| 释义 |
▪ I. chute, n.1|ʃuːt|
Also 9 shute.
[Here there appears to be a mixture of the F. chute fall (of water, descent of a canal lock, etc.), and Eng. shoot. The former appears to have been adopted in North America in sense 1, and the application gradually extended to include senses which originate with shoot, and are still commonly so spelt in England.]
1. A fall of water; a rapid descent in a river, or steep channel by which water escapes from a higher to a lower level.
[1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 287 Gulleys or channels..where, upon hasty rains, great shoots of water had been used to run.] [1793J. MacDonell Diary in C. M. Gates Five Fur Traders (1933) 71 [We] slept at the chute a Blondeau. ]1805Amer. St. Papers, Ind. Affairs (1832) IV. 736 (Stanf.), By..lightening the boat, they passed the chutes this evening. 1806Ibid. V. 736 About four miles below the ‘chutes’ (falls) they, from a good observaton, found the latitude. 1835in J. Hall Stat. West (1836) ii. 40 The bars..are composed of fine gravel..and occur..at the lower junction of the chutes formed by the islands. 1847Longfellow Ev. ii, ii. 15 They swept with the current—Now through rushing chutes among green islands. 1884Harper's Mag. June 116/1 We dropped down a glassy chute into an extensive basin. 1908S. E. White Riverman iv. 30 Immediately below Reed's dam ran a long chute strewn with boulders, which was alternately a shallow or a stretch of white water according as the stream rose or fell. 1968R. M. Patterson Finlay's River 108 The two voyageurs brought the canoe with pole and line up through the canyon and up to the steep chute at its head.
2. a. A sloping channel or passage for the conveyance of water, or of things floating in water, to a lower level; in North America, an opening in a river dam for the descent of logs, etc.
[1808A. Parsons Trav. Asia xi. 241 At this place the ships are supplied with water..conveyed into the boats by shutes made on purpose.] 1878Lumberman's Gaz. 18 Dec. 426 The gates [of the dam] are opened, the logs are run through the chute, and sufficient water is furnished to carry them below. 1880Ibid. 1 Jan. 28 The rafts..at Ottawa, are guided through a ‘slide’ or ‘chute’ to the mills where they belong. 1881Standard 22 Jan. 5/1 If the winter is mild the logs cannot be ‘hauled’ from the ‘stump’ to the ‘shoot’ on the river bank.
b. A fish-way. U.S.
1871Game Laws Ohio in Fur, Fin & Feather (1872) 61 An act to provide for the erection and maintenance of ‘chutes’ for the passage of fish over the dams.
3. a. A steep channel or enclosed passage down which ore, coal, grain, or the like is ‘shot’, so as to reach a receptacle, wagon, etc. below. In England, usually shoot. Also transf.
1829Amer. Advertiser (Phila.) 29 July 2/3 The chute of the Railway extends from the side of a mountain to a bed of a river. 1869‘Mark Twain’ Innoc. Abr. lviii. 626 They dragged us up a long inclined chute... This chute..was walled, roofed and floored with solid blocks of Egyptian granite. 1872― Roughing It lii. 380 Under the bins are rows of waggons loading from chutes and trap-doors in the bins. 1881Raymond Mining Gloss., Chute, A channel or shaft underground, or an inclined trough above ground, through which ore falls or is ‘shot’ by gravity from a higher to a lower level. 1882Pidgeon Engineer's Hol. I. 271 The rattle of the pumps, and heavy falls of ore in the chutes. 1883Stevenson Silverado Sq. 81 A rusty iron chute on wooden legs came flying like a monstrous gargoyle across the parapet. 1968Gloss. Terms Mechanized & Hand Sheet Metal Work (B.S.I.) 6 Chute, a device for guiding materials or workpieces by gravity.
b. A narrow passage or enclosure for cattle or sheep. (Cf. branding-chute, branding vbl. n. 2.)
