| 释义 |
▪ I. surface, n.|ˈsɜːfəs|
[ad. F. surface (from 16th c.), f. sur- sur- + face face n., after L. superficiēs: cf. obs. Sp. sobrehaz, Sp. sobrefaz, Pg. sobreface, and superfice, superficie, superficies.]
1. a. The outermost boundary (or one of the boundaries) of any material body, immediately adjacent to the air or empty space, or to another body.
1611Cotgr., Surface, the surface; the superficies or vpper part. 1662Evelyn Sculptura ii. (1906) 8 The Rollers doe universally touch the imediate surfaces of the Table. 1715tr. Gregory's Astron. (1726) I. 158 If the contiguous Surfaces were perfectly smooth, there would be no impression of the Bodies upon one another. 1800tr. Lagrange's Chem. II. 16 The matter must be calcined till it becomes of an orange yellow colour at the surface. 1831Brewster Optics iv. 27 An optical prism..is a solid having two plane surfaces..which are called its refracting surfaces. 1889Welch Text Bk. Naval Archit. i. 5 The submerged part of a vessel at rest in still water is subjected to fluid pressure, which acts, at each point, in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the ship at that point.
b. fig., usually denoting that part or aspect of anything which presents itself to a slight or casual mental view, or which is perceived without examination; outward appearance; often in such phrases as on the surface = superficial(ly. Also, to scratch the surface (of): see scratch v. 3 a.
1725Watts Logic i. v, There are some Persons who never arrive at any deep..Knowledge..because they are perpetually fluttering over the Surface of Things. 1781Cowper Ep. Lady Austen 8 Prose answers..all the floating thoughts we find Upon the surface of the mind. 1847Tennyson Princess iv. 234 These flashes on the surface are not he. 1855Paley æschylus Pref. (1861) p. xiii, In such passages..there is..scarcely a word that does not involve..a meaning that lies below the surface. 1871Freeman Norm. Conq. IV. xvii. 75 They may have seen through the real motives of the invitation, but on the surface everything was..honourable. 1888Burgon Lives 12 Gd. Men II. v. 2 No name more readily rose to the surface of conversation than his.
2. Geom. A magnitude or continuous extent having only two dimensions (length and breadth, without thickness), such as constitutes the boundary of a material body (sense 1) or that between two adjacent portions of space; a superficies.
1658Phillips, Surface, the same as Superficies. 1704J. Harris Lex. Techn. I. s.v., There are Plane Surfaces, and there are Crooked or Curved ones. 1830Kater & Lardner Mech. i. 4 The external limits of the magnitude of a body are lines and surfaces. 1842Penny Cycl. XXIII. 303/2 Surfaces of the second degree. This name is given to all those surfaces of which the equation is of the second degree. 1869Rankine Machinery & Millwork 569 A ruled surface is one in which every point is traversed by a straight line lying wholly in the surface. 1887Cayley in Encycl. Brit. XXII. 668/1 A surface may be regarded as the locus of a doubly infinite system of points.
3. a. The outermost part of a material body, considered with respect to its form, texture, or extent; the uppermost layer; esp. in art or manufacture, an exterior of a particular form or ‘finish’.
1698J. Keill Exam. Th. Earth (1734) 119 It is plain that but one half of the Rays which fall upon the first Surface, would fall upon the second, but one fourth of them upon the third. 1800tr. Lagrange's Chem. II. 408 It..forms the external coating of calculi, and may be distinguished by its unequal surface. 1831Brewster Optics iv. 35 Then R b will be the ray as refracted by the first surface of the sphere. 1846Ellis Elgin Marb. II. 76 A thin surface has been carried away from the whole bas-relief. 1873E. Spon Workshop Receipts Ser. i. 2/1 Take the surface off the paper with fine glass-paper. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. II. 122 Such matt or dead surfaces. 1880Academy 23 Oct. 299 We find in the work of this artist a finish and a perfection of surface rare [etc.].
b. spec. The upper boundary or top of ground or soil, exposed to the air (in Mining, as distinct from underground workings and shafts); the outer (according to ancient ideas, the upper) boundary of the earth.
1612Drayton Poly-olb. ix. 140 With sterne Eolus blasts,..Shee onely ouer-swells the surface of her bank. 1629Milton Hymn Nativ. xvii, The aged Earth agast..Shall from the surface to the center shake. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 182 Cucumers along the Surface creep. 1719in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. i. 197 The surface of the quarry. 1796W. H. Marshall Rural Econ. W. Eng. II. 4 The surface is exceedingly broken, into sharp ridges. 1832H. T. De la Beche Geol. Man. (ed. 2) 9 If waters descend from the surface into a mine. 1868Lockyer Elem. Astron. ix. §50. (1879) 313 On the Earth's surface, i.e. at 4,000 miles from its centre. 1878Argosy XXV. 430 We parted at surface—he went down the shaft.
c. The upper boundary or top of a body of water or other liquid.
1625N. Carpenter Geogr. Delin. i. ii. (1635) 40 Euery surface of the water is either only plaine, or only round. 1641J. Jackson True Evang. T. iii. 209 Two pots floting upon a pond, or surface of a water with this word, ‘If we knock together, we sink together.’ a1700Evelyn Diary 8 Feb. 1645, The water of it is fresh and swete on the surface, but salt at botome. 1781Cowper Hope 184 The wat'ry stores that sleep Beneath the smiling surface of the deep. 1835Marryat Jacob Faithful xxxix, Tom..dived after me, brought me up again to the surface. 1858Lardner Hand-bk. Nat. Phil. 26 When a liquid contained in any vessel is in a state of rest, its surface will be horizontal. 1877Huxley Physiogr. 69 The vapour is derived only from the exposed surface of the liquid.
d. The outside of an animal or plant body, or of any part of it; the outer boundary of the integument; also, the inner boundary of a hollow or tubular part.
