释义 |
blunderbuss /ˈblʌndəbʌs /noun 1 historical A short large-bored gun firing balls or slugs.Arrived outside, they collected some blunderbusses, rifles and revolvers, and took up a position behind some sandhills....- However, his soldiers now have more primitive weapons, such as blunderbusses, muskets, swords, and repeating crossbows.
- I should have used a blunderbuss not a derringer.
2An action or way of doing something regarded as lacking in subtlety and precision: economists resort too quickly to the blunderbuss of regulation...- Revenue are going after people in a blunderbuss approach without making allowances for the fact that some people have inherited this problem.
- Unfortunately, rather than considering specific solutions, opponents of spam are currently adopting a blunderbuss approach, latching on to every anti-spam technology going in the vain hope that one of them might do the job.
- Traditional chemistry uses a blunderbuss approach, based on the idea that if you produce 10,000 variations of a drug that seems to work a bit you will probably come up with something that works a bit better.
Origin Mid 17th century: alteration (by association with blunder) of Dutch donderbus, literally 'thunder gun'. |