| 释义 |
▪ I. car, n.1|kɑː(r)|
Forms: 4–7 carre, (5 Sc. caar), 7–8 carr, 6– car.
[ME. carre, a. ONF. carre:—late L. carra, a parallel form to carrus, carrum (whence It., Sp. carro, Pr. car, char, ONF. car, F. char, ME. char), a kind of 2-wheeled wagon for transporting burdens. The L. was a. OCelt. *karr-os, *karr-om, whence Olr. (also mod.Ir. and Gael.) carr masc. ‘wagon, chariot,’ OWelsh carr, Welsh càr, Manx carr, Bret. karr.
(Late L. carra also gave WGer. carra fem., in OHG. charra, Ger. karre, MDu. carre, Du. kar fem., Sw. karra, Da. karre.)]
1. A wheeled vehicle or conveyance:
a. generally—a carriage, chariot, cart, wagon, truck, etc. (Now little used in this wide sense.)
1382Wyclif Isa. lxvi. 16 His foure horsid carres [1388 charis]. c1400Mandeville xi. (1839) 130 Ne Hors ne Carre nouther. c1440Promp. Parv. 62 Carre, carte, carrus, currus. 1480Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV (1830) 122 For cariage..of the Kinges carre..from Grenewiche. 1600Holland Livy xxv. xiii. 556 They sent little above forty carres [vehicula]. 1611Bible 1 Esdras v. 55 They gaue carres that they should bring Cedar trees from Libanus. 1750Beawes Lex Mercat. (1752) 399 Merchants, and others that use Carrs or Carts.
b. From 16th to 19th c. chiefly poetic, with associations of dignity, solemnity, or splendour; applied also to the fabled chariot of Phaëthon or the sun, and so to that in which the moon, stars, day, night, time, are figured to ride in their grand procession. Also in prose, a chariot of war, triumph, or pageantry.
1590Spenser F.Q. i. ii. 1 Phoebus fiery carre In hast was climbing up the Easterne hill. 1594Shakes. Rich. III, v. iii. 20 The weary Sun..by the bright Tract of his fiery carre. 1667Milton P.L. ix. 65 Four times [he] cross'd the Carr of Night. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 795 To draw the Carr of Jove's Imperial Queen. 1738Glover Leonidas iii. 133 The king arose. ‘No more; prepare my car.’ 1758Johnson Idler No. 51 ⁋9 A slave was placed on the triumphal car. 1852Tennyson Ode Wellington 55 And a reverent people behold The towering car, the sable steeds. 1853Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. vii. 93 Whose body opposing the progress of the car of Juggernaut is crushed beneath its monstrous wheels.
c. spec. Applied locally and at special periods to various vehicles in particular; also with defining words, as Irish car, etc.
1576Act 18 Eliz. x. §4 Cars or Drags, furnished for..Repairing..Highways. 1704Worlidge Dict. Rust. et Urb. s.v. Beech, Some approve it much for Cars. 1716Lond. Gaz. No. 5446/2 Carts, Drays, Carrs and Waggons. 1824–7Hone Every-day Bk. II. 240 The common Irish Car is used throughout the province of Leinster..The Irish ‘jaunting car’ [is a] wholly distinct and superior vehicle. 1838Murray's Handbk. N. Germany 318 A Russian Mountain, down which visitors descend in cars. Mod. In some provincial towns (e.g. Birmingham) ‘car’ means a four-wheeled hackney carriage, ‘cab’ meaning a hansom.
d. transf. A miniature carriage or truck used in experiments, etc.
1831Brewster Nat. Magic iv. (1833) 87 The living object AB, the mirror MN, and the lens LL, must all be placed in a moveable car for the purpose of producing the variations in the size of the phantasms.
e. = motor car.
1896L. Serraillier tr. Farman's Auto-Cars 132 The latter drove with a daring which may have been dangerous to himself, but which never affected his car. Ibid. 135 The three cars which came in next after Mr. Levassor's were all Peugeot cars. 1900W. W. Beaumont Motor Vehicles I. 615 Hill-climbing trials alone would not of course be sufficient as a test of the wearing power or durability of a car. 1902A. C. Harmsworth Motors & Motor Driving 23 The first car built by the Daimler Company at Coventry. 1948A. Huxley Ape & Essence (1949) i. 12 He threw the car into gear and we were off.
