 19/1 James F. Scull..has had a meteoric rise through the corporation over the last 14 years, latterly as vice-president for human resources (personnel, I suppose we would call it). 1985W. Safire in N.Y. Times Mag. 26 May 10/4 In the business-administration courses, the phrase manpower development was deemed outside the pale: in the Government's sexlesspeak, the acceptable version is human resource development.
1791T. Paine Rights of Man 110 The representatives of the people of France..considering that ignorance, neglect, or comtempt of human rights, are the sole causes of public misfortunes..have resolved to set forth..these natural, imprescriptible, and unalienable rights. 1877Independent (N.Y.) 18 Jan. 2/2 ‘What does that little rat know about human rights?’ Pack said. 1941‘G. Orwell’ in Horizon Aug. 134 An attempted definition of fundamental human rights. 1945Charter of United Nations Art. 1 par. 3, To achieve international cooperation..in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights. 1969New Yorker 14 June 78/2 More middle-class blacks will become involved in human rights.
1943Lasswell & McDougal in Yale Law Jrnl. LII. 214 The great contribution of modern specialists on the human sciences is less in the realm of general theory than in the perfecting of method by which ancient speculations can be confirmed, modified or rejected. 1979H.-G. Gadamer in J. Sallis Stud. in Phenomenol. & Human Sci. 74 It is evident that the expression ‘human sciences’ is problematic for us today and that we must come to the conclusion that science should be defined by us in another way than it is for modern times.
1961J. B. Wilson Reason & Morals ii. 46 The tragedy of the human situation (itself a Freudian phrase).
1872B. Jerrold London iii. 28 The sad human stories that crowd the emigrant vessel. 1945E. Waugh Brideshead Revisited ii. ii. 233 A woman reporter..had come..to get a ‘human story’ of the dangers of my journey. 1959Times Lit. Suppl. 27 Mar. 173/3 The ‘human story’ and even the characters are but adjuncts of the whirling selling machine.
1969Guardian 21 Jan. 1/1 Two more ‘human torch’ protests... A second Czechoslovak has tried to take his life as a political protest by setting fire to himself.
1944Hutchinson's Pict. Hist. War 12 Apr.–26 Sept. 21/2 A new and devastating weapon called the ‘human torpedo’. It can be likened to a miniature submarine. 1953Jane's Fighting Ships 1953–54 151 Damaged in Northern waters in 1944 and repaired and reconstructed as ‘Kaitan’ (Human Torpedo) carrier.
c. As a subdivision of a science: that branch of the science which is concerned with the study of mankind, as human ecology, human geography, human psychology.
1933Human ecology [see ecology]. 1957[see bio-ecology (bio-)]. 1965New Scientist 28 Jan. 208/3 The tag for the necessary science is ‘human ecology’— the comprehensive investigation of the effects of our environment on our well-being.
1919Fairgrieve & Young (title) Human geographies. 1936Discovery Feb. 56/2 This map is a valuable contribution to human geography. 1959Listener 6 Aug. 219/3 Endless information about the human geography of England at the end of the eleventh century. 1961L. D. Stamp Gloss. Geogr. Terms 242/1 Human geography, the geographical study (the complement of physical geography) of those features, objects and phenomena of the Earth's surface which relate directly, or are due, to man and his activities.
1924R. M. Ogden tr. Koffka's Growth of Mind 16 To bridge the gap between human and animal-psychology.
4. Having or showing the qualities or attributes proper to or distinctive of humans. (In quot. 1727 = humane.)
1727A. Hamilton New Acc. E. Ind. II. lii. 260 He was very human, and sent the poor Seamen Presents. 1837H. Martineau Soc. Amer. III. 184 Every prison visitor has been conscious, on first conversing privately with a criminal, of a feeling of surprise at finding him so human. 1855Longfellow Hiaw. Introd. 91 Ye..Who believe, that in all ages Every human heart is human. 1883Fairbairn City of God ii. i. v. (1886) 140 The coming of a diviner faith made worship humaner and more spiritual. Ibid. iii. i. 230 The ideal of manhood He [Christ] created..remains the regnant ideal of man, the humanest men being the men who realize it.
5. Comb.
a. with another adj., denoting a combination of qualities, as human-angelic (of the nature of a human ‘angel’).
b. parasynthetic, as human-bounded, human-figured, human-headed, human-hearted (sense 4; hence human-heartedness), human-sized, human-tainted adjs.
a1711Ken Hymnotheo Poet. Wks. 1721 III. 256 No Human-bounded Mind Can comprehend Love unconfin'd. 1749Fielding Tom Jones ix. ii, The human-angelic species. 1768Woman of Honor III. 196 A human⁓figured stick. 1850Tennyson In Mem. xiii, The human⁓hearted man I loved. 1857Birch Anc. Pottery (1858) I. 343 Human-headed birds. 1870W. Graham Lect. Ephes. 246 The humanheartedness of the Father. 1880V. Lee Belcaro ii. 33 This Niobe group, twice human-sized. 1929D. H. Lawrence Pansies 73 Communion with the Godhead, they used to say in the past. But even that is human-tainted now, Tainted with the ego and the personality.
