| 释义 |
▪ I. ˈmilestone, n.
[f. mile n.1 + stone.]
1. A pillar set up on a highway or other road or course to mark the miles.
a1746Holdsworth Virgil (1768) 483 The first mile-stone on the Via Appia. 1774Beverley & Hessle Road Act ii. 17 Roads to be measured and mile stones erected. 1858Lytton What will he do i. iii, The cobbler seated himself on a lonely milestone.
fig.1847Emerson Repr. Men, Uses Gt. Men Wks. (Bohn) I. 288 For a time, our teachers serve us personally, as metres or milestones of progress. 1897N. & Q. 8th Ser. XII. 154/2 Ever since I have passed my eightieth milestone.
2. slang. (See quot.)
1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Milestone, a country booby.
3. Naut. slang. (See quots.)
1946J. Irving Royal Navalese 116 Milestones, the heavy, green seas which break inboard in bad weather. 1962Granville Dict. Sailors' Slang 77/1 Milestones refer to the homeward trip, for, like milestones on country roads they seem to make the journey longer and harder, and one's progress slower in consequence.
▪ II. milestone, v.
[f. the n.]
trans. Used fig., to mark (stages) as if by milestones.
1902J. H. M. Abbott Tommy Cornstalk 157 And the road was mile-stoned by the parched hides and whitened bones of horses, mules, and oxen. a1910‘Mark Twain’ Autobiogr. (1924) I. 299 You could look back over that speech and you'd find it dimly milestoned along with those commas. 1922Chamber's Jrnl. Dec. 861/1 The Overland is mile-stoned with our bones. 1973J. Cleary Ransom iii. 98 Malone's life was milestoned by friends he had never made. 1973J. Wainwright High-Class Kill 149 The book..will make passing reference to these things—as a means, perhaps, of milestoning his climb to the rank of chief constable. |