2. a. ‘In the United States the term has become restricted almost entirely to vehicles designed for travelling on railways’ (in Great Britain known as carriages, trucks, wagons, etc.), or to those used on tramways. Hence in U.S. passenger-car, sleeping-car, coal-car, freight-car, petroleum-car, provision-car, tool-car, etc. (also used in Great Britain, usu. as the second element in combinations). In Great Britain formerly applied regularly to those of street tramways.
1826Laws Commonw. Mass. 4 Mar. c. 183 §5, p. 331 The conveyance of stone and other property, in their cars and vehicles on said railways. 1837H. Martineau Soc. Amer. II. 181 During my last trip on the Columbia and Philadelphia rail road, a lady in the car had a shawl burned to destruction on her shoulders. 1850Lyell 2nd Visit U.S. II. 110 Here we..entered the cars of a railway built on piles. 1854Thoreau Walden iv. (1886) 113 For the last half-hour I have heard the rattle of railroad-cars. 1873C. M. Yonge Pillars of House IV. xlv. 274 Even Pullman's cars shook him. 1875[see Pullman]. 1879G. C. Harlan Eyesight viii. 109 Straining the accommodative apparatus of the eye by reading in a car or carriage. Mod. On account of the snow, the cars on the tramways in London ceased running at eight o'clock. 1899[see buffet n.3 3 b]. 1901M. Carmichael In Tuscany 284 The restaurant car has come in since. a1930D. H. Lawrence Phoenix II (1968) 252 One sits in the breakfast car in the train, coming to London... In America the Pullmans..don't shake like our cars. 1939T. S. Eliot Old Possum's Practical Cats 40 It is Skimble who's in charge Of the Sleeping Car Express. 1967Jane's World Railways 1967–68 p. iii, Computers..are being extended into every possible field of operation.., from sending messages to locating freight cars.
b. ellipt. A car-load. U.S.
1869Trans. Ill. Agric. Soc. 1867–9 VII. 446 A farmer had far better send..one car of good sheep in the twelve months, than six cars of..bad breed. 1902G. H. Lorimer Lett. Merchant 133 The last car of lard was so strong that it came back of its own accord from every retailer they shipped it to. 1948Green Bay (Wis.) Press-Gaz. 30 June 23/4 Receipts were: wheat 38 cars, corn 83, oats 34 and soy⁓beans 9.
†3. Formerly extended to a sleigh or hurdle without wheels. Obs. (So in Gaelic.)
c1400Mandeville xi. 130 Thei let carye here vitaylle upon the yse, with carres that have no wheeles, that thei clepen scleyes. c1470Henry Wallace ii. 263 On a caar wnlikly thai him cast.
4. a. The part of a balloon in which aeronauts sit.
1794G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. III. xxxiii. 404 (Of Air Balloons) To this a sort of carr, or rather boat, was suspended by ropes. 1822J. Imison Sc. & Art I. 171 The car, or boat, is made of wicker-work covered with leather. 1825in Hone Every-day Bk. I. 443 Mr. Graham..seated himself in the car of his vehicle.
b. The cage of a lift. Chiefly U.S.
1870Gold Hill (Nevada) News 25 Aug., The cable fell..upon the car and cage. 1904N.Y. Even. Post 2 Feb. 2 The elevator man seemed to lose control of the elevator at the fifth floor. The car made a sheer drop from the fourth story to the basement. 1943D. Baker Trio iii. 171 When leaving car, close car gate and landing door, otherwise elevator becomes inoperative.
†5. The seven stars in the constellation of the Great Bear, called also the Plough or Wain. Obs.
1633P. Fletcher Purple Isl. i. li, None nam'd the stars, the North Carres constant race. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 210 The Pleiads, Hyads, and the Northern Car.
