| 释义 |
conductor|kənˈdʌktə(r)|
Forms: α. 5 conduyt(t)our, -ditour, 6 -duyter, -duiter. β. 5–8 -ducter, 6–7 -ductour, 6– -ductor.
[Two types: α. ME. conduitour, a. OF. conduitor, -our, -eur:—L. conductōr-em, agent-n. from condūcĕre to conduct. Under the influence of L. the F. was sometimes spelt conduicteur in 14–15th c., and was finally superseded by the mod.F. form conducteur (14th c. in Littré) after L. Hence, in Eng. also, β. conductor, in conformity with the Latin.]
I. A person, etc. that conducts, leads, guides, etc.
1. a. One who leads, guides, or escorts; a leader, guide (lit. and fig.).
1481Caxton Godfrey (E.E.T.S) li. (heading), Faynyng to be a trewe conduytour and guyde. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 71 b, The sterre of grace as our chefe conductour and gouernour. a1530Everyman in Hazl. Dodsl. I. 126 O ransomer and redeemer! Of all the world hope and conduyter. 1632Hayward tr. Biondi's Eromena 37 The conductors-backe of the she-slave. 1684Bunyan Pilgr. ii. 144 Pray do you go along with us, I will be your Conductor. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) IV. 275 The elephant's conductor is usually mounted upon its neck. 1836Dickens Sk. Boz, Visit to Newgate, Following our Conductor..we arrived at a small door.
†b. One who brings or procures, a bringer. Obs. rare.
c. One who introduces.
1681Crowne Hen. VI, iii. 37 Thou hast been conductor of my shame. 1802Ann. Reg. 176 The persons intrusted to swear others, or, in the phrase of society, to initiate them, were termed conductors.
†2. One who conveys or carries goods, a carrier.
c1530Ld. Berners Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814) 63 They toke al the stuffe, and dyd bette and iltrete theym that were conductours therof. 1622Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 148 Goods and merchandises sent by land..by the Conductors or Carriers to Venice, Frankford, or any other places.
3. Mil.
a. ‘An assistant to a commissary of military stores, to conduct depôts or magazines from one place to another’ (Crabb); originally, a driver of artillery or ammunition wagons; see also quot. 1778.
1650R. Elton Milit. Art (1668) 224 The Commissioner that hath the charge..hath for his assistence 24 Conductors or more, according to the number of Waggons, each mounted and armed. 1661J. B. Brief Instr. Exerc. Cavalry 19 A Principal Conductor for the Artillery for draught Horses and Ammunition. 1745Gentl. Mag. 249 Artillery..Wounded. 1 Conductor, 2 Serjeants, 1 Corporal. 1778Milit. Dict., Conductors are assistants given to the commissary of the stores, to receive or deliver out stores to the army, to attend at the magazines by turns, when in Garrison, and to look after the ammunition waggons when in the field. 1808Wellington 8 Aug. in Gurw. Disp. IV. 71 One clerk of stores who is also Paymaster, and five conductors of stores.
b. By Royal Warrant of 11th Jan., 1879, Conductors of Supplies and Conductors of Stores were raised to the rank of ‘Warrant Officers’; they are now employed in the general duties of the Detachment to which they belong, much in the same way as a Subaltern Officer is.
1879Queen's Regulations, Duties of Conductors ⁋4 §7 Conductors of the Army Service corps and Ordnance Store corps will supply the place of subaltern officers when required, but they will not sit as members of Courts of Inquiry or on Regimental boards.
II. A commander, director, manager.
†4. A commander, leader (esp. military or naval). Obs. See conduct v. 4.
c1450Merlin 392 A goode conditour that sette light by theise enmyes. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 201/1 Duc and conduytour of thoste. c1490― Blanchardyn 158 Men of armes..Of the whiche ben conducters & chieff rulers, the kyng of fryse, etc. 1555Eden Decades 59 Lupus Olanus the conductor of one of the shippes of Nicuesa. 1590Sir J. Smyth Disc. Weapons 46 Archers on horseback under their Captaines or conductours. 1624Darcie Birth of Heresies iii. 12 Iephta Iudge, and Conductor of the Israelites. 1649Selden Laws Eng. i. lxv. (1739) 138 They came in a warlike manner, under one conducter, whom they called a King. 1864Kirk Chas. Bold II. iv. iii. 420 The ‘conductors’ or commanders of companies, received their commissions from the duke.
