释义 |
armament|ˈɑːməmənt| [ad. L. armāmentum (in cl. L. only in pl.), f. armāre to arm: see -ment. Prob. after F. armement (16th c. in Littré).] 1. A force military or (more usually) naval, equipped for war. Also fig.
1699Luttrell Brief Rel. IV. 506 To..make a report of what sea armaments are making there. 1718Pope Iliad xx. 153 To guard his life..We, the great armament of heaven came down. 1831Carlyle Sart. Res. iii. v, That boundless Armament of Mechanisers and Unbelievers threatening to strip us bare. 1866Kingsley Herew. xvii. 207 William's whole armament had crossed the channel. 2. Military equipments, munitions of war: spec. the great guns on board a man-of-war.
1721Bailey, Armament, a Store-house for Arms; also the Arms and Provisions of a Navy. 1740Johnson Drake Wks. IV. 456 To view the ship, with the warlike armaments. 1877Echo 25 Oct. 1/5 Their armament will consist of 12 guns. 3. gen. Equipment or apparatus for resistance or action of any kind.
1870Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. (1873) 91 How far above all modern armament is his prophylactic against his insubstantial fellow-lodger. [1880N. Kerr in Med. Temp. Jrnl. July 153 Ergot and other obstetric armamenta.] 4. The process of equipping for purposes of war.
1813Southey Nelson ii. (1854) 71 During the armament which was made upon occasion of the dispute concerning Nootka Sound. 1868H. F. Bourne Eng. Seamen II. 13 With the armament of the navy, Hawkins had not much to do. 5. attrib.
1914W. Raleigh Let. 5 Dec. (1926) II. 407 One has to think of public gains, the private gains being not very obvious except to..armament syndicates. 1919G. B. Shaw Peace Conference Hints vii. 107 Hegemonies are impossible, and attempts at them certain to end in armament races and finally in war. 1936Hansard Commons 5th Ser. CCCIX. 1851 They were engaged in the same armaments race, piling up more and more armaments. |