| 释义 |
performance|pəˈfɔːməns|
[f. perform v. + -ance: perh. formed in Anglo-Fr. (It occurs as French in a memorandum by Mary Stuart of 14 Feb. 1571–2, in Godef.)]
The action of performing, or something performed.
1. The carrying out of a command, duty, purpose, promise, etc.; execution, discharge, fulfilment.
Often antithetical to promise.
1531Dial. on Laws Eng. ii. vi, The sayde executours delyuer the goodes of theyr testatour in perfourmance of the sayde bequest. 1598Child-Marriages 162 The maior of the said Citie..shall Cause performans of this agrement to be had vpon either side. 1601Shakes. All's Well ii. i. 205 Thy will by my performance shall be seru'd. 1611Bible Luke i. 45 There shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. 1623in N. Shaks. Soc. Trans. (1885) 503 Securitie..for the performance of the said intier pencion of three shillinges. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 154 Bail or security for the performance. 1785Paley Mor. Philos. iii. i. v. 111 Promises are not binding, where the performance is unlawful. 1814Cary Dante's Inf. xxiv. 75 To fair request Silent performance maketh best return.
2. a. The accomplishment, execution, carrying out, working out of anything ordered or undertaken; the doing of any action or work; working, action (personal or mechanical); spec. the capabilities of a machine or device, now esp. those of a motor vehicle or aircraft measured under test and expressed in a specification. Also used attrib. to designate a motor vehicle with very good performance.
1494Fabyan Chron. iv. lxxv. 54 For the parfourmaunce of the rest or other dele of the same. 1578–9in Monthly Mag. (1813) 1 Aug. 44 The boy offendinge, by his father or mother whipped, the constable seeinge the performance therof. 1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag. i. ii. 33 In performance of the last Problem,..the Lines A and C, must be set upon one and the same Line. 1766A. Cumming Clock & Watch Work 161 Thus may the performance of watches be made..to approximate that of clocks. 1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 77 That there is a certain velocity..which will procure to an overshot-wheel the greatest performance. 1832Mechanics' Mag. 30 June 224/2 Extraordinary railway performances... On two occasions, a load amounting to 100 tons was drawn by one engine..a distance of above 30 miles, in an hour and a half. 1840Min. Proc. Inst. Civil Engin. 34 The paper is accompanied by..tabular statements of their performances during the year 1839, showing the number of miles traversed by each engine, the weight conveyed, [etc.]. 1845Stephen Comm. Laws Eng. (1874) II. 639 The performance of a post mortem examination. 1879G. C. Harlan Eyesight iv. 46 In the performance of some experiment. 1883W. H. Maw Recent Pract. Marine Engin. I. 216/1 On the first regular journey from Queensborough to Flushing, the Prinses Marie made the journey of 101½ knots in 372 minutes, giving a mean speed of 17·12 knots..and the coal consumption..being 1·92 lb. per indicated horse-power per hour, an excellent performance considering that the cylinders are not steam jacketted. 1907Proc. Incorporated Inst. Automobile Engineers I. 235 A formula of this kind..is most useful in comparing the performance of small engines with large. 1931R. N. Liptrot in Handbk. Aeronautics (R. Aeronaut. Soc.) ii. 98 The top speeds and best rates of climb are now plotted against altitude, giving the required performance of the aircraft. 1952W. W. Balding in Bk. of Motor Car 98/2 If one carefully studies the reports of technical performance.., one quickly recognises the importance attached to vehicle-acceleration. 1961Times 7 Nov. 19/1 In Britain a thriving business has grown up in tuning and modifying the engines of existing models to give more performance. 1968Miller & Sawers Technical Devel. Mod. Aviation vi. 173 The superior performance offered by the first bombers with swept-back wings won them the orders. 1969Daily Tel. 1 Oct. 16/8 Performance: Acceleration: 0–60 mph 12·3 seconds; 50–70 mph in top gear 13 seconds. Speed in gears, 1st 30 mph, 2nd 48 mph, 3rd 75 mph... Fuel consumption: 26·3 mpg (overall); 30·6 mpg (touring). 1976Ibid. 18 Feb. 10 (Advt.), Today we give you details of a high-performance FM tuner. 1976Daily Mail (Hull) 30 Sept. 11/3 A performance car with a top speed in excess of 100 mph, it runs at over 30 mpg on two-star petrol. 1977P. Harcourt At High Risk i. 90 If you're interested in performance cars, as I am, you're also mildly interested in the people who drive them.
b. Something performed or done; an action, act, deed, operation. Often in emphatic sense: A notable deed, achievement, exploit.
