| 释义 |
mechanize, v.|ˈmɛkənaɪz|
[f. mechan-ic + -ize; cf. obs. F. méchaniser.]
1. trans. To make or render mechanical; to import or attribute a mechanical character to; to bring into a mechanical state or condition; to work out the mechanical details of (a design, idea, etc.). Also, to change (an industry, etc.) to a mechanical form of working; to provide with machines; spec. Mil., to equip with mechanical weapons and vehicles, as tanks, armoured cars, etc.
1678[implied in mechanizing vbl. n.]. 1704Norris Ideal World ii. ii. 99 God can so mechanize matter, as to make it capable of doing some things that [etc.]. 1795Coleridge Conciones 32 A system of fundamental Reform will scarcely be effected by massacres mechanized into Revolution. 1831Carlyle Sart. Res. iii. iii, Cannot he..mechanise them [sc. motives] to grind the other way? 1843J. Martineau Chr. Life (1867) 201 You cannot mechanize benevolence. 1870Emerson Soc. & Solit., Art. Wks. (Bohn) III. 21 Raphael paints wisdom: Handel sings it,..Shakspeare writes it,..Watt mechanizes it. 1879Baring-Gould Germany I. 127 He [the artisan] is mechanised. 1942E. Waugh Put out More Flags i. 21 The yeomanry..had recently been mechanized, in the sense that they had had their horses removed; few of them had ever seen a tank. 1952Oxf. Jun. Encycl. VI. 286/2 The spreading of farmyard manure and other winter jobs have been mechanized. 1957Encycl. Brit. II. 412/2 The Germans had broken abruptly with the past by mechanizing their artillery.
2. intr. (nonce-uses.) To work as a mechanic; to move mechanically.
1886T. Hardy Mayor Casterbr. xxxvi, Rural mechanics too idle to mechanise, rural servants too rebellious to serve. 1902― Mother Mourns Poems 71 Why loosened I olden control here To mechanize skywards.
Hence ˈmechanized ppl. a., spec. Mil., of, pertaining to, equipped with, or using mechanical vehicles and weapons; ˈmechanizing vbl. n. (in quot. used attrib.). Also ˌmechaniˈzation, the action of the verb mechanize; ˈmechanizer, one who mechanizes, a believer in mechanical order or system = mechanist 3.
1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iii. §38. 175 Some of the ancient religious atomists were also too much infected with this mechanizing humour. 1813Shelley Q. Mab. iii. 180 A mechanized automaton. 1831Carlyle Sart. Res. iii. v, Our European Mechanisers are a sect of boundless diffusion, activity, and co-operative spirit. 1839J. Sterling Ess., etc. (1848) I. 297 The mechanization of the mind. 1842Ibid. 393 Genius..cannot be prevented by the happiest mechanization of man. 1891Longm. Mag. Aug. 431 By force of conscious and unconscious repetition of the phrase, it became mechanised. 1915A. W. Gough God's Strong People 32 A tyranny built..on a degradation and mechanization of the personal power. 1928Daily Mail 7 Feb. 7/5 The ‘mechanisation’ of the army. 1928Daily Mail 8 Feb. 7/5 The fast two-seater tanks of the mechanised army. 1937Daily Express 11 Jan. 10/2 Mechanisation has come to the farmer. 1939Punch 8 Nov. 504/1 Their plan..was to attack..the Maginot line..along the whole extent from North to South, at the same time executing a turning mechanized movement through..Switzerland. 1941Picture Post 3 May 19/1 Mechanised warfare and careful preparation have again defeated flesh and blood. 1941Punch 16 July 59/2 Enemy mechanized units penetrated our defences. 1942Times (Weekly ed.) 7 Jan. 4 The conscience of humanity is still a factor of which even the lords of mechanized war may have to take account. 1942R.A.F. Jrnl. 16 May 9 A vital means of countering the German Panzer and mechanised troops. 1954[see automation]. 1960Post Office Electr. Engineers' Jrnl. LIII. ii. 75/2 The mechanization of the trunk service, involving the installation of automatic trunk exchanges..is now well advanced. 1968R. M. Ogorkiewicz Design & Devel. Fighting Vehicles i. 30 Some of the new ideas were explored in a series of experiments which began with the Experimental Mechanised Force assembled in 1927 on Salisbury Plain. 1970Macksey & Batchelor Tank 33/1 It is one of the paradoxes of early mechanised warfare that the technologists not only produced the machines but also foresaw their tactical possibilities ahead of the soldiers.
Add:[1.] b. Also absol. or intr. To introduce machinery or mechanization into an industry, etc.
1976New Society 10 June 562/3 But the labour intensive character of the Post Office could be reduced with a more zealous drive to mechanise. 1989P. Daniel in Wilson & Ferris Encycl. Southern Culture 49/1 Only in the 1960s did the flue-cured tobacco culture mechanize to any extent. |