6. Comb., as car-borne, car-carrying adjs.; chiefly attrib., as car-body, car-boy, car-drive, car-driver, car-ferry, car-gear, car-hire, car-horse, car-key, car-load, car-nail, car-ride, car-ring, car-wheel, etc., etc.; car-owner; car-owning vbl. n. and ppl. a.; see also car-less a.; and esp. in U.S. in sense 2 (where carriage-, truck-, wagon- are used in Britain), as car-axle, car-buffer, car-conductor, car-coupling, car-door, car-fare, car-heater, car-lamp, car-seat, car-spring, car-starter, car-wheel, car-window, etc., etc.; car bomb, a bomb concealed by terrorists in a car, esp. in one that is parked; hence car-bomber, one who plants or employs a car bomb; also car-bombing; car-boot sale, an outdoor sale at which people gather to sell unwanted possessions, produce, etc., from the boots of their cars; car-coat, a short coat designed especially for the use of car-drivers; car-ful, as many or as much as a car will hold; car-hop U.S. colloq., a waiter or waitress who serves customers in their parked cars; cf. bell-hop; hence as v. intr., to act as a car-hop; car-loading, the amount of freight carried in goods trains within a given period; freq. in pl.; also fig.; car-park, a building, open space, etc., for the parking of motor vehicles; also attrib.; car-phone, a radio-telephone designed for use in a motor vehicle; car-port (orig. U.S.), a motor-car shelter, open at the side or front, adjoining or built into a house; car-sick a. [after sea-sick], sick from the motion of a motor car; so car-sickness. Also carman, etc.
1838Civil Eng. & Archit. Jrnl. I. 390/1 The truck is guided by the *carbody with..mathematical precision. 1959New Statesman 1 Aug. 141/1 A car-body firm.
1972Times 18 May 1/1 The explosion of a *car bomb without warning in a loyalist street. 1986Daily Tel. 16 June 1/1 The government blamed the outlawed African National Congress for a car bomb explosion in central Durban that killed three women and injured 68 other people.
1974Ann. Reg. 1973 32 A terrorist campaign to secure the transfer to Northern Ireland of the London *car-bombers sentenced at Winchester. 1985Listener 2 May 4/1 Car bombers are but the most dramatic manifestation.
1972Times 12 May 2/1 With two *car-bombings and the death of a soldier here today, a period of comparative peace in Northern Ireland appears to be ending. 1985Globe & Mail (Toronto) 9 Oct. a15/2 It is the fifth car bombing in a week.
1985Company Dec. 160/1 We cram our own homes solid with junk and then cruise the local *car-boot sales in the hope of acquiring someone else's. 1986Daily Tel. 30 Aug. 10/2, I have furnished the balcony with..a variety of terra-cotta pots bought in France and found in jumble and car-boot sales here.
1827Heber tr. Pindar v. 4 *Car-borne Psaumis.
1959Times 10 June 9/7 The Boulogne–Lyons *car-carrying trains.
1963Punch 10 Apr. p. xiv, Men's wear..includes foam-backed *car coats. 1965Guardian 31 Mar. 16/3 The now ubiquitous car-coat..is usually made from a cotton suedette or brushed nylon shell fabric and lined with an acrylic pile liner.
1863‘G. Hamilton’ Gala-Days 22 The heads of the two columns collide near the *car-door.
1924Geikie Long Life's Wk. 220 We had long walks and still longer *car-drives.
1870‘Fanny Fern’ Ginger-Snaps 182 What troubles me most is, whether I am to pay six cents for *car-fare. 1900Dialect Notes II. 16 A fish-scale..is the nickel with which a [Yale] student pays his car-fare. 1958S. Ellin Eighth Circle (1959) ii. x. 104 She said she needed carfare to get back to school.
1884H. Hall in Rep. U.S. Census of 1880 VIII. 221 Side-wheel *car-ferry Transport..with three railroad tracks on deck. 1898Strand Mag. Apr. 443/2 The..necessity for appeasing the ire of passengers, who were compelled in the old days to change from train to ferry-boat, and then to train again, is the real reason for the existence of the car ferry. 1955‘Lory’ Brit. Railways' Sands across Sea 264 A Car Ferry Terminal has been constructed at..Dover.
1832G. Downes Lett. Cont. Countries I. 207 An occasional *car⁓full of priests.
1808Anderson Cumbld. Ball. (1819) 43 The *car-gear at Durdar she wan.