1599Shakes. Hen. V, iii. Chorus 35 Still be kind, And eech out our performance with your mind. 1605― Macb. v. i. 13 Besides her walking, and other actuall performances, what..haue you heard her say? 1693Humours Town A v b, I cou'd never much value their Performances. 1744Eliza Heywood Female Spect. No. 8 (1748) II. 62, I am not apt to be vain of my own performances. 1866Geo. Eliot F. Holt xi, He..had given especial attention to certain performances with a magnet.
c. A piece of work (literary or artistic); a work, a composition. Now rare or merged in b.
1665Glanvill Def. Van. Dogm. 51 That great man, the excellence of whose philosophick genius and performances, the most improv'd spirits acknowledge. 1706E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) To Rdr. A iv b, As for the Performance itself, it is but an Essay. 1753Hogarth Anal. Beauty xi. 89 In justice to so fine a performance [statue of Apollo]..we may subjoin an Observation or two on its perfections. 1818Garrow Hist. & Antiq. Croydon 59 He published..lives of..Saints, and other performances. 1861Craik Hist. Eng. Lit. II. 338 The celebrated performances of Robertson and Gibbon. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 46 His performances in prose are bad enough.
d. Psychol. The observable or measurable behaviour of a person or animal in a particular, usu. experimental, situation.
1898E. L. Thorndike in Psychol. Rev. Monogr. Suppl. II. iv. 39 The best interpretation of even the most extraordinary performances of animals has been that they were the result of accident and association or imitation. 1901Psychol. Rev. Monogr. Suppl. III. vi. 2 All human performances, when objectified in units of space, time, etc., seem to follow certain laws of variability. 1912Psychol. Rev. XIX. 73 (title) The influence of caffein on the speed and quality of performance in typewriting. 1938R. S. Woodworth Exper. Psychol. vi. 138 Several varieties of performance preferential have been discovered. 1949Stouffer & DeVinney in S. A. Stouffer et al. Amer. Soldier I. iii. 85 Morale is presumed to be an important element in performance. 1951Mind LX. 2 The performance or non-performance of a certain act..we shall call performance-values. 1959E. Ginzberg et al. Patterns of Performance xiii. 272 We did not choose the concept of performance potential because of its predictive value. 1964Cofer & Appley Motivation xi. 520 This distinction between learning and performance and the effects of drive on performance constitute the second problem.
e. Linguistics. (See quots.) Opp. competence.
1963N. Chomsky in R. D. Luce et al. Handbk. Math. Psychol. II. 326 A generative grammar..can be regarded as a partial theory of what the mature speaker of the language knows. It in no sense purports to be a description of his actual performance. 1964― in Proc. 9th Internat. Congr. Linguists 915 Clearly the description of linguistic competence provided by the grammar is not to be confused with an account of actual performance. 1964Harvard Educ. Rev. XXXIV. 263 The distinction between competence and performance or language and speech is quite crucial for understanding at least three goals related to linguistic descriptions proper. 1966,1969[see competence 4 f]. 1971B. L. Liles Introd. Transformational Gram. i. 8 Another way of stating this is to say that he is interested in the speaker's competence, or knowledge of the language, rather than in his performance, or actual use of it. 1976Word 1971 XXVII. 144 He simply recalls our linguistic habits, our performances, as Chomsky would say.
3. spec.
a. The action of performing a ceremony, play, part in a play, piece of music, etc.; formal or set execution.
c1611Chapman Iliad xxiv. 707 While that work and all the funeral rites Were in performance. 1777W. Dalrymple Trav. Sp. & Port. clxx, I saw..a French play represented here with some degree of performance. 1891Martineau in Law Times XC. 250/2 It was a piece of music arranged for a band, and could only be of value for the purposes of public performance.
attrib.1894Daily News 23 July 5/5 An action..for infringement of copyright, or rather performance-right.
