| 释义 |
▪ I. telegraph, n.|ˈtɛlɪgrɑːf, -æ-|
[a. F. télégraphe (Chappe 1792), f. Gr. τῆλε afar + -γραϕ-ος that writes, writer: see tele- and -graph; so Ger. telegraph.
Miot de Mélito states in his Mémoires i. 38, that Chappe the inventor proposed to call his invention a tachygraphe, but was told by Miot that the name was bad, and ought to be télégraphe, which he at once adopted. (See Littré.)]
1. a. An apparatus for transmitting messages to a distance, usually by signs of some kind. Devices for this purpose have been in use from ancient times, but the name was first applied to that invented by Chappe in France in 1792, consisting of an upright post with movable arms, the signals being made by various positions of the arms according to a pre-arranged code. Hence applied to various other devices subsequently used, operating by movable disks, shutters, etc., flashes of light, movements in a column of liquid, sounds of bells, horns, etc., or other means. (Now rare in this sense, such contrivances being usually called semaphores or signalling apparatus.)
[1794Europ. Mag. Sept. 166/2 It was announced to them by the Telegraphe from Lisle.] 1794Hist. in Ann. Reg. 394 The invention of the telegraph... A number of posts are erected at convenient distances; and on each..is fixed a transverse beam with two moveable arms, the beam itself being also moveable. The different forms which the machine is capable of assuming is 16, and these represent the telegraphic alphabet. 1795Times 30 Dec., in Ashton Old Times (1885) 127 A chain of Telegraphs is erected from Shuter's Hill to Dover. 1798Hull Advertiser 14 Apr. 2/4 Orders were..transmitted by the telegraph and by express to Portsmouth. 1805in A. Duncan Nelson (1806) 297 Lord Nelson conveyed the following sentence by telegraph, to the fleet—‘England expects every man will do his duty’. 1813J. W. Croker in Cr. Papers (1884) I. ii. 53 The Plymouth telegraph announces another complete victory of Lord W. over Soult on the 30th. 18..Moore Fragm. Character v, Scarcely a telegraph could wag Its wooden finger, but Ned knew it. 1823Pasley (title) Description of the Universal Telegraph for Day and Night Signals. 1834–47J. S. Macaulay Field Fortif. (1851) 256 A soldier makes an excellent telegraph..varying the gestures to meet the various circumstances. 1863W. Ladd in Rep. British Assoc. 19 On an Acoustic Telegraph.
b. Applied retrospectively to ancient devices.
1794Times 20 Sept., in Ashton Old Times (1885) 125 The invention of the Telegraphe is now traced back to 1655, and particularly mentioned in a little book..by the Marquis of Worcester... He there gives it the name of Visual Correspondence, and calls it his own invention. 1808J. Macdonald Telegraphic Commun. 37 Julius Africanus minutely details a mode of spelling words by a Telegraph. It appears, that fires of various substances, were the means made use of. 1842Penny Cycl. XXIV. 145/2 Bishop Wilkins,..after describing this telegraph of Polybius, mentions another which requires only three lights or torches.
c. fig. See also bush telegraph s.v. bush n.1 11.
1795O'Keefe Irish Mimick i. i, Love is a monstrous telegraph. 1817Coleridge ‘Blessed are ye’ 103 When princely capitals are often but the Telegraphs of distant calamity. 1866Tumut & Adelong (N.S.W.) Times 1 Jan. 2/3 They approached to within one hundred yards of the camp unobserved, and then it was apparent that the ‘telegraph’ had done its work. 1891‘Old Time’ Convict Hulk ‘Success’ 20 The ‘telegraph’ was very extensively worked on board these hulks... The ‘telegraph’ was a system of speaking from one cell to another by means of tapping on the walls. 1964D. Macarthur Reminiscences vi. 206 News of the first such shipment spread rapidly by the ‘bamboo telegraph’ through the Philippines. 1969New Yorker 14 June 76/2 He would look down at his plate and find two steaks there. He knew what was happening. A message had come from the kitchen, on the Afro-American telegraph.
2. In full, electric (or magnetic) telegraph: An apparatus consisting of a transmitting instrument (transmitter), a receiving instrument (receiver), and a line or wire of any length connecting these, along which an electric current from a battery or other source passes, the circuit being made and broken by working the transmitter, so as to produce movements, as of a needle or pointer, in the receiver, which indicate letters, etc., either according to a code of signs, or by pointing to characters upon a dial; in some forms the receiver works so as to print or trace the message upon a prepared strip of paper.