1959Listener 31 Dec. 1156/1 Even *car-hire services possess a long ancestry.
1937Amer. Speech XII. 320/1 At roadside drive-ins..the waitresses are now being called curbies or *car-hops.
1960J. McManus in Introduction 188, I had another job..*car-hopping six days a week at a little beef-and-burger kerb⁓stand.
1800M. Edgeworth Parent's Assistant V. 75 He had been used..to lead *car-horses. 1907M. H. Norris Veil v. 38 A car-horse, sore-footed and generally weather-beaten..completed this part of his purchase.
1962M. Kelly Due to a Death vii. 123, I dropped the *car key in the table drawer.
1854Thoreau Walden 40, I do not see in my mind any retinue at their heels, any *car-load of fashionable furniture. 1958R. Godden Greengage Summer vi. 72 The car-loads and char-à-bancs of visitors.
1959N. Mailer Advts. for Myself (1961) 210 A *carloading of homogenized words. 1963Economist 21 Dec. 1292/2 Railway shares have benefited especially from such things as consistent increases in carloadings.
1605Sylvester Du Bartas i. iv. (1641) 32/2 *Car-nails fastned in a wheele.
1903Motoring Ann. 91 *Car-owners always consider it a privilege to have Miss Wilson on their front seat. 1925A. Huxley Along Road i. 16, I can talk for hours about motors with other car-owners.
Ibid. 17 *Car-owning may have the worst effect on the character. 1959Daily Tel. 15 Oct. 12 The traffic problems of a car-owning democracy.
1926Daily Mail 1 Dec. 9/6 Glastonbury *Car Park. Indignation has been aroused..by a proposal..to purchase part of the land..as an extra parking space for motor cars. 1935Archit. Rev. LXXVIII. p. xlvi, The car-park problem. 1955Times 9 May 18/2 A large construction programme [in Canada] of multi-deck car parks with direct access to the stores. Ibid. 25 Aug. 8/6 The car park attendant.
[1956Autocar 25 May 615/2 Stockholm now has a regular subscription scheme for car telephone installations.] 1965Newsweek 12 July 63/1 There is a pocket of mobile phone owners in New York..but the fad hasn't yet caught on in other cities, where *car phones are generally for professional purposes. 1971‘A. Burgess’ MF xi. 131 Rod, he said to the constable, get on the carphone to..the manager at the circus. 1986Sunday Tel. 15 June 8/1 It must have been caused by a police mobile transmitter or someone using a car phone nearby.
1939Life 8 May 17/1 At the left is the ‘*carport’ which opens on main entrance of building. 1947Archit. Rev. CII. 117 Above the living-room–kitchen part is an open roof-deck, below the bedrooms a car-port. 1963Sunday Times 21 Apr. 45/6 Terrace houses overlooking Torbay which incorporate tiled carports under the houses.
1902Harben Abner Daniel 25 Now I have a long *car-ride before me, and it's growing late.
1801Southey Thalaba xii. xiii, And clench'd the *car-rings endlong and athwart.
1881Chicago Times 14 May, The employés of the Grand Trunk *car shops are on strike.
1908Lancet 12 Sept. 828/1 Individuals who are *car-sick may be good sailors and vice versâ. Ibid., By car-sickness is meant a series of unpleasant symptoms, as giddiness, staggering, nausea, and vomiting due to riding in a vehicle or even in a baby-carriage. 1941J. P. Marquand H. M. Pulham xxxi. 343 You always get car-sick if you eat too much. 1947C. P. Stewart Sword Between xv. 80 Maria suffered from car-sickness, and frequent stops had to be made.
1884Western Daily Press 2 Apr. 5/7 A *car-washer in the employ of the Great Western Railway.
1854M. J. Holmes Tempest & Sunshine xvii. 239 From the *car windows Fanny watched the long blue line of hills. 1903Kipling Five Nations 115 Where the white car-windows shine.
Add:[6.] car wash orig. U.S., a building or other structure containing equipment for washing motor vehicles automatically; an establishment providing this, or the service itself.
