| 释义 |
massive, a.|ˈmæsɪv|
Forms: 5 massiffe, massyve, 5–6 massife, 6– massive.
[ad. F. massif, f. masse mass n.2: see -ive.]
1. a. Forming or consisting of a large mass; having great size and weight or solidity. † Of a person: Bulky, large-bodied (obs.).
c1410Lydg. Reas. & Sens. 2730 Ful of trees..Massiffe and grete and evene vpryght. 1481Caxton Myrr. ii. xxi. h 4 b The erthe meueth so strongly, that it behoueth to falle all that whiche is theron thaugh it were a massyue tour. 1485― Chas. Gt. 165 The portyer..is a paynym hydous and grete, massyf, stronge and felonnous. a1806Bp. Horsley Serm. (1816) I. vii. 124 The common military sword is a heavy massive weapon, for close engagement. 1840Dickens Barn. Rudge i, Its ceilings..heavy with massive beams. 1868J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. I. 342 The buildings were too massive to be destroyed.
b. Of articles of gold or silver: Solid, not hollow or plated.
1582Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 68 Theare massiue gould cups bee layd. 1662Evelyn Diary 9 June, The greate looking-glasse..of beaten and massive gold. 1851D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) II. iii. v. 133 A massive silver chain.
†c. Solid, having three dimensions. = massy 1 c.
1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie (Arb.) 310 Painting and keruing, whereof one represents the naturall..in the superficiall or flat, the other in a body massife.
†d. Of textile fabrics: Thick, substantial. Obs.
1670–98R. Lassels Voy. Italy I. 87 The silk-stockings..are twice as strong as ours, and very massive.
e. Of architectural or artistic style: Presenting great masses, solid.
1841W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. I. 162 That broad, massive, severe classicism which marked the newly emancipated age of Phidias. 1861M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 44 When the Company proceeded to rebuild, they no longer did so in the massive and imposing style of the fourteenth century.
f. Of the features, head, forehead, etc.: Largely moulded or modelled.
1843Lytton Last Bar. i. iv, His forehead was singularly high and massive. 1885M. E. Braddon Wyllard's Weird I. i. 14 The features are firmly modelled, bold, and massive.
2. transf. and fig.
a. Of immaterial things: Solid, substantial; great or imposing in scale. Now freq. used in weakened senses, ‘large, great, far-reaching’.
1581Mulcaster Positions xxxix. (1887) 221 Religious skill is farre more massiue. 1833Herschel Astron. iii. 154 One result of maritime discovery on the great scale is, so to speak, massive enough to call for mention as an astronomical feature. 1858Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-Bks. (1871) I. 262 Mighty figures..looking as if they were necessarily so gigantic because the thought within them was so massive. 1874L. Stephen Hours in Library (1892) I. iv. 151 Scott was a man of more massive and less impulsive character. 1958[see air-lift 2]. 1958G. F. Kennan Russia, Atom & West v. 77 The Marxists claim, of course, that colonialism invariably represented a massive and cruel exploitation of the colonial peoples. 1958New Statesman 6 Sept. 306/2 The tendency to make massive a substitute not merely for enormous, immense and huge but even for large and extensive as applying to all sorts of phenomena, social, financial, political and psychological. 1963Daily Mail 25 Feb. 16/6 Cowdrey again showed massive good form to make 86 in 163 minutes. 1965R. & D. Morris Men & Snakes ix. 201 We required a massive sample of the population. 1973Word 1970 XXVI. 119 He died suddenly of a massive heart attack.
b. Psych. Of a sensation, a state of consciousness: Having large volume or extensive magnitude.
1855Bain Senses & Int. 92 A massive or voluminous feeling of comparatively little acuteness or intensity. Ibid. 132 The..sensation of chillness..is..not acute but massive and powerful. 1872Spencer Princ. Psychol. §513 II. 579 As this aggregate [of pleasurable recollections] grows by accumulation, it becomes vague in proportion as it becomes massive. 1892Stevenson Across the Plains 4 All the activities of my nature had become tributary to one massive sensation of discomfort.
c. Path. Of a disease, etc.: Affecting a large continuous portion of tissue.
