| 释义 |
▪ I. ˈwater-clock1
[clock n.1]
An instrument actuated by water for the measurement of time. Applied, e.g. to the clepsydra of the ancients, and to inventions of Sir Isaac Newton and others.
1601Holland Pliny vii. lx. I. 191 This manner of Horologe or water-clocke, hee dedicated in the end within house. 1634J. B[ate] Myst. Nat. & Art 39 A Water-Clock, or a Glasse shewing the houre of the day. 1723E. Stone tr. Bion's Math. Instrum. viii. vii. (1758) 253 Of the Construction of a Water-Clock. This Clock is composed of a Metalline well soldered Cylinder,..wherein is a certain Quantity of prepared water, and several little Cells, which communicate with each other by Holes near the Circumference. 1727Stukeley in Turnor Grantham (1806) 177 Sir Isaac's water clock..resembled pretty much our common clocks... There was a dial plate at top with figures of the hours. The index was turned by a piece of wood, which either fell or rose by water dropping. 1825Fosbroke Encycl. Antiq. 347 Water⁓clock, A new kind was invented in Italy about the middle of the seventeenth century. A cylinder, divided into several small cells, was suspended..in a frame, in which the hours' distances, found by trial, were marked out. As the water flowed from one cell to another, it changed very slowly the centre of gravity of the cylinder, and put it in motion. 1855J. H. Newman Callista vi. (1856) 47 Here the rushing of the water-clock which measured time in the neighbouring square ceased, signifying thereby that the night was getting on. 1894Boase Register Exeter Coll. (O.H.S.) p. lxxxix, [16th c.] Logic lectures were given from 6 to 7 in the morning,..The time was reckoned by a waterclock.
▪ II. † water-clock2 Obs.
[clock n.3]
An aquatic beetle.
1634Moufet Theat. Ins. i. xxiii. 164 Scarabei aquatici..quos..Germani Wasser kafers, Angli, Waterclocks appellant. 1681Grew Musæum i. §vii. ii. 171 The Great English Waterclock. Hydrocantharus major Anglicus. |