| 释义 |
preventive, a. and n.|prɪˈvɛntɪv|
[f. L. type *præventīv-us, f. prævent-, ppl. stem of prævenīre: see prevene and -ive; cf. inventive. So mod.F. préventif.]
A. adj.
†1. That comes or goes before something else; antecedent, anticipatory. Obs.
1641Milton Ch. Govt. ii. Wks. 1851 III. 142 A preventive fear least the omitting of this duty should be against me when I would store up to my selfe the good provision of peacefull hours. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. 73 Atoms..were not then directed by any previous Counsel or preventive Understanding. 1698Norris Pract. Disc. IV. 147 The First is previous to our Repentance, and indeed wholely preventive of any thing we can do.
2. a. That anticipates in order to ward against; precautionary; that keeps from coming or taking place; that acts as a hindrance or obstacle; spec. preventive arrest, preventive detention, preventive maintenance, preventive war.
1639Fuller Holy War i. ix. (1840) 15 A preventive war, grounded on a just fear of an invasion, is lawful. 1769Blackstone Comm. IV. xviii. 251 This preventive justice consists in obliging those persons, whom there is probable ground to suspect of future misbehaviour, to..give full assurance to the public, that such offence as is apprehended shall not happen. a1822C. Ellis Clergyman's Assist. 325 [Chapter heading] Statutes preventive of blasphemy and profaneness. 1828Southey in Q. Rev. XXXVII. 227 Politics, if it content itself with devising remedies for immediate danger, instead of acting with preventive foresight, ceases to be a science. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 116 The preventive nature of punishment. 1908Act 8 Edw. VII c. 59 §10 (1) Where a person is convicted on indictment of a crime,..and subsequently the offender admits that he is or is found by the jury to be a habitual criminal, and the court passes a sentence of penal servitude,..the court..may pass a further sentence ordering that on the determination of the sentence of penal servitude he be detained for such period not exceeding ten nor less than five years,..and such detention is herein-after referred to as preventive detention. 1918E. Pound Let. 15 Nov. (1971) 140 The wholesale preventive arrests surely prevented another rising... Similar preventive arrests would have prevented the Easter rising. 1932Rep. Dept. Comm. on Persistent Offenders iv. 14 in Parl. Papers 1931–2 (Cmd. 4090) XII. 553 Preventive Detention is a sentence intended for ‘professional’ criminals or criminals who definitely give themselves up to a career of serious crime. 1945Facts on File 28 Feb. 70/2 Paris reports that the French police have released from ‘preventive detention’ P. G. Wodehouse, British novelist. 1948H. Nicolson Diary 29 Nov. (1968) 155 A preventive war is always evil. 1953B. V. Bowden Faster than Thought iv. 86 The technique of preventive maintenance..has considerably reduced the number of valve failures which occur while the machines are running. 1959Listener 16 Apr. 674/1 Southern Rhodesian Government publishes a new preventive detention bill. 1963New Statesman 22 Feb. 260/1 Preventive detention, a relatively humane experiment begun in 1908 and modified 40 years later, has been finally adjudged a failure and abolished. 1966Schwarz & Hadik Strategic Terminol. 130 Preventive war, war initiated to prevent the enemy from making gains he might be expected to make if he were allowed to initiate the war, or that he might make without resorting to war if not forcibly opposed in good time. 1967E. Duckworth in Wills & Yearsley Handbk. Managem. Technol. vi. 119 Preventive maintenance, a scheme for regular overhaul of equipment to prevent unexpected breakdown.
