| 释义 |
silo, n.|ˈsaɪləʊ|
[a. Sp. silo (hence also F. silo):—L. sīrum, acc. of sīrus, a. Gr. σιρός a pit to keep corn in.]
1. A pit or underground chamber used for the storage of grain, roots, etc.
1835Partington's Brit. Cycl. Arts II. 692/2 The grain put in his silos, in 1819, was sound and fresh in 1824. 1852Mundy Antipodes (1857) 31 The great curiosity of Cockatoo Island is the Siloes—excavations in the solid rock, shaped like a huge bottle, 15 or 20 feet deep, by 10 wide, with a narrow neck, closed with a stone capsule luted with plaster. 1860Domenech Deserts of N. Amer. II. 278 Winter family provisions are also placed in silos like those of the Arabs. 1894Baring-Gould Deserts S. France I. 245 There are receptacles for the manure cut in the floor, also silos for grain.
2. spec. A pit, or an air- and water-tight chamber, in which green food is preserved for fodder by ensilage (cf. silage); also, a cylindrical tower or other structure erected above ground for storing grain, fodder, etc. Cf. pit silo s.v. pit n.1 15.
1881Leeds Mercury 6 June 7 Storing green maize or rye in air and water-tight concreted pits or ‘silos’. 1885Spectator 21 Feb. 249 Tares are very difficult to deal with in the silo. 1886Stallmaier & Fux tr. Luther's Constr. & Equipment of Grain Magazines 11 A silo is erected with outside walls, and sometimes covered with slates. 1893Times 11 July 4/1 Coarse hop bines may be chopped while green and put into the silo. 1904Wilcox & Smith Farmer's Cycl. Agric. 377/1 The first silos were simply pits dug in the ground... Since about 1875 silos of stone, brick and wood have come into use. 1948Coast to Coast 1947 240 The silos stood up tall and straight, grey against the dazzling sky. A line of wheat-laden vehicles moved slowly up towards the hopper. 1950Amer. Speech XXV. 165 Wherever it is possible to find ground that will be dry all seasons of the year, farmers build ‘pit silos’ and ‘trench silos’ rather than the cylindrical silos entirely aboveground. 1977Daily Tel. 18 Mar. 8/3 The Norfolk agricultural engineering firm, Rowlands Engineers,..has started a three-shift system..to cope with export orders of more than {pstlg}400,000 for grain, coffee and cocoa storage silos.
3. = silage. rare.
1889M. S. van de Velde Cosmopolitan Recoll. II. ii. 44 Near the spot where Mademoiselle de Montpensier, the daughter of Gaston d'Orléans, held her little court, rise the new constructions for the storage of silo. 1898F. P. Dunne Mr. Dooley in Peace & War 17 If they'd put blinders on th' mules, they wudden't be scared back be wan iv thim Spanish fleets that a jackass sees whin he's been up all night, secretly stuffing himsilf with silo.
4. transf. A large bin used for the storage of loose materials, as cement, etc.
1920Glasgow Herald 2 Sept. 3/8 The coal silos are of sufficient capacity to maintain the supply for about 20 hours in the event of the stoppage of the conveyors. 1958Times Rev. Industry May 64/3 Sulphur will be imported at wharves nearby and stored in a concrete silo with a capacity of 5,000 tons. 1961Engineering 9 June 794 Cement now comes in tankers and is stored in silos. 1973Daily Tel. 25 July 2/3 Another [boy]..was trapped up to his waist in a cement silo for nearly three hours.
5. a. An underground structure in which a guided missile is stored and from which it may be fired. Also attrib. Cf. hard a. 14 f, soft a. 19 d.
1958N.Y. Times 15 June 24/4 The system will be protected against neutralization in an enemy attack because the missiles will be installed in concrete-lined underground silos. 1960Aeroplane XLIX. 18/1 For these ‘silo’ squadrons each missile will be emplaced vertically in a reinforced concrete-lined hole, 52 ft. in diameter and about 175 ft. deep. An elevator raises the missile to the surface a few minutes before launching. 1962Engineering 5 Jan. 13 The Atlas-F [rocket] variant is to be housed within a ‘silo’ 174 feet deep and 52 feet in diameter... The first silos for Atlas-F are already under construction. 1968Economist 31 Aug. 14/1 On present plans Minuteman III is scheduled gradually to replace Minuteman I and Minuteman II in the silos that dot the prairies and mountains of the western United States. 1975‘A. Hall’ Mandarin Cypher xiii. 196 The Chinese Republic had silos all over the mainland for reaction–take-off missiles. 1978Daily Tel. 27 July 1/2 Loading the Revenge's 16 ballistic missiles from their hillside silos at Coulport started..yesterday.
b. Comb. silo buster slang, a missile which can destroy an enemy missile in its silo; so silo-busting ppl. a.
1970Nature 3 Oct. 11/1 The smaller but more accurate multiple warheads..are, like the SS-9, silo-busting weapons. 1977Time 3 Oct. 22/3 The U.S. has also become increasingly concerned..about existing rockets that may become ‘silo busters’, with the explosive force and pin⁓point accuracy to destroy U.S. missiles in their underground launchers.
Hence ˈsilo v. trans., to put (green food) into a silo; to turn into ensilage.
1883Standard 5 Dec. 2/3 The cost of siloing grass..was eleven shillings. 1884Pall Mall G. 17 Sept. 3/2 His crop, which was siloed yesterday in Cheshire, only yielded 18 tons per acre. |