| 释义 |
wireless, a. (n.)|ˈwaɪəlɪs|
[f. wire n. + -less.]
A. adj. Without a wire or wires; spec. Electr, dispensing with the use of a conducting wire. wireless telegraphy, a system of telegraphy (as that patented by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897) in which no conducting wire is used between the transmitting and receiving stations, the signals or messages being transmitted through space by means of electric waves; also, in British law, used to include wireless telephony; wireless telephony: the transmission of speech and other uncoded signals by means of radio waves; = radio-telephony. Also wireless telegraph, wireless telephone. Now chiefly hist., having been superseded by radio(-).
1894Westm. Gaz. 22 Feb. 8/1 Not only may man be able some day to communicate by wireless telephone with the planets, but [etc.]. 1897Times 18 Sept. 8/2 An electric bell was rung at the lighthouse by means of the wireless current. 1898Electrical Rev. 20 May 688/2 The first installation of Marconi's wireless telegraph system in Ireland for business purposes was made..last week. Ibid. 22 July 129/2 The wireless messages were sent from a steam tug, which followed the races. 1898Jrnl. Inst. Electr. Engineers XXVII. 799 The general principles of electric space telegraphy—or wireless telegraphy, as it seems to wish to be called. 1903C. H. Sewall Wireless Telegr. i. 88 Wireless telephony. Telephoning without wires has not gained by the great developments in its sister-art. 1904Act 4 Edw. VII c. 24 (title) An Act to provide for the regulation of Wireless Telegraphy. Ibid. §78 The expression ‘wireless telegraphy’ means any system of communication by telegraph..without the aid of any wire connecting the points from and at which the messages or other communications are sent and received. 1906S. R. Bottone tr. Mazzotto's Wireless Telegr. & Teleph. xi. 390 After the discovery of wireless telegraphy by means of electric waves, many attempts were made to apply the same principle to telephony. 1913A. H. Verrill Harper's Wireless Bk. xiii. 113 There is no reason to suppose that wireless telephony will not soon have the range of wireless telegraphy. 1922Joyce Ulysses 702 A private wireless telegraph which would transmit by dot and dash system the result of a national equine handicap. 1923A. Huxley On Margin 49 If they are a little more up-to-date they adjust their wireless telephone to the right wave-length and listen-in to the fruity contralto at Marconi House, singing ‘The Gleaner's Slumber Song’. 1936G. B. Shaw Simpleton Unexpected Isles ii. 51 (stage-direction) A writing table littered with papers and furnished with a wireless telephone. 1949Act 12 & 13 Geo. VI c. 54. §685 The expression ‘wireless telegraphy’ means the emitting or receiving, over paths which are not provided by any material substance..of electromagnetic energy of a frequency not exceeding three million megacycles a second, being energy which either—a) serves for the conveying of messages, sound or visual images..or b) is used in connection with the determination of position, bearing or distance, or for the gaining of information as to the presence..of any object. 1952[see sound radio s.v. sound n.3 8 b]. 1960Practical Wireless XXXVI. 403/1 This station, which was built by Guglielmo Marconi, was the first to span the Atlantic with wireless telegraphy. 1981Daily Tel. 12 Feb. 9/1 HMS Inskip, the Navy's wireless-telegraphy station, near Preston, Lancs.
B. n.
1. Wireless telegraphy or (esp.) telephony; sound broadcasting; = radio n. 2 a, b; also, a particular radio station (= radio n. 2 c).
Largely superseded by radio exc. in hist. contexts.
1903N.Y. Commercial Advertiser 31 Jan. S 2/2 First in this great field of making the ‘wireless’ a handmaid of commerce is the de Forrest system, which has won the approval also of the United States government. 1904Times 15 June 4/1 The country is full of wireless. 1915Grahame-White & Harper Aircraft in Gt. War iv. xi. 150 The application of wireless to aeroplanes has, in the British Flying Corps, been studied very carefully. 1922[see broadcaster 1]. 1924[see supranational a.]. 1927C. Connolly Let. 27 Jan. in Romantic Friendship (1975) 231 Chesterton is trying to be funny over the wireless. 1932R. A. Knox Broadcast Minds i. 13 We say ‘the’ wireless... For the wireless, in England, is a unique force; there is no question of two wirelesses differing, as two newspapers may differ in their outlook. 1939Daily Tel. 18 Dec. 1/5 Moscow wireless claims advances in the Murmansk district. 1951Sport 27 Apr.–3 May 2/1 Photos in the papers and interviews on the wireless. 1952Times Rev. of Year 1 Jan. p. v/2 Sound radio (wireless declined farther towards archaism) has done much during the year. 1971Daily Tel. 20 Jan. 10/3 [The Misses Waters] belong to the days when radio was ‘the wireless’. 1978E. Blishen Sorry, Dad ii. i. 40 Wireless was still quite raw and improbable. The Dockrees next door had one... It was a crystal set. 1980Bookseller 5 Jan. 23 The table shows the books recorded in December... Wireless and Television..42.