Also, an apparatus for wireless telegraphy: see wireless.
1797Monthly Mag. Feb. 148 Dr. Don Franciso Salva had read, at the Royal Academy of Sciences, at Barcelona, a Memoir on the Application of Electricity to the Telegraph, and presented..an Electrical Telegraph of his own invention. 1823Ronalds (title) Descriptions of an Electrical Telegraph. 1834Brewster in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7) VIII. 582/1 Mr. F. Ronalds..erected at Hammersmith an electrical telegraph, on which the inflections of the wire composed one continuous length of more than eight miles. Ibid. 662/2 Some German and American authors have proposed to construct galvanic telegraphs by the decomposition of water. 1840Monthly Chron. I. 383/2 Electric Telegraph.—This extraordinary machine is now being worked on the great western rail-road [in Britain]. 1842Penny Cycl. XXIV. 154/1 It is to the joint labours of Messrs. W. F. Cooke and Professor Wheatstone that electric telegraphs owe their practical application. Ibid. 155/1 The electro⁓magnetic telegraph... The longest continuous line yet completed is that from Paddington to West Drayton. Ibid., It is reported (July, 1842) that an electric telegraph is about to be laid down along the South-Western Railway, from London to Gosport. 1845P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 264, I saw the magnetic telegraph at the railway station. 1854G. B. Richardson Univ. Code v. 7420 Have you received any communication by electric telegraph? 1858Longfellow in Life (1891) II. 361 Presently the clerk says, ‘The Atlantic Telegraph is laid!’ 1878G. B. Prescott Sp. Telephone (1879) 1 More than one hundred years ago Lesage established a telegraph in Geneva by the use of frictional electricity. 1881W. M. Springer in N. Amer. Rev. CXXXII. 369 In..thirty years the telegraphs of the world have grown to nearly half a million miles of line, and more than a million miles of wire.
fig.1864Lowell Fireside Trav. 123 The magnetic telegraph of human sympathy flashes swift news from brain to brain.
†3. A message sent by telegraph; a telegram. Obs.
1821G. R. Gleig Campaigns Brit. Army at Washington & New Orleans 1814–15 vii. 89 We had not proceeded many miles from the river's mouth, when a telegraph from the admiral gave orders for the troops to be in readiness to land. 1850D. Webster Lett. (1902) 392, I received your Telegraph last eve. 1857Lady Canning Let. fr. Calcutta 12 May in Hare Two Noble Lives (1893) II. 161 A telegraph had come telling of a violent outbreak of the 3rd cavalry at Meerut. a1861Clough Poems (1869) II. 423 He..found a telegraph that bade him come Straight to the country. 1862C. M. Yonge Stokesley Secret x. 149 Suppose a telegraph should come!
4. In Cricket, A board upon which the numbers of runs obtained and wickets taken are exhibited during a match in large figures so as to be visible at a distance; a scoring-board. Also a similar device used in other athletic sports (see telegraph-board, quot. 1868, in 8).
1849Sussex Agricultural Express 8 Sept. 6/4 At the close of the first innings the telegraph showed to the people a score of 61 runs. 1859All Year Round No. 13. 305 There was a proper telegraph to show the ‘runs got’ and the ‘wickets down’.
5. slang.
a. A scout or spy.
1825C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I. 162 Dick's a trump and no telegraph. 1888‘R. Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms xxiii, Warrigal [was sent out] to meet one of our telegraphs..and to bring us any information he could pick up. 1890― Miner's Right xviii, These ‘bush telegraphs’, as the modern robber slang has dubbed them, are of all avocations and both sexes.
b. spec. One who warns bush-rangers about the movements of police and pursuing troopers. Austral.
1864Goulburn (N.S.W.) Herald 17 Aug. 2/3 These young scoundrels have got their ‘telegraphs’ in town, and there is not a stir the police can make but it is known. 1867Ibid. 12 Oct. 4/5 It would make me look a gamer man to the police and other people as has got a down on me for being a telegraph to you chaps. 1908C. White John Vane, Bushranger xv. 76 One of our ‘telegraphs’ rode up and told us that a party of three police had just gone along the road towards Carcoar.
†6. A fancy name for some kind of carriage. Obs.
