| 释义 |
stand-by
[f. vbl. phr. stand by: see stand v. 70, 91.]
I.
1. a. Naut. A vessel kept in attendance for emergencies.
1796in Nicolas Disp. Nelson (1846) VII. p. xci, Meleager [a ship] is my only stand-by and every week I must send something to Genoa for news.
b. An order or signal for a boat to stand by (see stand v. 91 e); attrib. in stand-by bell, the ringing of a bell in the engine-room of a vessel as a signal to stop the engines.
1896Kipling Seven Seas 46 (M‘Andrew's Hymn) Losh! Yon's the ‘Stand-by’ bell. Pilot so soon?
c. The state of being immediately available to come on duty if required; readiness for duty. Also transf. Usu. in phr. on stand-by. orig. Naut.
1946R. E. Higginbotham Wine for my Brothers iv. 75 I'm on stand-by—take the wheel in fifteen minutes. 1959Wallis & Blair Thunder Above (ed. 2) ii. 13 With a full load we could use an extra stewardess. You're on stand⁓by, aren't you? 1960Times 22 Mar. 12/1 Darkness brought peace to the riot areas, but an active citizen force was put on standby. 1971W. Keenan Murder in Melancholy v. 48 We'll use two of the vans every night, the other will be on standby. 1974D. Francis Knock Down iv. 45 I'm on stand-by from four this afternoon for twelve hours... Most stand-bys are just a bore.
d. spec. in civilian aviation, a stand-by passenger; on stand-by, waiting for a stand-by seat; in possession of a stand-by ticket. See sense 9 below.
1961‘E. Lathen’ Banking on Death (1962) xix. 156 Four stand-bys who were convinced that by keeping in motion their chances of getting on a plane were improved. 1962J. D. MacDonald Key to Suite (1968) ii. 31 ‘You got in real early.’ ‘Earlier than I wanted to. But all they could do for me on anything later was to put me on standby.’ 1970Guardian 8 Sept. 11/4 All the flights are full. They're likely to be on standby half the night for seats on any plane. 1973[see stage n. 9 c].
2. One who stands by another to render assistance; esp. fig. one who upholds or seconds another; a staunch adherent or partisan.
1801C. Gadsden in J. Adams' Wks. (1854) IX. 578 But my duty to my country and to our old standbys..compelled me in our late election to take up my feeble pen again. 1857Lady Canning in Hare Two Noble Lives (1893) II. 238 Neill is made a General, and joins General Havelock, and a capital stand-by he is. 1887Baring-Gould Golden Feather viii, His mother had always been his stand-by against the severity of his father. 1883Mrs. Oliphant Sheridan i. 34 The respectable brandy-merchant had been the family stand-by.
3. Something upon which one can rely; a main support; a chief resource.
1861C. P. Hodgson Resid. Nagasaki iii. 70 We had that famous stand-bye [sic], a good ham, three fowls, sardines, bread and tea. 1882Stevenson Lett. 22 Feb., Art and marriage are two very good stand-by's. 1891E. Kinglake Australians at H. 47 Old ladies are the great stand-by of the long established medicoes.
4. ellipt. for:
a. stand-by credit, loan, etc.;
b. a stand-by fare or ticket.
1959Daily Tel. 18 Dec. 20/5 It was in December, 1956, after the Suez crisis, that Britain drew $561 million from the Fund and arranged for a ‘stand-by’ of $738 million..to be drawn upon if necessary. 1975Offshore Aug. 42/1 The Smit tug was lounging around, lapping up stand-by at a thousand dollars a day. 1980Daily Tel. 29 Aug. 7/2 The {pstlg}20 Scottish standby, the airline claims, is more than {pstlg}5 cheaper than the second-class rail fare.
II. attrib. or as adj.
5. a. Of a craft or vehicle held in reserve.
1882Pall Mall Gaz. 21 June 5/1 To the 150 passengers was given the smaller ‘stand-by’ steamer. 1959Economist 14 Mar. 992/2 In case of breakdown a ‘standby’ vehicle can be hired from the manufacturers when needed. 1974BP Shield Internat. Oct. 20/1 I'm keeping in touch with our standby vessel, Otterburn. 1976P. R. White Planning for Public Transport viii. 183 It may be cheaper to move to direct sale coupled with retention of standby vehicles and crews to duplicate workings if required. 1982Times 3 June 8/5 Several of the smaller frigates have been pulled out of standby fleets.
b. Of (a body of) persons: on stand-by; available to come on duty. More generally, ready to stand in for another if required. orig. Naut.
