| 释义 |
ˈironclad, iron-clad, a. and n.
A. adj.
1. a. Clad in iron; protected or covered with iron; esp. of a vessel for naval warfare: Cased wholly or partly with thick plates of iron or steel, as a defence against shot, etc.
[Note. When the question of protecting ships of war, etc., by iron or steel armour first aroused general attention (c 1859), various terms were used to describe ships so protected, as iron-cased, -clad, -clothed, -coated, -plated, -sided; steel-clad, -clothed; armour-clad, -plated; of these, iron-cased, -plated, were at first preferred, and for several years were those usually employed in England, officially and otherwise; iron-clad, occasionally used in England before, appears to have come into common use at first in the United States, during the Civil War, and established itself as the preferred term c 1862–3, its adaptability as a substantive facilitating its general adoption. But its official use in England dates from c 1866.
1859Engineer VIII. 157/3 (heading) Iron-sided Ships. Ibid., At from 600 to 800 yards, iron-clothed ships would be in comparative safety from the effects of an enemy's broad⁓side. Ibid., That a steel-clothed ship could be far more easily destroyed than a wooden-sided one. 1859–64[see iron-cased]. 1860Engineer IX. 255/3 (heading) Iron Plated Ships. 1860Quart. Rev. ibid. X. 268/1 Napoleon III..designed a class of iron-plated vessels known as the floating batteries of 1854. 1862Engineer XIII. 93/1 (heading) The Iron-Plated Ship Question. Ibid. 232/2 (heading) Our Iron Plated Fleet. 1863Ibid. XV. 37/2 It was discovered that iron-coated ships only were good for warlike purposes. 1863Admiralty Ret. 4 May (heading), A return of Iron-plated or armour-clad ships built or building. ]
1852[see iron-headed 2]. 1859Engineer VIII. 157/3 The present experiments..would appear to prove that an iron or steel-clad ship, on receiving a concentrated broadside from a frigate..must sink then and there. 1861Ibid. XI. 152/1 Iron-clad Ships..Of this supposed [French] fleet of fifteen iron-plated vessels only one was now ready, La Gloire. 1861Rep. to U.S. Navy Deptmt. ibid. XII. 384/2 (heading ‘Iron-plated Vessels in America’) For river and harbour service we consider iron-clad vessels of light draught..as very important. 1861Ann. Reg. 204 One of the smaller of these iron-clad ships. 1864Times 17 Oct., Wooden liners..acknowledged as useless to compete with ironclad frigates. 1866Stat. Abstr. Health Navy 12 It is particularly satisfactory to find that..the iron-clad vessels are likely to prove at least as healthy as those not iron-clad. 1877Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 17 The foundation for a new ironclad furnace. 1878N. Amer. Rev. CXXVII. 225 Two powerful iron-clad rams.
b. Applied to electrical apparatus.
1876J. Ericsson Contributions to Centennial Exhib. xxviii. 410 (heading) Iron-clad steam battery, with revolving cupola. 1902Encycl. Brit. XXVII. 584/2 The two-poled iron⁓clad type [of field-magnet], so called from the exciting coil being more or less encased by the iron yoke. 1910Hawkins' Electr. Dict., Iron-clad dynamo, a dynamo having an iron-clad armature. 1927W. Wilson Electr. Control Gear xvi. 226 There are..reasonably cheap ironclad types of starting equipment on the market. 1939Read & Corcoran Electr. Engin. Exper. 91 The iron-clad solenoid can be made more effective by providing it with a stationary iron core which occupies about 20 or 30 per cent of the axial length.
2. fig. In reference to the action of frost in covering water and land with a hard surface. (Cf. iron-bound 2, quot. 1887.) rare. Also, of plants, able to withstand cold and frost. U.S.
