| 释义 |
X-ray|ˈɛks reɪ, ɛks ˈreɪ|
(Also without hyphen.) Also x-ray.
[Orig. in pl., tr. Ger. x-strahlen, the name given by Röntgen to the rays in question, expressing the fact that their essential nature was unknown: cf. X 3.]
I. The pl. form X-rays.
1. A form of radiation discovered by Prof. W. C. Röntgen of Würzburg in 1895, capable of passing in various degrees through many substances impervious to light, and of affecting a sensitized plate and thus producing shadow-photographs of objects inclosed within opaque receptacles or bodies, e.g. of the bones, or a bullet or other foreign body, within the flesh of a living person or animal; they also produce fluorescence, phosphorescence, and electrical effects, and have a curative operation in certain skin diseases; much used in modern surgical and medical practice. Now known to be a form of electromagnetic radiation of wavelength less than that of short-wave ultraviolet light (i.e. less than about 4 to 40 nm). Also called Roentgen rays (see Roentgen n.1 1).
X-rays are often defined as being produced by deceleration of charged particles (esp. electrons) or by electron transitions in atoms, in contrast to the otherwise similar gamma rays which arise from radioactive decay of nuclei. Since gamma rays tend to be of shorter wavelength than most X-rays, they have been classified variously either as very short X-rays, or as constituting a separate class of very short wavelengths beyond X-rays. Cf. gamma rays s.v. gamma 1 c (ii).
1896Nature 23 Jan. 274/1 (Röntgen in Sitzungsberichte der Würzburger Phys.-Med. Gesellschaft 1896, 133 tr. by A. Stanton) A piece of sheet aluminium, 15 mm. thick..allowed the X-rays (as I will call the rays for the sake of brevity) to pass, but greatly reduced the fluorescence. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 362 Skiagraphs taken by means of the X Röntgen rays. 1899Ibid. VI. 408 The application of the X rays to the diagnosis of internal aneurisms. Ibid. VIII. 717 The injury produced by the X rays of Röntgen. 1930[see gamma rays s.v. gamma 1 c (ii)]. 1948Sci. News VII. 35 Procedure for the generation of x-rays..is to accelerate a beam of electrons to the required energy, and then stop it by allowing the electrons to hit a metal target. 1958Condon & Odishaw Handbk. Physics vii. viii. 118/2 Although there is no precise definition of the high-energy limit of the energy of quanta called X rays, this term is usually restricted to radiations of fewer than several million electron volts of energy, above which the radiation is referred to as γ radiation. 1971D. W. Sciama Mod. Cosmol. ii. 31 The distinction between X- and γ-rays is a somewhat arbitrary one, but..we may take the dividing line to be an energy of 100 keV. 1983Oxf. Textbk. Med. I. vi. 86/1 Gamma-rays. These are identical in properties to X-rays but are produced by the spontaneous disintegration of radioactive atoms.
II. The sing. form X-ray.
2. (An) examination of a person in which an X-ray picture is taken.
1933V. Brittain Testament of Youth viii. 409 Ten patients..were for immediate operation; a dozen more were for X-ray; several were likely to hæmorrhage at any moment. 1960‘R. Gordon’ Doctor in Clover vi. 47, I popped her in a taxi and drove her round to the casualty entrance at St Swithin's, where Miles organised X-rays. 1983Daily Tel. 13 Oct. 18, I injured my back..and after a great deal of pain and misery I had an X-ray.
3. = X-radiograph.
1934in Webster. 1942M. Dickens One Pair of Feet viii. 164 Siddons was subjected to all the indignities and discomforts of gastric investigation... X-ray after X-ray was taken and various different diets tried. 1957‘R. Gordon’ Doctor in Love xii. 107, I had a difficult x-ray which I thought she could help me interpret. 1969Ithaca Jrnl. 27 Nov. 30 Some doctors try to head off possible litigation by ordering unnecessary and expensive x-rays. 1977Daily Tel. 2 Mar. 19/5 It was not known when Miss Doris Hunt..swallowed the spoon, first seen on an X-ray last year.
4. (Without article.) An X-ray department in a hospital.
1955‘R. Gordon’ Doctor at Large xiv. 143 Apart from the nurses, there were the buxom dieticians, the cheerful girls in X-ray, the neat secretaries, [etc.]. 1974‘H. Carmichael’ Motive x. 116 Dr Egan had gone to X-ray but would be back soon. 1978J. Irving World according to Garp ii. 28 Her books..outgrew the shelf space and slid into the main infirmary..and into X-ray.
