释义 |
combustible, a. and n.|kəmˈbʌstɪb(ə)l| [a. Fr. combustible, f. late L. combūstibil-is, f. combūst-, ppl. stem of combūrĕre; see combure.] A. adj. 1. Capable of being burnt or consumed by fire, fit for burning, burnable.
1529More Heresyes iv. Wks. 264/1 The fire can..burne al combustible thinges that it may towch. 1631Gouge God's Arrows i. §19. 26 Multitudes of faggots, or other combustible fuell. 1666Pepys Diary 2 Sept., Everything, after so long a drought, proving combustible. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VII. 345 Stubble, and such like combustible matter. 1850Prescott Peru II. 255 Orgonez..set fire to the combustible roof of the building. 2. fig. Easily kindled to violence or passion; excitable; inflammable.
1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. (1843) 17/1 This distemper was so universal, the least spark still meeting with combustible matter enough to make a flame. 1698W. Chilcot Evil Thoughts iv. (1851) 37 The mind of man is combustible; the thoughts of his heart are mere tinder to the sparks of a lewd fancy. 1762Hume Hist. Eng. (1806) IV. lix. 416 The commons, aware of what combustible materials the army was composed. 1867Parkman Jesuits N. Amer. xiii. (1875) 153 It was to the combustible hearts of female recluses that the torch was most busily applied. †3. Burning, fiery. Obs.
1632Lithgow Trav. ix. 391 This last and least fire [of Etna], runne downe in a combustible flood. B. n. A combustible substance or matter.
1688in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 344 IV. 113 Eight or nine barrels of combustibles. 1748Anson's Voy. ii. vi. 198 Pitch, tar, and other combustibles. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 80 All our ordinary combustibles—such as coal, wood, oil, etc. b. fig.
1813Sir R. Wilson in Life II. 475 Metternich works up the combustibles in Switzerland for a spring explosion. |