| 释义 |
▪ I. pin-point, n. (and a.)
Also pinpoint, pin point.
A. n.
1. The point of a pin: usually fig. as a type of something extremely small or sharp (cf. pin n.1 3 c). Also attrib.
1849Hare Par. Serm. II. 234 At this very moment..even at this one little pinpoint of time. 1879I. L. Bird Rocky Mount. 267 Snow as stinging as pinpoints beating on my hand. 1890Kipling in Macmillan's Mag. Sept. 323/2 Their blue eyes, driven into pin-points by th' wind. 1904M. Hewlett Queen's Quair iii. i. 359 She was on pin-points till she saw her lover. 1926E. Glyn Love's Blindness ii. 24 The centres of her light hazel eyes went to pin points. The dress did not deceive her! 1931C. Day Lewis From Feathers to Iron xii. 25 Nightmare nags at his elbow and narrows Horizon to pinpoint, hope to hand's breadth. 1952R. Neill Moon in Scorpio xxviii. 247 His eyes were pin-points now, but their gaze was steady. 1959E. H. Clements High Tension vi. 99 He let it [sc. a car] get well ahead and watched the pin-points of red disappear into the darkness. 1961D. J. Plantz Sweeney Squadron x. 151 The Rising Suns were showing up, slightly brighter pinpoints in the gray gloom.
2. Aeronautics. A place seen and identified from an aircraft; hence, the ground position of an aircraft as found from such a sighting.
1942R.A.F. Jrnl. 27 June 7 No pin-point was obtained on leaving the British shore. 1942Tee Emm (Air Ministry) II. 81 It's up to you to verify all pinpoints. 1943[see astro-sight s.v. astro-]. 1944Air Navigation I. i. 20 A Pin Point is a landmark recognised from the aircraft but which is not necessarily underneath the aircraft. A Fix is the ground position of the aircraft, found by direct observation of the ground or by employing wireless or astronomical methods. 1950D. C. T. Bennett Compl. Air Navigator (ed. 5) xi. 374 A Fix..is the position obtained by a Visual Pin-Point or by the intersection of two or more Posn. Lines. 1970Taylor & Parmar Ground Stud. for Pilots ii. 14 Flying this Heading, we pass over Peterborough (5235N 0015W) at 1230 hrs precisely. Plot the position, as a small circled dot; it is a Pinpoint, the name given to a Fix obtained by visual observation of the ground. 1971Hindustan Times Weekly (New Delhi) (Suppl.) 4 Apr. p. iii/2 He's been flying here for only six months and is still in the process of discovering new features and pinpoints.
3. (See quot. 19481.)
1943H. T. U. Smith Aerial Photographs xiii. 339 Vertical photography may involve the making of one or more flight strips, or of only isolated stereo pairs, known as ‘pinpoints’. 1948S. H. Spurr Aerial Photographs in Forestry ii. 13 A pin-point is an isolated pair of photographs taken so as to give stereoscopic coverage of a specific place on the ground. Ibid. 16 Specially designed instruments manufactured by the makers of mapping cameras are particularly well adapted for taking pin-points.
B. attrib. or as adj.
1. Seeming as small or as sharp as the point of a pin.
1850Browning Chr. Eve v, Man, therefore, stands on his own stock Of love and power as a pin-point rock. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 114 The pupils..so small as to deserve the name of ‘pin-point pupils’. 1907J. H. Parsons Dis. Eye iv. 67 In old people it is smaller than in the young, sometimes to so great an extent that the pupils are almost ‘pin-point’. 1928D. H. Lawrence Woman who rode Away 198 He never liked looking anything in the very pin-point middle of the eye. 1933W. de la Mare Fleeting 95 With pin-point bill, and tail a-cock. 1936W. Holtby South Riding i. vii. 72 Those trodden-down pin-point heels. 1944Times 18 Mar. 4/4 Marauders attacked pin-point targets at Piedmonte. 1959Times 23 Sept. 3/7 The stage effect of overhead lights, the surrounding darkness, and the pinpoint area of operations. 1961R. B. Long Sentence & its Parts vii. 153 In the narrowest sense the present time is a point so minute that it is already a part of the past before we can finish the sentence. But the present with which verbs are concerned is not this uncomfortable pin-point present. 1974M. C. Gerald Pharmacol. xiii. 244 The pinpoint pupil is one of the cardinal signs of morphine poisoning. 1976Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 30 Oct. 10/1 Bell scientists and engineers..have already developed pinpoint light sources—light-emitting diodes.
2. Very fine in texture or structure; characterized by very small points.
1899Daily News 29 July 8/5 A clear Swiss muslin of very fine make, with a pin-point embroidery on it. 1942Oxoniensia VII. 42 Deeply incised ‘pinpoint’ decoration..varying a little and reverting to a plain chevron pattern. 1957J. Kerouac On Road (1958) 156 A misty pinpoint darkness. 1962Guardian 23 Feb. 8/4 A seam-free, pin⁓point mesh stocking. 1969Sears Catal. Spring/Summer 20 Full fashioned plus the extra elasticity of a pinpoint stitch.
