| 释义 |
absorption|əbˈsɔːpʃən|
[ad. L. absorptiōn-em a swallowing, n. of action f. absorpt-us: see absorpt.]
The act or process of swallowing up or sucking in. Hence,
I. Swallowing up.
†1. The swallowing up or engulfing of bodies. Obs.
1597J. King Jonah (1864) xxii. 139 The absorption or burial. a1656Bp. Hall Rem. 24 (1808) The aversion of God's face is confusion..but his whole fury is the utter absorption of the creature. 1753Chambers Cycl. Suppl. Absorptions of the Earth, a term used by Kircher and others, for the sinking in of large tracts of land, by means of subterranean commotions.
2. a. The swallowing up or disappearance of things through their inclusion in or assimilation to something else; incorporation in something else.
1741Warburton Alliance Ch. and St. 165 (T.) Of the ancient Greek philosophy..its gradual decay, and total absorption in the schools. 1834Gen. Thompson Exerc. (1842) III. 201 But at the same time that copyists were being thrown out of employ, printers must have been in demand; here then was one way for the absorption of at least a portion of the copyists. 1860All Y. Round No. 68, 418 The absorption of dialects by the Latin..gave a great impulse to civilisation. 1878Seeley Stein III. 415 A provision expressly intended to prevent the absorption of peasant-holdings.
b. Med. and Path. Removal of tissues or deposits by natural process, or by the use of medicines.
1804Abernethy Surg. Observ. 16 Another curative indication naturally arises which is to promote the absorption of the new formed substance. 1881Mivart Cat 20 Spaces are then formed in this substance by absorption.
3. Entire engrossment or engagement of the mind or faculties.
1855Dickens Lett. (1880) I. 379 The absorption of the English mind in the war. 1859Geo. Eliot A. Bede 26 It was an expression of unconscious placid gravity of absorption in thoughts that had no connection with the present moment. 1875Farrar Silence & Voices ix. 164 Blind, groping, illiberal absorption in some mechanical routine.
II. Drinking in.
4. a. The sucking in of fluid or of particles dissolved therein; the taking up of imponderable agents, such as light.
1744Warrick Injection in Phil. Trans. XLIX. 489 Wherein the power of absorption seemed very considerable. 1794J. Hutton Philos. Light, Heat, & Fire 89 Such are the laws observed in the various absorption and reflection of light. 1794Sullivan View of Nat. V. 329 The Arena, so called from its being covered with sand for the absorption of the blood. 1854Balfour Outl. Bot. 133 When liquids are brought into contact with the leaves of plants, absorption takes place. 1871Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (ed. 6) I. ii. 35 In this transfer..consists the absorption of radiant heat.
b. spec. in (a) Electr. (See quots.)
1884O. Heaviside in Electrician 2 Feb. 270/1 If we pass an electric current..across the junction, there will be, by elementary principles, a continuous absorption of energy. Ibid. 271/2 The absorption of energy is at the zinc surface where the current goes with the E.M.F. 1904Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 2/1 Electrical Absorption, the storing up of a part of the electrical energy of a charged condenser by the dielectric.
(b) Nucl. Physics and Radiology. The reduction in intensity of a beam of radiation during its passage through matter. Also attrib.
1899Rutherford in Phil. Mag. XLVII. 128 The absorption coefficient for the α radiation is 1·6, or 160 times as great. 1923Glazebrook Dict. Appl. Physics IV. 582/1 The absorption of β rays is investigated by placing thin sheets of the absorbing material in the path of the rays and measuring the activity through different thicknesses. 1926R. W. Lawson tr. Hevesy & Paneth's Man. Radioactivity vii. 77 We can detect the increased absorption... Such ‘absorption edges’ enable us to determine the ‘levels’ of a series. 1943Gloss. Terms Electr. Engin. (B.S.I.) 143 Absorption-coefficient, of a homogeneous substance, for X-rays of a given wavelength, the ratio of the linear rate of change of intensity at any point to the intensity at that point. 1947G. Thomson Atom (ed. 3) xi. 99. Experiments show that these discontinuities in absorption, or Absorption Edges as they are called, are extremely well marked. 1958Optima Mar. 36/1 Neutron absorption converts uranium 238 into element 94—plutonium.
(c) Acoustics. (See quot. 1900.)
1900W. C. Sabine in Amer. Architect 7 Apr. 4/2 Sound, being energy, once produced in a confined space, will continue until it is either transmitted by the boundary walls, or is transformed into some other kind of energy, generally heat. This process of decay is called absorption. Ibid. 12 May 44/1 An attempt to connect the rate of decay..with the absolute co-efficient of absorption of the wall. 1958B.S.I. News Aug. 8/2 Measurement of the absorption coefficient in a reverberation room.
(d) Radio. Loss of power in the transmission of radio waves. Also attrib. Hence also in Radar.