2. A radio-telegram.
1904Everybody's Mag. Aug. 161/2 This is how it is taken down in those unerring short-hand notes of the recording angel and sent by special wireless to the typewriter for His Majesty of the Sulphur Trust. 1905Daily News 28 Aug. 7 M. Witte admitted that my ‘wireless’ was correct. 1911G. S. Porter Harvester xvi. 351 Is Ajax [sc. a peacock] now sending a wireless to Ceylon asking for a mate? 1926Galsworthy in Scribner's Mag. Aug. 192/1 Going home to have a look at Kit and send Fleur a wireless, he passed four musicians. 1940N. Marsh Surfeit of Lampreys (1941) ii. 25 The steward gave her two [letters] and a wireless message. She opened the wireless first.
3. Short for wireless set (see sense 4 below); a radio.
1927T. E. Lawrence Let. 4 Oct. (1938) 543 We have no wireless, and I don't look at papers. 1933A. Thirkell High Rising i. 16 He could..repair the headmaster's wireless and drive his car. a1944K. Douglas Alamein to Zem Zem (1946) 49 The wirelesses in the new tanks had to be checked. 1954W. Faulkner Fable 166 It's too bad every house he passes don't have a wireless, like ships do. 1971Daily Tel. 13 May 7/1 As a child I used to stand alone in front of that big brown box that used to be called a ‘wireless’ and conduct symphony concerts. 1972M. Gilbert Petrella at Q (1977) 37 P. C. Owers..summoned assistance on his pocket wireless. 1973[see radio play s.v. radio n. 5 b].
4. attrib. and Comb., in senses 1 and 3 above (in U.S., and increasingly in British use, replaced by the corresponding Combs. with radio), as wireless aerial, wireless announcer, wireless battery, wireless broadcast, wireless broadcasting, wireless mast, wireless operator, wireless room, wireless set, wireless station, wireless transmitter, wireless valve; wireless-equipped adj.; in the sense ‘transmitted or broadcast by wireless’, as wireless concert, wireless news, wireless play, wireless programme, wireless talk; wireless cabinet, a cabinet incorporating a radio; wireless licence, an official permit needed for the possession of a radio; wireless shack = radio shack s.v. radio n. 7; wireless silence = radio silence s.v. radio n. 7; wireless wave = radio wave s.v. radio n. 7.
1924Radio Times 12 Dec. 527 (caption) Them's 'is wireless aerials. 1937Discovery Feb. 37/1 The wireless aerial and its stays would become coated with an almost uniform layer of this frost. 1983C. Dexter Riddle of Third Mile i. 12 The voice..of a pre-war wireless announcer... What they called an ‘Oxford’ accent.
1933Radio Times 14 Apr. 83 (Advt.), Ever Ready wireless batteries.
1930G. B. Shaw Apple Cart p. xi, Last October (1929) I was asked to address the enormous audience created by the new invention of Wireless Broadcast. 1980J. Lees-Milne Harold Nicolson I. xi. 205 On the 2nd May [1923]..he..heard a wireless broadcast over the air for the first time.
1923Radio Times 28 Sept. 6 Wireless broadcasting service. 1930Kipling Limits & Renewals (1932) 208 [He] came back with a couple of cigarettes from the store behind the wireless cabinet.
1923Radio Times 28 Sept. 18/1 Much has..been written on the subject of wireless concerts.
1920Conquest May 328/1 Regular messages..from wireless-equipped vessels out in the Atlantic.
1920Radiograph May 147 (Advt.), Applicants for wireless licence who specify them will not be required to furnish diagrams. 1928Melody Maker Feb. 187 (heading) The over-taxed Frenchman! Wireless licences two⁓pence per annum. 1958Whitaker's Almanack 1959 1098/1 If application is made at any other office which conducts wireless licence business, arrangements can be made for a licence to be issued at a Head Post Office.
1943F. Thompson Candleford Green x. 167 Now..a wireless mast in every back garden. 1948Wireless mast [see rev-counter s.v. rev n. 2].
c1919H. C. Witwer Smile a Minute iv. iii. 158 Joe, I have just seen the wireless news [received on board ship]. 1926in Listener (1974) 25 Apr. 519 Wireless news will be broadcasted by the B.B.C. 1942E. Waugh Put out More Flags ii. 139 She sat..listening to wireless news from Germany. 1978P. G. Winslow Coppergold 127 Joss's death..had been on the wireless news.