1881Rep. Indian Affairs (U.S.) 8 The contractor puts the cattle..in a chute, where they are branded. 1916B. M. Sinclair Phantom Herd xix. 307 The big four year old steer prodded up the Chutes into shipping cars. 1920Mulford J. Nelson xxv. 259 You can build a chute that'll hold eight head [of cattle]. 1961Times 14 Nov. 12/6 [In Australia] The event begins with the cowboy mounting the horse that he has drawn in a narrow railed enclosure called a chute. 1965J. S. Gunn Terminol. Shearing Ind. i. 14 Chute. Also called the ‘porthole’, this is a low opening and ramp through which the shorn sheep are passed down to the counting-out pen.
attrib.1911Mulford Bar-20 Days xx. 197 Chute-branding robbed them of the excitement..which they always took from open or corral branding.
c. An inclined plane or roller coaster at a fair, circus, etc.
1908[see chute v. 1]. 1919F. Hurst Humoresque 271 The comet-tail plunge of shooting the chutes; the rocketing skyward, and the delicious madness at the pit of the stomach on the downward swoop. 1934W. Saroyan Daring Young Man (1935) 236 The beach is the place..where you can ride the chutes and other things, and there is a merry-go-round.
4. The steep slope of a spoil-bank beside a quarry or mine, down which rubbish is shot; also, a steep slope for tobogganing.
1884Pall Mall G. 28 Aug. 2/1 Most of the inscriptions found at Assos were in the chutes of earth beneath this part of the Agora, the blocks evidently having been thrown down during the troubles of the city. 1888Detroit Free Press 7 Jan., Last winter there weren't half enough toboggan chutes to accommodate the people. 1888Pall Mall G. 3 Sept. 13/2 Marine tobogganing..The artificial slope rises from high water mark to the height of 32 ft. above it..The chute is 178 feet long.
5. In Isle of Wight, a steep cutting affording a passage from the surface above a cliff to the lower undercliff ground. Also spelt shute, shoot.
1847–78Halliwell, Chute, Shoot, a steep hilly road. I. Wight. 1879Jenkinson Guide I. of Wight 94 A branch road ascends the cliff by what is known as the St. Lawrence or Whitwell Shute.
▪ II. chute, 'chute, n.2|ʃuːt|
Colloq. abbrev. of parachute.
1920Ace Apr. 15/4 Jumping backwards from the wing..Heenan dropped over 1,000 feet before the chute opened. 1931Flight 2 Jan. 9/1 Figures recently compiled by the Irving Air Chute Company indicate that two lives are saved for every one hundred chutes which are put in service. 1934A. G. Macdonell How Like an Angel ii. vii. 129 Film-king's perilous death-leap... Takes life in hands... Will 'chute spread? 1958Times 9 May 13/7 Less than an hour later the big ship touches ground, the 32-foot-diameter chute billowing astern to brake it.
▪ III. chute, v.|ʃuːt|
[f. chute n.1]
1. a. trans. To send down through a chute.
1884Harper's Mag. May 872/1 Logs..are often chuted down from the lofty ridges.
b. to chute the chute(s: to slide in a car or boat down an inclined plane that terminates in a pool of water (in a fairground, etc.). Also (U.S.), chute-the-chutes used as n.
1908Daily Chron. 5 June 5/4 The grand finale..of the show is the chuting of the chute by big elephants. 1922N.Y. Times 9 July vi. 14/3 Bathing pools, ‘dip-the-dips’, scenic railways, chute-the-chutes. 1943R. C. Geist Hiking 56 It was like Coney island without the chute-the-chutes. 1961L. Mumford City in History xiii. 379 At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the aristocratic love of speed came out in the more popular chute-the-chutes.
2. To drive into or pen up in a chute. U.S.
1920Mulford J. Nelson xxi. 234 Anybody knows that chutin' em [sc. cattle], and stampin' on th' brand is easier. |