| 释义 |
life cycle
Also life-cycle.
[f. life n. + cycle n.]
1. Biol. The series of developments which an organism undergoes in the course of its progress from the egg to the adult state. Also, an account of these developments.
1873Monthly Microsc. Jrnl. X. 57 Thus the entire life cycle of this form is seen. 1894Pop. Sci. Monthly June 272 Each species has two generations in its life-cycle. 1967M. E. Hale Biol. Lichens ii. 27 The life cycle of fungi is completed when the vegetative thallus produces fruiting bodies that contain spores.
b. The course of human, cultural, etc., existence from birth or beginning through development and productivity to decay and death or ending.
1938H. Read Coll. Ess. Lit. Crit. i. i. 19 The classical and romantic periods are related to each other in a ‘life-cycle’ which is the recurring cycle of the growth, maturity, and decay of culture. 1949M. Mead Male & Female xvi. 339 Here he is, only in middle age, and his life is over—..no new fields to conquer... So while he is not out of a job..the very nature of the life-cycle in America is such that he feels like an old man. 1959G. D. Mitchell Sociol. vi. 103 Religion is mostly important to mankind at times of personal crisis or when new and socially significant stages of the life-cycle are approached: at birth, initiation, marriage, death. 1967B. S. Cohn in P. Bohannan Law & Warfare 145 The general rule is that, when a household is celebrating a life-cycle rite, all adult males from the khandan and at least one adult male..from every other household in the hamlet is invited. 1969W. E. Moore in Lindzey & Aronson Handbk. Social Psychol. (ed. 2) IV. xxxii. 316 A rather different perspective on social organization and social process results from dealing with the entire human life cycle.
2. transf., esp. in Econ. and Comm.
1965H. I. Ansoff Corporate Strategy (1968) ii. 31 Objectives..will vary from one type of firm to another depending on the firm's past profitability, its prospects, and its stage in the life cycle. 1969J. Argenti Managem. Techniques 70 Many product life-cycles are declining. 1971Nature 12 Feb. 486/2 The photo-oxidation of sulphur dioxide to sulphuric acid in the atmosphere is relevant both to the formation of aerosols in polluted air and to the life cycle of sulphur compounds in the atmosphere. 1971Daily Tel. 21 June 17/6 The four-stage life-cycle of every [manufactured] product—exploration, growth, maturity, decline. Ibid. 17/8 Companies usually have a range of products at various stages of the life-cycle. |