| 释义 |
▪ I. counterbalance, n.|ˈkaʊntəˌbæləns|
Also 6–9 with hyphen.
[counter- 8; in sense 4 app. from the vb.]
†1. The opposite scale of a balance. Obs.
1580Sidney Arcadia (1622) 120 As it were two counter⁓ballances, that their estate goes highest when the people goes lowest. 1581― Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 48 If nothing be put in the counter-ballance.
2. A weight used to balance another weight; spec. that used to balance the weight of a rotating or ascending and descending part, so as to make it easily moved and to diminish its momentum when in motion; also to cause a rotating body to return to a particular position after being moved, etc.
1611Cotgr., Contrebalance, a counterbalance, a counterpoise. 1730A. Gordon Maffei's Amphith. 404 It comes out a Foot further than the Wall..to serve as a Counter⁓ballance. 1794G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. I. cxi. 82 The air is always a counter-balance to itself. 1875R. F. Martin tr. Havrez' Winding Mach. 54 Employment of Counterbalance Chains. This counterbalance is made of large iron rings hung to the end of a chain with flat links, and working up and down a staple pit. 1889Pall Mall G. 27 Apr. 2/1 All the piston has to do..is to sustain the weight of the passengers, as the counterbalance lifts the car.
3. fig. A power or influence which balances the effect of a contrary one.
1640in Hamilton Papers (Camden) App. 261 Hee held the Hammiltons a good counterballance to weigh the House of Lenox downe. 1745J. Mason Self Knowl. i. (1853) 134 Self Knowledge..will be a happy Counter-balance to the Faults and Excesses of his natural Temper. 1824Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 151 As a counter-balance to her other perfections. 1876Bancroft Hist. U.S. V. lxix. 320 Freedom was in his eyes a counterbalance to poverty, discord, and war.
†4. Weighing of one thing against another; comparison. Obs.
c1645Howell Lett. (1650) II. 23 [This] will appear if we cast them in counterbalance.
▪ II. counterbalance, v.|ˌkaʊntəˈbæləns|
[counter- 1.]
†1. trans. Of a person: To weigh against. Obs.
1603Florio Montaigne i. xix. (1632) 31 He is verie unworthie her acquaintance, that counter-ballanceth her cost to his fruit, and knowes neither the graces nor use of it.
2. Of a thing: To act as a counterbalance to; to counterpoise.
1611Cotgr., Contrebalancer, to counterbalance or counter⁓peise..to make of equall weight with. 1665R. Hooke Microgr. 223 The greatest height of the Cylinder of Mercury, which of it self counterballances the whole pressure of the Atmosphere. 1751C. Labelye Westm. Br. 117 The Thrust or lateral Pressure of those Arches is intirely counter⁓ballanced and destroyed. 1822J. Imison Sc. & Art I. 119 If a guinea..be counterbalanced by 129 grains in the opposite scale of the balance. 1840–56S. C. Brees Gloss. Civil Engin. 123 A weight employed to counterbalance the vibrating parts of machinery upon their axes.
3. fig. To balance or neutralize the effect of, by a contrary power or influence.
1636E. Dacres tr. Machiavel's Disc. Livy II. 347 Nor let Hannibals opinion counterballance this. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. 687 These Mechanick Theists are again counterballanced by another sort of Atheists, not Mechanical. 1776Adam Smith W.N. I. i. viii. 91 Two opposite causes seem to counterbalance one another. 1866Geo. Eliot F. Holt (1868) 4 A meeting-place to counter-balance the alehouse.
Hence counterˈbalanced, counterˈbalancing ppl. adjs.; counterˈbalancer, an arrangement in an organ acting as a counterbalance.
1611Cotgr., Contrebalancé, counterbalanced, counter⁓peised. 1651Howell Venice 77 Venice made a counter⁓balancing League with the King of Boheme. 1839R. S. Robinson Naut. Steam Eng. 105 An eccentric pulley, with its counterbalancing weight to the long diameter. 1875R. F. Martin tr. Havrez' Winding Mach. 37 The saving of coal by means of counterbalanced drums. 1881C. A. Edwards Organs 43 An arrangement of what are called counterbalancers is used. |