| 释义 |
big tent, n. orig. U.S.
Brit. |ˌbɪg ˈtent|, U.S. |ˌbɪg ˈtent|
[‹ big adj. + tent n.1]
1. A large tent used to accommodate a public event or spectacle, esp. an (evangelistic) religious gathering or a circus; cf. big top n. at big adj. and adv. Special uses 2. Also fig. and in extended use.
[1835Times 31 Oct. 3/2 A big tent capable of holding 3,000 people..was pitched during the months of August and September in different parts of the western reserve for public worship, where no stationary meeting houses are to be had.] 1843Ohio Repository 28 Sept. 3/2 The Millerites are holding forth to crowded audiences in their Big Tent at Cincinnati. 1886Newark (Ohio) Daily Advocate 8 Sept. 4/3 It has..a very fair menagerie of ten cages and a big tent performance, whose equal has not been seen in Scranton for good while. 1930Internat. Jrnl. Ethics 41 14 Humanism is an expansive trisyllable, a veritable ‘big-tent’ of a word, sheltering many varieties of performance under its spreading canvas. 1961Mountain Democrat (Placerville, Calif.) 21 Sept. 3/5 Big tent evangelistic meetings, sponsored by the Highway Bible church, started Sunday in Shingle Springs in the Roadside Gospel tent. 1964Times 10 Sept. 9/2 He was confident that the overwhelming majority of Mississippians had no wish to crowd into President Johnson's big tent and share the company assembled there. 2003Christian Sci. Monitor (Electronic ed.) 11 Apr. 17 (heading) A circus family reveals the ups and downs of life under the big tent.
2. Baseball. The major leagues. under the big tent: in the major leagues.
1905Washington Post 2 July 2/1 The players under the big tent to-day are mighty finical in their ideas. 1945Berkshire (Mass.) County Eagle 1 Aug. 12/1 He had lost games in the Piedmont League and he'd lose plenty more up in the big tent. 2001Sporting News 2 July 10/2 He might have preferred playing for his boyhood team, but Crede didn't have control over that part of his ascent to baseball's big tent, not after the White Sox made him their fifth-round selection in the 1996 draft.
Compounds. attrib. Polit. of or designating a political doctrine or strategy of inclusiveness which embraces a broad spectrum of views and opinions among its members rather than insisting on strict adherence to party policy.
[1962Appleton (Wisconsin) Post-Crescent 29 June a6/3 If the Democratic party were a single unity, with a common viewpoint, Kennedy could count on a dependable majority. But the party has seldom been like this. It's like a big tent, sheltering liberals and conservatives.] 1987New Yorker 21 Dec. 115 We're running a big-tent campaign—we never let anybody unite a major faction against us. 1999Independent (Electronic ed.) 16 Feb. Reporters asked if the inclusion of non-Labour Party members in the campaign represented ‘big tent’ politics. 2001Independent 2 Jan. i. 1/2 They suspect that Mr Blair will fudge key issues in the Labour manifesto in an attempt to repeat the ‘Big Tent’ appeal to all sections of society. |