1748Anson's Voy. i. x. 101 Discoloured spots dispersed over the whole surface of the body. 1796Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) III. 771 Polypodium. Capsules disposed in distinct circular dots on the under surface of the leaf. 1822–7Good Study Med. (1829) V. 366 Diseases affecting internal surfaces. 1851Carpenter Man. Phys. (ed. 2) 198 The Teeth are formed..upon the surface of the Mucous membrane of the mouth. 1861Bentley Man. Bot. 290 The surface of the style may be either smooth, or covered in various ways with glands and hairs.
e. Fortif. (See quot.)
1702Milit. Dict. (1704), Surface, is that part of the Exterior side, which is terminated by the Flank, prolong'd or extended, and the Angle of the nearest Bastion.
f. Aeronaut. An aerofoil, considered as something whose intended effects arise superficially.
1843Mechanics' Mag. 8 Apr. 277/2 The main surfaces..are here placed one above the other, and each pair are connected together by strong shafts. 1912W. Wright in C. C. Turner Romance of Aeronautics xvii. 178 A smaller surface set at a negative angle in front of the main bearing surfaces or wings will largely counteract the effect of the fore-and-aft travel of the centre of pressure. 1930P. H. Sumner Marine Aircraft ii. 104 The larger the aeroplane the larger the control surfaces become and the loads necessary to move elevators, rudder and ailerons may become too heavy for the pilot to operate their surfaces. 1974Encycl. Brit. Macropædia I. 377/1 The essential components of an airplane are a wing system to sustain it in flight, tail surfaces to stabilize the wing, movable surfaces (ailerons, elevators, and rudders) to control the attitude of the machine in flight, [etc.].
g. surface-to-air, surface-to-surface adj. phrs., of, pertaining to, or designating a guided missile designed to be launched from the ground or at sea, and directed respectively at a target either in the air, or elsewhere on the earth's surface. Cf. air-to-air adj. s.v. air n.1 B. III. 1; ground-to-air, ground-to-ground s.v. ground n. 17 d; SAM s.v. S. 4 a.
1950Sun (Baltimore) 7 Feb. 1/2 Research continues on these surface-to-air missiles. 1951D. C. Cooke Jets, Rockets & Guided Missiles 146 This is a Surface-to-Surface Missile, Air Force, Third Model, Second Modification. 1954Jrnl. Brit. Interplanetary Soc. XIII. 164 One of the first G.E.C. missiles, the Hermes A-1 is a development of the German Wasserfall in a surface-to-surface rôle. 1959Listener 4 June 984/3 A British Thunderbird surface-to-air guided missile. 1962Times 11 Aug. 6/1 The Government yesterday made their expected announcement that Blue Water, the surface-to-surface guided missile..is to be cancelled. 1978R. McCutchan Blackmail North vi. 69 Russia's been supplying Libya with a big range of surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles.
4. An extent or area of material considered as a subject for operations.
1662Evelyn Sculptura i. v. (1906) 125 A much larger discourse..treating of the practise of Perspective upon irregular Surfaces. 1718Free-thinker No. 63. 52 The Canvass is no longer a level, lifeless Surface. 1762–71H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) III. 59 His exuberant pencil was ready at pouring out gods, goddesses, [etc.] over those public surfaces on which the eye never rests long enough to criticize. 1867–72Burgh Mod. Marine Engin. 360 To calculate the area of the frictional surfaces. 1869Rankine Machinery & Millwork 571 When the highest..degree of accuracy is required in a plane surface, its form may..be given approximately by the planing machine.
5. Superficial area or extent. † Also in fig. phr. (quot. a 1640).
a1640Jackson Creed xi. iv. §15. (1657) 3341 This Doctrine is so necessarie for manifesting the just measure of their unthankfulnesse which perish, that without This we cannot take so much as a true Surface of it; not so much as the least Dimension of Sin. 1798Hutton Course Math. (1807) II. 51 To find the Solidity of a Sphere..Multiply the surface by the diameter, and take 1/6 of the product for the content. 1825J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 706 To find the Surface of a Cylindrical Ring. 1871C. Davies Metric Syst. i. 12 The unit of surface is a square whose side is ten metres. 1909Westm. Gaz. 18 Mar. 4/1 After the ‘pitch’ [of a propeller] the most important detail of design is the ‘surface,’ which is usually taken to be the combined area of all the blades when laid out flat.
6. attrib. and Comb.
a. attrib. in lit. sense, chiefly locative = pertaining to, existing or occurring on, the surface of something, as surface-action, surface-crevice, surface-crust, surface-deposit, surface-dressing, surface film (also spec. in sense (b)), surface friction, surface layer, surface-light, surface ornament, surface-temperature, etc.; spec. (a) in reference to the surface of the ground (3 b), esp. in Mining, occurring, carried on, etc. at or near the surface, as surface break, surface cut, surface dirt, surface mine, surface mining, surface movement, surface ore, surface working, surface works (see also surface-damage in d); of persons, employed in, or in connexion with, work at the surface, as surface captain, surface hand, surface labourer, surface people; also in various connexions (Geol., Agric., etc.), as surface bed, surface earth, surface exploration, surface find (both Archæol.), surface heat, surface manuring, surface mould, surface peat, surface product, surface production, surface sod, surface soil, surface spring, surface stone, surface trap, surface wind, surface worker; (b) in reference to the surface of water or other fluid (3 c), as surface current, surface drift, surface energy, surface food, surface motion, surface ripple, surface towing (towing vbl. n.1), surface velocity.
