| 释义 |
▪ I. distance, n.|ˈdɪstəns|
Forms: 3 destance, 4 -aunce, distawns, 4–6 distans, dis-, dystaunce, 5 dis-, dystawnce, distauns, 3– distance.
[a. OF. destance, distance (13th c. in Littré), ad. L. distāntia ‘standing apart’, hence ‘separation, opening (between); distance, remoteness; difference, diversity’, f. distānt-em pr. pple., distant. By a further development, OF. destance had the sense ‘discord, quarrel’, which was also the earliest in Eng. In senses adopted directly from Latin, the form distance was used in OF., and this soon became the only form in Eng. The chronological appearance of the senses does not correspond to the logical development in L.]
I. [from OF. destance discord, quarrel.]
†1.
a. The condition of being at variance; discord, disagreement, dissension; dispute, debate.
(After 1600, passing into the sense of ‘estrangement, coolness’; cf. sense 8.)
1297R. Glouc. (1724) 511 The barons sende to the King Philip of France, That he hom sende socour in this luther destance. 1375Barbour Bruce vii. 620 Emang thame sudanly Thair raiss debate and gret distans. 1393Gower Conf. III. 348 And thus we fellen in distaunce My prest and I. a1400Octouian 1523 He was y-take with greet destaunce And other kynges four. c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (1840) 60 (Mätz.) Triew people to sette at distaunce. c1470Harding Chron. cliii. i, In Wales Morgan made war & great distaunce. 1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. ccclvii. 578 They were in suche vnyte, that there was no dystaunce amonge them. 1605Shakes. Macb. iii. i. 115. 1667 Pepys Diary (1877) V. 18 This..do breed a kind of inward distance between the King and the Duke of York. 1752Fielding Amelia ii. ii, There was some little distance between them, which I hoped to have the happiness of accommodating.
†b. With a and pl. An instance of this; a quarrel, a disagreement; in later use, an estrangement. Obs.
c1290Beket 1267 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 142 A destaunce þare is isproungue liȝtliche in Engelonde, þat destourbez al þat lond. 1297R. Glouc. (1724) 570 Suþþe þer was at Londone a lute destance, ich wene. c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 294 Bituex þe kyng of France & þe erle William Was þat tyme a distance. c1430Lydg. Bochas iii. vii. (1554) 79 a, He told them plainly of a great distaunce..and a discencion. 1650B. Discolliminium 30 It would allay and heale many great distances, and procure many..friends. 1666Pepys Diary 10 Sept., There have been some late distances between his lady and him.
†c. without distance: without debate, discord, or opposition; often parenthetically qualifying the statement: Without dispute or contradiction, assuredly, ‘ywis’. Obs.
c1325Coer de L. 2032 In March moneth, the Kyng of Fraunce Went to ship without distaunce. c1400Cato's Morals 320 in Cursor M. p. 1673, & þou se first chaunce, [co]me wiþ-out distaunce, first þou hit take. c1430Syr Tryam. 1017 And let owre londys be in pees, Wythowtyn any dystawnce. c1460Towneley Myst. 21 Sex hundreth yere and od have I, without distance, In erth..liffyd. 14..Cokwold's Daunce 136 in Hazl. E.P.P. I. 44 After mete with out distans, The cokwolds schuld together danse.
II. [from L. distāntia in sense ‘difference’.]
†2. Difference, diversity. Obs.
1382Wyclif Deut. i. 17 Noon shal be distaunce of persones. 1481Caxton Myrr. i. xiv. 46 She gyueth to one somme thyng that another hath not in hym, how be it that noman can perceyue any distaunce. 1556Aurelio & Isab. (1608) G vij, There is yet founde in suche errour grete distance betwene affection and reason.
III. [from L. distāntia, F. distance, in the sense of ‘being apart in space’.]
3. The fact or condition of being apart or far off in space; remoteness.
1594Carew Huarte's Exam. Wits (1616) 23 Places..that are not more than a little league in distance. 1660Hickeringill Jamaica (1661) 54 Distance and absence usually enhanceth the affections of near friends. 1709Pope Ess. Crit. 174 Which..Due distance reconciles to form and grace. 1799Campbell Pleas. Hope i. 7 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view. 1820Shelley Let. to M. Gisborne 287 Afar the Contadino's song is heard, Rude but made sweet by distance.
