| 释义 |
▪ I. proximate, a.|ˈprɒksɪmət|
[ad. late L. proximāt-us, pa. pple. of proxim-āre to draw near, approach, f. proxim-us nearest.]
1. a. Closely neighbouring, immediately adjacent, next, nearest (in space, serial order, quality, etc.); close, intimate (quot. 1864).
1597[implied in proximately 1]. 1755Johnson Pref. to Dict. ⁋48 Words are seldom exactly synonymous... It was then necessary to use the proximate word; for the deficiency of single terms can very seldom be supplied by circumlocution. 1836Blackw. Mag. XXXIX. 138 Parts of the..valley are distinguished by [the name] of some proximate village. 1864Pusey Lect. Daniel i. (1876) 27 Crete, with which both Assyria and Tyre were in proximate intercourse.
b. Coming next or very near in time, closely approaching.
1845Stoddart Gram. in Encycl. Metrop. (1847) I. 61/1 A distinct form of imperative for the proximate and distant future. 1862Merivale Rom. Emp. VII. lxiii. 197 In choosing him for their prince, the nobles..may have looked to another proximate vacancy. 1889Science 4 Oct. 228 The enormous consumption of petroleum and natural gas..raises the question as to the..proximate exhaustion of the supply.
2. Coming next (before or after) in a chain of causation, agency, reasoning, or other relation; immediate: opposed to remote or ultimate.
proximate principle, proximate constituent, or proximate element (Chem.), one of those compounds of which a more complex body is directly made up, and which are therefore first arrived at in the process of analysis: so proximate analysis.
1661Glanvill Van. Dogm. xii. 114 We hastily conclude that impossible, which we see not in the proximate capacity of its Efficient. 1771Smollett Humph. Cl. 6 May, The proximate cause of her breach with Sir Ulic Mackilligut. 1819J. G. Children Chem. Anal. 271 The proximate principles of vegetable and animal bodies. 1831[see analysis 3]. 1857W. A. Miller Elem. Chem. III. i. 6 The separation of wheat flour into starch, sugar, gluten, ligneous fibre, and oily matter, affords an instance of proximate analysis. 1881Westcott & Hort Grk. N.T. Introd. §295 Readings that are explicable by the supposition of a common proximate original. 1951Campbell & Gibb Methods of Analysis of Fuels & Oils i. 1 The proximate analysis of coal, which is carried out on coal ground to pass a 72 B.S. sieve and air-dried, involves the direct determination of (a) moisture, (b) volatile matter, and (c) ash, the remainder, the so-called ‘fixed carbon’, being obtained by difference. 1971M. F. Mallette et al. Introd. Biochem. ix. 314 The crude lipid of the proximate analysis found on..certain food labels refers to the nonvolatile material derived by weighing the residue after evaporation of the extraction solvent.
3. Nearly accurate or correct; approximate.
1796in Morse Amer. Geog. I. 667 The proximate breadth behind the toes. 1863Kinglake Crimea I. xiv. 281 In searching for a proximate notion of the extent of the carnage. 1863,1902[implied in proximately 3].
▪ II. † proximate, v. Obs. rare—0.
[f. L. proximāre: see prec. and -ate3.]
(See quot.)
1623Cockeram, Proximate, to aproach or draw neere. |