| 释义 |
incendiary, a. and n.|ɪnˈsɛndɪərɪ|
Also 7 en-.
[ad. L. incendiāri-us causing conflagration, setting on fire, f. incendi-um burning, conflagration, f. incendĕre to incend: see -ary.]
A. adj.
1. a. Consisting in, relating or petaining to, the malicious setting on fire of buildings or other property.
1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. ix. §105. 626 An incendiary outrage at Norwich, where the Citizens set on fire the Priorie Church. a1845Hood (title) An Incendiary Song. 1856Miss Mulock J. Halifax vii. (ed. 17) 76 The glare of some incendiary fire.
b. Mil. Adapted or used for setting on fire an enemy's buildings, ships, etc. Used esp. of a type of aerial bomb that ignites on impact.
1871Daily News 14 Jan., Should they still be obstinate, a shower of incendiary shells of great size will be poured upon them. 1885E. S. Farrow Mil. Encycl. I. 666/1 (heading) Incendiary fire-works.—The incendiary preparations are..incendiary-match, and hot-shot. Ibid. 666/2 Incendiary-match is made by boiling slow-match in a saturated solution of niter, drying it, cutting it into pieces, and plunging it into melted fire-stone. It is principally used in loaded shells. 1892E. Baker Prelim. Tactics ii. 31 The ammunition carried per gun..is: ring shell, 84;..case, 8; incendiary shell, 6. 1911Aero May 37/1 The following are reckoned..to be the principal offensive uses of the war-aeroplane: (1.) Attacking supply stores and setting them on fire with incendiary bombs. 1915Lancet 12 June 1249/2 The incendiary bomb may cause a serious outbreak of fire. 1917H. Woodhouse Textbk. Naval Aeronaut. (1918) xix. 120/2 The Zeppelins also dropped incendiary bombs intended to set places on fire. 1918E. S. Farrow Dict. Mil. Terms 307 Incendiary grenade, a form of grenade designed to scatter molten metal upon bursting. 1935Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XXXIX. 164 Reference is made to incendiary bombs with magnesium alloy case and thermit filling. 1940Illustr. London News 5 Oct. 435/2 The oil bomb, which may be of various sizes, is filled in some cases with petrol, thus becoming a tremendously powerful incendiary bomb. 1941Ann. Reg. 1940 69 Though large numbers of incendiary bombs were dropped the damage done by fire was kept within fairly narrow limits.
2. fig. Having the character of inflaming or exciting the passions, esp. in regard to political matters; tending to stir up strife, violence, or sedition; inflammatory.
1614T. Adams Devil's Banquet 22 Zeale is 1 hote; no incendiary, no praeter-naturall, but a super-naturall heate. 1777Burke Corr. (1844) II. 145 All incendiary acts and incendiary practices. 1847Emerson Repr. Men, Montaigne Wks. (Bohn) I. 336 Ideas are disturbing, incendiary, follies of young men, repudiated by the solid portion of society. 1853G. Brimley Ess., My Novel 263 To counteract the effect of incendiary publications.
B. n.
1. a. A person who maliciously sets fire to a building or other property; one who wilfully or criminally causes a conflagration; one who commits arson.
1606Holland Sueton. 238 Others called him with open mouth Incendiarie [marg. Or firebrand because he burnt the Capitoll]. 1672R. Wild Poet. Licent. 26 We would make Bonfires (sir) but that we fear Name of Incendiaries we may hear. 1769Blackstone Comm. IV. xvi. 220 Fire too frequently involves in the common calamity persons unknown to the incendiary, and not intended to be hurt by him. 1834Lytton Pompeii iii. i, These are the incendiaries that burnt Rome under Nero.
†b. gen. A person or thing that kindles or sets on fire. Obs.
1654H. L'Estrange Chas. I (1655) 17 Instructions were issued out for the firing of them, and Sir Samuel Argall was appointed to be the incendiary. 1684T. Burnet Th. Earth ii. 47 The sun, and the central fire. These two great incendiaries, they say, will be let loose upon us at the conflagration.
c. Short for incendiary bomb.
1940Flight 19 Dec. 522/2 The pilot found his objective at once and his incendiaries started four large fires. 1942R.A.F. Jrnl. 13 June 24 You may have tried to put out an incendiary bomb by heaping..sand on it... No amount of sand will smother an incendiary. 1958Times Lit. Suppl. 28 Mar. 176/1 In 1941 Lambeth Palace Library was heavily bombed. Incendiaries fell in the middle of the seventeenth-century Great Hall which was its centre.
2. fig.
a. A person who inflames or excites the passions of men, esp. in regard to political matters; one who stirs up civil strife or violence; a mover of dissension or sedition: an inflammatory agitator, a ‘firebrand’.
1631Gouge God's Arrows iii. §93. 356 Campion, and other Seminaries and Incendiaries were sent by the Pope. 1672Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 163 He is an hot-headed Incendiary. 1704J. Blair in W. S. Perry Hist. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch. I. 101 Playing the Incendiary by endeavouring to make differences among friends. 1775Adair Amer. Ind. 462 Transforming them..into dangerous political incendiaries. a1797H. Walpole Mem. Geo. III (1845) III. i. 8 The Jesuits had been the incendiaries of the late insurrection. 1844H. H. Wilson Brit. Ind. i. ii. I. 139 Native officers..had been active in aggravating the irritation caused... The dismissal of the incendiaries..restored tranquillity.
†b. A thing that inflames or excites passion, strife, etc.; an incentive to evil. Obs.
1628Burton Anat. Mel. iii. iii. i. ii. (ed. 3) 548 Causes or incendiaries of this rage. 1630Wadsworth Pilgr. vi. 58 Their intemperate drinking..was the incendiary of some quarrels. 1726G. Shelvocke Voy. round World 286 We took a booty..which might have been made valuable, if discretion and prudence might have had the management of it; for want of which it proved a troublesome incendiary.
Hence inˈcendiaryship (nonce-wd.), the office or personality of an incendiary.
1640–1Ld. Digby Parl. Sp. 9 Feb. 13 Was there a man peaceably affected, studious of the Quiet and Tranquillity of his Countrey? Their Incendiariships hath plagued him. |