4. a. The extent of space lying between any two objects; the space to be passed over before reaching an object. With a and pl., an intervening space.
c1440Promp. Parv. 123/1 Distawnce of place [P. or space] betwene ij thyngys, distancia. a1541Wyatt in Tottell's Misc. (Arb.) 74 When I think vpon the distaunce, and the space: That doth so farre deuide me from my dere desired face. 1559W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 10 The sterres kepe one uniforme distance in moving. 1608D. T. Ess. Pol. & Mor. 96 Ther is too great a distance betweene us and thee. 1663Gerbier Counsel 34 A Head [consists] of so many distances between the one Eye and the other. 1690Locke Hum. Und. ii. xiii. (R.) This space consider'd barely in length between any two beings, without considering anything else between them, is called distance. 1712J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 160 The Plants are spaced out..at three Foot Distances. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. x. 66 The width of the fissure seemed to be fairly within jumping distance. 1868Lockyer Elem. Astron. ii. §7 (1879) 38 Astronomers now know the distance of the Sun from the Earth. 1891Spectator 28 Feb., The wedge-formation is abandoned..and the ducks fly in single file, though the ‘distances’ are always accurately kept.
†b. Lineal extent. Obs. rare.
1582N. Lichefield tr. Castanheda's Conq. E. Ind. xxix. 72 b, Whether it were a firme lande, as it did appeare..by the great distance of the Coast that they had found.
5. Technical applications of 4.
a. Milit. The space between man and man when standing in rank; also the space between the ranks.
distance of divisions ‘is the number of paces, of thirty inches each, comprised in the front of any division or body, and is nearly three-fourths of the number of files’ (Stocqueler 1853). distance of the bastion (Fortif.), ‘a term applied to the exterior polygon’ (ibid.).
1635W. Barriffe Mil. Discip. vi. (1643) 24 Distance is the space of ground, betweene man and man, either in file, or Ranke. 1690S. Sewall Diary 24 Mar. (1878) I. 316, I goe into the field, pray with the South Company, Exercise them in a few Distances, Facings, Doublings. 1833Regul. Instr. Cavalry i. 67 Take Distance..A horse's length and half distance. Ibid. 122 The Files prove distance as directed. 1859F. A. Griffiths Artil. Man. (1862) 16 Open to quarter (or wheeling) distance from the front.
b. Fencing. A definite interval of space to be observed between two combatants.
1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. ii. iv. 21 He fights as you sing pricksong, keeps time, distance, and proportion, he rests his minum, one, two, and the third in your bosom. 1611― Wint. T. ii. i. 233 In these times you stand on distance: your Passes, Stoccado's, and I know not what. 1684R. H. School Recreat. 74 Being within Distance, approach with your first Motion. 1809Roland Fencing 31 The words measure and distance are frequently used promiscuously, they being synonymous in Fencing.
c. Horse-racing. The space measured back from the winning-post which a horse must have reached, in a heat-race, when the winning horse has covered the whole course, in order not to be ‘distanced’ or disqualified for subsequent heats.
(The practice is obsolete in England, but not in U.S., where ‘distances’ varying according to the length of the course are in use in trotting and running races.)
1674N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. v. (1686) 75 A Horse-length lost by odds of Weight in the first Train, may prove a distance in the straight Course at last; for the Weight is the same every Heat tho his strength be not. 1723Lond. Gaz. No. 6172/4 The Horse..that wins two Heats and saves his Distance a third too, wins the Plate. 1810Sporting Mag. XXXVI. 241 When about two distances from home..his colt hung upon the former. 1875‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports ii. i. xiv. §2. 490 A round, flat course, short of two miles by a distance. 1894Standard 20 Oct. 6/1 The 2000 yards—a mile and a distance, ‘distance’ being the term for a measurement of 240 yards—of the new Cambridgeshire course.
