| 释义 |
prime ˈmover
[f. prime a. (adv.) + mover1.]
1. = first mover s.v. mover1 3.
1674Essex Papers (1890) I. 191 Four or five men..have made it their whole business..to incite the Citizens to these disturbances.., which prime movers are men of small Estates. 1867Freeman Norm. Conq. (1877) I. iv. 197 The prime mover in the whole matter was Hugh the Great. 1972Science 26 May 892/3 Jamie L. Whitten,..a prime mover in the passage 18 years ago of Public Law 566. 1973Amer. Speech 1969 XLIV. 293 Concerning the origin of the jargon, Adams..relies on the theories of his informants... Their views focus on the probable ages of the originators: teenagers or adults or an intermediate group of ‘prime movers’. 1973Nature 17 Aug. 467/1 Both of them have been prime movers, in the period of forty years covered, in securing the establishment of ethology as a separate, respectable and inevitable branch of animal biology. 1977Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts CXXVI. 40/2 Maria Grey, ‘prime mover’ of this enterprise, would have been the first to wish to have associated with her the men and women who helped in the work.
2. = first mover s.v. mover1 2 b.
1809Edin. Rev. XV. 146 Suppose a delicate magnetic bar were made the prime-mover of a watch. 1859Rankine (title) A manual of the Steam engine and other Prime movers. Ibid. 13 Prime Movers..are machines for driving other machines. 1869Eng. Mech. 31 Dec. 378/1 Until recently (and even now for convenience) such machines as windmills, water-wheels, and steam-engines, were called ‘prime movers’. 1870Yeats Nat. Hist. Comm. 30 Previous to the employment of steam as a motive force, water was the prime mover. 1884Higgs Mag. Dyn.-Electr. Mach. Pref. 6 Steam and other prime movers. 1967R. Whitehead in Wills & Yearsley Handbk. Managem. Technol. iv. 55 Up to almost the present time engineering has been concerned with the study of prime movers—heat converted into usable energy. 1971Sci. Amer. Sept. 37/3 By the 16th century the waterwheel was by far the most important prime mover. Ibid. 152/3 The piston engines in the nation's more than 100 million motor vehicles have a rated capacity in excess of 17 billion horsepower, or more than 95 percent of the capacity of all prime movers (defined as engines for converting fuel to mechanical energy). 1974Petroleum Rev. XXVIII. 783/2 Primary production equipment, comprising gas/oil separators and forwarding pumps with gas turbine prime movers.
3. A towing vehicle; spec. (see quot. 1963).
1938T. J. Hayes Elem. Ordnance xix. 677 Artillery prime movers are used to tow artillery. 1945Finito! Po Valley Campaign (15th Army Group) 51 A German convoy of two 170 mm cannon pulled by prime movers. 1962Exhib. Brit. Military Vehicles 128 This vehicle is a development of the tractor 30 ton 6 × 4 G.S...for semi-trailer F.V. 12002 which it will replace in the service as prime mover for the 50 and 60-ton semi-trailer tank transporters. 1963Dict. U.S. Mil. Terms (U.S. Dept. Defense) 171 Prime mover, a vehicle, including heavy construction equipment, possessing military characteristics, designed primarily for towing heavy, wheeled weapons and frequently providing facilities for the transportation of the crew of, and ammunition for, the weapon. 1969Age (Melbourne) 24 May 61/9 (Advt.), Commer semi trailer outfit complete, 61 mod., petrol motor, prime mover and 34 ft. semi trailer... $2000. 1976Daily Times (Lagos) 22 Sept. 15/1 Those above eight tonnes but not articulated prime movers i.e. with trailers now cost ₦35. 1977‘D. Rutherford’ Return Load ii. 28 He had..invested a legacy..in a Leyland prime mover... Like most owner-drivers he made a practice of hiring the semi-trailers which, when hitched to the tractor, made up the complete articulated vehicle. |