1910D. H. Bernard Signalling 33 He..requested the wireless operator to ascertain the reason of the strange procedure. 1929Daily Express 7 Nov. 1/1 Crew. Flight-Captain Rod Schinka..(first pilot)... Herr Niklas..(wireless operator). 1978F. Maclean Take Nine Spies iv. 138 Their mission had been joined by a second wireless-operator.
1929Radio Times 8 Nov. 406/1 Journey's End was written for stage representation and is, therefore, not in the more restricted sense a ‘wireless play’. 1948D. Welch Jrnl. 7 July (1952) 259 Last week there was a wireless programme on Marie Bashkirtseff.
1906Daily Chron. 21 Aug. 4/3 The captain was absorbed in the ‘wireless’ room... As he himself said, he was ‘so occupied with the wireless operations’.
1923J. Reith Diary 19 Mar. (1975) ii. 131, I was standing talking to them with the wireless set at my back and I pushed the switch. a1944K. Douglas Alamein to Zem Zem (1946) 25 About dusk the wireless sets in all tanks were switched on. 1978Dumfries Courier 13 Oct. 10/4 In the 20 years up to 1950 the radio set—or wireless set as it was affectionately called—was the focal point of home entertainment.
1937G. H. Grant Heels of Gale vi. 59 The wireless shack..had been lifted on board by a crane on the day before sailing and bolted to the wooden planks. 1961J. Bisset Commodore xxvii. 281 On this deck also was the Wireless Shack.
1915Ld. Fisher 12 Apr. in M. Gilbert Winston S. Churchill (1972) III. Compan. i. 793 It seems to me that the positions are all well chosen for all our different activities, and Jellicoe fully alive to wireless silence. a1944K. Douglas Alamein to Zem Zem (1946) 49 Wireless silence was in force.
1909Chambers's Jrnl. July 428/2 At Aldershot..there is a powerful wireless station. 1926T. E. Lawrence Seven Pillars (1935) iii. xxix. 170 My life was spent in moving back and forth..to the town, the port, the wireless station. 1978D. A. Stanwood Memory of Eva Ryker xxvi. 251 The Cape Race Wireless Station has a record of the message... It was transmitted from the Titanic five minutes before she struck ice.
1930J. S. Huxley Bird-Watching & Bird Behaviour p. vii, Six wireless talks.
1923Radio Times 28 Sept. 26/3 A small wireless transmitter will be installed at the ‘Old Vic’. 1978F. Maclean Take Nine Spies iv. 144 Bernhardt had established two wireless transmitters.
1923Radio Times 28 Sept. 33 (Advt.), A new wireless valve.
1915H. H. Turner Voyage in Space vi. 250 Suppose you pretend that a second is itself like a year; divide it into..30 million parts; one of these tiny parts will be about the time that what we may call a ‘wireless’ wave of electricity takes to vibrate. 1936Discovery Sept. 285/1 The reason why wireless waves travel round the earth's surface instead of disappearing into space has been explained by investigations of the properties of the upper atmosphere. 1960Practical Wireless XXXVI. 403/1 Marconi announced that signals from Poldhu had bridged the Atlantic... That news..confounded the many learned critics who had said that wireless waves would never reach beyond the horizon.
Hence ˈwireless v. intr. to send a message by wireless; trans. to send (a message) or inform (a person) by wireless; ˈwirelessly adv., by wireless.
1898Electrical Rev. 17 June 834/2 The first news of the resolution..was conveyed wirelessly to St. Thomas's Hospital. 1899Westm. Gaz. 6 Apr. 8/1 Touters may soon be able to wireless..from pole to pole. 1915Morning Post 10 Apr. 9/5 A French man of war, which had left on Sunday, was wirelessed to come back. 1916Times 14 Feb. 4/5 The watching British cruiser saw the manœuvre, but before it could wireless the news..the following order flashed out.
▸ wireless application protocol n. Telecomm. and Computing a specification for the transfer of data to and from a hand-held wireless device, esp. a mobile phone; abbreviated WAP.
1997Regulatory News Service (Nexis) 26 June Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, and Unwired Planet, today announced plans to co-operate in defining a common *wireless application protocol. 2000Red Herring Feb. 240/1 Nokia, the first company to introduce an Internet phone based on the wireless application protocol (an open, universal standard) reported robust sales. 2008Cape Argus (Nexis) 10 May (Personal Finance section) 4 WAP stands for wireless application protocol, which is a technology that enables your cellphone to connect to the internet. |