1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 767 Massive gangrene sometimes occurs. 1899Ibid. VIII. 496 In massive swellings of the tongue and throat relief has been given by [etc.].
d. Mus. Presenting a large volume of sound.
1861Calverley Verses, ‘There stands a City’ 28 Still I..Hear you humming of ‘the gal you'd Left behind’ in massive bass. 1885Athenæum 7 Feb. 192 Some numbers were splendidly given, notably the massive chorus,..and the whole of the processional choruses.
e. massive retaliation, name given to a military strategy, inaugurated in the U.S.A. by J. F. Dulles in the 1950s, which uses the threat of a punitive response with thermonuclear weapons to deter aggression.
[1954N.Y. Times 13 Jan. 2/3 [Speech of J. F. Dulles] Local defense must be reinforced by the further deterrent of massive retaliatory power. ]1954Times 29 Mar. 5/5 The plan of ‘meeting any aggression with massive retaliation in places of our choosing’. 1955Bull. Atomic Sci. Jan. 29/1 We believe that the announced concept of massive retaliation contains the elements of adequate military support to arrest the expansive aims of communism. 1959Times Lit. Suppl. 25 Sept. 542/2 Mr. Dulles's ‘massive retaliation’ speech of January 1954..could hardly be read in the Soviet Union otherwise than as a threat. 1971E. Luttwak Dict. Mod. War 128/1 Massive retaliation was never central US policy, and was in any case associated with the diplomatic technique of brinkmanship.
3. Forming a solid or continuous mass; compact, dense, or (sometimes, merely) uniform in internal structure; existing in compact continuous masses. Now rare exc. Min. as the epithet of minerals not definitely crystalline; Geol. as applied to rocks or formations presenting no structural divisions; Zool., applied to organisms which are compact in structure.
1558–68Warde tr. Alexis' Secr. 64 If it should boile but a little more than it ought to boile, it would be thicke and massife. Ibid. 64 b, Seeth them in a kettle untill they be neither to much nor to litle boiled, but even hole and massive not broken. 1573Art of Limning 7 The galles must be smal curled, and massive within. 1796Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) II. 226 Mercury..Second family. Slaty...Found Massive. 1860Ruskin Mod. Paint. V. vii. ii. 112 Clouds may be broadly considered as of two species only, massive and striated. I cannot find a better word than massive, though it is not a good one, for I mean it only to signify a fleecy arrangement in which no lines are visible. 1871Jukes' Man. Geol. (ed. 3) 99 The leading differences of structure among igneous rocks are the bedded..; amorphous..; massive, occurring in large masses which can be broken or quarried in any direction [etc.]. 1888Rolleston & Jackson Forms Animal Life (ed. 2) 250 There appear to be two fresh-water Sponges in Great Britain... The former is branched, the latter massive and lobate.
fig.1600Tourneur Transf. Metam. lvii, (Had he beene a man of massive hart) He would haue melted at her mermaide's part.
4. Pertaining to masses as distinguished from molecules; molar.
1877E. R. Conder Bas. Faith iii. 122 The control of mind over the material world..is limited to the power of producing motion, massive or molecular.
Add:[1.] g. Chiefly Astron. Possessing (much) mass.
1917F. R. Moulton Introd. Astron. (ed. 2) xiii. 509 The discussions..led him to the conclusion that probably in all cases the brighter star is the more massive. 1927H. N. Russell et al. Astron. II. xvii. 551 After colliding with the far more massive atom the electron may be found moving at the same speed as before. 1957Quadling & Ramsay Elem. Mech. I. iii. 32 A massive body is one which takes a large force to make it change its motion. 1959Spitz & Gaynor Dict. Astron. 399 The curvature of space existing in the vicinity of a massive body, like the sun. 1980J. W. Hill Intermediate Physics ii. 10 The force of gravity exerted by the moon is less than that exerted by the earth because it is less massive.
h. Physics. Of a particle: having non-zero mass, not massless.
1963K. W. Ford World of Elem. Particles v. 115 The massless particles definitely belong to the family of particles and resemble the massive particles in more ways than they differ. 1968Progress Theoret. Physics XXXIX. 494 (heading) Gauge theories of massive and massless tensor fields. 1984Nature 19 Jan. 297/3 If the electronic neutrino is also massive (with an expected mass of 10-8GeV), the range is even more staggering. |