| 释义 |
army|ˈɑːmɪ|
Forms: 4–5 armee, 5 armeye, 5–6 arme, armye, 6 armey, 6–7 armie, 6– army.
[a. F. armée, cogn. with Sp., Pg., Pr. armada, It. armata, subst. use of pa. pple. of L. armāre, to arm, lit. ‘act of arming, armament, armed force.’ The concrete sense is late in Fr. and Eng., and occurs first in reference to a naval force; cf. armada.]
I. Literal senses.
†1. An armed expedition by sea or land. Obs.
c1386Chaucer Prol. 59 In the grete See At many a noble Armee [v.r. arme, armeye] hadde he be. 1489Caxton Faytes of Armes ii. xxxviii. 160 They that by the see wol goo, be it in armee or to som other adoo. 1502Arnold Chron. (1811) Introd. 37 This yere [21 Edw. IV] y⊇ kinge made a gret Army into Scotland. 1525Ld. Berners Froiss. II. xvii. 33 They gette the duke of Burgoyne in great desyre to make an armye into Englande.
2. gen. An armed force (by sea or land); an assemblage of men for belligerent purposes; a host. Obs. exc. when qualified, as in a land-army.
c1460Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. (1714) 52 If ther come a sodein Armye upon this Lond, by See or by Land. 1556Chron. Grey Friars (1852) 25 The kynge went to Callys with a grete armé agaynst France. 1603Knolles Hist. Turkes (1621) 1314 He sent a navall armie towards the mouth of the river Danowe. 1751Chambers Cycl. s.v., A naval or sea Army is a number of ships of war, equipped and manned with sailors and marines, under the command of an admiral. 1865F. Paley æschylus 113 He gave the instant order to his land-army and rushed away.
3. spec.:
†a. A naval armament, an armada, a fleet. Obs.
1545Lisle Disp. 24 June in State Papers (1830) I. 791 The rest of tharmye comyng out of Thames..sholde be in the Downes. 1588D. Archdeacon (title) A true Discourse of the Armie [i.e. ‘Spanish Armada’]..assembled in the hauen of Lisbon. 1652Needham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. 270 The King commanded that 21000l. should bee paid to his Armie; (For so that Fleet is called every where in English Saxon) which rode at Grenewich. 1751–86[see 2].
b. A land force; a body of men armed for war, and organized in divisions and regiments each under its officer, the whole body being under the direction of a commander-in-chief or general. (The common use.)
Standing army, an army of professional soldiers kept permanently on foot, as distinguished from one raised on a special occasion and again disbanded, as were the English armies before the 17th century.
1557–8Act 4 & 5 Mary iii. §5 During the tyme that any Armye or nomber of Men being under a Leiutenaunte, shalbee assembled and continue together. 1579Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 16 Caligula lying in Fraunce with a greate armie of fighting menne. 1605Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. xvii. §8 Prejudicial..to the proceeding of an army to go about to besiege every little fort or hold. 1762Kames Elem. Crit. (1833) 487 A number of men under the same military command, are termed an army. 1831Carlyle Sart. Res. iii. iv, After the invention of fire-arms and standing-armies.
4. the Army: the whole of the regular troops or land forces of a state; the military service. (This use came gradually in with the formation of a standing army; its growth may be traced in the title ‘The Army,’ applied to the parliamentary forces c1647, to the forces of James II in 1687, and to those of William III, when it seems to have been fully established.)
[1647(title) Two Letters of his Excellencie Sir Thomas Fairfax..Published at the instant desire of the Army. 1686James II in Royal Tracts (1692) 13 Let no man take exception that there are some Officers in the Army not qualified according to the late Tests.] 1698–9Act 11 William III, viii, An Act..to..determine the Debts due to the Army, Navy, and for Transport-Service. 1712Steele Spect. No. 544 ⁋4 Such Gentlemen as have served their Country in the Army. 1714Ibid. No. 566 ⁋4 A Man who goes into the Army a Coxcomb will come out of it a sort of Publick Nuisance. 1860H. Martineau Biog. Sk. (1876) 204 Entering the army at the age of thirteen. Mod. The eldest son is in the Army, the second at the Bar. Toast, The Army, Navy, and Volunteers.
II. Figurative and transferred senses.
5. transf. A vast assemblage, resembling an army in number; a ‘host,’ a multitude:
a. of men.
c1500Virgilius in Thoms Prose Rom. 22 He raysed a great armey of people. 1525Ld. Berners Froiss. II. ccxxvii. Argt., Of the great armye [Heading, assemble] that was made in the citye of Reynes. 1535Coverdale 2 Kings v. 15 He [Naaman] turned agayne..with all his armye. 1611Bible Ezek. xxxvii. 10 They liued, and stood vp vpon their feet, an exceeding great armie. Mod. A whole army of waiters was engaged for the banquet.
b. fig. of things. arch.
1596Spenser F.Q. v. v. 34 Armies of lovely lookes and speeches wise. 1628Coke On Litt. Pref., You shall meet with a whole Army of words. 1675Traherne Chr. Ethics ii. 16 When we can cheerfully look on an army of misfortunes. 1751Watts Improv. Mind (1801) 377 The army of my sins rises up before me.