5. One who conducts or manages (a business, undertaking, journal, etc.); see conduct v. 6.
1634W. Tirwhyt tr. Balzac's Lett. 28 You precede in the affaires of Europe, by being conductor of the Fortune of France. 1753Smollett Ct. Fathom (1813) II. 110 One would have imagined he had been conductor to Madam Catherina from his cradle. 1790Beatson Nav. & Mil. Mem. I. 181 This glorious enterprize, does the conductors of it the greatest honour. 1799Med. Jrnl. I. 423 [Letter] To the Conductors of the Medical and Physical Journal. 1843Miall Nonconf. III. 1 No effort on the part of its conductors, will be wanting to render it an interesting journal. 1854Tomlinson Arago's Astron. 91 He sent a communication to the conductors of the Berlin Observatory.
6. Mus. The director of an orchestra or chorus, who indicates to the performers the rhythm, expression, etc., of the music by motions of a baton or of the hands.
Now always distinguished from the leader or player of the principal instrument (usually the first violin) in an orchestra; the two functions were formerly not clearly differentiated. A historical account is given in Grove Dict. Mus. s.v.
1784–5Ann. Register 334 Conductor, Joah Bates, Esq. 1820in Grove Dict. Mus. s.v., The programmes of the Philharmonic Society (founded 1813) for the first seven years always end with..‘Leader Mr. ―, Pianoforte Mr. ―’..With the second concert of 1820 (March 20) the announcement changes to ‘Leader, Mr. Spagnoletti; Conductor, Mr. Cramer’. 1824Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 173 Our conductor (to borrow a musical term) is but a little farmer's second son. 1846Philharm. Soc. Programme (Grove), Conductor, Signor Costa.
7. The official who has charge of the passengers, collects fares, and generally directs the proceedings, on an omnibus, tram-car, or (in U.S.) railroad train (= F. conducteur). (The guard on an English railway has similar but less comprehensive functions.)
1832Amer. Railroad Jrnl. I. 721 Seat for the conductor. 1837Penny Mag. 31 Mar. 117 He who hangs behind ― who opens the door and receives the money..is conductor or, in the vulgar tongue, cad. 1851Mayhew Lond. Labour (1861) III. 355 (Hoppe) ‘I'm a conductor now, but wouldn't be long behind a 'bus, if it wasn't from necessity.’ 1856E. With Railroad Accidents 90 Want of communication between the conductor and the engine driver. 1873S. Smith Romance of the Rail (N.Y.) 9 Nor will a prudent Conductor leave the depot without the final ‘all aboard’. 1882Freeman in Longm. Mag. I. 90 ‘Conductor’ for ‘guard’. 1889Lond. Gaz. 30 Apr. 2381/1 (Tramway Bye-laws) The conductor of each carriage shall enforce these Bye-laws and Regulations. 1944Reader's Digest Mar. 17 Engineers, firemen, conductors, trainmen, switchmen.
III. 8. One who hires; a lessee, farmer, tenant. [Only as Latin.]
1652Needham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. 87 To becom a hirer or Conductor of the Sea. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Conductor (L.), a Tenant that Rents a House, or Land; an Undertaker of Work for Hire. 1875Poste Gaius iii. (ed. 2) 423 It is the locator who pays the price and the conductor who performs the service. 1880Muirhead Gaius 538.
IV. A thing that conducts, forms a channel, etc.
9. a. Anything that conducts, leads, or guides; a channel by which water, etc. is conducted.
1796Morse Amer. Geog. I. 166 This lake..is supposed to be the source or conductor of one branch of the river Bourbon. 1840Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. I. iii. 347 The main conductors and large drains. 1852Seidel Organ 55 Sometimes..the upper-board contains a number of holes, from which tubes project, into which the pipes are placed..called conductors. 1870T. Holmes Syst. Surg. (ed. 2) IV. 1045 A staff..to act as a guide or conductor for the knife to enter the bladder. 1882Pall Mall G. 6 July 6/2 That the Congo will be the chief conductor of trade into the centre of Africa.
b. A medium which transmits or conveys any disease or other condition.
1807Med. Jrnl. XVII. 109 This impurity of the air did not serve as a conductor of contagion. 1878tr. Ziemssen's Cycl. Med. XVII. 26 The non-bleeder women in bleeder families are in fact the most frequent and most efficient ‘conductors’ (Vieli, Grandidier) of hæmophilia.