1844Fownes Man. Elem. Chem. 104 Coal-gas..may be made to exhibit the phenomenon of quiet oxidation under the influence of this remarkable *surface-action [of platinum, etc.]. 1879Encycl. Brit. X. 240/1 Epigene or Surface Action—the changes produced on the superficial parts of the earth.
1850Ansted Elem. Geol., Min. etc. 582 *Surface beds and deposits.
1886J. Barrowman Sc. Mining Terms 66 *Surface break, the..sinking of the strata reaching to the surface which is consequent on the working of coal by longwall.
1832Babbage Econ. Manuf. xx. (ed. 3) 202 A *Surface-captain, with assistants, receives the ores raised.
1850Ansted Elem. Geol., Min. etc. 456 Rain, penetrating the minute *surface-crevices of an exposed rock.
1849J. Gray Earth's Antiquity ii. 53 The *surface-crust of the Earth.
1860Maury Phys. Geog. Sea (Low) viii. §391 A *surface current flows north from Behring's Strait into the Arctic Sea. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Surface Current..Also, fresh water running over salt at the mouths of great rivers.
1877Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 215 Little work..has been done except *surface-cuts and holes dug to trace the lode.
1858Hoblyn Dict. Terms Med. (ed. 8), *Surface-deposit, in Electro-plating. The operation of depositing a surface of gold or silver upon a foundation of cheaper metal.
1877Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 215 The *surface-dirt all contains gold..but no rich silver-ore is found on the surface.
1812Sir J. Sinclair Syst. Husb. Scot. i. 163 When dung is lodged near the surface, it promotes too rapid a vegetation in the foliage..a circumstance that..circumscribes *surface-dressing very much.
1880A. R. Wallace Isl. Life 279 Ocean-currents and *surface-drifts are..efficient carriers of plants.
1664Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 204 Take off the *Surface-earth about an Inch or two deep.
1876Ibid. V. 59/1 That part of the energy which depends on the area of the bounding surface of the liquid. We may call this the *surface energy.
1949W. F. Albright Archaeol. of Palestine iii. 49 The great increase of *surface exploration in Palestine in the middle decades of the nineteenth century.
1903Proc. R. Soc. LXXII. 222 The influence of the stroking is therefore limited to a very thin *surface film. 1981O. N. Bishop Physics xvii. 161/2 The liquid closest to the surface of the object may show adhesion with it; there is often a surface film of liquid which is carried along with the object.
1917*Surface find [see Iroquoian a. and n.]. 1977Antiquaries Jrnl. LVII. 324 The seal-matrices..derive either from excavations or from surface-finds at known sites.
1847Stoddart Angler's Comp. 85 March-browns..create, on their appearance, the earliest natural cravings in the fish for *surface food.
1846Holtzapffel Turning II. 658 The *surface-friction against the thread of the screw.
1842Loudon Suburban Hort. 681 The roots of the celeriac may be taken up on the approach of frost, and preserved in sand or soil out of the reach of *surface-heat.
1838Jrnl. Statist. Soc. June 73 *Surface Labourers..{pstlg}2. 6. 0. Per Month.
1875Dawson Dawn of Life iv. 85 To deposit the final *surface-layer of its shell.
1879O. N. Rood Chromatics vii. 79 In velvet the attempt is made to suppress all *surface-light, and to display only those rays which have penetrated deeply among the fibres, and have become highly coloured.
1887C. A. Moloney Forestry W. Afr. 105 We find *surface-manuring best for the coffee-tree.
1877Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 124 The branches of Rock Creek..have furnished paying *surface-mines.
1805R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 596 The harrow..renders the baked *surface-mould fine and powdery.
1886A. Winchell Walks Geol. Field 103 The *surface-movement of earthquake-waves.
1877Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 146 The *surface-ore was so favorable and the vein so perfect.
a1878Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. (1879) II. 86 Ornaments in very slight relief usually known as *surface ornaments.
1854Ronalds & Richardson Chem. Technol. (ed. 2) I. 23 Light spongy *surface-peat.
1839H. T. De la Beche Rep. Geol. Cornwall, etc. xv. 565 Two captains or agents, with a few miners and *surface-people.
1897Geikie Anc. Volcanoes Gt. Brit. I. 27 The *surface-products of volcanic action.
1709T. Robinson Nat. Hist. Westmoreld. vii. 48 The *Surface-Productions..peculiar to the Mountains, Heaths, or Dales.
1877Huxley Physiogr. 1 The *surface ripples raised by the passing breeze.
1805R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 160 The *surface sods should be carefully pared off.
1709T. Robinson Nat. Hist. Westmoreld. xii. 70 The greatest Rains seldom moisten the Earth deeper than the *Surface-Soil. 1856Morton Cycl. Agric. II. 649 To unite the stirring of the subsoil with the turning of the surface soil.
1832H. T. De la Beche Geol. Man. (ed. 2) 13 The temperature of *surface-springs.
1851Mantell Petrifactions iii. §5. 289 Chiselling away the *surface stone. 1875Encycl. Brit. II. 337/2 The..Neolithic Period, or, as it has been sometimes called, the Surface-Stone Period.
1893A. S. Eccles Sciatica 19 The *surface-temperature of the affected limb.
1885Science 15 Mar. 213 A steam launch, in which to make *surface towings. 1887[see towing vbl. n.1].
1886Encycl. Brit. XXI. 715/2 A *surface-trap or gully outside the house.
1850W. R. Birt Hurricane Guide 13 Which to the various countries over which they pass appear as *surface-winds.
1839H. T. De la Beche Rep. Geol. Cornwall, etc. xv. 564 There are few regularly-planned *surface-works.
