| 释义 |
intensity|ɪnˈtɛnsɪtɪ|
[f. intense + -ity: cf. F. intensité (1743 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. a. The quality of being intense; a strained or very high degree (of a quality, condition, or action, or of the characteristic quality of something); extreme force, strength, depth, brightness, etc.
1665Boyle Exp. Hist. Cold, Defic. Weather-glasses Wks. 1772 II. 497 Susceptible of such an intensity of cold. 1791Burke App. Whigs Wks. VI. 202 The number engaged..only augments the quantity and intensity of the guilt. 1824Landor Imag. Conv. Wks. 1846 I. xii. 51/2 In England great crimes escape through the intensity of law; in Italy small ones through its relaxation. 1834Medwin Angler in Wales I. 90 The water from the intensity of its blue, must be very deep. 1834Phil. Trans. R. Soc. CXXIV. 222 The term intensity..is immediately referable to..the operation of either a part, or the whole of the total force in a given direction up to the point of discharge. 1846Ruskin Mod. Paint. I. ii. ii. ii. §3 Nature exhibits her hues under an intensity of sunlight which trebles their brilliancy. 1879[see saturation 4]. 1933L. Bloomfield Lang. ix. 156 The second more specialized type of connotation..is intensity. The most characteristic intense forms are exclamations. 1939Brooks & Warren Understanding Poetry ii. 167 The effect of this condensation in poetry is a sense of greater intensity than is usually found in prose fiction. 1961J. H. Goodier Dict. Painting & Decorating 143 Intensity, the purity of a colour, sometimes called the ‘saturation’ or, in American terminology, the ‘chroma’.
b. High-strung quality of personal feeling or emotion; strenuous energy of action.
1830Southey Life Bunyan in Pilgr. 38 This led him to search the Bible and dwell upon it with an earnestness and intensity which no determination of a calmer mind could have commanded. 1837Dickens Pickw. ii, He..looked at the stranger for several seconds with a stern intensity. 1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. ii, She might have done so with an agreeable sense that she was living with some intensity and escaping humdrum. 1876Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. ii. Wordsw. 243 In proportion to the intensity needful to make his nature thoroughly aglow is the very high quality of his best verses. 1896G. F. Stout Analytic Psychol. I. i. v. 110 The word ‘intensity’ in..psychology..is usually regarded as synonymous with the liveliness or vivacity of which Hume has so much to say.
c. with pl. An instance of this quality; an intense condition.
1847Bushnell Chr. Nurt. ii. viii. (1861) 388 Over-dosing in the spiritual intensities of religion. a1849Poe Blackwood Article Wks. 1864 IV. 232 What everybody else calls the intensities.
2. a. The degree or amount of some quality, condition, etc.; force, strength, energy; degree of some characteristic quality, as brightness, etc.; esp. in Physics, as a measurable quantity.
1794J. Hutton Philos. Light, etc. 291 The light of greatest intensity, which is supposed to be white. 1796Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 26 Denoting the degrees of intensity of some particular qualities by figures. 1831Brewster Optics xxii. 200 To compare the polarising intensities of different crystals. 1881Maxwell Electr. & Magn. I. 168 The force on a small charged body is proportional to its own charge, and the force per unit of charge is called the Intensity of the force.
b. Photogr. = density 4; cf. intense a. 2 b.
1855T. F. Hardwich Photogr. Chem. viii. 111 With the intensity of a picture..the developing fluid is largely concerned.
3. attrib. and Comb.
1844in H. M. Noad Lect. Electr. (ed. 2) ix. 401 The trifling decomposing effect from the intensity-inductor. a1877Knight Dict. Mech. II. 1192/1 An intensity battery is one in which the elements are coupled up together, to give a current known as high-tension. 1927E. G. Richardson Sound x. 238 Beside the frequency limits there are intensity limits to the sounds which the ear can perceive. 1932D. Jones Outl. Eng. Phonetics (ed. 3) xxxi. 277 Contrast-emphasis may be applied to almost any word, but intensity-emphasis can only be applied to certain words expressing qualities which are measurable. 1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 452/1 Intensity modulation, modulation of a luminosity of the fluorescent screen of a cathode ray tube by variation of the current carried in the beam. 1947Radiology XLIX. 284/2 Our data also suggest that an intensity factor exists. Daily exposures of very short duration over long periods of time should therefore be avoided. 1964J. C. Catford in D. Abercrombie et al. Daniel Jones 31 Fricative hiss,..intensity-modulated by voice. 1972Science 16 June 1236/1 The audio frequency Doppler signals from the detector were amplified sufficiently to provide a 30- to 40-volt signal for intensity-modulating the cathode-ray tube. |