†d. Mus. An interval. Obs.
1551Robinson tr. More's Utop. (Arb.) 116 No other liuinge creature..perceaueth the concordaunte and discordant distaunces of soundes, and tunes. 1684R. H. School Recreat. 120 Two lesser Distances..named Semitones. 1797Monthly Mag. III. 226 They exhibit the author as straining after novelty by eccentric distances, and by movements out of cathedral time.
e. In various technical phrases, as focal d., polar d., zenith d., etc.: see also these words.
1696Phillips, Distance..in Navigation..signifies the number of Degrees, Leagues, &c., that a Ship has fail'd from any purposed point; or the Distance in Degrees, Leagues, &c., of any two Places. 1727–51Chambers Cycl., Line of Distance, in perspective, is a right line drawn from the eye to the principal point..Point of Distance, in perspective, is a point in the horizontal line at such distance from the principal point, as is that of the eye from the same. 1762Falconer Shipwr. i. 748 Thus height and polar distance are obtain'd, Then latitude and declination gain'd. 1795Gentl. Mag. 541/1 Objects..placed beyond the focal distance. 1819J. Wilson Dict. Astrol. 81 The distance of any place is found by subtracting the ascension of the preceding part, or its descension, from that of the succeeding part. 1832Nat. Philos., Electr. vi. §87. 23 (Useful Knowl. Soc.) The distance between the conducting bodies requisite for the transfer of electricity through the air, or what is termed the striking distance. 1834Ibid., Navig. i. ii. §12 The lines which make with the meridian lines the angles called courses are called nautical distances. 1837Penny Cycl. IX. 22/2 This common word..is very frequently applied to angular distance, meaning the angle of separation which the directions of two bodies include..In the apparent sphere of the heavens, distance always means angular distance. 1876Gwilt Encycl. Archit. Gloss., Distance of the Eye, in perspective, the distance of the eye from the picture in a line perpendicular to the plane thereof.
f. Boxing. Striking distance.
1805Sporting Mag. XXVII. 130/1 He [sc. a boxer] was an excellent judge of his distance. 1808Ibid. XXXII. 35/1 Dogherty commenced at a rally within distance with determined courage. Ibid. 35/2 Belcher, within distance, hit him a severe facer. 1888F. W. J. Henning Recoll. Prize Ring 44 At last Rooke got within distance and lashed out his left, catching Joe an ugly one on the ear. 1896in J. C. Trotter Boxing 125 In the event of a competitor being knocked down, his opponent shall retire out of distance. 1897Encycl. Sport I. 133/2 When out of distance, the left hand may be dropped.., but when within distance it must immediately be brought up to the proper position. Ibid. 135/2 After the blow is delivered you are to spring back well out of distance.
6. fig. Remoteness, or degree of remoteness, in any relation to which spatial terms are transferred or figuratively applied; e.g. in likeness, relationship, allusion, degree, etc. ‘Ideal disjunction, mental separation’ (J.).
1667Wood Life (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) II. 108 This..was soe much resented that Mr. Vernon in a sermon at S. Marie's told the auditory at a distance of it [i.e. by a distant allusion]. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 93 A Shiek is a Cousin too, at a distance. a1715Burnet Own Time (1823) I. 393 They did it at so great a distance, that..there was no danger of misprision of treason. 1871B. Stewart Heat §301 Some [substances] being near their melting-points, others at a great distance from them. 1875Maine Hist. Inst. ii. 30 The mistake..I conceive to have been an effect of mental distance. 1876Mozley Univ. Serm. iii. (1877) 67 The distance of an end raises the rank of the labour undergone for it.
†7. Position (high or low) with respect to others; class, rank. Obs. rare.
1655Fuller Ch. Hist. viii. ii. §33, I am not satisfied in what distance properly to place these persons. Some..will account it too high, to rank them amongst Martyrs; and surely, I conceive it too low, to esteem them but bare Confessours.