1963Times 2 Mar. 8/5 The miners' demands include pensions at 50 for underground workers and at 55 for *surface workers.
(c) Electr., as surface conduction, surface density, surface electrification, surface winding.
1873F. Jenkin Electr. & Magn. Index, *Surface conduction, or creeping on insulators.
1878Encycl. Brit. VIII. 17/2 Electrical ‘*surface density’..means quantity of electricity on an element of surface divided by the element of surface.
1878Encycl. Brit. VIII. 66/1 *Surface electrification on insulators.
1902Encycl. Brit. XXVII. 583/2 For multipolar armatures with two or more layers of inductors, ‘*surface’ or ‘barrel’ winding is now extensively used.
(d) Naut. Designating ships which move on the surface of the water as opp. to submarine vessels, as surface craft, surface ship, surface vessel, surface warship, etc.; also Comb., as surface-borne, surface-sailing adjs.
1905Trans. Inst. Naval Archit. XLVII. 407 Misconceptions exist..as to the relative chances of accidents happening to boats compared with surface craft. 1910C. W. Domville-Fife Submarines of World's Navies ii. 101 This is if the surface warship was steaming in an erractic course. 1915W. E. Dommett Submarine Vessels 5 The term ‘submersible vessels’ should..be reserved for those which, whilst mainly surface vessels, can be brought to an awash or submerged condition. 1928C. F. S. Gamble Story North Sea Air Station xiii. 224 A pilot might sight..a submarine and a surface-borne craft like a cruiser or destroyer. 1939Sun (Baltimore) 17 Apr. 9/1 The North Haven surface ship to be used in transporting supplies, will carry 314,000 separate items. 1945Army & Navy Jrnl. 18 Aug. 1534 ASV, Airborne Surface Vessel Detection, airborne radar devices used to locate surface vessels and surfacing submarines. 1954Ann. Reg. 1953 337 The Tirpitz..a well-documented account of the career and sinking of the war-time surface raider. 1975Listener 17 June 77/2 The ‘Bismarck’..was later sunk by surface vessels. 1982A. Melville-Ross Trigger ii. 33 You don't have enough surface ships left for you to hoist your admiral's flag.
(e) In reference to (chiefly, public) transportation at ground- or sea-level, as opp. to underground or air carriage (orig. U.S.); cf. surface car, sense 6 d. Also, spec. applied to mail or post, as surface letter, surface parcel, etc.; cf. surface mail, sense 6 d below.
1906‘Mark Twain’ Let. 5 May in C. Clemens Mark Twain (1932) 156 My daughters are frequently robbed by conductors on the surface lines. 1909N.Y. Even. Post (Semi-weekly ed.) 4 Mar. 1 On streets leading to these ferries surface travel was blocked by heavily laden vehicles stalled. 1927New Republic 12 Oct. 208/2 Chicago, alas! despite the fact that it could undoubtedly solve its transportation difficulties by surface carriage,..has decided to go in for subways. 1933Jrnl. R. Central Asian Soc. Jan. 81 Surface transport conditions for the necessary stores and spares are bad. 1934Air Mail Service (G.P.O. Green Paper 1), The actual cost incurred for handling, surface transmission, and air conveyance. 1951Overseas Air Mails (G.P.O.) Feb. 1/2 The general regulations applicable to ordinary surface parcels..apply to air parcels. 1956L. Zilliacus From Pillar to Post xiii. 163 An ordinary surface letter..takes a week or more... By air it takes two or three days. 1977National Observer (U.S.) 1 Jan 2 Adams is also a critic of several leading schemes for deregulation of airlines and surface carriers.
(f) Linguistics. Of or pertaining to the level of language at which normal communication exists, as opposed to the underlying level revealed by ‘deep’ semantic and syntactic analysis, esp. as surface grammar. See also surface structure, sense 6 d below.
1953G. E. M. Anscombe tr. L. Wittgenstein's Philos. Investigations i. 168e In the use of words one might distinguish ‘surface grammar’ from ‘depth grammar’. What immediately impresses itself upon us about the use of a word is the way it is used in the construction of the sentence, the part of its use..that can be taken in by the ear.—And now compare the depth grammar, say of the word ‘to mean’, with what its surface grammar would lead us to suspect. 1958C. F. Hockett Course in Mod. Linguistics xxix. 249 This most apparent layer constitutes, we shall say, surface grammar. Beneath it lie various layers of deep grammar, which have much to do with how we speak and understand but which are still largely unexplored, in any systematic way, by grammarians. 1965N. Chomsky Aspects of Theory of Syntax 199 In place of the terms ‘deep structure’ and ‘surface structure’, one might use the corresponding Humboldtian notions ‘inner form’ of a sentence and ‘outer form’ of a sentence... The terms ‘depth grammar’ and ‘surface grammar’ are familiar in modern philosophy in something roughly like the sense here intended. 1967D. G. Hays Introd. Computational Linguistics viii. 155 Their system begins with a surface parser. 1972Language XLVIII. 678 His general discussion of what syntax is all about deals exclusively with surface phenomena, chiefly the order of elements in a sentence. 1977Word 1972 XXVIII. 92 Yet the simplest solution superficially is not necessarily the best, and a surface-oriented approach to tá predicates is faced with problems, too. 1981A. C. Thiselton in Believing in Church iii. 51 Language is said to determine the scope and limits of thought on the basis of vocabulary-stock or even surface-grammar.
b. attrib. in fig. sense (see 1 b), often equivalent to an adj. = superficial.
