| 释义 |
ˈWestminster
1. a. The name of the abbey on the north bank of the Thames at London, used attrib., esp. with reference to Westminster Hall as a court of justice, to the assembly of divines held in 1643, or to St. Peter's School.
1549Latimer 1st Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 28 Thus thys bargayne became a westminster matter; the lawyers gote twyse the valure of the horse. a1614Timme Silver Watchbell vii. (1634) 140 If his neighbor do damnifie him but the value of two pence, he will prouide a conserue of Westminster-hal wormewood for him out of hand. 1671(title) Westminster Drollery. Or a choice Collection of the Newest Songs & Poems. 1691Hist. Rel. Late Presbyt. Gen. Assembly 12 The Minister of Abbots-Hall was accused for neglecting the Catechism of the Westminster Divines. 1693Acc. Establ. Presbyt. Govt. Scot. 43 Such a vast number of Propositions as are contained in the Westminster Confession. 1698Concubinage Disprov'd 5 It does not appear by anything our Author says, that his Marriage with Mary Tomkins was any other than Congressus Furtivus, a Westminster Wedding. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Westminster-Wedding, a Whore and a Rogue Married together. 1719Collect. Conf. Faith Ch. Scot. I. Pref. p. xi, Every body knows in what unhappy distracted Times, the Westminster Assembly met and compos'd that Confession of Faith. 1720Pref. to Addit. Westminster Confession 182 Other catechisms, which..are for no other valuable quality any ways comparable to the Westminster Catechisms. 1747H. Glasse Cookery ix. 79 A Westminster-Fool. Take a Penny-loaf, cut it into thin Slices, wet them with Sack..: take a Quart of Cream, beat up six Eggs..[etc.]. 1837Dickens Pickw. xxxv, The waiters, from their costume, might be mistaken for Westminster boys. 1843Hetherington (title) History of the Westminster Assembly of Divines. 1856Sara T. L. Robinson Kansas (ed. 3) 38 The old Westminster catechism allows works of necessity and mercy to be done on the Sabbath day. 1880Goldw. Smith Cowper i. 13 The Nonsense Club, consisting of seven Westminster men who dined together every Thursday.
b. ellipt. A present or former pupil at Westminster School.
1690–1Smalridge in Epist. Corr. Atterbury (1783) I. 17, I suppose you expect to do little good but upon the Westminsters. 1880Goldw. Smith Cowper i. 13 The set was strictly confined to Westminsters. Gray and Mason, being Etonians, were objects of its literary hostility. 1895Spectator 23 Nov. 729 The Busby Trust, managed by thirteen trustees, who must be old Westminsters.
2. a. The Palace of Westminster; hence, Parliament, of which the Palace is the seat. Freq. attrib.
The present Palace of Westminster (built 1840–67) is more commonly known as the Houses of Parliament.
1807Morning Chron. 13 Apr. 3/2 The Westminster Company of Independent Performers being lately dissolved. 1869Trollope Phineas Finn II. lxxiv. 306 The girl whom he loved..better even than Westminster and Downing Street. 1918G. Frankau One of Them xvii. 127 What art thou, Westminister? A caucused lobby? An oratorial-acrobatic stadium..? Or art indeed the Common Weal's palladium? 1961S. A. de Smith in Jrnl. Commonwealth Political Stud. I. 3 In its narrow sense the Westminster Model can be said to mean a constitutional system in which the head of state is not the effective head of government; [etc.]. 1972Guardian 11 July 13/8 It is sometimes suggested that what de Gaulle did for France in Algeria, Westminster should do for Britain in Ulster. 1977Time 27 June 20/1 One of the most frequently heard catch phrases has to do with moving away from the ‘Westminster system’ of parliamentary representation toward some form of presidential or federal system.
b. Westminster chimes or Westminster quarters: the pattern of chimes struck at successive quarters by Big Ben in the Palace of Westminster, and used for other clocks and (more recently) door chimes; it uses four bells struck in five different four-note sequences, each of which occurs twice in the course of an hour.
1860E. B. Denison Rudimentary Treat. Clocks (ed. 4) p. vii, Cambridge and Westminster chimes. Ibid. 191 A very grand G hour bell to the BAGD bells of the peel, on which the Cambridge and Westminster quarters might then be struck. 1923W. I. Milham Time & Timekeepers xvii. 298 To make and place a clock..striking the hours and Westminster quarters on five bells. 1924Eng. Clocks & Watches (Horol. Jrnl.) 42 The clock can be fitted with Whittington and Westminster Chimes. 1962V. Nabokov Pale Fire 43 Four hundred thousand times The tall clock with the hoarse Westminster chimes Has marked our common hour. 1967‘R. Simons’ Taxed to Death iv. 63 When Wace pressed the bell-button they heard Westminster chimes ringing in the hall. 1980New Grove Dict. Mus. IV. 244/2 The best known of all clock chimes, the Westminster Quarters.., was derived from a quatrain in Handel's Messiah. In 1794 William Crotch wrote four variations on the fifth and sixth bars of ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth’..for the new Cambridge University clock in Great St Mary's Church. They were accepted, and in 1845 were copied on the Royal Exchange clock, London. 1981Country Life 12 Feb. 362 (Advt.), A superb clock..the three chimes, Westminster, Whittington and Winchester, obtainable at will.
Hence ˈWestminsterism, the principles characteristic of the Westminster Assembly of 1643.
1884Calderwood in U.P. Mag. July 366 Several things had occasioned opposition to the admission of the Cumberland Church, such as these:—its deliberate alteration of the Westminster Confession, its avowed antagonism to what was often named ‘Westminsterism’. |