| 释义 |
white-out|ˈhwaɪtaʊt|
Also whiteout.
[f. phr. to white out (cf. white v.1), by analogy with black-out.]
1. a. N. Amer. A heavy snow-storm, a blizzard.
1942Sun (Baltimore) 30 Mar. 8 (caption) Whiteout. 1980Sat. Rev. (U.S.) May 66 Blizzards—white-outs they call them here [sc. in Labrador]—bring snow that whirls and thrashes and blinds, stinging noses, and cabins disappear in the whiteness.
b. A condition in which neither shadows nor the horizon can be seen and physical features are lost in the background, caused by an evenness of lighting such as sometimes occurs in cloud or in snow- or ice-covered regions.
1946Sun (Baltimore) 20 Apr. 7/2 Hedine, of the United States Weather Bureau at Winnemucca, Nevada, described the ‘Arctic whiteout’ today, defining it as a condition of the snow country wherein all land features are camouflaged, ‘blending earth and sky so that the horizon and all landmarks are indistinguishable’. 1955Sci. Amer. Apr. 54/3 Lieutenant John P. Moore, a Navy pilot, was killed when his helicopter crashed during a ‘white-out’. This condition, one of the chief hazards of Antarctic travel, occurs when sunlight diffuses through a solid overcast. 1959V. Fuchs Antarctic Adv. vii. 96 A whiteout is something like a blackout in reverse... No surface irregularities in the snow are visible in the diffused, opaque light, but a dark object like a man or a vehicle may be clearly seen. 1966F. Hoyle October 1st viii. 95 It was impossible to know whether you were looking ten yards..or even a hundred miles. The effect..was far more weird than the kind of white-out you sometimes get on a snowfield in the mountains. 1976M. Machlin Pipeline i. 7 White-out had set in just after Takolik had seen The-Man-Who-Hides. 1980Daily Tel. 30 July 16 Bad weather, including white-outs caused by low cloud, hampered the early stages and Bonington is reported as saying he can well understand why the peak has never been climbed before. 1984Times 5 Jan. 9/4 When whiteout exists, by the interaction of sunlight, snow, cloud and reflection, it induces the belief in a pilot that he is flying over flat terrain with unlimited forward visibility.
2. A white liquid that can be brushed on to paper to obliterate marks and provide a white surface on which to type or write afresh.
1977L. O'Donnell Aftershock xiii. 180 You changed the date... Did you cover the original entries with a strip of paper, or did you use white-out? 1984New Yorker 23 Jan. 44/2 A Chinese version of typists' white⁓out. |