1828Carlyle Misc. (1857) I. 207 No vain surface-logic detains him. 1859W. Collins Q. of Hearts i, With a quaint surface-sourness of address, and a tone of dry sarcasm in his talk. 1860O. W. Holmes Prof. Breakf.-t. vi. (Paterson) 122 Good-breeding is Surface-Christianity. 1864Pusey Lect. Daniel i. 43 The slight variations between the Aramaic of Daniel and Ezra are in conformity with their slight difference in age. But these are petty surface-questions. 1866G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. viii. (1878) 129, I had only a certain surface-knowledge. 1875Whitney Life Lang. vi. 102 Skimming a mere surface comprehension off that which has a profound meaning. 1905F. Young Sands of Pleasure ii. iv, I always keep to mere acquaintance and surface friendships with such people.
c. Comb. with pples., adjs., vbs., agent-nouns, and nouns of action: (a) locative (= ‘on the surface’), as surface-deposited, surface-dressed, surface-dry, surface-dwelling, surface-feeding, surface-scratched adjs.; surface-feed, surface-grip (grip v.2), surface-hoe, surface sow (chiefly N.Z.) vbs.; surface-dweller, surface-feeder; surface-sowing, surface-sown (chiefly N.Z.), surface-swimming adjs. and ns.; (b) objective, as surface-skimmer; surface sterilization (hence surface-sterilize vb., surface-sterilized ppl. adj.), surface-tapping.
1898F. Davis Romano-Brit. City of Silchester 16 The subsidence..of the *surface-deposited material.
1892J. Anderson in J. R. Allen Early Chr. Monum. Scot. (1903) i. p. vi, The stone..is not squared or *surface-dressed.
1878Abney Photogr. xxi. 151 This prevents the chance of any of the prints getting *surface-dry.
1880A. R. Wallace Isl. Life 89 It was long thought that they were *surface-dwellers only.
1888H. Woodward Guide Fossil Fishes Brit. Mus. (ed. 2) 43 The living *surface-dwelling genera Myripristis and Holocentrum.
1907Westm. Gaz. 5 Jan. 3/3 Widgeons are entirely surface-feeding ducks, and like most *surface-feeders they sleep out at sea by day.
1902Millais (title) The Natural History of the British *Surface-Feeding Ducks.
1851Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XII. ii. 293 The fields are regularly *surface-gripped as soon as the wheat is sown.
1885Garden June 572 *Surface-hoed and heeled up latest Potatoes.
1868Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 17 Undrained, *surface-scratched fields, so numerous in the defective cultivation of the present day.
1748Richardson Clarissa III. 145, I love to plague thee, who are..a *surface-skimmer in learning, with out-of-the-way words and phrases. 1841Miall in Nonconf. I. 9 The summer day politicians.., the ephemeral surface skimmers. 1868Eclectic Rev. Aug. 114 The mere surface-skimmer of books. a1911D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) I. xiii. 213 We shallow surface-skimmers make such a..fuss.
1921H. Guthrie-Smith Tutira xix. 163 The land is *surface-sown with grass and clover seed.
1882W. D. Hay Brighter Britain! I. viii. 197 In spite of..the rough ground, and the mere *surface-sowing, our grass will carry four sheep per acre. 1950N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Apr. 309/2 The uncertain establishment of plants from the surface sowing of clover seeds.
Ibid. Feb. 121/1 The more fertile *surface-sown hill country of the North Island.
1954Kirk & Othmer Encycl. Chem. Technol. XII. 914 Ultraviolet radiation exhibits extremely low penetration. Because of this the major applications have been in air sanitation and *surface sterilization of food products, packaging materials.., and working spaces. 1978Canad. Jrnl. Bot. LVI. 226/1 Close the open end of the syringe with a syringe nose cap to keep the seeds and sterilizing solution from being ejected during surface sterilization.
1956Nature 17 Mar. 534/2 The adult female mosquito was *surface-sterilized by immersion for 2 min. in a 0·5 per cent solution of mercuric chloride in 50 per cent ethyl alcohol. The surface-sterilized insect was transferred to insect Ringer solution. 1967K. M. Smith Insect Virol. ix. 165 Pupae were surface-sterilized in 70% ethanol for 5 minutes. 1978Canad. Jrnl. Bot. LVI. 225 (heading) Rapid, contamination-free sowing of surface-sterilized seeds and spores. Ibid. 226/1 After the seed is surface sterilized, remove the nose cap and affix a sterile 18-gauge needle to the syringe.
1925J. T. Jenkins Fishes Brit. Isles 73 The coryphænidæ are tropical and sub-tropical fish of pelagic or *surface-swimming habits. 1970Commercial Fisheries Rev. Apr. 4/1 The government of American Samoa seeks to broaden the islands' economic base by harvesting surface-swimming tunas.
1855Dickens Dorrit ii. xx, A knocker produced a dead flat *surface-tapping.
