| 释义 |
ˈminuteman
Also minute-man, minute man.
[f. minute n. + man.]
1. Hist. One of a class of militiamen, during the American revolutionary period, who held themselves in readiness for instant military service.
1774in N. Eng. Hist. & Gen. Reg. (1875) XXIX. 107 Minute or Picquet men in the Town of Brookfield. 1775–83Thacher Mil. Jrnl. (1823) 17 Active men in every town have formed military companies under the name of minute men. 1903F. Norris The Pit 43 Ample fireplaces, where once the minute-men had swung their kettles.
transf.1863J. Weiss Life Th. Parker I. 11 The same old cause, whose minute-men are again first in the field [1861].
b. In extended uses, a ‘watchdog’ or political activist; a member of an organization devoted to specific political issues. Also gen. (with small initial), a vigilant, observant, or enterprising person.
1923Minute Men of the Constitution Roster (inside front cover), The Minute Men of the Constitution is a non-partisan association, organized to obtain delegates from Illinois to the Republican and Democratic State and National Conventions... The above is a movement for good government. 1930P. R. Leach That Man Dawes x. 190 Dawes called..a number of close friends and organized ‘The Minute Men of the Constitution’. The purpose of the Minute Men..was to function as an open-eyed body of men throughout the state to watch elections, prevent vote frauds at the polls and counteract unfair propaganda. The society was not secret, had no passwords or meeting places and was non-political. 1952Manch. Guardian Weekly 23 Oct. 3/1 An appeal went out for minute-men to tap the moneybags in their own localities. 1961Guardian 25 Nov. 7/2 The Minute Men and Birchites. 1961Webster, Minuteman, one who resembles a Revolutionary minuteman esp. in qualities of vigilance and readiness to take prompt action. 1964D. Bell Radical Right i. 4 Three elements [in the 1960s] conjoined to attract public attention to the radical right... The John Birch Society... Seminars of anti-Communist ‘schools’... And, third, there was the disclosure of the existence of extreme fanatic groups, such as the Minutemen, who organized ‘guerilla-warfare seminars’, complete with rifles and mortars, in preparation for the day when patriots would have to take to the hills to organize resistance against a Communist-run America. 1964Economist 19 Dec. 1350/2 The Minutemen, a mysterious, probably negligible, vigilante group, has drawn the gloomily righteous conclusion that America has seen its last free election. 1965T. H. White Making of President 1964 iii. 89 Across the sky of politics there began to float new names like the John Birch Society, the Minutemen, the National Indignation Convention, [etc.]. 1970Peace News 17 Apr. 8/1 It would be easy for the casual observer to link the Panthers with..the Minutemen and American Nazis.
2. (With capital initial.) A type of intercontinental ballistic missile (see quot. 1971).
1961Daily Tel. 2 Feb. 1/4 The American Air Force achieved a spectacular advance today when it launched the first Minuteman missile. 1969Guardian 6 Dec. 2/2 They claim that the three five-megaton warheads fitted to these missiles are unnecessarily large and accurate for use against any target but the hardened US Minuteman missile sites. 1971E. Luttwak Dict. Mod. War 130/1 The Minuteman series are three-stage missiles with solid-propellant motors designed as simplified and low-cost weapons for launching from ‘hard’ silo sites. They need very brief pre-launch preparation. |