8. Of relations of personal intercourse: Remoteness in intercourse, the opposite of intimacy or familiarity, arising from disparity of rank or station, or exclusiveness of feeling: hence, on the one part,
a. Aloofness, ‘stand-off-ness’, excessive reserve or dignity; on the other,
b. Deferential attitude, deference.
1597Shakes. Lover's Compl. 151 With safest distance I mine honour shielded. Ibid. 237 She..kept cold distance, and did thence remove, To spend her living in eternal love. 1604― Oth. iii. iii. 13 He shall in strangenesse stand no farther off, Than in a politique distance.
a.1660F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 294 He was a benigne and courteous Prince, affectionate..without state or distance. 1738Neal Hist. Purit. IV. 88 To let them see how little he valued those distances he was bound to observe for form sake with others. 1765Orton Mem. P. Doddridge viii. 199 He had contracted nothing of that moroseness and distance. 1818Jas. Mill Brit. India II. v. vii. 620 They put on the forms of distance; and stood upon elevated terms. 1827Macaulay Country Clergym. Trip vi, No fleering! no distance! no scorn.
b.1689Andros Tracts II. 107 The Government expects to be treated with more Distance and Difference. 1699Bentley Phal. 287 I'll observe the respect and distance that's due to him from his Scholar. a1700Dryden (J.), I hope your modesty Will know, what distance to the crown is due. 1742Fielding J. Andrews i. ix, Slipslop..had preserved hitherto a distance to her lady.
c. to keep one's distance: to observe the due reserve and avoidance of familiarity which are proper to one's position. to know one's distance: to recognize what distance ought to be kept.
1601Shakes. All's Well v. iii. 212 She knew her distance, and did angle for mee, Madding my eagernesse with her restraint. 1624Massinger Parl. Love ii. iii, Pray you, keep your distance, And grow not rude. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iv. xvi. 325 Teaching words their distance to wait on his matter. 1660T. M. Hist. Independ. iv. 65 They intended to curb the Wallingford party, by teaching them manners, and to know their distance. 1727Pope Th. on Var. Subj. Swift's Wks. 1755 II. i. 231 If a man makes me keep my distance, the comfort is, he keeps his at the same time. 1773Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. ii, It won't do; so I beg you'll keep your distance. 1831Society I. 12 Her mother..treated him with bare civility, to make him, as she expressed it, keep his distance.
9. In prepositional phrases and constructions.
a. at a distance, at d.: remote, far away; also, at a specified interval of space (see also sense 6). So † in distance (obs.). out of distance: too far away, out of reach.
1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 52 The Distoore and other Lay-men (at 12 foot distance) surround the holy Diety. 1654Codrington tr. Hist. Ivstine 74 To those who at distance do observe it. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. vi. §29 The wary Archbishop, not over-fond of his friendship, kept him at distance. 1697W. Dampier Voy. I. 261 At a distance it appears like an Island. 1711Steele Spect. No. 96 ⁋2 My Master..has often been whipp'd for not keeping me at a distance. 1713Addison Guardian No. 167 ⁋8 At about a mile's distance from the black temple. c1790Willock Voy. 305 At a safe distance from the scene of action. 1845M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 17 At no great distance from the Island City. 1847Tennyson Princ. vi. 67 Blanche At distance follow'd.
1563W. Fulke Meteors (1640) 42 Not..too farre off..neither yet too neere..but in a competent and middle distance. 1602Marston Antonio's Rev. iv. i, Kept in distance at the halberts point. a1613Overbury Newes from Sea Wks. (1856) 181 A mans companions are (like ships) to be kept in distance, for falling foule one of another.
1641Bp. Hall Rem. Wks. (1660) 95 Those that are out of distance what noise so ever they make, are not heard. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. ii. xvii. 114 He never demands out of distance of the price he intends to take. 1655― Ch. Hist. vi. i. §16 For skill in School-Divinity they beat all other Orders quite out of distance. 1815Jane Austen Emma ii. xiv. 233 We are rather out of distance from the very striking beauties.
b. Also used without preposition as an adverbial adjunct of measure.