†b. A ceremony, rite, or public function performed. Obs.
1673True Worship God 14 Enquiry..concerning the performances in use amongst the Heathens in the worship of their gods. 1758S. Hayward Serm. p. xiv, To think there is nothing in religion; by which means our public performances are despised.
c. The performing of a play, of music, of gymnastic or conjuring feats, or the like, as a definite act or series of acts done at an appointed place and time; a public exhibition or entertainment.
1709Steele Tatler No. 4 ⁋4 A great Part of the Performance was done in Italian. 1836–9Dickens Sk. Boz, Private Theatres, The hour fixed for the commencement of the performances. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 25. 1897 Westm. Gaz. 12 July 5/1 According to his evidence a performance was not a performance unless paid for and money was taken at the doors.
d. A display of temperament, anger, or exaggerated behaviour; a fuss or ‘scene’; a difficult or annoying action or procedure. colloq.
1936G. B. Shaw Six of Calais 94 They tear a piece of linen from the back of his shirt, and bind his mouth with it. He barks to the last moment. John of Gaunt laughs ecstatically at this performance, and sets off some of the soldiers. Ibid. 100 Peter (growling in his face like a dog) Grrrr!!! The King (returning the growl chin to chin) Grrrr!!!!!! They repeat this performance, to the great scandal of the Queen, until it develops into a startling imitation of a dog fight. 1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio x. 176 Dialling is rather more of a performance than being on the receiving end of a phone call. 1964J. Symons End of Solomon Grundy iii. iii. 180 For Christ's sake don't let's make a performance out of it. 1971A. Price Alamut Ambush i. 16 He had to come here and tell you all about it and make a great performance of it.
†4. Trimming, or a set of (fur) trimmings. Cf. perform v. 2 b; performing vbl. n. 2. Obs.
c1525Skinner's Inv. in Codicil to Will of T. Burgh (Somerset Ho.), Item a performaunce of fox poutes xvjd... Item a performaunce of conye wombys xijd.
5. attrib. and Comb., as performance art, a form of visual art in which the activity of the artist forms a central feature, combining static elements with dramatic performance; so performance artist; performance bond, a bond issued by a bank or other financial concern, guaranteeing the fulfilment of a particular contract; performance test, (a) Psychol. (in sense 2 d), a non-verbal test of capability or intelligence based on the performance of certain manual tasks; (b) the measurement of weight gain, food conversion, and other heritable characteristics of farm animals, as a guide to selective breeding; also performance testing; so performance-tested a., having had heritable qualities evaluated.
1971Rolling Stone 24 June 37 Performance art is basically an extension of art into the theater, often involving more or less set programs at specified times and places... A..work of performance art was staged by..cars whose drivers all sounded their horns according to a pre⁓arranged score, and the noise was broadcast by a local radio station. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 7 Feb. 20/2 Not quite the same as theater or dance, though it combines elements of both, performance art grew out of avant⁓garde movements, particularly in poetry and painting, that swept Europe early this century. 1978Times 23 Nov. 18/1 Three fine arts graduates were discovered walking around East Anglia with a pole on their heads, supported by a council grant for a work of performance art.
1976Observer 11 Apr. 2/3 Despite his outlandish name, P-Orridge..is one of Britain's leading young ‘performance’ artists, a type of art in which the artist includes himself in his work. 1976Loughborough Monitor 26 Nov. 7/4 Mr. Richards, who describes himself as a performance artist and lives in Nottingham, had applied for a grant for his Christmas show. 1979Listener 22 Feb. 293/2 There were performances by three performance artists... Kevin Atherton stripped off all his clothes on the gallery steps.
1938Sun (Baltimore) 3 June 4/3 It is..a general practice that the solicitor writing the ‘bid bonds’ also writes the ‘performance bond’ of the same contractor if his bid is accepted. 1965Perry & Ryder Thomson's Dict. Banking (ed. 11) 436/1 Perhaps the most common type of performance bond is that given on behalf of a customer who is entering upon a housing contract for a local authority. 1970Globe & Mail (Toronto) 26 Sept. B1/7 A performance bond with the amount of $10-million issued by the Commercial Union Insurance Co. in favor of Prince Albert [Pulp] is in existence. 1977Offshore Engineer Apr. 18/1 Venezuelan conditions included a 25% performance bond and no progress payments.