B. n.
1. A human being, a member of the human race.
a1533Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) Gg vij b, No man among men, nor humain amonge the humains. c1611Chapman Iliad v. 441 Mars..smear'd with the dust and bloud Of humanes, and their ruin'd wals. 1652Kirkman Clerio & Lozia 83 Among you earthly humanes. 1832F. Trollope Dom. Manners Amer. I. 70, I expect the sun will rise and set a hundred times before I shall see another human that does not belong to the family. 1839Marryat Diary Amer. Ser. i. II. 211 Of all the humans, you're the one I most wish to see. 1878Besant & Rice Celia's Arb. I. iii. 31 They [rooks] are not mere theorists, like poor humans, but simply investigators of fact. 1879G. Macdonald Sir Gibbie ix. 54 Gibbie fell to..hugging him [the dog] as if he had been a human. 1898H. S. Canfield Maid of Frontier i. 18 A man could ride from here to forty-mile the other side of Edwardsville and never see a human. 1902O. Wister Virginian iv. 56 ‘They are just like humans,’ the Virginian concluded. 1905A. Conan Doyle Return of Sherlock Holmes 27 You will see it often in humans. 1909H. G. Wells Ann Veronica ii. 43 In all the species of animals the females are more important than the males; the males have to please them. Look..at the competition there is everywhere, except among humans. 1922Joyce Ulysses 501, I always understood that the act so performed by skittish humans with glimpses of lingerie appealed to you in virtue of its exhibitionististicicity. 1971Physics Bull. Jan. 49/1 A third hailed him, as a great scientist and a superb human.
2. With the: (a) the human race, humanity; (b) that which is human, that which relates to mankind or humanity.
1841E. B. Browning Let. 28 Aug. (1897) I. 88, I may say so now—as far as the human may say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ of their futurity. 1844― Poems I. 109 While the human in the minor Makes the harmony diviner. 1919M. K. Bradby Psycho-Analysis 205 The distinctively animal gives way in order to express the distinctively human.
▸ human resources n. orig. U.S. the department in an organization dealing with the administration, management, training, etc., of staff; the personnel department (in attrib. use, occas. in sing.).
1965N.Y. Times 6 June iii. 31 (advt.) Forward complete resume of education, experience, history and salary requirement to: Director *Human Resources. 1975Business Week (Nexis) 17 Feb. 70 b, The nation's biggest employer of women..has already conducted a three-year study to test day care's efficacy as a cure for high turnover and absenteeism... Results of the experiment, which ended in mid-1974, are still being analyzed, says human resources manager Charles J. Sherrard. 1994Accountancy Sept. 61/1 Part of the background to all of this is the growing tendency for the human resource function itself to shrink in size. 2000M. Gayle Turning Thirty v. 26, I would be free to leave as soon as I told Human Resources where I wanted to go.
▸ human beatbox n. colloq. (orig. U.S.) a person who uses the voice and mouth to make rhythmical sounds in imitation of the rhythms of hip-hop music; cf. beat-box n. 1a.
1984M. Morales et al. Jailhouse Rap (song) in L. A. Stanley Rap: the Lyrics (1992) 126 On the microphone He rocks and shocks Homeboys and girls it's the *Human Beat Box. 1999D. Haslam Manchester, Eng. 280 A rapper and a human beatbox..going down to London with nothing but their own way of doing things, taking on the world, winning and making a life. 2001Muzik Jan. 79/1 Biz first burst onto the scene with his human beatbox skills on ‘Make The Music With Your Mouth’.
▸ human BSE n. Med. variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (see variant CJD n. at variant adj. and n. Additions); (also more widely) any other form of spongiform encephalopathy in humans.
1990Independent (Nexis) 6 July 3 (headline) *Human BSE cases ‘more widespread’ than thought. 1997Western Daily Press (Bristol) (Electronic ed.) 21 Aug. 38 The newly-formed Families Association comprising relatives of victims launched a campaign to rename the new variant strain of CJD, which is generally linked to infected beef, as Human BSE. 2000Scotsman (Electronic ed.) 30 Oct. We took the decision to enhance the care package for the victims of variant CJD—the human BSE—and to put compensation arrangements in place as well. 2007Lancet 24 June 2073/1 Therefore, a human BSE epidemic may be multiphasic.