†10. Surg. An instrument formerly used in lithotomy as a guide for the introduction of the forceps into the bladder, a gorget. Obs.
1706in Phillips (ed. Kersey). 1847South tr. Chelius Surg. II. 572 The gorget, conductor or dilator was then entered on the groove of the staff, the staff drawn back, and the neck of the bladder enlarged with the gorget. Ibid. II. 579 The left hand grasped the male conductor and the right carried the female, guided by the male, into the bladder.
11. Physics. A substance having the property of conducting or permitting the passage of heat, electricity, or other form of energy: see conduct v. 9 c. Hence good c., bad c., non-conductor.
1745W. Watson in Phil. Trans. XLIII. 482 note, I call non-electrics or Conductors of Electricity those bodies..such as wood, animals living or dead, Metals, etc. 1751Franklin Lett. Wks. 1840 V. 260 The terms electric per se and non-electric should be laid aside as improper..the terms conductor and non-conductor may supply their place. 1800–8Henry Epit. Chem. (ed. 5) 36 Water is a conductor, though a slow and imperfect one, of caloric. 1812Sir H. Davy Chem. Philos. 78 Gasses are worse conductors [of heat] than fluids, and fluids than solids. 1873B. Stewart Conserv. Force iii. 61 Metal is a conductor, while glass is an insulator, or non-conductor, of electricity.
12. a. A device or arrangement (e.g. a wire, rod, or the like) for conducting electricity; that part of a cable, etc., by which the electricity is conducted.
1737Desaguliers in Phil. Trans. XLI. 193, I call Conductors those strings, to one end of which the rubb'd Tube is applied. Ibid. 206 If a long Non-electrical String be fasten'd to an Electrical per se, and extended to a great distance..all Bodies fasten'd at the End of it will become electrical..This String we have called the Conductor of Electricity. 1863Wynter Subtle Brains 332 The gutta-percha covering, which formed the water-tight envelope to the wire, became so soft that it allowed the conductor to get out of the centre. 1879Prescott Sp. Telephone p. iii, In 1837, Steinheil discovered..that the earth would serve as a conductor, thereby saving one wire in forming a circuit.
b. The name of certain parts of a frictional electric machine; particularly, of a massive peculiar-shaped piece of brass, insulated and fixed to the stand, for collecting the electricity; often termed the prime conductor.
1751Franklin Exper. Electr. 59, I have a large prime conductor made of several thin sheets of Fuller's paste⁓board. 1880Gordon Electr. & Magn. (1883) I. 9 On turning the handle [of the friction machine], the conductor becomes highly charged with positive electricity. 1882Watts Dict. Chem. II. 379 On turning the cylinder, the glass acquires positive electricity, the cushion and the brass conductor attached to it negative electricity, and the positive charge of the glass is transferred to the prime conductor.
c. Short for lightning-conductor: a pointed metallic rod fixed to the summit of a building (or the mast of a ship) as a defence against lightning, to conduct the atmospheric electricity away into the earth (or sea); a lightning-rod.
1761E. Kinnersley Let. 12 Mar. in B. Franklin Exper. on Electr. (ed. 4, 1769) 394 The lightning..had passed through the iron conductor which he had provided for the security of his house. 1764in N. F. Moore Hist. Sk. Columbia Coll. (1846) 49 Ordered, that a conductor be fixed to the cupola of the college, as a security against lightning. 1770J. L. Winn in Phil. Trans. LX. 188 An account of the appearance of Lightning on a Conductor. 1822Byron Let. to Moore 23 Nov., The conductor (Franklin's) of my house was struck by a thunderbolt. 1884W. L. Carpenter Energy in Nat. 95 Care should be taken..that their lower ends lead into damp ground; the neglect of this..will make the best-laid conductor practically useless.
d. conductor rail, in electric traction, the metallic rail through which the current transmits motive power to the moving car.
1900Daily News 21 May 10/3 The electric contact obtained by a conductor-rail on either of the outward sides of the track. 1903Westm. Gaz. 30 Mar. 6/2 The new motor-cars on the Central London Railway are dependent on the current supplied to them by the conductor rail. 1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 189/1 Conductor-rail ramp, a sloping contact-surface at the beginning and end of a section of conductor-rail; it serves for leading the collector⁓shoe of the train smoothly on to and off the rail. |