III. attrib. and Comb. (in sing. form ˈX-ray).
5. a. gen.
1896Boston Med. & Surg. Jrnl. CXXXV. 610/2, I am..nursing an X-ray finger. 1897Westm. Gaz. 2 July 2/3 Radiations which have the X-ray-like property of passing through so-called opaque substances. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 408 Aneurysms of the thoracic aorta can sometimes be detected earlier by X ray examination. 1907Westm. Gaz. 21 Sept. 8/3 Another X-ray photograph..of a girl's wrist and hand, showing the thickening of the bone brought on by rheumatism. 1908Daily Chron. 29 June 1/5 Dr. Hall Edwards, whose heroic fight against the inroads of X ray dermatitis has been compassionately followed by the King and public.
b. Applied to instruments and techniques using or producing X-rays, as X-ray analysis, X-ray microscope, X-ray microscopy, X-ray spectrograph, X-ray spectrometer, X-ray spectroscopy (hence X-ray spectroscopic), X-ray telescope; X-ray astronomy, the branch of astronomy concerned with the X-ray emissions of heavenly bodies; so X-ray astronomer.
1924Econ. Geol. XIX. 1 Physicists have developed X-ray analysis in recent years to such a point that the internal structure of any opaque crystalline substance can be determined. 1980P. Luger Mod. X-Ray Analysis vi. 288 The method which has been used from the earliest days of X-ray analysis is the drawing of contours obtained from the electron density map.
1969Times 13 May 14/1 X-ray astronomers have to use rockets or balloons to carry their instruments above as much of the atmosphere as possible. 1982Jrnl. Brit. Interplanetary Soc. XXXV. 291 Coded aperture techniques have been employed to great advantage by X-ray astronomers.
1963Daily Tel. 6 June 21 The first news was given today by the United States at the International Space Research meeting in Warsaw of a new kind of astonomy, X-ray astronomy. 1964Space Res. IV. 966 (heading) X-ray astronomy. 1970Sci. Jrnl. May 17/4 It is some years since the accidental discovery of the X-ray source Sco X-1 ushered in the new field of X-ray astronomy. 1979Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts CXXVII. 580/2 X-ray astronomy took its first real spurt forward in 1970 with the launch of NASA's small ‘Uhuru’ X-ray satellite.
1948Jrnl. Optical Soc. Amer. XXXVIII. 774/1 It is clear that an x-ray microscope is now a definite possibility. Ibid. 766/1 A satisfactory x-ray microscopy would open up fields of investigation closed to the optical microscope because of its limited resolution. 1966McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. VIII. 368b/1 The x-ray microscopes used in microradiography utilize x-radiation to form images of resolution in the 0·2–2·0 micron..range. Ibid., With this method, x-ray microscopy has not only become competitive with direct light microscopy in resolving power but has gained important advantages. 1981Rev. Sci. Instruments LII. 211/2 The construction of a photoelectron x-ray microscope appears to be feasible and, moreover, this instrument should fairly fulfill the requirements demanded for the extension of x-ray microscopy.
1925G. A. Lindsay tr. M. Siegbahn's Spectrosc. X-Rays iv. 92 The evidence essential for a better answer to these questions was afforded by X-ray spectrographs and Röntgen tubes with hot cathodes. 1983IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. XXX. 491 (heading) High throughput non-dispersive hard X-ray spectrograph. [Note] ‘Spectrograph’ and ‘spectrometer’ are used interchangeably in this paper.
1915W. H. & W. L. Bragg X Rays & Crystal Structure iii. 22 The X-ray spectrometer has already determined both the absolute wave lengths of various types of X-radiation and the arrangement of the atoms in several crystals. 1955Sci. News Let. 23 July 1 The electronic assayer is known as an X-ray spectrometer, and the technique, which can be applied to most minerals, is called fluorescent X-ray analysis. 1977A. Hallam Planet Earth 18/1 The X-ray spectrometer mapped aluminium:silicon ratios and delineated the extent of the aluminous highlands.
1925G. A. Lindsay tr. M. Siegbahn's Spectrosc. X-Rays iii. 33 In order to meet such demands of X-ray spectroscopic work, the firm of Emil Gundelach..has constructed tubes embodying a slight modification. Ibid. 52 This rotating crystal method was first employed in X-ray spectroscopy by de Broglie. 1966J. G. Brown X-Rays & their Applic. vii. 124 The methods of X-ray spectroscopy which depend on crystal diffraction are essentially methods of measuring the Bragg angle. 1983Jrnl. Physics B XVI. l77 (heading) The determination of parameters of recombining laser-producing plasmas by means of x-ray spectroscopy. Ibid., Among the various methods of plasma diagnostics the most preferable in this case are the x-ray spectroscopic methods.
