| 释义 |
▪ I. oval, a.1 and n.1|ˈəʊvəl|
Also 6 ovalle, 6–7 -all, 7 -ale.
[prob. ad. mod.L. ōvāl-is, -e, f. ōvum egg. (The ancient L. word was ōvāt-us.) Hatz.-Darm. cite F. oval adj. from Rabelais 1546.]
A. adj.
1. Having the form of an egg; egg-shaped; approximately egg-shaped, ellipsoidal.
1577Dee Relat. Spir. i. (1659) 398 She standeth as in a hollow shell, or Oval figure concave. 1599T. M[oufet] Silkwormes 18 [They] spinne silke..Leauing their oual bottoms there behind. 1693J. Edwards Author. O. & N. Test. 264 It was from the oval or round figure of the world that they represented it by an egg. 1796H. Hunter tr. St. Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) I. 531 Suspending..sometimes the oval date, and sometimes the rounded cocoa-nut. 1866Treas. Bot. 292 Of the cultivated varieties [of the Citron] some are oval, others round... The Lemon..fruit oval or ovate.
2. Having the outline of an egg as projected on a surface; having more or less the form or outline of an elongated circle or ellipse; elliptical.
Oval Office, the office of the President of the United States in the White House. oval window, the fenestra ovalis of the ear: see window.
1610B. Jonson Alch. ii. ii, Mine oval room Fill'd with such pictures as Tiberius took From Elephantis. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 95 The Caspian Sea is..in forme Ouall. 1716Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to C'tess Mar 14 Sept., At proper distances were placed three oval pictures. 1802Paley Nat. Theol. i. §1 Does one man in a million know how oval frames are turned? 1834M. Somerville Connex. Phys. Sc. ii. (1849) 6 The planets describe ellipses or oval paths around the sun. [1962N.Y. Times Mag. 8 Apr. 38 (caption) New look—The oval office in the White House's west wing reflects increasingly the interests and personality of the man who spends upwards of seven hours of his long working day in it.] 1965L. P. Jones First Bk. White House 30 In 1909, seven years after the President's offices had been moved into the West Wing, the President's Oval Office was added. 1966P. B. Fay Pleasure of his Company xxiv. 259 One Saturday morning in the Oval Office I asked the President, ‘Is there any truth to the rumor that you intend to dump Lyndon in '64?’ 1972W. McGivern Caprifoil viii. 133 This is the first time I've ever interrupted the President... Mary Donovan..walked to the door that connected her office to the Oval Office. 1973Times 18 June 1/6 Mr Krogh told him that the order for the break-in came ‘from the Oval Office’. 1973Time 13 Aug. 20/1 The President rarely appears in testimony. The word comes from ‘the Oval Office’. 1974Times 9 Aug. 8/5 The President of the United States will address the nation on radio and television from his Oval Office. 1977Time 17 Jan. 16/1 With Carter in the Oval Office, the Democrats chose in Byrd a man well equipped to push the Administration's programs.
3. Of or pertaining to an egg. rare.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. vii. 121 Their ovall conceptions, or egges within their bodies. 1716M. Davies Athen. Brit. III. Diss. Physick 5 Generation by and in Oval Conceptions. 1884Morning Herald (Reading, Pennsylv.) 14 Apr., Never before probably was there so much done in the way of oval confectionery.
4. In specific names of tools, etc.:
oval chuck = elliptic chuck: see quot. 1842; oval compass, a compass for describing ovals; oval file, a file whose cross-section is elliptical or oval; used sometimes as a gulleting file (Knight Dict. Mech.); oval lathe, a lathe for turning ovals.
1779Specif. Taylor's Patent No. 1232. 2 The turning of potts is performed by an oval lathe made for that purpose. 1842Francis Dict. Arts, Oval Chuck, an appendage to a lathe, of such a nature that the work attached to it and cut by the tool in the usual manner becomes of an oval form.