1914Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 1913 607 (title) Atmospheric Refraction and Absorption as affecting Transmission in Wireless Telegraphy. 1931B.B.C. Year-Bk. 435/1 Absorption Control. A method of ‘controlling’ the high-frequency oscillations delivered to the aerial in a wireless telephone transmitter, so that they vary in amplitude at the low frequency of modulation. Ibid., Absorption Wavemeter. A wavemeter consisting of a low-loss oscillatory circuit which is tuned to the transmission to be measured. 1948Taylor & Westcott Princ. Radar iii. 26 The related concept of effective absorption area Aa of an aerial.
(e) Refrigeration. (See quots.)
1922Glazebrook Dict. Appl. Physics I. 689/2 Absorption Machines..act by the absorption of one substance by another, to form a solution or compound, and the subsequent separation of the constituents by the agency of heat. 1949Gloss. Terms Refrigeration (B.S.I.) 4 Absorption system, a system in which the variation of solubility with temperature or pressure is employed to produce refrigeration.
5. Physiol. The imbibing of fluids by the vessels or tissues of the body; esp. the reception of nutritive material by the lacteals of the intestine.
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Absorption in the animal economy is used for that power whereby the small open orifices of vessels imbibe liquors. 1848Carpenter Anim. Phys. 37 It is by means of the membrane lining the digestive cavity, that the functions of digestion & absorption are performed. 1881Mivart Cat 167 Another process, which is ancillary to nutrition and secretion, is termed Absorption.
III. 6. Comb. absorption band, ‘a region of darkness produced in the spectrum of white light which has passed through an absorbing medium’ (Brit. Med. Dict. 1961) (cf. spectrum-band); absorption coefficient, a numerical quantity expressing the degree to which a substance absorbs something; spec. = absorbance; absorption factor Optics and Photometry (see quot. 1940); absorption lines, the dark lines of an absorption spectrum (cf. spectrum-line, and Fraunhofer); absorption spectrum (see quot. 1940).
1867J. Hogg Microsc. i. ii. 121 For most *absorption-bands particularly if faint the prism would be used in the first position. 1905Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. xi. 698/2 An examination of the transmitted light in the spectroscope will show dark bands in its spectrum corresponding to the wave length of the light absorbed by the substance. The bands are called absorption bands, and their nature, position, and extent..serve to identify the substance.
1899Rutherford in Phil. Mag. XLVII. 141 The results given in the previous table allow us to determine the *absorption coefficient of air at various pressures. 1947Radiology XLIX. 320/2 The total amount of energy absorbed as beta rays to produce the same effect is given by the product of the median lethal dose in rep times the surface area of the animal..divided by the absorption coefficient of the particular beta emission used. 1950Chambers's Encycl. XII. 699/2 The solubility of a gas is sometimes expressed by its absorption coefficient, which is the number of volumes of gas..which dissolve in unit volume of liquid. 1963R. W. Ditchburn Light (ed. 2) xv. 551 Observations on the transmission in a homogeneous medium which absorbs, but does not scatter, the light are summarized in Lambert's law... L(z) = L0e-2αz. The constant 2α is called the absorption coefficient.
1932Gloss. Terms Illum. & Photom. (B.S.I.), *Absorption factor. 1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 3/2 Absorption factor, the ratio of the difference between the total luminous flux falling on a surface and the sum of the fluxes transmitted through and reflected from the surface, to the total luminous flux falling on the surface.
1889Cent. Dict. (s.v. absorption), (caption) Part of Solar Spectrum, showing *Absorption-lines. 1928D. Brunt Meteorol. v. 39 This effect is shown in the spectrum by..a number of narrow dark lines running across the spectrum in definitely fixed positions, marking the absence of the light absorbed. Each element in the absorbing medium produces its own set of dark absorption lines.
1879Hartley & Huntington in Proc. R. Soc. 235 In order to ascertain whether isomeric bodies exhibited similar or identical *absorption spectra a series of benzene derivatives was examined. 1940Chambers's Tech. Dict. 4/1 Absorption spectrum, the system of absorption bands, or lines, seen when a selectively absorbing substance is placed between a source of white light and a spectroscope. 1950Sci. News XV. 89 Oxyhæmoglobin and oxychlorocruorin have each their characteristic absorption spectrum.
Add:[III.] [6.] absorption costing Comm., a method of calculating the cost of a product or enterprise by taking into account all production expenses, including overheads.
1953Nat. Assoc. Cost Accountants Bull. Apr. XXXIV. 1081 This company has continued to use *absorption costing in arriving at inventory costs. 1969D. C. Hague Managerial Econ. xiii. 290 There is nothing absorption costing can do that marginal costing, properly handled, cannot. 1990R. Izhar Accounting, Costing, & Managem. ii. xix. 294 In the UK the official recommendation is to use absorption costing... It would be fair to say that financial accountants are more concerned with absorption costing, management accountants with marginal costing. |