1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 99 Take heede..that your trees stand a good distance a sunder. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iv. i. 226 Pleaseth your Lordship To meet his Grace, iust distance 'tweene our Armies? 1697W. Dampier Voy. I. 116 A Rock a good distance from the shore. a1719Addison (J.), He lived but a few miles distance from her father's house. 1792Gentl. Mag. 13/2 The bridge..is some little distance from the main street.
10. ellipt. A point or place at a distance, the region in the distance.
a. A point at a distance, a distant point. Chiefly in the phrases from, to a distance.
1782Cowper Progr. Err. 202 Viewed from a distance..Folly and Innocence are so alike. c1790Willock Voy. 316, I found I was unable to walk to any distance. 1845Darwin Voy. Nat. i. (1890) 8 The rocks of St. Paul appear from a distance of a brilliantly white colour. Mod. Visitors from a distance have the preference. He has removed to a distance.
b. The remote part of the field of vision or perception; the distant or far-off region; esp. in the phr. in the distance.
1813Shelley Q. Mab. ii. 84 There was a little light That twinkled in the misty distance. 1847Tennyson Princ. iv. 63 A trumpet in the distance pealing news. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. I. v. 46 All the back country apeared one great rolling distance of glacier. 1887Bowen Virg. æneid i. 34 Scarce had Sicily's shores in the distance faded away. 1891Gladstone in Daily News 28 Jan. 3/3 Viewed now, calmly, in the light of the golden distance.
c. Painting, etc. The distant part of a landscape; the part of a picture representing this.
middle distance, the part midway between the foreground and the remote region.
1706Art of Painting (1744) 424 Accustom'd himself to take in a large extent of hills and distance. 1813Examiner 10 May 299/2 His..greyish green middle-distance, blue horizon, and grey sky, constitute a rich system of colour. 1865Kingsley Herew. Prel. 18 Dark and sad..autumn days, when all the distances were shut off. 1861Thornbury Turner (1862) I. 89 His distances were low, and his trees ill-formed. 1891T. Hardy Tess I. ii, The atmosphere..is so tinged with azure, that what artists call the middle distance partakes also of that hue.
11. a. transf. The extent or ‘space’ of time between two events; an interval, intervening period. (Now only in phr. distance of time, implying remoteness.)
c1384Chaucer H. Fame i. 18 To knowe..neyther the distaunce Of tymes of hem. 1494Fabyan Chron. vii. 550 After a dystaunce or pause of tyme, the archebysshop..stode vp and askyd [etc.]. 1622Sparrow Bk. Com. Prayer (1661) 244 The Communion-Service is to be some good distance after the Morning Service. 1699Bentley Phal. 404 From the Date of the Mosaic Law to the Prophecy of Ezekiel, there's a distance of 900 Years. 1774Foote Cozeners iii. Wks. 1799 II. 180 Take this draught three times a day, at two hours distance. 1820Scoresby Acc. Arctic Reg. I. 43 At the distance of eighteen to thirty years, from the time when the several navigations were performed. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 455 An apprehension not to be mentioned, even at this distance of time, without shame and indignation. 1871Morley Voltaire (1886) 172 The connection may be seen at our distance of time to have been marked and unmistakable.
b. spec. in Boxing, the scheduled length of a contest.
1934L. Harvey Training & Self Defence 112 If..you can stay the full distance of a contest..work to a schedule during the fight. 1936Times 24 Nov. 6/6 A fearless fighter who had..‘gone the distance’ three times with the famous negro, Al Brown. 1958Times 30 Sept. 15/1 This greater experience could be particularly valuable if the bout goes the distance.
12. attrib. and Comb., as distance-language; distance-softened, distance-veiled adjs. Also distance-block, a block inserted between two objects to keep them a required distance apart; distance-flag (Horse-racing), a flag held by the man who is stationed at the distance-post; distance-judge, a judge stationed at the distance-post, a post (or flag) placed at the fixed ‘distance’ (see 5 c) in front of the winning post in a heat-race, to note what horses are ‘distanced’, through failing to reach this before the winner passes the winning-post; distance learning, education (esp. at tertiary level) in which contact between students and teacher is principally by correspondence or broadcast programmes, rather than face to face; distance-piece = distance-block; distance-receptor Physiol., a sense organ, such as the eye or ear, that is responsive to stimuli from distant sources; distance runner, an athlete who competes in long- or middle-distance races; also distance running; distance-signal: see distant 3 d; distance-stand, a stand erected at the distance-post on a race-course.
