| 释义 |
metronome|ˈmɛtrənəʊm|
[f. Gr. µέτρο-ν metre n.1 + νόµος law, rule. Cf. F. métronome.]
a. An instrument used in music for marking the time by means of a graduated inverted pendulum with a sliding weight which can be regulated to make the required number of beats in a minute.
1816Repert. Arts, Manuf., etc. XXVIII. 128 [Patents] John Malzl, of Poland-street, Middlesex, Machinist; for an instrument or instruments..for the improvement of musical performance, which he denominates a Metronome, or musical time-keeper. Dated December 5, 1815. a1845Hood To Kitchener i, Or boiling eggs—timed to a metronome. 1889Infantry Drill 504, {crotchet} = 108 Maelzel's Metronome. 1904Athenæum 5 Nov. 626/1 The seconds of exposure [were] counted by a metronome.
attrib.1857Encycl. Brit. (ed. 8) XIV. 695/2 It is very desirable that composers should always affix metronome numbers to their compositions. 1880W. S. Rockstro in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 319/2 Maelzel.. in 1816 set up the first Metronome Manufactory on record.
b. fig. (In the first quot. app. used for: A conventional rule for metrical quantity.)
1822Tillbrook Rem. Mod. Hexametrists 73 Why leave the public without a guide to the accents and divisions of the Georgian hexameter? This should have been done either by—borrowing from the Latin rules,—adopting those of the early prosodians,—or by inventing a new metronome. 1858O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t. xi. (1891) 265, I should love to..listen to the great liquid metronome as it beats its solemn measure. 1865G. Macdonald A. Forbes 11 And listen to the unfailing metronome of the flails.
Also as v. intr. (In quots. fig.)
1959Listener 2 Apr. 600/2 They..listened to the stillness of the white moonlight metronomed to the trot, trot, trot of the horse's hooves. 1962L. Deighton Ipcress File ii. 21 Pin-tables metronoming away the sunny afternoon. |