| 释义 |
question mark
1. A mark of interrogation, represented by the sign ?
1905T. F. & M. F. A. Husband Punctuation ii. vi. 74 A question-mark is sometimes placed in the middle of a sentence. In such a position it concentrates attention on certain elements of the thought. 1930M. A. Pink Dict. Correct Eng. 147 To complete the list of stops we may mention here that the Question Mark (?) is used at the end of direct questions. 1960Kierzek & Gibson Macmillan Handbk. Eng. ii. 278 A question mark is used after a direct question but not after an indirect question. 1971N. Stacey Who Cares? xii. 207 We agreed that the article should be called ‘A Mission's Failure’. But I thought it ought to have a question mark after it.
2. fig. A point about which there is uncertainty or doubt; an unresolved problem, an enigma. Also, a person whose character is unknown or unfathomable (usu. in some particular respect). Freq. in phr. a question mark hangs (etc.) over (something), there is doubt about (that thing).
1869Lowell Cathedr., This age, that blots out life with question-marks. 1924R. Macaulay Orphan Island xxv. 322 Across the future of Orphan Island..is scrawled a question mark. 1945A. Huxley Time must have Stop xxx. 286 Contemporary science..is engaged in destroying, not only things and lives, but entire patterns of civilization. So we find ourselves faced with yet another set of question marks. 1952M. Allingham Tiger in Smoke xv. 215 Luke was destined to become one of the great policemen... The man was a living question-mark. 1957J. S. Huxley Relig. without Revelation (rev. ed.) iii. 62 The great question-mark of our continuance after death. 1958Daily Express 23 July 4/3 It is a question mark which has been ringing in my mind. 1960Economist 15 Oct. 215/2 Question marks now loom hugely over the future of the white-dominated states of southern Africa. 1963Listener 24 Jan. 152/1 His death will take its place as one of the great question marks in English political history. 1971A. Price Alamut Ambush viii. 95 Razzak, the unknown quantity,..wasn't quite such a question mark since he'd turned up at the Ryle reception. 1973Times 15 Oct. 22/1 The project..is near to completion of its first stage. But a question mark hangs over the second stage. 1974Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) 19 Oct. 6-d/2 Caffery..could become a question mark if his knee does not respond to a couple of operations. 1978G. Greene Human Factor ii. iii. 85 A question mark kept him awake for a long while: had there always been a taxi rank so close to Davis's flat? 1979Nature 15 Feb. 506/1 The question mark hanging over the whole meeting was precisely what principle was at stake.
3. (With hyphens). attrib.
1962Listener 15 Nov. 835/2 The effect of changing Byron's tragic question-mark ending to a kind of ‘redemption’..is quite unconvincing. 1966J. S. Cox Illustr. Dict. Hairdressing 124/1 Question-mark curl, a stand up curl with a very long stem, like a quaver in music. 1973M. Amis Rachel Papers 130 Shaving-cream bubbled inside the nearer of his question-mark ears.
Hence ˈquestion-marked a., accompanied by a question mark.
1950G. Barker True Confession vi. 33, I will not care who Or what you are, save palliation Of the question marked heart. 1975C. Weston Susannah Screaming (1976) x. 52 The guff was already sorted, checked where possible, question-marked where not. |