1810S. Green Reformist II. 130 The whimsical vehicle which conveys the man of high ton, be it either dog-cart, telegraph, or barouchette.
7. Used as individual name of a newspaper, a variety of plant, etc.
1794Coleridge Lett. I. 122, I will accept of the reporter's place to the ‘Telegraph’ and live upon a guinea a week. 1882Garden 14 Jan. 31/1 A few seeds of Telegraph [cucumbers] may now be sown in small pots.
8. attrib. and Comb., as telegraph boy, telegraph cable (cable n. 3), telegraph clerk, telegraph dial, telegraph house, telegraph instrument, telegraph line (line n.2 1 e), telegraph message, telegraph office, telegraph service, telegraph signal, telegraph station, telegraph wire; telegraph blank U.S. = telegraph form; telegraph-block, Naut. a number of small brass sheaves in a long narrow shell, with which several flags may be hoisted at the same time: used in making signals; telegraph-board = sense 4; telegraph-carriage (see quot.); telegraph-clock, a clock connected with another in a different room or building by means of a telegraph-wire conveying an electric current, so that the movements of the one are controlled by those of the other, and thus both indicate the same time; telegraph coach = telegraph-carriage; telegraph-cock, ‘a compression-cock operated by a pivoted lever like the key of a telegraphic transmitter’ (Funk's Stand. Dict.); telegraph code (see quot. 1971); telegraph editor U.S., on the staff of a newspaper, one who edits news received by telegraph; telegraph form, a paper printed with spaces in which the words of a telegram are to be written for dispatch (form 12 b); telegraph-key, a small lever or other device in a telegraphic transmitter, worked by the hand, for making and breaking the circuit (key n.1 12 a); telegraph-plant, an East Indian leguminous plant, Desmodium gyrans, remarkable for the spontaneous movements of its leaflets, suggesting signalling; also called moving plant; telegraph pole, -post, one of a series of poles upon which a telegraph wire or wires are carried above the ground; telegraph-reel, a reel on which is wound the strip of paper on which the messages are traced in a recording telegraph; telegraph-register, a telegraphic receiver, or part of one, which gives a permanent record of the messages received.
1893S. Merrill in M. Philips Making of Newspaper 99 He struck out the formal matter in the heading of the *telegraph blank. 1904[see blank n. 6]. 1928F. N. Hart Bellamy Trial i. 3 [He] had..a good-sized stack of telegraph blanks clasped to his heart.
1868H. F. Wilkinson Mod. Athletics 17 *Telegraph Board... Before each race or heat, the numbers of the starters..should be posted on the board. 1897‘Tivoli’ (H. W. Bleakley) Short Innings iii. 48 The hundred appeared on the telegraph board. Still the batsmen hit.
1860Illustr. Lond. News 25 Feb. 187/1 The servant girl, and even the *telegraph boy stand staring.
1855Lardner's Museum Sci. & Art III. IV. Index, *Telegraph-cables, durability of. 1877Knight Dict. Mech. 2507/1 The essential features of a submarine telegraph-cable are a wire or wires for conducting and a protecting compound.
Ibid., *Telegraph-carriage, a vehicle provided with the apparatus necessary for opening temporary communication with a permanent line..used..where no line of telegraph is immediately at hand.
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Telegraph-clerk, a subordinate officer in a telegraph-office. 1879Daily News 1 Aug. (Ho. Comm.), Lord J. Manners..stated that..the name of telegraph clerks had been changed to that of telegraphists.
1877Knight Dict. Mech., *Telegraph-clock.
1812A. Constable Let. 22 Nov. in J. Constable Corr. (1962) I. 85 To Mr. Farrington by last night's *Telegraph Coach, a brace of pheasants were forwarded. 1835N.Y. Commercial Advertiser 23 July 4/2 Two Telegraph Coaches will leave Albany every day at half-past 10, A.M...and arrive at Rochester in 44 hours.
1885List of Subscribers, Classified (United Telephone Co.) (ed. 6) 231 Universal Translations Institute,..Specialities:..patent specifications, *telegraph codes. 1971Gloss. Electrotechnical, Power Terms (B.S.I.) iii. iii. 12 Telegraph code, a system of rules and conventions according to which the telegraph signals forming a message, or the data signal forming a block, should be formed, transmitted, received and processed.
1877Knight Dict. Mech., *Telegraph-dial.
