| 释义 |
magnet|ˈmægnɪt|
Also 5–7 magnete, 6 mangnet.
[a. OF. magnete (also manette), or directly ad. L. magnēta, accus. of magnēs: see magnes.
The word has been superseded in mod. F. by aimant, but is current in the other Rom. and Teut. langs.: It., Sp., Pg. magnete, Ger., Da., Sw. magnet, Du. magneet.]
1. Min. = loadstone; a variety of magnetite (proto-sesquioxide of iron) characterized by its power of attracting iron and steel, and by certain other associated properties (see 2).
c1440Promp. Parv. 325/1 Magnete, precyowse stone, magnes. 1447O. Bokenham Seyntys (Roxb.) 14 Hym thowte that nevere in so lytyl space He had more seyn, wych his herte drow As the magnet doth iryn. 1555Eden Decades 322 The Ilande of Magnete that is the Iland of the lode stone which is vnder or near abowte the northe pole. 1601Holland Pliny II. 515 Dinocrates began to make the arched roufe of the temple of Arsinoe all of Magnet or this Loadstone. a1674Milton Hist. Mosc. iii. Wks. 1851 VIII. 487 In midst of this white City stands a Castle built of Magnet. 1728Pemberton Newton's Philos. 13 That any stone should have so amazing a property, as we find in the magnet [etc.]. c1860Faraday Forces Nat. v. 130 There are some curious bodies in nature..which are called magnets or loadstones—ores of iron. 1861C. W. King Ant. Gems (1866) 60 On Magnet, a black compact and hard iron-ore, I have seen rude intagli of the Lower Empire.
2. a. A piece of loadstone; also, a piece of iron or steel to which the characteristic properties of loadstone have been imparted, either permanently or temporarily, by contact with another magnet, by induction, or by means of an electric current. A magnet has an axis, at the extremities of which (the ‘poles’) the attractive power is greatest, and at the middle of which it becomes nil. When suspended freely, a magnet assumes such a position that one of its poles (hence called the north pole) points approximately north, and the other (the south pole) approximately south; the like poles of two magnets repel each other, while the unlike poles attract each other.
bar magnet, a polarized rod of iron, now much used in the construction of electro-magnetic apparatus. horse-shoe magnet, a magnet made of steel in the form of a horse-shoe. natural magnet: one consisting of loadstone; opposed to artificial magnet. See also electro-magnet.
1625N. Carpenter Geog. Del. i. iii. (1635) 57 Let there bee cut out of a rocke of Load-stone, a Magnet of reasonable quantity. 1727De Foe Syst. Magic i. ii. (1840) 58–9 What would have been said, to see him make a piece of iron dance round a table, while the agent held the Magnet underneath. 1777Priestley Matt. & Spir. (1782) I. xiii. 151 We are not..able to conceive how it is that a magnet attracts iron. 1832Nat. Philos. II. Magnetism v. 53 (U.K.S.) These horse-shoe magnets..may be rendered magnetic by the same process as a straight bar. 1839G. Bird Nat. Philos. 146 Each portion will become a perfect magnet, each of the fractured ends exhibiting a polar state, as perfect as the entire magnet. 1894S. R. Bottone Electr. Instr. Making (ed. 6) 156 A bar-magnet, around one pole of which is coiled about a hundred feet of..copper wire. Ibid. 231 It is easily seen, that if (as in bell magnets, horseshoe magnets) the winding is not carried on [etc.].
b. In extended sense: A body possessing the properties characteristic of a magnet.
1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) X. 435/2 [Cavallo's hypothesis] is, that the earth itself is a magnet.
3. fig. Something which attracts.
1655H. Vaughan Silex Scint., Starre vi, These are the Magnets which so strongly move And work all night upon thy light and love. 1687Dryden Hind & P. iii. 368 Two magnets, heaven and earth, allure to bliss, The larger load⁓stone that, the nearer this. 1691–8Norris Pract. Disc. (1711) III. 12 God is the true great Magnet of our souls. 1777F. Burney Evelina xxi, They know the attraction of the magnet that draws me. 1800E. Hervey Mourtray Fam. II. 64 The lovely Emma was the magnet that attracted them both. 1821J. Baillie Metr. Leg., Columbus i, The magnet of a thousand eyes. 1868Lynch Rivulet cxli. iii, Let love your magnet be To draw him back to you.
4. attrib. and Comb., as magnet-drawn, magnet-like adjs.; magnet-wise adv.; magnet core, the rod or bar of soft magnetized iron placed in the middle of an electro-magnet; magnet-cylinder, a metal cylinder, containing magnets, used for generating electricity; magnet helix, a coil of wire such as surrounds the core of an electro-magnet; magnet house, a house in which magnetic apparatus is kept.
1894S. R. Bottone Elect. Instr. Making (ed. 6) 231 This is true whatever be the form of the *magnet core.
1866H. Wilde in Phil. Trans. CLVII. 91 A compound hollow cylinder of brass and iron, hereafter called the *magnet-cylinder.
1923R. Graves Whipperginny 43 She was *magnet-drawn by his least wish. 1952R. Campbell tr. Baudelaire's Poems 67 When to a cherished cat my gaze Is magnet-drawn.
1879Prescott Sp. Telephone 23 Whenever one part of a circuit is brought in proximity to another, as is the case in *magnet helices.
1900Daily News 3 July 5/2 The *magnet house of the Observatory.
1821Shelley Prometh. Unb. iv. 466 Borne beside thee by a power Like the polar Paradise, *Magnet-like of lovers' eyes.
1849Mozley Ess. (1878) II. 201 The obliquity of this visible system is..the one theme, which is ever drawing them *magnet-wise. |