d. Special comb.: surface-active a. Physical Chem., (of a substance) able to affect the wetting or surface tension properties of a liquid; hence surface-activity; surface blow Engin., a device by which the surface water and scum in a steam boiler may be blown off; hence surface blow-off, the act of discharging this scum; surface-car U.S., a tramcar running on a track level with the surface of the ground, as distinct from an elevated or underground track; surface casing Oil Industry, the length of casing in a bore-hole which is nearest the surface; surface caterpillar = surface-grub; surface chemistry, the study of the chemical processes occurring at the boundaries between different phases; surface-chuck (see quot.); surface-coated a., (of paper or cardboard) having a specially finished surface; surface-colour, colour exhibited, in the case of certain substances, by the light reflected from the surface; surface condensation, condensation of steam by a surface-condenser; surface-condenser, in a steam-engine, a condenser in which exhaust-steam is condensed by contact with cold metallic surfaces; surface-contact, (a) contact of surfaces; (b) applied attrib. to a system of electric traction in which the current is conveyed to the cars through conductors on the surface of the roadway; surface couching Embroidery, a form of couching (couch v.1 4 b) in which the couched thread is held flat on the surface of the fabric by stitches looped over it (cf. underside couching s.v. underside b); so surface couched pa. pple.; surface-crossing, a level crossing on a railway; surface-damage, damage done to the surface of the ground by mining operations; pl. compensation payable for this; see also quot. 1886; surface-drain Agric., a drain cut in the surface of the ground; so surface-drainage, -draining; surface effect, any effect associated with, or only encountered near, a surface; also attrib., esp. designating an air-cushion vehicle in which the cushion is sealed by rigid sidewalls and flexible seals fore and aft (cf. sidewall 3 b); surface-gauge (see quot.); surface-grinder, surface-grinding machine, a machine for grinding something to a perfectly plane surface; surface-grub, the larva of various moths, which live just beneath the surface of the soil; a cutworm; surface-integral Math., an integral taken over the whole area of a surface; surface mail, a postal service for conveying mail by land or sea, contrasted with airmail; the mail conveyed; surface noise, a background hiss heard on reproduction of a gramophone record owing to irregularities in the surface of the groove walls; surface paper, (photographic or printing) paper made with a special surface on one side; surface-plane, a form of machine for planing timber; also, a carpenter's plane for planing a flat surface; surface-planer = surface plane; so surface planing (also attrib.); surface-plate, (a) a plate or flat bar of iron fixed on the upper surface of a rail on a railway; (b) an iron plate for testing the accuracy of a flat surface; surface-printing, printing from a raised surface (as distinguished from an incised plate), as from ordinary type, or (in calico-printing) from wooden rollers cut in relief; so surface-printed a.; surface process, a process of surface-printing; surface-rib Arch., a rib applied to the surface of vaulting merely for ornament; surface-road U.S., a railroad on the surface of the ground, as distinct from an elevated or underground railroad; surface-roller (see quot., and cf. surface-printing above); surface shelter: in the war of 1939–45, an air-raid shelter at ground-level; surface speed, the speed of which a submarine is capable when moving on the surface; surface structure Linguistics (esp. in Generative Gram.), the syntactic elements forming an utterance or sentence, contrasted with the ‘hidden’ or not immediately recognizable logical form underlying such elements (the deep structure: see deep a. IV. c); a string of such elements arranged with labels and brackets to show the relationship of the constituent parts; surface-tension Physics, the tension of the surface-film of a liquid, due to the cohesion of its particles; surface-water, (a) water that collects on the surface of the ground; (b) the surface layer of a body of water; surface-worm = surface-grub. See also surfaceman.
1920Chem. Abstr. XIV. 3256 The changes in the surface tension brought about by acid and alkali are so slight the titration with *surface active substances as indicators cannot be significantly disturbing. 1978P. W. Atkins Physical Chem. viii. 240 The material described in this section is put to use in the study of surface-active agents (or surfactants). These agents include long chain molecules, such as soaps and detergents, which accumulate at the water-air interface and lower the surface tension.
1925Chem. Abstr. XIX. 3094 It was proved that in certain diseases the *surface activity of the urine not only deviates from its normal value in the quant. sense, but that in conditions such as morbus meculosis it suffers qual. changes. 1972Materials & Technol. V. x. 273 (heading) Principles of surface-activity.
1859W. J. M. Rankine Man. Steam Engine iii. iv. 453 Another blow-off cock is sometimes so placed as to discharge occasionally the scum, consisting of crystals of salt, which collects on the surface of the water: this is called the ‘*surface blow’. 1888R. H. Thurston Man. Steam Boilers xii. 446 When using sea⁓water in the boilers, frequently blowing off from the bottom or a continuous discharge from the ‘surface-blow’ or ‘scum pipes’ is essential to keeping the water so fresh as not to produce deposits or incrustation.
1888Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin. 361 *Surface blow-off, the blowing off of the scum which collects on the top of the water in a boiler. 1977Woodruff & Lammers Steam-Plant Operation (ed. 4) v. 254 Surface blowoff is advantageous in skimming or removing oil from the boiler water.
1890N.Y. Tribune 11 May (Cent. Dict.) The Americanisms one hears upon the front platforms of New-York *surface cars. 1909E. Banks Myst. F. Farrington 103 She took a surface car to help her on her way.
1946L. C. Uren Petroleum Production Engineering (ed. 3) I. xi. 388 Some varieties of *surface casing are made of galvanized sheet steel. 1977Offshore Engineer Aug. 28/2 A widely used drilling programme..using 30{pp} conductor pipe, 20{pp} surface casing.
1852*Surface caterpillar [see surface-grub below].
1926E. K. Rideal (title) An introduction to *surface chemistry. 1951A. E. Alexander Surface Chem. p. v, The study of surface chemistry gives an unusually clear insight into the real existence and behaviour of molecules. 1975McGraw-Hill Yearbk. Sci. & Technol. 174/2 Conductance monitoring of thin-film electrodes constitutes a powerful new approach to the study of surface chemistry and physics.
1842Francis Dict. Arts, *Surface Chuck, a chuck used for the purpose of holding any flat material, while the surface of it is turned flat and even.
1908Westm. Gaz. 23 Jan. 1/3 A firm interested in ‘*surface-coated boards’.
1899W. Watson Text-bk. Physics §387. 556 In the case of the bodies referred to..as showing *surface colour, light of a particular colour seems unable to penetrate at all, and is therefore reflected, so that the transmitted light will be without this colour.
1867–72Burgh Mod. Marine Engin. 253 As far back as the year 1832 Mr. Hall..proved..that *surface condensation was..economical.