1963Daily Tel. 6 June 21/4 The X-ray telescope has to be raised above the earth's atmosphere and a technique found for focusing X-rays. 1978Pasachoff & Kutner University Astron. xii. 333 It still looks as though Cygnus X-1 represents the first observational detection of a black hole. The new generation of x-ray telescopes should tell us more.
c. Applied to astronomical bodies that emit X-rays in detectable or significant quantities, as X-ray nova, X-ray pulsar, X-ray star; X-ray burster, a cosmic source of intermittent, short-lived, powerful bursts of X-rays, typically lasting about a second.
1976Nature 17 June 542/1 This object..is perhaps the most enigmatic ‘X-ray burster’ found to date. 1978Pasachoff & Kutner University Astron. xxv. 632 (caption) Half a dozen of the strong x-ray sources in the galactic bulge region have been possibly identified with x-ray bursters.
1970Sci. Jrnl. Apr. 64 The second example of an ‘X-ray nova’ was reported during the summer of 1969, based on observations from two US Vela satellites built to monitor man-made nuclear explosions in space. 1977Dædalus Fall 53 One particular kind of variable X-ray stars are the transient sources, sometimes called X-ray novae.
1969G. Fritz et al. in Science 9 May 709/1 We wish to report the discovery of an x-ray pulsar in the general direction of the Crab Nebula. The data were obtained during an Aerobee rocket flight on 13 March 1969. 1978Pasachoff & Kutner University Astron. xi. 315 (caption) The x-ray pulsar SMC X-1 in the Small Magellanic Cloud has a period of 0·716 sec.
1964Daily Tel. 31 Mar. 17/1 Evidence of the existence of a previously unknown kind of star has been collected by American astronomers. Using an Aerobee rocket..they found two distinct ‘X-ray stars’. 1977Sci. Amer. Oct. 42/2 One can say with considerable certainty that X-ray stars are dense remnants of stars that have exhausted their supply of nuclear energy and have collapsed under the attractive force of their own gravity.
d. Used attrib. with reference to primitive pictures in which some representation is given of the insides of people and animals.
1940L. Adam Primitive Art xiv. 119 Characteristic of the northern territory are the so-called ‘X-ray’ drawings—a special variety of naturalistic art..whereby the artist, when drawing human beings and animals, represents the inner parts of the body. 1956C. P. Mountford Rec. Amer.-Austral. Scientific Exped. Arnhem Land I. iii. 112 Nor do the subjects of the X-ray artists show any movement. It is essentially a static art. 1959E. A. Fisher Anglo-Saxon Archit. & Sculpture 88 Still earlier in really primitive art, and among some primitive races today, the same idea of showing the inside, the backbone, ribs and internal organs..is found, e.g. in the so-called X-ray drawings of some of the natives of the Melanesian area of the Pacific. 1977G. Clark World Prehist. (ed. 3) xi. 479 The X-ray figures of Arnhem Land..may well reflect exotic influences.
6. Special Combs.: X-ray crystallography, the study of crystals and their structure by means of X-ray diffraction techniques; hence X-ray crystallographer; X-ray dermatitis, dermatitis caused by X-rays; X-ray diffraction, the diffraction of X-rays by the regularly spaced atoms of a crystalline material, esp. as a technique of X-ray crystallography; X-ray eyes, the apparent ability to see beyond an outward form or through opaque material; very acute discernment; also, X-ray scrutiny; X-ray spectrum, a graph of intensity against wavelength or frequency for the X-rays absorbed or emitted by a material; X-ray tube, an electron tube for generating X-rays by accelerating the electrons to high energies and causing them to strike a target that is also the anode, producing the X-rays.
1962Listener 10 May 809/1 Botanists or X-ray crystallographers. 1971J. W. Jeffery Methods X-Ray Crystallogr. p. v, When one is generation 3..of X-ray crystallographers, one cannot expect to do much direct quarrying in that famous paper whose product, the Bernal chart, is known to every crystallographer.
1930R. W. James X-Ray Crystallogr. i. 2 X-ray crystallography is descended from, and constantly uses, the results of the older crystallography. 1968M. Pyke Food & Society vii. 101 A few milligrams of vitamin B12 had been isolated and the nature of its complex molecule established by a combination of advanced organic chemistry and X-ray crystallography. 1977R. S. Drago Physical Methods in Chem. xvii. 589 Using X-ray crystallography, one can generally determine the precise composition and atomic arrangement of almost any molecule.