1891C. MacEwen Three Women in Boat ix, She is a capital stand-by woman, holding her nerves as some people hold money—wisely and well. 1897Westm. Gaz. 18 Dec. 5/3 Eight ordinary winches, each manœuvred by four men with ‘stand by’ labour at their elbow. 1933J. H. McCulloch Million Miles iii. 59 It was the standby man from the other watch, dragging us out again for another four-hour battle on the deck. 1937Amer. Speech XII. 100 The public is..not so accustomed to stand by organist or pianist, an artist who remains on call for emergency work. 1946R. E. Higginbotham Wine for my Brothers 178 Dane was stand-by man, and he started over the catwalk for the bridge. 1958Economist 16 Aug. 507/2 When he asked the assembly to create a United Nations ‘standby’ peace force, he was making a gesture of conciliation. 1974Sumter (S. Carolina) Daily Item 18 Apr. 6b/1 The White House has secretly appointed wealthy campaign contributors to the standby corps, which would help run the country in case of war. 1981G. Clare Last Waltz in Vienna (1982) ii. 144 My role was that of stand-by boy-friend very much playing second fiddle.
c. Of things: on which one can rely; esp. of machinery or equipment: kept in a position of reserve, spec. in case of failure of a primary device or supply.
1902Daily Chron. 24 May 8/3 In Paris every summer foulard frocks re-appear with perennial freshness, and are made the stand-by gown of the woman of wisdom. 1908Sears, Roebuck Catal. 205/2 The Stand-By Dry Batteries..will produce more current and last longer. 1930Engineering 28 Feb. 295/1 A standby machine of this type is also useful. 1942R.A.F. Jrnl. 3 Oct. 25 From the..roof, electric lights and standy-by hurricane lamps are suspended. 1954‘J. Christopher’ Twenty-Second Cent. 122, I knew they would have the stand-by generators on in a minute or two. 1969Gloss. Terms Magnetic Compasses & Binnacles (B.S.I.) 4 Stand-by steering compass, a magnetic compass which provides a secondary heading reference for steering a ship. 1972Daily Tel. 1 Mar. 2/6 Stand-by electric generators kept for emergencies have been packed ready for transport.
6. Naut. Of a charge for electricity: remaining constant, fixed; levied for the availability of an electrical supply in a given period, irrespective of the amount used; stand-by losses: (see quot. 1940). Also transf.
1900Jrnl. Inst. Electr. Engineers May 680 What are called the Standing or Stand-by Charges. Other items which might fairly be added to the stand-by charges are the rent, rates and taxes, and part of the management expenses. 1907Chambers's Jrnl. 1 June 432/2 What are called the stand-by losses are also much reduced in the gas system. 1933Discovery Feb. 65/1 The ‘standby charges’ of internal combustion cars are negligible, and therefore running costs are extremely low. 1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 800/2 Stand-by losses, that part of the power expended in a generating station in order to maintain plant in instant readiness to take a sudden load. 1973Gloss. Electrotechnical, Power Terms (B.S.I.) ii. vii. 7 Standby charge, a demand charge for the availability of a supply under the conditions of a standby tariff, to be paid by the consumer irrespective of whether or not he makes use of the standby supply.
7. Designating a state, condition, or position of readiness. Also stand-by duty.
1922Wireless World X. 355/1 The receiving telephones are hung on a special rest, this automatically putting the call-receiver in a stand-by position. 1944Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 25 May 4/1 Ammunition plants which were closed or placed on a standby basis..have been ordered reopened. 1959Times 11 Sept. 7/2 This new cell is specially designed for standby duties. 1977Cornish Times 19 Aug. 15/3 The present Saltash ambulance station is manned from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. each day with a stand-by-basis operating during the remaining eight hours.
8. Applied to an economic or financial measure prepared for implementation should certain conditions obtain; spec. stand-by credit: an additional credit facility reserved at low interest which may be drawn upon at standard rates if needed; cf. line of credit s.v. line n.2 30 c. Hence of loan arrangements, etc.
1947Sun (Baltimore) 26 Nov. 14/3 The President's proposals for stand-by price-wage ceilings and rationing authority. 1957Encycl. Brit. III. 56/2 It is a common practice for banks to grant their regular customers a ‘line of credit’ under which the bank agrees to extend loans up to a certain maximum... Borrowers sometimes pay a small interest charge, amounting to perhaps ½% of the unused part of the line of credit, under so-called ‘stand-by’ agreements. 1957Times 17 Dec. 13/1 The decision to ask for an extension of the $739 standby credit with the International Monetary Fund..is a logical one. 1962Economist 9 June 996/2 Ways to stimulate business..preferably by winning from Congress stand-by authority to cut taxes across the board. 1973‘D. Jordan’ Nile Green xi. 50 We'd have to have some sort of standby agreement for the remaining $45m. 1977Time 8 Aug. 18/2 Italy has repaid on schedule an International Monetary Fund stand-by loan.
