| 释义 |
merry-go-round
1. A revolving machine carrying wooden horses or cars, on or in which persons ride round and round for amusement; a roundabout.
1729Daily Post 23 Aug., Here's the merry-go-rounds: Come, who rides? 1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) xx. 252 May she fall to the ground From a merry-go-round. 1858Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-Bks. (1883) 26 There were merry-go-rounds, wooden horses, and other provision for children's amusements. 1896E. A. King Ital. Highways 76 It [sc. a steam organ] belonged to a travelling merry-go-round.
2. fig. A ‘whirl’. Also merry-go-rounder, a cause of astonishment.
1838Dickens O. Twist II. xxv. 81 Oh, my eye! here's a merry-go-rounder!—Tommy Chitling's in love! 1856R. W. Procter Barber's Shop xiii. (1883) 98 This elysium of a business, this merry-go-round of trade. 1890H. G. Dakyns Xenophon I. p. cxx, What a merry-go-round of soldierly adventure!
3. Used attrib. or as adj. of a railway system, whereby a train of coal hoppers runs perpetually on a circular route between consignor and consignee.
1963Mod. Railways Jan. 23 Some of the desirable characteristics of the ‘Merry-go-round’ railway..are found in the Tyne Dock–Consett iron ore traffic of the N.E.R. 1966G. F. Allen Brit. Rail after Beeching viii. 255 Inauguration of ‘merry-go-round’ coal supply by rail, one of the outstanding concepts of the Beeching era. 1970Railway Mag. Oct. 552/1 Wagons, each capable of carrying up to 32 tons, are permanently coupled into ‘Merry-go-round’ trains, making ‘non-stop’ journeys between collieries and generating stations. Ibid., The fully-automated ‘Merry-go-round’ system works efficiently. Ibid. 584/2 Merry-go-round workings in the Knottingley area have seen a variety of motive power recently. 1972P. Levy Spotlight on Trains 32 British Rail came up with the idea of the ‘merry-go-round’ train..a long train of coal hoppers running in a circular route between the coal mine and the power station. 1973North Berks Herald 13 Dec. 1/2 Sixteen merry-go-round coal trains have been arriving at Didcot power station each week. |