| 释义 |
overcrowd, v.|ˌəʊvəˈkraʊd|
[over- 27.]
1. trans. To crowd to excess; to overfill with or as with a crowd.
1766Smollett Trav. II. xxxi. 122 It does not, on the whole, appear over-crouded with ornaments. 1848W. K. Kelly tr. L. Blanc's Hist. Ten Y. I. 603 To prevent the hospitals being overcrowded. 1883‘Annie Thomas’ Mod. Housewife 86 Be sure you don't overcrowd your rooms... There is nothing more disagreeable to my mind than a crush.
2. intr. To crowd together to excess, or in too great a number.
1899Daily News 24 Jan. 3/3 These people overcrowd into the already overcrowded smaller properties that lie around. Ibid. 7 Apr. 4/7 The Council's practice of turning out of the municipal dwellings all families who overcrowd.
Hence ˌoverˈcrowded ppl. a., crowded too much; overˈcrowdedness; ˌoverˈcrowding vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1836J. S. Mill in London & Westm. Rev. Apr. 18 In every overcrowded department there will arise a tendency among individuals..to unite their labours or their capitals. 1848― Pol. Econ. I. ii. xiv. 472 A sufficient degree of overcrowding may depress the wages of women to a much lower minimum than those of men. 1861A. Beresford-Hope Eng. Cathedr. 19th C. 204 The risk with chairs is that of overcrowding. 1862Macm. Mag. Nov. 62 The overcrowded ranks of greedy aspirants. 1865J. Simon in E. R. Pike Human Doc. Victorian Golden Age (1967) vi. 292 Where ‘overcrowding’ exists in its sanitary sense, almost always it exists even more perniciously in certain moral senses. 1888Mrs. H. Ward R. Elsmere vii. xlix, Her restless and over⁓crowded mind. 1894Westm. Gaz. 11 Sept. 4/3 The pilgrims, who attended in overcrowding numbers. 1902Daily Chron. 29 Sept. 3/3 It is here that the over⁓crowdedness of his pages comes most into evidence. 1911G. B. Shaw Doctor's Dilemma p. lxxxiv, He is struggling for life in an overcrowded profession. 1932J. S. Huxley Probl. Relative Growth vii. 207 With overcrowding and less favourable food conditions ‘degeneration’ set in. 1950T. S. Eliot Cocktail Party ii. 126 But they can't all stay there! I mean, it would make the place so over-crowded. 1955M. Gilbert Sky High ii. 22 Every time we meet he's got a fresh reason for it. Overcrowding, parking offences, congestion of pavements. 1960Encounter Mar. 56/1 The spiritual effects of over-crowdedness. 1976Language LII. 30 The unit in relation to which over⁓crowding must be described is the syntactic configuration, and not just the simplex S. 1976H. Nielsen Brink of Murder ix. 81 Small businessmen, seeking relief from overcrowded cities..gravitated seaward to create new forms of overcrowding. 1977Listener 17 Mar. 339/1 A cell which..would beggar description in terms of coldness, smallness, over⁓crowdedness. |