b. Med. Having the quality of preventing or keeping off disease; prophylactic. spec. preventive medicine.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iv. xiii. 230 Physicke is either curative or preventive. 1722De Foe Plague 36 Posts of Houses..were plaster'd over with Doctor's Bills..set off with such Flourishes as these, (viz.) Infallible preventive Pills against the Plague. [1769W. Buchan Domestic Med. ii. 531 Dr Mead recommends a preventive medicine.] 1870Food Jrnl. I. i. 22 Preventive medicine received a great impulse by the labours of Coleman in relation to ventilation. 1881J. Simon in Nature 18 Aug. 372/2 Those parts of pathology which make the foundation of preventive medicine. 1884Pall Mall G. 20 May 7/2 The celebrated scientist hopes..that the dogs inoculated by him with preventive virus will prove the correctness of his investigations. 1926Eng. Rev. Sept. 315 What preventive medicine can do is illustrated by the clearing up of the infective diseases of Panama. 1957A. Huxley Let. 22 Feb. (1969) 818 If we could combine Krishnamurti with old Dr Vittoz's brand of psychotherapy..and a sensible diet, we would have solved the problem of preventive medicine. 1963Lancet 19 Jan. 145/2 (heading) Statistical methods in clinical and preventive medicine.
c. Belonging to that department of the Customs which is concerned with the prevention of smuggling; spec. of or belonging to the Coast Guard.
1827Lytton Pelham vii, After having met..one officer on the preventive service. 1833H. Martineau Loom & Lugger i. i, The Preventive Service..To prevent prohibited goods being brought on shore; to prevent smugglers' boats from landing. 1873Mrs. H. Wood Mast. Greylands I. 31 The heights were tolerably flat, and..the preventive men were enabled to pace. 1884Pae Eustace 222 Preventive stations were planted at every harbour or likely landing-place.
3. = preventer 3 b.
1831J. Holland Manuf. Metal I. 110 When the blocks were made secure to the chain, two capstans and also two preventive capstans commenced working. c1860H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 19 What is the use of yard tackles? For hoisting in and out boats and spars,..and for preventive braces.
B. n.
a. A preventive agent or measure; a means of prevention; a hindrance, obstacle, obstruction.
a1639Wotton Let. to Dr. C. in Reliq. (1651) 487 Though it be a natural preventive to some evils. 1769Blackstone Comm. IV. i. 10 Where the evil to be prevented is not adequate to the violence of the preventive, a sovereign that thinks seriously can never justify such a law to the dictates of conscience and humanity. 1860Mill Repr. Govt. (1865) 126/1 Such a federation is more likely to be a cause than a preventive of internal wars. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 747 These [beverages]..are in most people powerful preventives of sleep.
b. Med. A drug or other medical agent for preventing disease; a prophylactic.
1674R. Godfrey Inj. & Ab. Physic 203 Yet would I not have you think there are no Preventives, or means to preserve Health for the future. 1789W. Buchan Dom. Med. (1790) 481 When used as a preventive, it will be sufficient to rub daily a drachm of the ointment into the parts about the wound. 1802Med. Jrnl. VIII. 21 If properly conducted, it is a preventive of small-pox, and he has practised it himself with success. 1871G. H. Napheys Prev. & Cure Dis. i. viii. 237 A more potent preventive has been found.
c. A contraceptive; = preventative n. c.
1822F. Place Illustr. & Proofs Princ. Population v. 150 The proposals of Mr. Malthus, to persuade the poor that they have no right to eat.., as well as Mr. Godwin's infanticide, are..proposals to commence at the wrong end. The remedy alone can be found in preventives. 1901E. B. Foote Home Cycl. iv. vii. 1137 To lessen the ‘vicious employment of preventives’ outside of marriage. 1911R. Brooke Let. Mar. (1968) 292 The Church'll declare that God gave every man the Right-not-to-use-Preventives. 1943R. Malkin Marriage, Morals & War 159 In 1940, when Lieutenant Colonel Gardner of the United States Army Medical Corps gave happy birth to the idea of a pamphlet explaining venereal diseases, which..would be sold together with a set of preventives and prophylactics. 1961A. H. Nethercot First Five Lives A. Besant vii. 117 Before marriage, pure will power and moral determination were to be the only preventives. Physical preventives were..against the will of God.
Hence preˈventiveness.
1890in Cent. Dict. |