3. Performed with or exhibiting great positional accuracy.
1944Manch. Guardian 14 Dec. 3/2 Fighter Command's activities included thirty missions against V2 targets in Holland, where pin-point power-dive attacks resulted in direct hits on erection and launching installations. 1945Times 27 June 3/4 Their pin-point bombing was on the biggest scale that Japan has yet experienced. 1949Sun (Baltimore) 3 Oct. 2/7 ‘Kickless’ guns, capable of pinpoint accuracy. 1958J. R. Biggs Woodcuts 81 If the design demands precise ‘pin point’ register, then a precise method must be used. 1958Listener 21 Aug. 259/1 It is the ground controllers' job to see that collisions do not happen. With the equipment they have today this can be done with almost pin-point accuracy. 1973Times 9 Aug. 5/5 He said he was aiming his balloon for France, ‘but I would consider anything from Finland to Italy a pinpoint landing’. 1976Gramophone Aug. 370 (Advt.), Dramatically improved solid stereo image and rear pin-point localisation. 1976Southern Even. Echo (Southampton) 3 Nov., Clive Green almost snatched a second ten minutes later with a flying header from a pin-point cross by left-winger Mickey Mellows.
4. Highly detailed or specific.
1960V. Jenkins Lions Down Under p. xv, Secretaries..looked after our internal comfort with pin-point efficiency. 1971Morning Star 1 July 4/1 This ‘simple way’ is, of course, the result of pin-point organisation and the working out of schedules.
▪ II. pin-point, v.
Also pinpoint.
[f. the n.]
I. trans.
1. a. To locate with high precision.
1917‘Contact’ Airman's Outings ii. iv. 280 Meanwhile an exact position has been pin-pointed. 1936J. Grierson High Failure v. 102 The next thing was to ‘pin-point’ myself: that is to find the exact spot on the map at which I had made a landfall. 1946D. Hamson We fell among Greeks iv. 46 The enemy was trying to pinpoint our position. 1955C. S. Forester Good Shepherd 72 The fewer people who were aware how accurately the Admiralty was able to pin-point U-boat concentrations the better. 1955Times 6 Aug. 8/4 Not only can the exact position of a find be pin-pointed..but the possibility of future researches and future discoveries is preserved. 1977Daily Tel. 18 Nov. 8/8 Amateur archaeologists believe they have pinpointed the site of a large Roman forum..under central Chichester.
b. To identify (an objective) as a target for pin-point bombing.
1940Times 2 Nov. 4/1 Over Naples itself the aircraft crews were able to ‘pin-point’ the targets without great difficulty. 1941Times 30 Sept. 4/7 The pilot managed to pin-point the factory. 1946R.A.F. Jrnl. May 169 Lancasters equipped with ‘H2S’..thundered through the night to pinpoint their objectives.
2. a. To cause to be conspicuous against a large or complex background; to bring into prominence, emphasize.
1943Penguin New Writing XVI. 27 A solitary searchlight would come on suddenly. And, if it pin-pointed you, how you would writhe about the sky trying to shake it off before the endless beams of all the others caught up on you. 1956[see pin-pointing vbl. n.]. 1957Economist 2 Nov. 420/1 Subsequent speakers from Asia, Latin America and Europe took up these themes, each country pinpointing its own problems. 1958P. Mortimer Daddy's gone A-Hunting xli. 239 The world was empty. But tiny, minutely raging, the figure of Rex was pin⁓pointed, the sole survivor. 1974F. Warner Meeting Ends i. v. 24 Lights down to pinpoint Shango in wheel, still spreadeagled, back to audience.
b. To identify precisely; to determine the exact nature of.
1946Birmingham (Alabama) News 5 Jan. 1/6 The Pearl Harbor committee called for photographs of the Navy's ship location board today to pinpoint movements of the Pacific Fleet in the days just before the Japanese attack. 1950Sport 22–28 Sept. 18/1 Johnny..would find it difficult to pinpoint the happiest day of his soccer life to date. 1955Sci. News Let. 23 July 51/1 Tonsils, long under suspicion, have at last been pin-pointed as the primary site of polio infection. 1958Ann. Reg. 1957 186 The House of Representatives asked the President to pin-point where substantial cuts could be made. 1960Analog Sci. Fact & Fiction Nov. 13/1 The only actual trouble we can pin-point is that there seem to be a great many errors occurring in the paper-work. 1971J. Z. Young Introd. Study Man i. 9 There have been many attempts to pin-point the particular environmental or other features responsible for the appearance of man. 1977L. Gordon Eliot's Early Years iii. 63 It is difficult to pin-point the sensibility that moves through Eliot's poems.
II. intr.
3. To dwindle to the size of a pin-point (and disappear).
1957J. Kerouac On Road (1958) ii. vii. 159 They pinpointed out of sight.
Hence ˈpin-pointing vbl. n.; also ˈpin-pointable a., capable of being pin-pointed.
1920Flight XII. 374/2 Practical demonstration of principles learnt in Ground work:—(1) Flight by map alone; (2) Flight by compass alone on pre-determined course and time, turning point to be indicated—pin pointing. 1955D. Barton Glorious Life 71 Here, under his eyes, pinpointable, was the Fall. 1956Essays in Crit. VI. 123 If we pinpoint the personal origin, certainly when the pinpointing is so merely speculative as it seems to be here, we leave out too much. 1962Listener 27 Dec. 1086/1 Current technology, gossip column hearts and flowers..have no direct pin-pointable relation to my work of the moment, but they are not alien worlds. 1967A. L. Lloyd Folk Song in Eng. iii. 150 Even such an apparently pinpointable ballad as ‘Edom o' Gordon’ has an English, a Lanarkshire and an Aberdeen setting. 1970Taylor & Parmar Ground Stud. for Pilots ii. 15 While the pinpointing, plotting and wind finding was going on, so was the aircraft. 1978J. Wainwright Ripple of Murders 53 It was..necessary to..let him know that he could be pin-pointed in King Street..if such pin-pointing became necessary. |