1863J. Jack in Proc. Inst. Mech. Engin. 150 (title) Effects of *Surface Condensers on Steam Boilers.
1846Holtzapffel Turning II. 663 Those nuts..which are..used..for the regulating screws of slides and general machinery, are made much thicker..; this greatly increases their *surface-contact, and durability. 1898S. P. Thompson in Westm. Gaz. 13 Oct. 2/3 Surface-contact systems..are much less costly than the underground conduit, and equally dispense with the unsightly overhead wires.
1938A. G. I. Christie Eng. Medieval Embroidery 25 *Surface Couching. The method of couching familiar to modern workers, that of securing one or more threads by passing another across them.., although well known in the Middle Ages, does not appear to have been extensively used. Ibid., The medieval English embroidery, preserved in the Musée de Cluny,..is surface-couched throughout. 1963Opus Anglicanum (V. & A. Mus. Exhib. Catal.) 14/1 Silver-gilt and silk thread in underside and surface couching and stem stitch. Ibid. 44/2 In the band with butterflies the metal threads are surface couched.
1841Penny Cycl. XIX. 251/1 When the Liverpool and Manchester line was projected,..no danger was anticipated from such intersections, which are called *surface-crossings.
1801Farmer's Mag. Apr. 202 Liberty of working minerals..upon paying *surface-damages. 1838W. Bell Dict. Law Scot., Surface-damage, damage done to the surface of the ground in consequence of mining operations. 1886J. Barrowman Sc. Mining Terms 66 Surface damages, ground occupied and damaged by colliery operations.
1833Ridgemont Farm Rep. 132 in Libr. Usef. Kn., Husb. III, Forming the *surface-drains (‘grips’) across the ridges.
1833Loudon Encycl. Archit. §824 *Surface Drainage.
1799View Agric. Lincoln. 72 A *surface-draining plough. 1805R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 13 In the surface-draining of land, different sorts of ploughs are in use in different places.
1905R. C. H. Heck Steam-Engine & Other Steam-Motors I. iv. 109 The *surface-effect.—Of the total interior surface of the cylinder, that part which may be called the clearance-surface—including the cylinder head and the piston-face, with the steam-passages. 1945[see mass effect s.v. mass n.2 10 d]. 1962Marine Engin./Log Oct. 72/2 A surface-effect ship is being developed under a $370,000 MarAd contract. 1979Canad. Jrnl. Biochem. LVII. 106/1 This preference [for phosphatidylcholine] is manifested in the ethereal system, in which surface effects are absent.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Surface-gage, an implement for testing the accuracy of plane surfaces.
1884Ibid. Suppl. 875 Thomson's *surface grinder..has..driving arrangements, constructed to grind and buff the surfaces of work too large or heavy to be taken to the ordinary grinding machines.
Ibid., Thomson, Sterne, & Co.'s..*Surface Grinding Machine.
1852G. W. Johnson Cottage Gard. Dict., *Surface Grubs, or caterpillars, are the larvæ of several species of..Night Moths.
1875Cayley Math. Papers IX. 321 On the Prepotential *Surface-integral. 1878W. K. Clifford Dynamic iii. 201 The surface-integral of the spin over any closed surface is zero.
1935Post Office Mag. Jan. 2/2 1928, new services introduced and direct air or combined air and *surface mails to half the countries of the world. 1946R. Allen Home Made Banners xii. 156 Pop's reply was so long that it came by surface mail. 1956B.B.C. Handbk. 1957 247 It is published in a surface mail edition at an annual rate of 25 s. 1977P. Moyes To Kill Coconut vi. 82 Look at the date. Three weeks old. Just arrived by surface mail.
1921Daily-Colonist (Victoria) 17 Mar. 7/7 The Sonora plays with a total absence of that ‘*surface noise’ or record scratching which you had believed could not be eliminated. 1981Hi-Fi Answers Sept. 87/1 The general idea was to boost high frequencies on recording, so that when an equal and opposite act was applied on play-back it cut out a lot of the surface noise.
1892Photogr. Ann. II. 60 Use a paper which is white on one side... This paper can be bought at a stationer's under the name of *surface paper.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Surface-plane (Wood-working), a form of planing-machine for truing and smoothing the surface of an object run beneath the rotary cutter on the bed of the planer.
1873J. Richards Wood-working Factories 131 *Surface planers, that cut away a constant amount of wood, gauged from the surface that is planed.
Ibid., The under cylinder of a double surfacing machine, or bottom cylinders generally, are examples of *surface planing. 1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2457 A surface-planing machine.
1825J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 652 At every eighteen inches or two feet of the length of this *surface-plate, a tenon is firmly welded or riveted. 1846Holtzapffel Turning II. 865 The operator must be provided with the means of testing the progressive advance of the work, he should therefore possess a true straight-edge, and a true surface-plate.
1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2457 Books, newspapers, woodcuts, and lithographs are all *surface-printed.
1838Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 266/1 The Production of coloured Impressions on Paper,..by *Surface Printing. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 219 Another modification of cylinder printing, is that with wooden rollers cut in relief: it is called surface printing.
1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2458 The rose-engine work around the portrait, if printed from by the *surface-process [etc.].
1835R. Willis Archit. Mid. Ages vii. 82 These three classes of ribs may be designated as Groin Ribs, Ridge Ribs, and *Surface Ribs.
1889Cent. Dict., *Surface-road. 1903N.Y. Evening Post 3 Sept. 6/4 The short-haul business is well provided for by the existing surface roads.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Surface-roller, the engraved cylinder used in calico-printing.
1940New Statesman 19 Oct. 375 He is getting worried about his wife and children in their *surface shelters.