6. (fig. from 3.) A marshalled host.
1593Shakes. Rich. II, iii. iii. 87 Mustring..on our behalfe, Armies of Pestilence. 1611Bible Joel ii. 25 The caterpiller, and the palmer worme, my great armie. 1845Whately Let. in Life (1866) II. 77 It is time that these two armies [the two opposed parties in the House of Commons] should as soon as possible be disbanded. 1857Livingstone Trav. v. 104 An army of locusts.
7. (fig. or transf. from 2, 3, 4.) A body of men organized for a purpose, or viewed as striving for the advancement of a cause. Hence assumed by such organizations as the Salvation Army, the Blue Ribbon Army.
1543Te Deum in Primer, The noble armye of Martyrs do prayse the. 1712Addison Spect. No. 465 ⁋1 Latimer, one of the glorious Army of Martyrs. 1855Kingsley Glaucus (1878) 1 The ignoble army of idlers. 1878Christian 16 May (heading), Gospel-Temperance in Hoxton. A ‘Blue Ribbon Army.’ Ibid., Hard-working men who have only recently joined the ‘Blue Ribbon Army.’ 1879Chr. World 23 May 330/4 The band of people calling themselves ‘The Salvation Army.’ 1883W. Booth in Whitaker's Almanac 439/1 The Salvation Army was commenced as a Christian Mission in 1865..In the course of 1878..the name ‘Salvation Army’ was taken.
III. Comb. and attrib. (chiefly from sense 4): as army-council, army-man; also army ant, a popular name for certain predatory ants (esp. of the genera Dorylus and Eciton) which move about in swarms (also called driver ants, visiting ants, etc.); army-broker, -clothier, -contractor, -furnisher, who carry on their respective businesses on behalf of, or in connexion with, the Army; army co-operation, co-operation of the air force with the army; freq. attrib.; army-corps, a main division of an army in the field; † army-debenture, a security for money lent on behalf of the Army; army-list, an official list of all the commissioned officers of the Army; Army Service Corps (in 1918 renamed Royal Army Service Corps), that part of the army establishment which is concerned with commissariat and transport; previously called the Commissariat Staff Corps; abbrev. (R.)A.S.C.; army-worm U.S. the larva of any of various destructive moths.
1874T. Belt Naturalist in Nicaragua ii. 17 Ecitons, or Foraging Ants... In Nicaragua they are generally called ‘Army Ants’. 1961P. Gray Encycl. Biol. Sciences 41/1 Ant colonies may contain..several millions, as in the African Anomma army ants.
1858Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. I. lxiv. 247 Being in the position of what was called an army-broker.
1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 547 He had become an army clothier.
1817Coleridge Biogr. Lit. 242 Whose father had made a large fortune..as an army-contractor.
1935C. G. Burge Compl. Bk. Aviation 532/2 Co-operation with the army is performed by army co-operation aircraft. 1940E. C. Shepherd Britain's Air Power 26 They are called Army Co-operation aeroplanes and they work invariably with and for the Army.
1868Gladstone Juv. Mundi xi. (1870) 431 The members of the Army-council contend freely in argument with Agamemnon.
1702Lond. Gaz. mmmdcccxxxviii/4 Lost..a Pocket-Book, wherein there was two Army-Debentures.
1870Pall Mall G. 19 Oct. 11 Accompanied by an army-furnisher.
1814Scott Wav. lxi, This good lady had the whole army-list by heart. 1857Mrs. Gaskell Let. 5 June (1966) 451 Will you send me an East Indian Army-List, if there is such a thing? 1935G. Greene Basement Room 152 He would look up his record in the old Army Lists when he got home.
1674Hickman Hist. Quinquart. 133 Many of those Army-men..gloried..in trampling all Law and Right under foot.
1871Hansard CCVI. 961 The Army Service Corps is divided into three branches—supply, transport, and stores, with officers and men attached. 1900S. L. Norris S. Afr. War iii. 57 To Cape Town there went from England..two companies A.S.C. 1916‘Boyd Cable’ Action Front 124 Army Service Corps supply points. 1930J. Fortescue (title) The Royal Army Service Corps. A History of Transport and Supply in the British Army.
1819D. Thomas Travels Western Country 155 The army worm..has ravaged the meadows. 1852Let. in De Bow S. & W. States I. 171 They..lay millions of eggs..and thus they increase until they deserve the name of army worm. 1865Pall Mall G. No. 192. 6/1 Seriously injured by the army-worm. 1961R. South Moths Brit. Isles (ed. 4) 1st Ser. 205 The White speck or American Wainscot (Leucania Unipuncta)..is known in America..as the ‘Army Worm’.
▸ colloq.you and whose (also what) army?: = you and who else? at who pron. 4a.
1932Amer. Speech 7 338 You and what army?—‘You are not able to do it alone.’ 1963Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune 20 Mar. 5 (caption) You and what army, buster? 1975J. Rosenthal Bar Mitzvah Boy & Other Television Plays (1987) 91 Neville (to Danny): Hit him. Danny (a touch scared): I will in a minute. Alec: Yeah? You and whose army? 2003K. Shay Trust in Me 56 Doc cackled. ‘Yeah? You and whose army?’ |