9. In civilian aviation: designating a system of seat allocation whereby a passenger does not book in advance, but may board at a cheaper rate the next flight with spare unbooked capacity; also stand-by fare, stand-by passenger, stand-by ticket, etc. Also as adv. Cf. sense 1 d above.
1963Guardian 9 Feb. 12/2 BEA had proposed a one third cut in fares for stand-by passengers, namely, people prepared to chance obtaining a seat after booked passengers had boarded the plane. 1963Daily Tel. 19 Feb. 1/8 Stand⁓by night tourist fares in April and May represent a rate of less than 2d a mile... The full cost of the stand-by ticket will be refunded to passengers who do not travel. 1968‘A. York’ Predator viii. 124, I had to come in as a standby tourist. But they've had a last-minute cancellation. 1970D. Harper Hijacked (1971) 6 We've been notified not to accept standby passengers for Flight 901. 1977Daily Tel. 16 Sept. 1/3 The cost of travelling standby both ways is {pstlg}149 as opposed to..the normal return fare between London and New York of {pstlg}392. 1978Times 28 July 2/6 The argument over where to buy stand-by tickets was causing much confusion... Pan Am and TWA handled many..stand-by passengers at their London offices.
▸ II. adj. (attrib.). In form standby. Designating or relating to the operational mode of standby on electrically powered (esp. electronic) devices and computers.
1956Sci. Monthly July 18 A fairly substantial experiment could be carried out with power consumption of 50 watts..and 1 watt in standby condition. 1968Internat. Electronic Devices Meeting (IEEE) Oct. 50 A new integrated circuit bipolar semiconductor memory cell, a ‘charge storage flip-flop’, requiring an extremely low effective standby power..is described. 1982Giant Bk. Electronics Projects vii. 298 Place the transceiver in the standby mode. 1987Television Jan. 178/1 The standby light is on but the set is otherwise dead. 2001Contact May 47/3 Best of all, though, is that you can simply enter a new WAP address in standby mode, and the phone will go straight there.
▸ I. n. In form standby. On an electrically powered (esp. electronic) device: an operational mode intended to save power and increase component life, in which the power is switched on but the device is not in active use; esp. such a mode in which the device is still capable of being quickly activated by means of a user action or signal from another device.
Attested earlier in adjectival (attributive) use: see below.
1969Science 3 Oct. 135/3 (advt.) Three-lamp system with indicator pilot lights, lamp identification, remote switching, [etc.]... Lamps on standby—no wait for warm-up. 1978IEEE Jrnl. Solid-state Circuits Dec. 795/2 A typical smoke-detector application uses a 9-V battery, and the output functions can be provided by a bipolar current sink,..but if the amplifier must..maintain nanoampere standby, the..source follower can provide a practical solution. 1982Giant Bk. Electronics Projects viii. 376, I measured the current drain of my Wilson [walkie-talkie] (in standby). 1990Which Video? Mar. 50/4 Many modern TV sets are designed to shut down to standby when the transmitters go off late at night. 1995What Mobile & Cellphone Mag. Feb. 5/1 Three batteries are available: the Light, with 100 minutes of talk-time or 18 hours of standby; the Standard with 110 minutes of talktime or 20 hours of standby; and the Plus, with 190 minutes of talktime or 35 hours of standby.
▸ standby time n. the time spent on standby; (Telecomm.) the maximum time for which a mobile phone with a fully charged battery can remain in standby mode if calls are neither received nor made; cf. call time n.
1937H. M. Wriston Nature of Liberal College v. 71 In most laboratory work there is frequent *stand-by time which may be employed in reading if books are immediately available. 1954Accounting Rev. 29 580 Other Expenses—includes..other miscellaneous expenses of the transportation department; also the standby time of vehicles. 1984Computer Decisions (Nexis) Mar. 132 A typical UPS [= uninterruptible power supply] designed to provide maximum standby time used to have huge banks of batteries. 1987Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 20 Feb. v. 1 Leaving the phone on while awaiting a call reduces available talk time at a rate of about one minute for every five of stand-by time. 1999Newsday 15 Oct. a18 (advt.) Digital Phone... Battery provides up to 4.5 hours talktime or over 4 days of standby time. |