1872Rep. Vermont Board Agric. I. 54 Currants and gooseberries are iron clad as regards climate. 1882Rep. Maine Board Agric. XXVI. 336 It is an early winter fruit, the tree not perfectly ‘iron clad’, notwithstanding its origin, yet hardy enough for most places. 1889Jefferies Field & Hedgerow 103 Warm summer and iron-clad winter.
3. fig. (chiefly U.S.) Of an extremely strict or rigorous character; so framed as to be incapable of being evaded, as a regulation, agreement, etc.
ironclad oath: an oath characterized by the severity of its requirements and penalties; esp. applied to the rigorous oath required by the United States Government from certain official and other persons after the civil war of 1861–5. (Cent. Dict.)
1866Congress. Globe 14 Feb. 835/1 Traitors never would be troubled with the ‘iron-clad oath’, for they never would have a chance to take it. 1868Harper's Mag. Sept. 484/2 [He] was as well reconstructed as a man might be who could not take the iron-clad oath. 1873J. Miller Life amongst Modocs xxvi. 304 Some hard, iron-clad oaths and then shot after shot. 1884Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 25 Apr., The Governor signed the Oleomargarine bill to-day..the law..was drawn with care and is presumably ironclad. 1885Economist in Pall Mall G. 6 June, The British parties..may try..to follow the American precedent, and make ‘an ironclad oath’ to preserve the union of the two countries [Great Britain and Ireland] a condition of election. 1887Contemp. Rev. May 699 Bills..full of the most arbitrary and ‘iron-clad’ provisions. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. II. iii. lxix. 548 At the Republican national convention at Chicago in June 1880 an attempt was successfully made to impose the obligation by the following resolution, commonly called the ‘Iron clad Pledge’. 1891Pall Mall G. 1 May 4/3 The contractors [in the Pittsburg district] have signed ‘ironclad’ articles refusing the demands of the men. 1911H. S. Harrison Queed x. 114 He insisted on doing it after an ironclad schedule. 1930Observer 1 June 11 The rationing system..is not so complete or ironclad as those which prevailed in various European countries during the war. 1951E. Kefauver Crime in America (1952) xix. 223 The operations of Murder, Inc., finally came to light when..police obtained ironclad evidence against a gangster known as Abe (Kid Twist) Reles.
B. n.
1. An ironclad ship: see A. 1.
1862Longfellow in Life (1891) III. 18 Went..to see the Nahant,—an ironclad with revolving turret, like the Monitor. 1863Engineer XV. 249/3 The presence before Charleston of three distinct types of iron-clads represented by the Monitors, the Keokuk, and the Ironsides. Ibid. 295/2 (heading) Launch of a Russian iron-clad. On Monday afternoon the first iron-cased frigate for the Russian navy was launched from the yard of the Thames Ironworks. Ibid., There is not as yet one foreign iron-clad which in real efficiency is worth a tenth of one of ours. 1866Admiralty Ret. 19 Mar. (heading), Return of all the Iron-clads built of wood [etc.]. a1895Ld. C. E. Paget Autobiog. vi. (1896) 193 Already [1859] the French had launched La Gloire ironclad..I had given my evidence before the royal commission strongly urging the construction of ironclads.
2. transf. and fig.
1867J. N. Edwards Shelby 483 The West Pointers were the iron-clads in our wooden navy. 1875‘Mark Twain’ Sk. New & Old (1900) 157 After the Tortoises came another long train of ironclads—stately and spacious Mud Turtles. 1889― Connecticut Yankee xxxix. 456 Things began to look serious to the iron-clads [sc. knights in armour]. 1892O. F. Whitney Hist. Utah I. 547 The ravages of the ‘iron-clads’ [i.e. grasshoppers] were wide⁓spread and far-reaching. 1974Country Life 28 Mar. 752/1 Those plants that are always a risk, climatewise, but which do offer rewards..such as the hardy ironclads can never quite match. 1974Oxford Times 19 Apr. 3/3 ‘Iron clads’ are the..term for day-old Chelsea buns. |