5. Comb. (in senses 1 and 2).
a. parasynthetic, as oval-arched (having an oval arch), oval-berried, oval-bodied, oval-bored, oval-faced, oval-figured, oval-headed, oval-leaved, oval-shaped, etc.;
b. with another adj., expressing an intermediate or blended form, as oval-lanceolate, oval-truncate, etc. Also oval-wise adv. and adj.
1884Harris in Littell's Living Age (U.S.) CLXI. 91 A magnificent *oval-arched gateway.
1752Sir J. Hill Hist. Anim. 181 The greenish, *oval-bodied Cochlea.
1858Greener Gunnery 115 The gun has since been made two inches larger in the bore, and even *oval-bored.
1886Ruskin Præterita I. 326 A graceful *oval-faced blonde of fifteen. 1976J. Drummond Funeral Urn xxi. 109 They..looked alike, oval-faced, straight-nosed, small-mouthed.
1698J. Keill Exam. Th. Earth (1734) 51 The Theorist's *Oval-figured earth not being sufficient for such an effect.
1752Sir J. Hill Hist. Anim. 113 The great *oval-headed Testudo.
1751― Hist. Plants 292 The *oval-leaved Rhamnus.
1835–6Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 765/1 The first of the..masses is *oval-shaped.
1856W. L. Lindsay Brit. Lichens 160 The spermo⁓gones are oval or *oval-truncate.
1689Lond. Gaz. No. 2483/4 One John Allen,..*Oval-Visaged,..run away from his Master.
1611Speed Theat. Gt. Brit. xxxiii. (1614) 65/1 For forme long and *ovall-wise doubling in length twice her bredth. 1625Lisle Du Bartas 73 A young wood's whizzing boughs that..oual-wise bewal'd the flowre embossed field.
B. n.
1. a. A plane figure resembling the longitudinal section of an egg; a closed curve having the chief axis considerably longer than the one at right angles to it, and the curvature greatest at each end; strictly, with one end more pointed than the other, as in most eggs, though popularly applied also to a regular ellipse; in mod. Geom. applied to any closed curve (other than a circle or ellipse), esp. one without a node or cusp.
carpenter's oval, a figure formed of two pairs of unequal circular arcs joined alternately where their tangents coincide, so as to form a continuous closed curve, approaching an ellipse. Cartesian oval, or oval of Descartes: see quots. 1842, 1877; for Cassinian, conjugate oval, see these words.
1570Dee Math. Pref. A iv b, A Perfect Square, Triangle, Circle, Ouale..and such other Geometricall figures. 1615G. Sandys Trav. 31 The principall part thereof riseth in an ouall surrounded with pillars admirable for their proportion. 1672Collins in Rigaud Corr. Sci. Men (1841) I. 201 Possibly they might not at London know one of the best ways of making a carpenter's oval to any ratio of diameters. 1795Hutton Math. Dict. s.v., Oval denotes also certain roundish figures, of various..shapes, among curve lines of the higher kinds. 1842Brande Dict. Sci. etc. s.v., The Ovals of Descartes are a species of geometrical curves... They may be defined as the locus of the vertex of a triangle on a given base, one of whose sides has a given ratio to the sum or difference of a given line and the other side. c1865Ld. Brougham in Circ. Sci. I. Introd. Disc. 12 The planets move in ovals, from gravity. 1877B. Williamson Int. Calc. (ed. 2) viii. §166 The Oval of Descartes..consists of two ovals, one lying inside the other. Ibid., The arc of a Cartesian Oval.
b. An egg-shaped or ellipsoidal body.
1898P. Manson Trop. Diseases i. 25 The gradual evolution of the flagellated body from crescent through oval and sphere can with patience be easily followed.
2. a. Applied to various things having an oval or (usually) elliptical outline; e.g. an oval picture frame, an oval window; the cartouche in which royal names are phonetically represented in Egyptian hieroglyphics; an enclosure or piece of ground, water, etc., of elliptical shape.