▸ human cannonball n. a performer in a circus or similar entertainment who is catapulted through the air from a device resembling a cannon and lands in water or a net.
1880Warren (Pa.) Ledger (Electronic text) 23 Apr. Royal, who is styled in the show language the *human cannon ball, had been shot from the mouth of the howitzer. 1929Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald 12 May 2/5 One of the features of the 1929 program will be Cliff Aeros, the human cannonball, who will be shot a distance of 20 feet from a cannon. 2003‘Z. Corder’ Lion Boy (2004) xi. 143 Flying through the air on the trapeze; Topmounter in the Lucidi family's human pyramid, or human cannonball even, in a little velvet suit.
▸ human chorionic gonadotropin n. (also human chorionic gonadotrophin) Physiol. the human form of chorionic gonadotropin; (also) a pharmaceutical preparation of this; abbreviated hCG, HCG.
1939Science 20 Oct. 376/2 (note) *Human chorionic gonadotrophin is only inactivated very slowly [by nitrous acid]. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 25 Dec. 3/3 Human chorionic gonadotrophin..is present during pregnancy. 1991Brit. Med. Jrnl. 16 Mar. 649 Mostly the diagnosis of pregnancy is confirmed by tests checking for the high concentrations of human chorionic gonadotrophin that occur in every pregnancy. 1995Mother & Baby June 26/1 Sometimes the pregnancy hormone HCG (human chorionic gonadotrophin) or stronger fertility drugs may be given.
▸ human growth hormone n. Physiol. and Med. the human form of growth hormone (somatotropin); (also) a pharmaceutical preparation of this, originally obtained from pituitaries at autopsy, later produced by recombinant DNA technology, and used chiefly to treat children with pituitary dwarfism; abbreviated HGH.
1954Albuquerque (New Mexico) Jrnl. 30 Jan. 7/2 Results of experiments with a *human growth hormone which gives promise of aid to dwarfs and old people, were reported here today. 1968New Eng. Jrnl. Med. 28 Mar. 689/1 The excess of human growth hormone (HGH) in acromegalic patients can be effectively reduced by means of radiation with the Bragg peak of the proton beam. 1992Olympics 92 79/3 Now the illegal diet..can include testosterone, human growth hormone or somatotrophin, diuretics, amphetamines, [etc.]. 2005Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 19 June i. 18/2 Many scientists have targeted the anti-aging group for spreading what they say are unfounded claims that products such as human growth hormone can ‘de-age’ patients.
▸ human papillomavirus n. Virol. and Med. the species of papillomavirus that infects human hosts, comprising numerous genotypes most of which cause warts or other benign epithelial lesions, but some of which are associated with carcinomas at specific sites of the body, esp. the cervix; (also) infection with such a virus; abbreviated HPV.
1952D. T. Smith et al. Zinsser's Textbk. Bacteriol. (ed. 10) lix. 766 (caption) *Human papilloma virus. 1963Virology 21 258/2 Human papilloma virus was obtained from the plantar warts excised from patients under general anaesthetic. 1982Arch. Dermatol. Res. 274101 Warts of plantar localization are not caused by the same human papillomavirus (HPV) since they are found to be associated with both HPV type 1 (HPV-1) and HPV type 2 (HPV-2). 2000Diva May 32/2, I wanted to hear from lesbians who had viral STDs such as HIV, HPV (human papilloma virus, which has been linked to cervical cancer), herpes and hepatitis. 2006She Caribbean Nov.–Dec. 150/3 The vaccine, called Gardasil, guards against cancer and genital warts caused by the human papillomavirus, the most common sexually transmitted disease.
▸ human shield n. a person or group of people placed in a line of fire, or near a potential target, to deter or protect from an attack, esp. a group of civilians, hostages, etc., held against their will near a potential military target.
1885Sunday Herald (Syracuse, N.Y.) 23 Aug. 4/5 When Riley loosened the grasp of his herculean arm from the neck of his *human shield, the tenth victim of the terrible encounter dropped lifeless to the boards. 1914Times 8 Sept. 11/2, I cannot help but feel that, following the system they have inaugurated in this campaign, the Germans will use these non-combatant prisoners as human shields when they are facing the Allies. 1941F. F. Van de Water Reluctant Republic ix. 160 For several minutes a lively and impromptu dance went on, the Indian leaping about and poking with his musket's muzzle to get a clear shot; Allen whirling the loudly objecting officer around to keep this human shield between him and his would-be murderer. 2001C. Coker Humane Warfare iv. 80 One particularly vivid example was the use of human shields in Kosovo to deter the allied air forces from targeting Serbian armoured units. |