| 释义 |
complementary, a. and n.|kɒmplɪˈmɛntərɪ|
[f. complement n. + -ary: cf. mod.F. complementaire.]
A. adj.
1. a. Forming a complement, completing, perfecting.
complementary bone: an accessory bone in the lower jaw of reptiles and birds. complementary cells, complementary tissue: cells or tissue of plants not distinguished by a special term. (Syd. Soc. Lex.)
1836Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 141/1 The muscular system.. finally, provided with a complementary skeleton or frame⁓work by means of which it acts to the best advantage. 1860Westcott Introd. Study Gosp. vii. (ed. 5) 368 The ‘Gospel of St. Paul’ is..the complementary history to that of St. Matthew. 1877Sparrow Serm. xxii. 300 The latter complementary and completing of the former. 1884Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 561 The elements termed by Stahl the complementary cells of the lenticel.
b. Of two (or more) things: Mutually complementing or completing each other's deficiencies.
1860Westcott Introd. Study Gosp. v. (ed. 5) 284 Histories..not contradictory but complementary. 1882J. Hawthorne Fortune's Fool i. xxvii, A united and mutually complementary pair.
c. complementary angles: angles which together make up a right angle. complementary colours (hues, etc.): colours which, in combination, produce white or colourless light.
1829Nat. Philos. I. Optics xvii. 47 (Useful Knowl. Soc.) The accidental colours have also been called complementary colours. 1831Brewster Optics xii. 103 The colour transmitted is always complementary to the one reflected, or which, when mixed with it, would make white light. 1873tr. Helmholtz' Pop. Lect. 256 The after-image accordingly appears of a bluish green, the complementary colour to red.
d. complementary goods (see quots.).
1891W. Smart tr. Böhm-Bawerk's Positive Theory Capital ix. 170 Thus, for instance, paper, pen and ink, needle and thread, cart and horse, bow and arrow,..and so on, are complementary goods. Ibid. 175 Almost every product is the result of the co-operation of a group of complementary goods consisting of uses of ground, labour, fixed and floating capital. 1892Palgrave's Dict. Pol. Econ. 380/1 Complementary goods, this expression is used by the Austrian economist Menger..who describes goods as of first, second, or higher rank in order of production... This conception becomes of special interest when the value of the complementary goods is considered for each separately.
e. complementary distribution: in Linguistics, a distribution of two or more similar or related speech-sounds or forms in such a manner that they appear only in different environments.
1934M. Swadesh in Language X. 123 The criterion of complementary distribution. If it is true of two similar types of sounds that only one of them normally occurs in certain phonetic surroundings and that only the other normally occurs in certain other phonetic surroundings, the two may be sub-types of the same phoneme. 1942C. F. Hockett Ibid. XVIII. 9 If a and b are in complementary distribution (i.e. if they occur in mutually exclusive positions), they may be..members of the same phoneme. 1949E. A. Nida Morphology (ed. 2) ii. 44 (heading) Determination of allomorphs by complementary distribution. Ibid., The three types of plural formatives..are all in complementary distribution. 1953C. E. Bazell Ling. Form 7 But complementary distribution does not here imply irrelevance. 1965W. S. Allen Vox Latina 9 The fact that an initial t in English (as in tin) is more strongly aspirated than a final t (as in hat) is not responsible for any difference of meaning, since the two varieties occur only in different environments, and so cannot contrast with one another—they are in ‘complementary’ and not parallel distribution.
f. complementary function: in Math., that part of the general solution of a linear differential equation which is the general solution of the associated homogeneous equation obtained by subsituting zero for the terms not containing the dependent variable.
1841D. F. Gregory Examples of Processes of Differential & Integral Calculus ii. iv. 295 As operating factors of the form (d/dx)2 + n2 very frequently occur in differential equations, it is convenient to keep in mind that the complementary function due to it is of the form C cos nx + C′ sin nx. 1920H. T. H. Piaggio Elem. Treat. Differential Equations vii. 88 An elegant but somewhat artificial method for finding the complete primitive of a linear equation whose complementary function is known. 1957I. N. Sneddon Elem. Partial Differential Equations iii. 97 If u is the complementary function and z1 a particular integral of a linear partial differential equation, then u + z1 is a general solution of the equation.
†2. Ceremonious: = complemental 4. Obs.
1628Earle Microcosm. liv. (Arb.) 76 Whose entertainments to greater men are respectfull, not complementary. 1657S. W. Schism Dispach't 372 Nothing but a dry complementary precedency to walk, stand, or speak first.
B. n.
†1. A master of accomplishments. Obs.
1599B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. v. ii, Amo. Is he a master? Cri. Confirmed under the hands of the most skilful and cunning complementaries alive.
2. Short for ‘complementary colour’.
c1865J. Wylde in Circ. Sc. I. 83/2 Their complementaries come in view on the analyser being moved.
Hence compleˈmentariness, complementary quality or state.
1881Le Conte Sight 61 This..seems a probable cause of complementariness.
Add:[A.] [1.] g. Designating or pertaining to medicine seen by its practitioners as complementary to traditional or orthodox medicine but not based on modern scientific knowledge and not recognized by the majority of medical practitioners. Cf. alternative medicine s.v. alternative a. 7.
1981Which? Aug. 473/3 Many alternative practitioners prefer the terms complementary or supplementary therapies for their work. 1982Fulder & Monro Status Complementary Med. in U.K. i. 1 After extensive consideration of titles such as ‘alternative medicine’, ‘fringe medicine’ or ‘natural therapeutics’ we have decided to use the term ‘complementary medicine’ to describe systems..which stand apart from but are in some ways complementary to conventional scientific medicine. 1986Here's Health Apr. 128/1 Alternative, or complementary, medicine..stands for systems of medicine which treat people rather than disease. 1986Guardian 18 May 3/1 Treatments ranging from acupuncture to Bach flower remedies were condemned as divisive and negative by the two leading organisations for complementary medicine. 1987Daily Tel. 3 Mar. 11/1 About one in seven of us visit some form of ‘natural’, ‘alternative’, ‘unorthodox’ or ‘complementary’ therapist each year. 1988Natural Choice i. 15/1, I would advise you to see a doctor or a complementary practitioner. 1989S. Fulder Handbk. Complementary Med. (rev. ed.) ii. 31 Some doctors of the author's acquaintance assume that complementary therapy patients are either neurotic or hypochondriacal. 1989Brit. Med. Jrnl. 6 May 1200/2 Conventional and complementary treatment for cancer. |