| 释义 |
abaft, adv. and prep.|əˈbɑːft, -æ-|
Also 4 obaft.
[a prep.1 on, at, + baft, bæft, bi-æften, OE. be-æftan, itself a combination of be, bi, prep. about + æftan, adv. behind, back. See baft and aft.]
A. adv.
†1. Of direction: backwards. Obs.
c1275Cursor Mundi 22150 Gött. MS. The watris for to rin on baft. Cotton MS. The burn[i]s for to rin obaft. (Other MSS. of baft, on bafte.)
2. Of position: literally, back, behind, in the rear. From an early period, it seems to have been confined to a ship (in reference to which its immediate source baft is also found in the 14th c.); the bows are the foremost, and the stern the aftermost part, hence abaft means ‘In the after part or stern half of the ship.’
1628Digby Voyage to Medit. 46 She was in excellent trimme (drawing 15 foote abaft and 14 and 3 inches before). 1677London Gazette mcxciv. 4 The St. Mary of Ostend with 22 Men,..having two Guns, one afore, and the other abaft. 1748Anson Voyage ii. iv. (ed. 4) 220 Her upper works were rotten abaft. 1833Marryat Peter Simple (1863) 256 I hove the log, marked the board, and then sat down abaft on the signal chest. 1863Kingsley Water Babies vii. 271 But Tom and the petrels never cared, for the gale was right abaft, and away they went over the crests of the billows.
3. By extension from the nautical term.
1797T. Bridges Homer Travestie II. 237 Two heads are twice as good as one; When one stands forward, one abaft, They spy all matters fore and aft.
B. prep. [The adv. defined by an object.] In the rear of, behind. Only in nautical lang., with reference to a ship or any specified part of her.
1594Davis Seamens Secrets (1607) 6, I may say in the Seaman's phrase..in the time of her separation she is abaft the Sunne. 1599Hakluyt Voyages II. i. 187 The Boteswaine of the Galley walked abaft the maste, and his Mate afore the maste. 1757Robertson Portsm. Docky. in Phil. Trans. I. 292 Beside, the mawls worked at several shoars set up abaft the said 64 feet. 1825H. B. Gascoigne Path to Naval Fame 53 Abaft the Beam impelling breezes blow. 1857S. Osborn Quedah ii. 31 A little cabin, which I saw abaft the mainmast. 1860Maury Phys. Geog. Sea xv. 642 The wind is aft, through the north-east just abaft the beam. |