1894H. Drummond Ascent of Man 233 This new distance-language began again at the beginning, just as all Language does, by employing signs.
1972T. Dodds (title) IEC Broadsheet on *distance learning no. 1. Multi-media approaches to rural education. 1977Proc. R. Soc. Med. LXX. 684/2, I do not think that the distance learning pattern is suited to school-leavers. 1986Library Assoc. Rec. Jan. 13/3 The Aberystwyth course did not get off the ground because most local authorities were unwilling to release staff for a whole year, and..as a result Aberystwyth was considering offering the MEd degree as a distance-learning course.
1930Engineering 4 July 9/3 The introduction of a distance piece between a piston and its crosshead. 1962Times 7 Apr. 11/7 The fine toothed blades were separated by a distance-piece.
1809British Press 6 Apr. in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1810) XIII. 63 Gibby and Premier..were scarcely able to strike a trot in passing the distance-post. 1809J. P. Roberdean Ibid. 162 You a'n't near even the distance-post of notoriety. 1870D. P. Blaine Encycl. Rur. Sports iii. iv. 371 In coming in on the right of the course, there should be two distance-posts; the first is to be erected two hundred and forty yards from the winning-post; the second a hundred and twenty from it.
1906C. S. Sherrington Integrative Action Nerv. Syst. ix. 324 It is in the leading segments that we find the ‘distance-receptors’. 1927Haldane & Huxley Animal Biol. xii. 300 Since they [sc. gastropods] are free-moving, distance-receptors are wanted. 1965Marshall & Hughes Physiol. Mammals viii. 187 Exteroceptors..may be divided into: teloreceptors or distance receptors, cutaneous receptors, and sometimes chemical receptors. [1971Nature 12 Feb. 491/2 The experimental evidence for the bursicles functioning as distance chemoreceptors came from a study of the escape response of [the marine snail] Tegula funebralis to the starfish Pisaster ochraceus Brandt. ]
1911Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 854/1 Hard daily training is necessary for a distance runner. 1976Sci. Amer. June 110/3 For some years the faster sprinters have on the whole been Americans and the faster distance runners Europeans.
1935Encycl. Sports 29/2 (heading) Distance running. 1985Christian Science Monitor 26 Aug. 20/2 Slaney..holds every American women's distance running record from 800 meters to 10,000.
1874Distance signal [see distant 3 d].
1850Mrs. Browning Poems II. 196 You can hear that evermore Distance-softened noise.
1870D. P. Blaine Encycl. Rur. Sports iii. iv. 372 So that the man in the distance-stand may clearly see the winning-post, and be ready to drop the distance-flag.
1883A. I. Menken Infelicia 93 There cometh a hum, as of distance-veiled battle.
▪ II. ˈdistance, v.
[f. prec. n. Cf. F. distancer (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. a. trans. To place at a distance; to separate by a space; to eloign. Also fig.
1578Banister Hist. Man i. 19 The head is distaunsed from the body so much in man, for the cause of Aspera Arteria. 1624T. Scott Eng. Spanish Pilgr. iii. 14 Furnished with some 50 beds, distanced onely by a partition of boards. a1661Fuller Worthies, Hantshire ii. 1 Not to speak of the friendly Sea conveniently distanced from London. 1860Emerson Cond. Life, Fate 19 This insight..distances those who share it from those who share it not. 1963Listener 3 Jan. 21/2 Would it not be more true to say that the extreme formality..distances the hatred for contemplation? 1963P.M.L.A. LXXVIII. 296/1 Primarily Chaucer's narrative method serves to distance us from the characters. 1967Medium ævum XXXVI. 284 In The Parlement of Foules and in Troilus and Criseyde Chaucer takes great pains to distance himself as narrator from the action of the poem, and this hardly seems to be an ironic distancing.
