释义 |
▪ I. eddy, n.|ˈɛdɪ| Also 5 Sc. ydy, 6–7 edie, eddee, -ie. [Of unknown history; app. first recorded in 15th c.; if of Eng. origin, the sense seems to point to connexion with ed-; cf. ON. iða of same meaning.] 1. ‘The water that by some interruption in its course, runs contrary to the direction of the tide or current’ (Adm. Smyth); a circular motion in water, a small whirlpool.
a1455Houlate lxiv, The barde..socht wattir to wesche him thar out in ane ydy. 1553Brende Q. Curtius 245 (R.) Suche as..escaped theire enemies, were..drowned wyth..the eddies of the streame. 1665Manley Grotius' Low-C. Warrs 251 The strong eddy or Whirlepoole of the River..brought it into the Trench. 1684T. Burnet Th. Earth I. 131 Those great eddees..that suck into them..whatever comes within their reach. 1727Thomson Spring 816 The madness of the straiten'd stream Turns in black eddies round. 1810Scott Lady of L. iii. vii, The wheeling eddies boil. 1882White Naval Archit. 449 It is blunt tails rather than blunt noses that cause eddies. 2. transf. Wind, fog, dust, etc. moving in a similar way; a circular movement of wind, etc.
1815Elphinstone Acc. Caubul (1842) I. 173 Rain..brought..by the eddy in the winds. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. iii. i. 269 Indicated through circling eddies of fog. 1878M. A. Brown Nadeschda 22 A dustcloud rolls in eddies forth. 3. fig.
1791G. Morris in Sparks Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853) IV. 413 There is in the current of their affairs a strong eddy or counter tide. 1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. 147 An eddy of criticism. 1850Tennyson In Mem. xlviii, The lightest wave of thought shall lisp, The fancy's tenderest eddy wreathe. 1868Stanley Westm. Ab. iii. 139 These are but the eddies of the royal history. 1875Farrar Seekers ii. iv. 231 In the mighty eddies of an unseen, mysterious agency. 4. Comb., as eddy-breeze, eddy-stream, eddy-tide; eddy-chamber, a chamber in which a current of fluid is compelled to whirl in eddies; eddy-current, a current of electricity induced in places where such currents are undesirable and cause waste of energy; also eddy-current brake, eddy-current loss; eddy-rock (see quot.); eddy-water (also eddy, Adm. Smyth), the dead water under a ship's counter. Also eddy-wind.
1799Naval Chron. I. 250 *Eddy breezes from a hilly shore.
1899Yearbk. U.S. Dept. Agric. 153 W. S. Barnard, working under the direction of Riley, invented the admirable *eddy chamber, or ‘cyclone system’ of nozzles.
1600Hakluyt Voy. III 291 (R.) From the Cape to Virginia..are none but *eddie currents. 1887Soc. Telegr. Engin. Jrnl. XVI. 65 The coil is surrounded..by a circular pole piece, cut away at one point to hinder eddy-currents. 1892W. P. Maycock Electr. Lighting i. vi. 158 Most armatures of direct current machines have iron cores, and the revolution of the cores in the magnetic field would..cause currents to be induced in the core... These currents [are] called foucault or eddy currents. 1930Engineering 6 June 724/3 Three systems were in use, operated, respectively, by hydraulic, pneumatic and electro-magnetic (eddy currents in the wheels) means. 1934Webster, *Eddy-current brake. 1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 281/1 *Eddy-current loss. 1943Electronic Engin. XVI. 194 If a solid conductor is replaced by a number of insulated strands..it appears obvious at first sight that the eddy current losses must be reduced.
1877A. Green Phys. Geol. iv. §1. 124 Rock possessing this [Current-Bedding] structure is sometimes called *Eddy-Rock by quarrymen and well-sinkers.
1725De Foe Voy. round W. (1840) 352 They would rather have an *eddy stream against them.
1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. x. 48 An *Eddie tide is where the water doth runne backe contrary to the tide. 1887Pall Mall G. 23 Aug. 8/2 Owing to the eddy tide these operations were not attended with success. ▪ II. eddy, v.|ˈɛdɪ| [f. prec. n.] 1. intr. To move in an eddy or eddies: said properly of water and objects borne on water; also of air, vapour, etc., and transf. of birds on the wing. Also fig.
1810Scott Lady of L. i. xvii, Eddying in almost viewless wave, The weeping willow twig to lave. 1813― Trierm. iii. vii, The unwonted sound, Eddying in echoes round and round. 1833Marryat P. Simple (1863) 158 The wind was high..sweeping in the rain in every direction as it eddyed to and fro. 1844Mem. Babylonian P'cess II. 91 Large hungry eagles..eddying far above into the regions of air. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. II. xxviii. 285 A flat cake of ice eddied round near the floe we were upon. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. §14. 97 The vapour..eddying wildly in the air. 2. trans. To whirl round in eddies. Also with in: to collect as into an eddy (rare).
1730Thomson Autumn 322 The circling mountains eddy in From the bare wild the dissipated storm. 1858Sat. Rev. VI. 113/1 How are we to tell that a comet..may not get eddyed (so to speak) by some great planet? 1878Smiles Robt. Dick iv. 28 The water is churned and eddied about. |