Kennington Oval, in athletics ‘the Oval’, an open space at Kennington in South London (opened in 1846), where cricket-matches, etc., are played.
1654Gayton Pleas. Notes iv. viii. 226 About his breast hung her Picture, set in a rich Ovall. 1677–8in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) III. 23 A new ouall to give light to the starecase. 1703Moxon Mech. Exerc. 93 The Oval is fitted stiff upon the Staff, that it may be set nearer or farther from the Tooth. 1755Monitor No. 9 I. 71 It is a fine political picture in miniature:..in an oval of an inch square. 1857Chambers Inform. for People 686/1 The Surrey Club at the Kennington Oval..keep cricket going throughout the season. 1877A. B. Edwards Up Nile vii. 183 The royal oval in which the name of Cleopatra (Klaupatra) is spelt with its vowel sounds in full. 1910Blackw. Mag. Jan. 89/1 On the Oval, Surrey..had snatched a victory by five runs. 1927Daily Express 26 Mar. 9/2 The Prince of Wales..will..open a games oval. 1928M. Arlen Lily Christine (1929) iii. 42 Her father..liked nothing so much as spending long afternoons at Lords' or the Oval. 1973Sun-Herald (Sydney) 26 Aug. 15/4 Police were searching late tonight for two girls, who disappeared from the crowded Adelaide Oval while attending a football match with parents and friends. 1977C. Storr Tales Psychiatrist's Couch 118 I'll be back to take her off to the Oval... She's a cricket fan.
†b. Arch. An ornament in the shape of an egg, often carved upon an echinus or ovolo: see ovum; also the ovolo itself. Obs.
1706Phillips (ed. Kersey) s.v. Echinus, This Ornament is now made use of in Cornices of the Ionick, Corinthian, and Composit Orders, being Carved with Anchors, Darts, and Ovals or Eggs. Ibid. s.v. Oval, In Architecture Oval or Ovolo is the same as Echinus.
†c. One of the seven balls (ova) used in the ancient Roman circus to indicate the number of rounds run in a race. Obs.
1600Holland Livy xli. xxvii. 1114 The Ovales to marke and skore up the number of courses.
▪ II. † ˈoval, a.2 and n.2 Obs. rare.
[ad. L. ovāl-is belonging to an ovation.]
A. adj. (See quot. 1656.)
1430Lydg. Bochas iv. i. (1494) n v, The crowne also which called was Ouall Toke first name of ioye and gladnesse. 1656Blount Gl., Oval, belonging to the triumph called Ovation. 1658Sir T. Browne Gard. Cyrus ii, The Triumphal, Oval, and Civicall Crowns of Laurel, Oake, and Myrtle.
B. n. An oval crown (L. corōna ovālis), i.e. that conferred in an ovation: see ovator.
1614Sylvester Parl. Vertues Royall 768 Yet hundred Laurels never widow-curst, And hundred Ovals, which no skin hath burst; Prove I haue often Conquer'd without Thee.
▪ III. oval, v.|ˈəʊvəl|
[f. oval a.1 and n.1]
a. trans. To make oval, to give an oval shape to.
b. intr. To move in oval-shaped curves. Hence ˈovalling ppl. a.
1665Hooke Micrographia 218 The more the limb is flatted or ovalled, the more red does the body appear. 1874M. Clarke His Natural Life ii. viii. 121 The rings were too strong to be ‘ovalled’, or he would have been free long ago. Ibid., ‘To oval’, is a term in use among convicts, and means to so bend the round ring of the ankle fetter that the heel can be drawn up through it. 1922Joyce Ulysses 444 The odour of the sicksweet weed floats towards him in slow round ovalling wreaths. 1969‘R. Stark’ Blackbird iv. 26 Grofield's plane ovaled between massed gray clouds and the grubby sprawl of New York City. |