1917Pintner & Paterson (title) A scale of performance tests. Ibid. p. v, The work grew directly out of the psychological examination of deaf children... This work was begun in 1914 with the standardization of a few performance tests. 1921R. S. Woodworth Psychol. (1922) xii. 275 Language plays little part in a performance test. 1932J. L. Lush in Proc. Soc. Animal Production xxiv. 52 The swine Record of Performance test is regarded as a progeny test of the sire and dam rather than as a performance test of the individual pigs which are fattened and slaughtered. 1954Jrnl. Animal Sci. XIII. 215 Few sheep breeders have the necessary assistance, time and facilities to conduct a progeny and performance testing programme. 1959Ibid. XVIII. 1464 Seven years' data..were analyzed to determine the effectiveness of using final weight as a criterion in the selection of performance tested bulls. Ibid. 1465 Fifteen bulls and twenty-three heifers were placed on experiment to compare three systems of performance testing. 1970Preston & Willis Intensive Beef Production iii. 132 Performance testing involves the measurement of traits in the live animal... The major advantage of performance testing is that it permits evaluation of the animal at a much earlier age than is possible with progeny testing. Ibid. 137 Bulls on performance test should not be given hormone treatment. Ibid., The object of any system of performance testing must be to evaluate..genetic differences between animals in terms of their phenotypic expression. 1971Farmer & Stockbreeder 23 Feb. 13/3 Co-operative breeding schemes, designed to get the most impressive, performance-tested bulls widely used. 1972Encycl. Psychol. II. 379/2 Performance tests are especially useful for subjects with some speech disability. 1977N.Z. Herald 8 Jan. 2–8/7 (Advt.), Modern methods of management are being used to produce performance-tested rams and bulls for the department's other blocks throughout the province.
Hence † perˈformancer Obs., one who goes through a performance, a performer. So also † perˈformancy Obs., performance; perˈformant nonce-wd. (cf. informant), a performer.
1621Lady M. Wroth Urania 363 Cleare force must bee found in the best performancers of them. 1608Merry Devil of Edmonton in Hazl. Dodsley X. 263 No conjurations, nor such weighty spells As tie the soul to their performancy. 1809Coleridge in Sir H. Davy's Rem. (1858) 110, I contemplate Dr. Stock as the performant.
Add: [c indigo][2.] f.[/c] Comm. The extent to which an investment is profitable, esp. in relation to other commodities; an instance of this.
1926Forbes (N.Y.) 1 June 64/3 Until we have had an example of deviation from past performances it is safe to follow precedent. 1931L. H. Sloan Everyman & his Common Stocks viii. 176 These were among the issues of which the stock market expected the most brilliant future performance. 1947Barron's 29 Sept. 2/3 Disappointing price performance of new bond and preferred stock offerings is..evoking adverse comment. 1964Wall St. Jrnl. 9 Sept. 8/3 Charts showing the market performance of a single regular investment in a funds share long have been permitted by the SEC. 1989Financial Times 16 Mar. 37/8 Given the shares' strong performance in the first part of this year, some profit taking seems likely in the short term.
▸ performance-enhancing adj. that enhances performance; (Sport) designating or relating to a substance (freq. one proscribed in competition) which improves athletic performance.
1979Washington Post (Nexis) 27 May d4 Not that boxers haven't tried to find *performance-enhancing drugs. 1991Metalworking Production Sept. 61/1 Performance-enhancing PVD coatings. 1998Mirror (Electronic ed.) 21 May The pills are perfectly legal and do not break any sporting rules about performance-enhancing substances. 2002New Yorker 15 July 48/3 It is..hard to write about cycling and not discuss performance-enhancing drugs.
▸ performance poetry n. a form of poetry composed to be performed as a dramatic monologue or exchange, freq. involving extemporization.
1977Washington Post 12 Sept. b12/1 ‘*Performance poetry’..is like poetry reading heightened into theatrical performance by an infusion of body movement, costumes, lighting, props and sound effects. 1990Independent 1 Oct. 20/2 The latest trend..is towards performance poetry, in which the emphasis is as much on presentation as on content. |