1900Philadelphia Med. Jrnl. V. 187 The believers in the electrical cause of x-ray dermatitis are found to be exclusively physicians. 1908[sense 5 a]. 1959Med. Jrnl. Australia I. 290/1 In November, 1897, Sylvanus Thompson described X-ray dermatitis, and in the following year the Röntgen Society set up a committee to investigate possible hazards. 1977Acta Dermato-Venereologica LVII. 487/1 The fluid from spontaneous blisters in 15 patients with various bullous dermatoses, such as..X-ray dermatitis, all contained measurable amounts of activity.
1924Econ. Geol. XIX. 15 A complete description of X-ray diffraction has been given by the Braggs. 1950Sci. News XV. 139 The techniques of X-ray diffraction, which have contributed so much to the understanding of the inner structure of metals and alloys. 1969Times 28 Jan. 6/6 X-ray diffraction techniques..show that the orientation of the graphite crystals in the fibre depends on the degree to which it is stretched during the heat treatment. 1982R. M. Schultz in T. M. Devlin Textbk. Biochem. ii. 73 The most important of the techniques for the study of a protein's secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structure is x-ray diffraction.
1939M. Allingham Mr. Campion & Others ii. 36 The conviction that he had actually encountered a man with X-ray eyes at last. 1971‘R. Macdonald’ Underground Man xxvi. 186 I've been feeling watched, tonight. Drawing the curtains doesn't really help. Whatever it is out there has X-ray eyes. Call it God, or call it the Devil, it hardly matters. 1976J. Wainwright Who goes Next? 205 He didn't have X-ray eyes. He couldn't see through the sides of a parked van. 1982M. Millar Mermaid vi. 68, I got X-ray eyes when it comes to people's weaknesses.
1899G. Allen Miss Cayley's Adventures ii. 45 She looked me through and through again with her X-ray scrutiny. 1925G. A. Lindsay tr. M. Siegbahn's Spectrosc. X-Rays vi. 150 The X-ray spectrum is an atomic property... The frequencies involved in X-ray spectra are very great. 1983Jrnl. Physics B XVI. l79 The large dimension of the spectrograph slit..allowed us to observe the x-ray spectra of H- and He-like F viii and F ix ions.
1896Nature 12 Nov. 31/2 Unexplained variations in the behaviour of the X-ray tubes. 1974Encycl. Brit. Macropædia XIV. 345/1 Small gamma-ray sources are placed in areas inaccessible to X-ray tubes such as inside pipelines.
Hence X-ray |ˈɛksˌreɪ, older ɛksˈreɪ| v., trans. to examine or treat with X-rays; also fig.; hence X-rayed |ˈɛks-| ppl. a., X-raying |ˈɛks-| vbl. n. So X-radiˈation.
1896Strand July 108/1 If a solid object is placed in the path of this stream..it may become the seat of the production of that which is..variously known as Röntgen radiation or X-radiation. 1899Bristol Med.-Chir. Jrnl. XVII. 234 Cases that have to be X-rayed in their bedrooms. 1900Lancet 17 Feb. 488/2 The patient's chest had been x-rayed, but the position of the bullet could not be localised. 1902Brit. Med. Jrnl. 12 Apr. 894/2 The child was x rayed, and a large nail was seen. 1915E. Rutherford in Nature 9 Sept. 33/2 To examine the quantity and quality of the X-radiation scattered from crystals at different angles. 1920Glasgow Herald 5 Oct. 7/2 Advantage is claimed for ‘X-raying’ over sterilization. 1941Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quantitative Biol. IX. 156/1 X-rayed Bar-M2 males (4000r) were crossed to females with the genes scute vermilion forked and carnation. 1973Sci. Amer. Apr. 30/3 The only way to ‘X ray’ the earth for such fine structure is to use short-period seismic waves that interact with the boundary of the core. 1974Physics Bull. Dec. 581/2 The developing use of synchrotrons as an intense source of x radiation. 1977W. Marshall Thin Air i. 6 It took two hours for the poor old Japs to even clear body search... Let alone the X-raying of freight and luggage. 1977Time 22 Aug. 30/3 The treaty will have to be X-rayed by the university. 1977New Yorker 26 Sept. 43/3 She..could feel the plaster armoring his X-rayed ribs. 1980J. O'Faolain No Country for Young Men v. 102 The men were terrifying. She remembered their eyes X-raying her clothes. |