| 释义 |
intermediary, a. and n.|ɪntəˈmiːdɪərɪ|
[f. med.L. type *intermediāri-us, f. intermedium: cf. F. intermédiaire (1678 in Hatz.–Darm.), perh. the immediate source.]
A. adj.
1. Acting or of the nature of action between two persons, parties, etc.; serving as a means of interaction; mediatory.
1818Hallam Mid. Ages iii. ii. (1855) I. 457 Without an intermediary power between the doge and the patrician multitude. 1869Rogers Note Adam Smith's W.N. I. i. i. 6 Such a system tends to eliminate intermediary agents.
2. Situated or occurring between two things (in space, time, degree, or character); intermediate.
1788New Lond. Mag. 537 Whether the Shamoys..may not form with our goats some intermediary race. 1799Hist. Eur. in Ann. Reg. (1800) 28/2 A plan or project..for an intermediary government was presented by Chazal. 1823H. J. Brooke Crystallogr. 67 Decrements have been already defined to be either simple, mixed, or intermediary. 1875Blake Zool. 36 The canines..are separated from the molars by a large diastema or intermediary vacancy. 1882J. Hawthorne Fort. Fool i. xxi, During this intermediary stage of her life.
B. n.
1. One who acts between others; an intermediate agent; a go-between middleman, mediator.
1791Gouv. Morris in Sparks Life & Writ. (1832) I. 357 He thinks the Emperor will become the intermediary. 1831Southey in Q. Rev. XLV. 441 They serve as intermediaries between the labourers, who want instruments of labour, and the possessors of those instruments. 1866Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xxvii. 652 None were intermediaries to the producer and consumer. 1883Manch. Guard. 10 Oct. 4/6 The prisoner had been speculating largely on the Stock Exchange through an intermediary.
2. Something acting between persons or things, a medium, means; also abstr. Action as a medium, mediation, agency (of something).
1859Sala Tw. round Clock (1861) 183 Mysteriously transmitting them through the intermediary of glib Jew boys with curly heads. 1880Daily Tel. 8 Oct., We are the only European people who teach practical geometry through the recondite intermediary of Euclid's ‘Elements’.
3. Something intermediate between others; an intermediate form or stage.
1865Intell. Observ. No. 37. 11 No intermediaries were known. 1890Anthony's Photogr. Bull. III. 121 The equalizing of these two extremes and their intermediaries is the work of the photographer. |