†b. To fix the distance of. Obs.
1690Act 2 W. & M. in Lond. Gaz. (1706) No. 4292/3 All Persons paying to any Lamps, distanced by two of Her Majesty's Justices of the Peace, are exempted from hanging out a Lanthorn and Candle. 1715Leoni Palladio's Archit. (1742) I. 21 This manner of distancing the Column is..call'd Systylos.
†c. To express the distance of. Obs. rare.
1650Fuller Pisgah i. xiii. 40 The Hebrews distanced their places by severall measures.
2. To make to appear distant.
1695Dryden tr. Dufresnoy's Art Paint. (J.), That which gives a relievo to a bowl, is the quick light, or white, which appears to be on the side nearest to us, and the black by consequence distances the object. 1864Lowell Fireside Trav. 198 Mountains, which the ripe Italian air distances with a bloom like that on unplucked grapes.
†3. intr. To be distant; to go to a distance. Obs. rare.
1614T. Adams in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. cvi. 5 The less they distanced from the beginning, the poorer they were. 1658J. Webb tr. Calprenede's Cleopatra viii. i. 7 Unable to hinder their distancing..a great way from the place of combate.
4. a. trans. To put or leave at a distance by superior speed; to outstrip or leave behind in a race, or (fig.) in any competition.
1642H. More Song of Soul ii. iii. i. xxi, The Sun and all the starres that do appear She feels them in herself, can distance all. 1691Norris Pract. Disc. 37 We are utterly Distanc'd in the Race. 1712W. Rogers Voy. 127 He distanc'd and tir'd both the Dog and the Men. 1851Longfellow Gold. Leg. v. Foot of the Alps, Our fleeter steeds have distanced our attendants. 1856Lever Martins of Cro' M. 55 [He] had distanced all his competitors in his College career.
b. To put or leave (a place) at a distance by going away from it; to leave behind.
1873Mrs. Charles in Sunday Mag. Feb. 332 We heard the joyous voices sound louder and freer as they distanced the solemn precincts.
c. To keep at a distance from. ? Obs.
1786F. Burney Diary 28 Nov., I wished them well..but I distanced them to the best of my power.
d. Horse-racing. To beat by a distance: see quot. 1803 and distance n. 5 c.
1674N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. v. (1686) 72 The hindmost Horse being bound to follow him, within a certain distance agreed on..and which ever Horse could distance the other won the Match. 1707Lond. Gaz. No. 4363/4 Paying a Guinea Entrance (which is to go to the second Horse, distanc'd or not distanc'd). 1713Steele Guardian No. 6. ⁋5 He puts in for the Queen's plate every year, with orders to his rider never to win or be distanced. 1803M. Cutler in Life, etc. (1888) II. 142 At a distance of about ten rods..is another stage..called the distanced stage. If any horses in the race do not arrive at this stage before the foremost arrives at the stage from which they started, they are said to be distanced, and are taken out, and not suffered to run again in the same race.
fig.1822Scott Nigel i, Vincent beat his companion beyond the distance-post, in..dexterity of hand..and double-distanced him in all respecting the commercial affairs of the shop.
Hence ˈdistancing vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1658J. Webb tr. Calprenede's Cleopatra viii. i. 7 To regret the distancing of Coriolanus, whom she fled, and whose Infidelity she detested. 1786F. Burney Diary 23 Dec., His appearance and air are dignified..but cold, and rather distancing. 1816Sporting Mag. XLVII. 233 On account of such distancing superiority. 1945Kenyon Rev. VII. 470 The distancing (‘Verfremdung’) which Brecht desires is complemented by his concreteness. 1949,1956[see alienation 1 d]. 1958R. Williams Culture & Society i. v. 87 The method..of documentary record..has..a slightly distancing effect. 1961W. J. Harvey Art of G. Eliot v. 116 George Eliot sometimes fails to achieve an adequate distancing of her experience. |