| 释义 |
back-cloth, backcloth
[back- A. 4.]
1. Calico-printing. A cloth placed between the fabric that is being printed and the ‘blanket’, in order to keep the latter clean. Also called back-grey.
1874W. Crookes Pract. Handbk. Dyeing & Calico-Printing viii. 552 The revolution of the blanket, back-cloth, and pieces is regulated by the following contrivance. 1897C. F. S. Rothwell Print. Textile Fabrics 34 The back tenter's work is to guide the piece and back cloth into the machine. 1901A. Sansone Print. Cott. Fabrics (ed. 2) 420 For keeping the blanket clean, the back cloth is allowed to go between the blanket and the printing cloth.
2. Theatr. The painted cloth hung across the back of the stage as the principal part of the scenery. Also transf. and fig.
1886Cornh. Mag. Oct. 435 They gazed awestruck at the backcloth and the flies. 1926Spectator 10 July 44/2 Thirty acres or so for a stage and the whole firmament of heaven for a back-cloth. 1927Observer 6 Nov. 9 The background..is not a carefully constructed scene, but only a flimsy and dim back-cloth. 1955Times 31 Aug. 9/2 Hanging indeed like a backcloth to Mr. Lennox-Boyd's tour, is the policy and power of China. 1955G. S. Fraser in J. Wain Interpretations 214 A river, for a Restoration poet, would be primarily..a backcloth for pastoral.
3. Naut. ‘A triangular piece of canvas fastened in the middle of a topsail-yard to facilitate the stowing of the bunt of the topsail’ (Cent. Dict. 1889). |