1902Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 576/2 With her original machinery the Plunger was to have had a *surface speed of 15 knots. 1976G. Cook Silent Marauder i. 58 The K-class steam-driven submarine..could produce a surface speed of twenty-four knots.
1964N. Chomsky Current Issues in Linguistic Theory i. 10 Thus the syntactic component must provide for each sentence (actually, for each interpretation of each sentence) a semantically interpretable deep structure and phonetically interpretable *surface structure, and, in the event that these are distinct, a statement of the relation between these structures. 1969Neuphilologische Mitteilungen LXX. 203 The distinction between ‘surface’ and ‘deep’ structures should be given up, since no such contrast exists: there are only structures and their meanings. 1971Archivum Linguisticum II. 131, I shall use the traditional term Article to refer to the, a, this, etc. when I am characterizing them as surface-structure elements. 1975Ibid. VI. 23 Even mutations which are determined by a lexical environment are not all triggered by the surface structure. 1977E. von Glaserfeld in D. M. Rumbaugh Language Learning by Chimpanzee v. 103 In this context it must be said that Chomsky's introduction of the terms ‘surface structure’ and ‘deep structure’..seemed a step in the right direction.
1876Encycl. Brit. V. 57/1 In 1804 Thomas Young founded the theory of capillary phenomena on the principle of *surface-tension.
1793[Earl Dundonald] Descr. Estate of Culross 21 Blue clay, forming a..barrier against *surface water. 1850Ansted Elem. Geol., Min. etc. 461 The surface-water, when in excess, penetrates into the sub-soil. 1860Maury Phys. Geog. Sea (Low) ix. §430 The surface-water of Loch Lomond. 1894Baring-Gould Deserts S. France I. 7 The wells are mere reservoirs of surface water.
▪ II. ˈsurface, v.
[f. prec. n.]
1. trans. To give a (particular kind of) surface, esp. a smooth or even surface, to; to smooth or polish the surface of; also, to cover the surface of (with something).
1778W. H. Marshall Minutes Agric. 12 Apr. 1776, The soil had two plowings, was harrowed, rolled,..and afterward surfaced as level as a table. 1837Blackw. Mag. XLI. 186 Soft-cushioned and aerated ground, surfaced and inlaid with thinnest mother-of-pearl. 1869Rankine Machine & Hand-tools Pl. H 8, This lathe is..adapted..for surfacing..the general class of work to be met with in engineering establishments. 1875Knight Dict. Mech., Marble-scourer, a rubber for surfacing marble slabs. 1897Outing (U.S.) XXX. 233/1 The track is surfaced with cement.
2. intr. To mine near the surface; to wash the surface deposit or ‘dirt’ for gold or other valuable mineral.
1860L. A. Meredith Over the Straits iv. 133 I've been surfacing this good while; but quartz-reefin's the payinest game now.
3. a. trans. To bring or raise to the surface.
1885Money Market Review 29 Aug. (Cassell's Encycl. Dict.) To surface the tinstuff now accumulated.
b. fig. To bring to public notice; spec. to produce or expose (a defector, spy, etc.). U.S. colloq.
1955N.Y. Times 6 Mar. iv. 2/6 In Moscow last week the authorities ‘surfaced’ a brilliant British atomic scientist who had disappeared behind the Iron Curtain five years ago. 1963J. Joesten They call it Intelligence i. iv. 45 Now and then secret agents are purposely ‘surfaced’. 1973N.Y. Times 20 May i. 64/1 Martin Tolchin, another Times reporter, surfaced one of the stories last October. 1974Anderson (S. Carolina) Independent 23 Apr. 1b/2 Rep. Dan Marrett..surfaced the controversial issue.
4. a. intr. To rise to the surface of the water. Also fig.
1898Pall Mall Mag. Nov. 358 [The fish] surfaced within a few feet of me. 1935Jrnl. R. United Services Inst. LXXX. 126 Diving and surfacing were carried out by filling or employing a number of goatskins. 1955Times 18 Aug. 8/3 [The officer]..had an under-water swimming suit with breathing equipment. He failed to surface. 1959Listener 9 Apr. 635/2 The Skate surfaced ten times during the voyage. 1965M. Shadbolt Among Cinders xxvi. 276, I swam down a gloomy passage..and surfaced in a gently lighted room. 1974L. Deighton Spy Story xviii. 192 Nuclear subs go faster submerged... When we surfaced they did the usual tests.
b. fig. Of persons: to become fully conscious or alert, esp. after sleep. Also, to come to general notice (after a period of seclusion), to appear in public view.
1959H. Hamilton Answer in Negative ii. 33 He was rather silent over the meal... It was only when they had returned to the drawing-room that he really surfaced and returned to the case. 1963Times 11 Jan. 3/7 He went to bed early last night and did not feel well enough to surface today. 1968‘R. Simons’ Death on Display xii. 180 ‘Has there been any sign of that damned Tebaugh woman yet?’ ‘Afraid not... She still hasn't surfaced.’ 1971‘A. Gilbert’ Tenant for Tomb v. 73 If there wasn't a reason he'd have—what's the word?—surfaced before this. 1975New Yorker 21 Apr. 133/1 Members of revolutionary committees that were created by the Communists over the past several years in all South Vietnamese provinces have now surfaced.
c. Similarly, of something newly presented to public attention, esp. after being concealed.
1971Nature 26 Feb. 590/1 The proposal surfaced last December with the report of a panel of consultants commissioned by Senator Ralph Yarborough. 1973Time 5 Feb. 51/1 The dispute soon surfaced in the press. 1978R. Ludlum Holcroft Covenant xxvii. 318 She wanted me to be prepared if it ever surfaced, if anyone for any reason ever remembered and tried to use the information. |