| 释义 |
dumb-bell, n.|ˈdʌmbɛl|
1. a. Formerly, An apparatus, like that for swinging a church-bell, but without the bell itself, and thus making no noise, in the ‘ringing’ of which bodily exercise was taken. b. Also, applied to a similar apparatus, used in learning bell-ringing.
1711Addison Spect. No. 115. ⁋7, I exercise myself an Hour every Morning upon a dumb Bell, that is placed in a corner of my room..My Landlady and her daughters..never come into my room to disturb me while I am ringing. 1747Gentl. Mag. XVII. 77. 1784 Wesley Wks. (1872) XI. 520 If you cannot ride or walk abroad, use, within, a dumb-bell, or a wooden horse. 1888J. Dixon in N. & Q. 7th Ser. VI. 282. 1895 R. S. Ferguson in Archæol. Jrnl. LII. 45 A contrivance or machine at Knole, called the ‘Dumb Bell’, which stands in an attic called the ‘Dumb Bell Gallery’. 1896Ibid. LIII. 23 Two instances of actual dumb bells, that is of dumb bells used for the purpose of teaching beginners the art of change-ringing.
2. a. An instrument of wood or iron, consisting of a short bar or slender connecting-piece weighted at each end with a roundish knob; used in pairs, which are grasped in the hands and swung for exercise.
[1711Addison Spect. No. 115 ⁋8 (Described under the name of σκιοµαχία).] 1785F. Tytler Lounger No. 24 ⁋ 3. It was Peter's province..to attend me at noon with the dumb-bells, and measure out my hour of exercise. 1824Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 208 Talking..is nearly as good to open the chest as the dumb-bells. 1894Hall Caine Manxman 426 A stone like a dumb-bell, large at both ends and narrow in the middle.
b. [After dumb a. 7 b.] = dumbhead. Also attrib. slang (orig. U.S.).
1920Collier's 3 July 8/1 The gent..stands alone as the Crown Prince of dumb-bells. 1922S. Lewis Babbitt xviii, 227 The poor old dumb-bells that you can't get to dance. a1930D. H. Lawrence Etruscan Places (1932) i. 21 They gave the usual dumb-bell answer. 1936Punch 15 Apr. 430/3 Next came one of those series of Dumb-bell Letters which seem to be very popular, a dumb-bell being the kind of person who writes to the manufacturer asking him to replace a gadget that has been lost, and then adds a postscript telling him not to bother as the missing gadget has just been found.
3. An object of the shape of a dumb-bell or of two rounded masses with a narrowed connecting part.
a. Applied to microscopic crystals of oxalate of lime, etc. found in the urine.
b. A name for a diplococcus.
a. [1844G. Bird Urin. Deposits 127 In a very few cases the oxalate is met with in very remarkable crystals shaped like dumb-bells or rather like two kidneys with their concavities opposed. Ibid. 128 Large ‘dumb-bell’ crystals.] 1864G. Harley in Med. Times & Gaz. II. 535 Lithates may be found as dumb-bells.
b.1885E. Klein Micro-Organisms & Dis. (1886) 58 Between the individuals of a dumb-bell there is always noticeable a short pale intervening bridge.
4. attrib. and Comb., as dumb-bell-shape, dumb-bell-shaped adj. dumb-bell nebula, a nebula of this shape in the constellation Vulpecula.
1826R. H. Froude Rem. (1838) I. 83 This is the third day I have practised a dumb-bell exercise. [1833Sir J. Herschel Catal. Neb. in Phil. Trans. cxxiii. 465 A nebula shaped like a dumb-bell.] 184.Nichol Archit. Heav. (1851) 81 The celebrated ‘Dumb Bell’ nebula of Sir John Herschel. 1867–77G. F. Chambers Astron. vi. iv. 536 A curious object near the 5th-magnitude star 14 Vulpeculæ..usually known as the ‘Dumb-bell’ nebula. 1844–57G. Bird Urin. Deposits (ed. 5) 29 A very thick double convex lens excavated at the sides into a kind of dumb-bell shape. 1870Rolleston Anim. Life 77 A dumb-bell-shaped mass.
Hence ˈdumb-bell v., (a) intr. To practise with dumb-bells; (b) trans. To exercise or drill with dumb-bells. So ˈdumb-beller.
1827Mirror II. 274/2 Gymnasticating, dumb-belling, and dancing-mastering, will not put quicksilver into a man's neck. 1881M. E. Braddon Asph. I. 144 How I have been..governessed..and back-boarded..and dumb-belled. 1891Du Maurier Peter Ibbetson ii. in Harper's Mag. July 177/1 A..persevering dumb-beller and Indian-clubber. |