| 释义 |
▪ I. ˈmothball, n.
Also moth ball, moth-ball.
[ball n.1]
1. A ball of naphthalene (sometimes mixed with other substances) used among stored fabrics to repel moths. Also fig.
1906‘O. Henry’ in Munsey's Mag. Dec. 288/1 Me and Solly..prepared to shake off our moth-balls and wing our way against the arc-lights of the joyous and tuneful East. 1911G. S. Porter Harvester xiii. 282 Wouldn't she like me to wear her things better than to have them lying in moth balls? 1916M. Lees-Dods Ideal Home x. 161 When furs are kept by a lady in her own house, a plentiful supply of pieces of camphor, or moth-ball, should be wrapped in tissue paper and distributed amongst the folds. 1932Conc. Househ. Encycl. 808 The round balls sold as moth balls consist of naphthalene, a product of the distillation of coal tar. 1958S. Hyland Who goes Hang? xli. 199 Synthetic camphor wasn't used for moth-balls until 1914! 1964Horlicks Home Bk. 178 In the past naphthalene (usually in the shape of moth balls) was used. 1974‘J. Melville’ Nun's Castle i. 10 She had conceived the idea of staging afresh the forgotten Victorian tournament..wearing the original clothes, most of which were still packed away in mothballs.
2. orig. U.S. Used attrib. to designate armaments or installations stored away, held in reserve, or disused. Similarly in mothballs, laid up, put out of use or action for a long time.
1946Amer. N. & Q. Apr. 7/2 ‘Mothball fleet’: inactive U.S. Navy ships to be preserved for long periods by newly-developed techniques. 1946Newsweek 13 May 22/2 The Navy plans to reduce yard personnel to peace-time proportions by early fall. The moth-ball laying-up program will be complete by that time. 1947N.Y. Times 26 Jan. E. 6/5 The moth ball fleet consists of United States warships now undergoing preservative treatment which will enable them to be put back in use rapidly if needed. 1948Sun (Baltimore) 16 Jan. 1/1 The 45,000-ton New Jersey and Wisconsin had been put in ‘moth⁓balls’ January 1. 1950Hansard Commons 22 Mar. 2079 We have a ‘moth-ball fleet’, as it is somewhat vulgarly termed in some countries, reasonably widely dispersed..round the United Kingdom. 1958Oxford Mail 12 Aug. 1/2 The United States is to sell for cash 47 liberty ships kept in ‘moth balls’ since the last war. 1967Boston Sunday Herald 30 Apr. 1. 7/1 A..port improvement paid for by the MPA has remained in mothballs.., because no container ships have been scheduled to or from Boston. 1970Globe & Mail (Toronto) 26 Sept. 6/3 Seventy-four of these fighter-bombers are going directly into mothballs as they roll off the production line at Canadair Ltd. 1972Guardian 14 Jan. 1/5 Orange dust found in crater Shorty could mean..that Apollo hardware put in mothballs..could be brought out for another final journey. 1974Evening Standard 15 July 11/2 (heading) Air fleets may be put in moth⁓balls.
3. transf. and fig.
1943Baker Dict. Austral. Slang (ed. 3) 51 Moth balls, tracer bullets. 1945L. Shelly Jive Talk Dict. 29 Moth ball, an aggravating person. 1951Football Record (Melbourne) 8 Sept. 5 And now for eight teams it's mothballs until 1952. 1966Listener 28 Apr. 629/1 The work..was certainly interesting to hear even if it now has to be put back in moth balls. 1971M. Tak Truck Talk 109 Moth⁓balls, balls of ether used by truckers to start cold diesel engines. 1974Guardian 31 Jan. 1/5 The distinguished BBC cheerfully took the most improbable creations [sc. films] out of mothballs.
▪ II. ˈmothball, v.
[f. prec.]
trans. To place in mothballs, in the senses of the n. Hence ˈmothballed ppl. a.
1943R. Malkin Marriage, Morals & War xi. 159 His civvies, all dusted off, were mothballed, and shipped back home. 1949Jane's Fighting Ships 1949–50 357 Princeton, Tarawa and Antietam are also being ‘mothballed’. 1957P. Frank Seven Days to Never ii. 80 We've got two thousand Fifty-Twos and Forty-Sevens mothballed, lined up on every desert in Arizona. 1959Times 18 May 5/3 The best service a retired general could perform ‘is to turn in his tongue along with his suit and mothball his opinions’. 1959Time (Atlantic ed.) 24 Aug. 52/3 Both plants..will have to be mothballed unless they can be adapted to produce other chemicals. 1965New Scientist 2 Dec. 642/1 The capability now coming on stream cannot be mothballed. We must use it or see its value erode. 1966Aviation Week & Space Technology 5 Dec. 22/3 Essential consideration to the proposal is that the separately orbited satellite modules could be mothballed in space—fully equipped with all experiments, however—until ready for use. 1973Wall St. Jrnl. 28 Nov. 1/2 Mobil Oil plans to ‘mothball’ its aging East Chicago, Ind., petroleum refinery. 1974Evening Standard 15 July 11/2 There is no doubt that the Trident One may be mothballed. |