[1923Mod. Lang. Notes XXXVIII. 188 Another series of new words [in California]..has made use of the good old ending -ery of grocery, bakery, etc., thus:..‘bootery’, and ‘car washery’. ]1948Pop. Sci. Feb. 122/2 Even harried motorists often stay beyond their own three minute *car wash time to watch the spectacular blower-drier... Made by Minit-Man Car Wash, of Detroit, Michigan. 1962Guardian 9 Jan. 8/6 An automatic car-wash firm which advertises a five-minute service. 1965R. Hardwick Plotters (1966) xii. 109 Chris sold off his interest in a string of car washes. 1986‘P. Dunant’ Intensive Care iii. 22 He did some shopping and called in at a carwash.
Add:[6.] car lot: see *lot n. 6 c.
▸ car-bomb v. trans. to attack or destroy by means of a car bomb.
1983United Press Internat. Newswire (Nexis) 27 May Guerrillas of the African National Congress have claimed it *car bombed the South Africa Air Force headquarters in Pretoria last Friday. 2005C. L. Killinger Customs & Culture Italy ii. 65 The mafia..promptly retaliated by..car-bombing two Roman churches.
▸ car-bombed adj. attacked or destroyed by means of a car bomb.
1974G. MacEoin N. Ireland i. 30 Their fear is as real as that of the Catholics over in the Falls, a fear confirmed..by every *car-bombed bank and supermarket in the city center. 2004M. C. Miller Cruel & Unusual i. 42 The regime has ignored such deadly possibilities as a car-bombed oil refinery.
▸ car share n. orig. U.S. car-sharing (chiefly attrib.); an instance of this.
1942Gettysburg (Pa.) Times 13 Oct. 1/2 If a group of workers were using the *car-share plan, they were eligible for gasoline rations for all of the machines used by the group. 1998Chicago Tribune 11 Jan. xii. 8/2 The cars usually are within three blocks of a customer's home. A safe at the car-share site contains the keys and is accessible with a car-share key or magnetic card. 2003North Devon Jrnl. (Nexis) 7 Aug. 15 The action plan also calls for investment in a car share database for travellers making similar journeys.
▸ car-sharing n. orig. U.S. (a) an arrangement whereby a car owner gives other people (esp. colleagues) a lift, usually on a regular basis and with drivers taking turns to use their cars; cf. car pool n.; (b) a scheme in which a person buys a share in a car and reserves the use of it for short periods.
1942Reno (Nevada) Evening Gaz. 24 Apr. 10/3 If a man drives to work alone every day, instead of working out a *car-sharing plan with his neighbours, he may take gasoline from a truck that is hauling for a war plant. 1990D. Wann Biologic iv. 201 Several apartment complexes across the country have successful car-sharing programs. Participants sign up for ‘cartime’. 2000Adv. Driving (Inst. Adv. Motorists) Summer 15/2 If you have to commute by car, think about car sharing, Park and Ride schemes or public transport.
▪ II. car n.2
see carr.
▪ III. car, a. Sc.
Also kar, ker.
[a. Gael. cearr wrong, awkward, Ir. cearr left-handed, wrong, cearr-lamhach left-handed, Manx kiare in lauechiare left hand.]
a. Left, sinister: commonly in car-hand, car-handed.
b. Awkward; perverse; wrong; sinister.
c1420Anturs Arth. xlviii, With a cast of the carhonde, in a cantelle he strikes. c1450Wisdom Solomon in Ratis Raving 23 The visdome of the wysman is in his rycht hand, and the foly of the ful in his kere hand. 1548Compl. Scotl. 115 He resauit the vryting in his kar hand. 1597Skene Exp. Wds. s.v. Hebdomas, Vpon the ker and wrang side, was placed the thrid Idole, Frigga. 1808–79Jamieson s.v., If you meet a car-handit person, or one who has flat soles. Ibid. Sc. Prov. You'll go a car gate yet.
▪ IV. car, v.
[f. car n.1]
trans. To place or carry in a car; to car it (colloq.): to go by car. Also intr.: to go by car.
1791E. Darwin Bot. Gard. i. 119 Car'd on the foam your glimmering legion rides. 1861E. Forbes in Life xiv. 501 The ladies and I prepared to car it to Killarney. 1907Daily Chron. 23 Sept. 4/4 You just get out of your train, walk or ‘car’ to your hotel. |