1875C. F. Wingate Views & Interviews 195 Have been continuously employed on the Missouri Republican [as] *telegraph editor. 1923G. C. Bastian Editing Day's News 9 Inside the News Room..[we find the] Managing Editor..City Editor..Telegraph Editor [etc.]. 1981N.Y. Times 15 June a20/3 The telegraph editors of our [sc. the Associated Press's] member papers take our word for it and put it in print.
1895*Telegraph form [see form n. 12 b].
1808Ld. Dundonald Let. 28 Sept. in Autobiogr. Seaman (1860) I. 288 The newly constructed semaphoric telegraphs..have been blown up and completely demolished, together with their *telegraph houses. 1823in Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) I. 268 For what reason this pretty name [Semaphore] is given to a sort of Telegraph house..I must leave the reader to guess. 1923Kipling Land & Sea Tales 239 My father is at the telegraph-house sending telegrams.
1877Knight Dict. Mech., *Telegraph-instrument. 1897Flandrau Harvard Episodes 111 [It] sounded like the clicking of a telegraph instrument.
1877Knight Dict. Mech., *Telegraph-key.
1847Michigan Gen. Statutes (1882) I. 944 The owner of any land through which said *telegraph line may pass..having first given consent. 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Telegraph-line.
1860Trollope Framley P. xxxii, A *telegraph message makes such a fuss in the country, frightening people's wives. 1886C. E. Pascoe London of To-day xxvi. (ed. 3) 242 Post-offices and railway stations opened for the receipt and dispatch of telegraph messages.
1858J. B. Norton Topics 69 On the night of the 24th, the *telegraph-office was burnt down.
1884Miller Plant-n., *Telegraph-plant, Desmodium gyrans.
1851Thoreau Jrnl. 12 Sept. in Writings (1906) VIII. 497, I instantly sat down on a stone at the foot of the *telegraph-pole, and attended to the communication. 1869Daily News 20 Dec., She is now 83 years old, and erect as a telegraph pole. 1884J. Tait Mind in Matter (1892) 71 As callous as a telegraph pole.
1851Thoreau Jrnl. 30 Sept. in Writings (1906) IX. 37 Methinks these *telegraph-posts should bear a great price with musical instrument makers. 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Telegraph-post.
1877Knight Dict. Mech., *Telegraph-reel.
Ibid., *Telegraph-register.
1817Salisbury & Winchester Jrnl. 29 Sept., The church of Fromelles..was reduced to ashes by lightning... An individual..in the belfry, on the *telegraph service, perished in the flames.
1821G. R. Gleig Campaigns Brit. Army at Washington & New Orleans 1814–15 xv. 206 The minds of all were set at ease, as to the place whither we were going, a *telegraph signal being made to steer for Jamaica. 1830M. Edgeworth Let. 18 Oct. (1971) 419 They use Telegraph signals— flags white—red—and blue—for all right—moderate speed—stop. 1971Gloss. Electrotechnical, Power Terms (B.S.I.) iii. iii. 12 Telegraph signal,..the set of conventional elements established by the code to enable the transmission of a written character [etc.].
1839Knickerbocker XIV. 187 A recent excursion..from New-Brighton to the *telegraph station. 1973P. Berton Drifting Home vii. 101 We had stopped at one or more of these solitary telegraph stations whose operators were always fanatically overjoyed to see us.
1848Knickerbocker XXXI. 455 The wrecks of hundreds of little urchins' high-soaring ‘hopes’..[hang] on all the *telegraph-wires. 1869Bradshaw's Railway Man. XXI. App. 114 Telegraph Wire, Plain or Galvanised, of any length. 1875Ure Dict. Arts, etc. II. 242 Telegraph wires are suspended to poles by insulators of earthenware, glass, or porcelain.
▪ II. ˈtelegraph, v.
[f. prec. n.; cf. F. télégraphier.]
1. a. intr. To signal or communicate by telegraph; to send a telegram.
1815J. Campbell Trav. S. Afr. xlii. 508 On the succeeding morning..the Carmarthen Indiaman, after hailing us, and finding we had no news, telegraphed, as follows: ‘Peace with France!! Buonaparte dethroned!!!’ 1831E. J. Trelawny Adv. Younger Son I. 253 We saw the frigate hoist the recal signal.., and telegraph to her companion. 1858Dickens Lett. (1880) II. 79 We have telegraphed to know. 1870M. Bridgman Rob. Lynne II. ix. 181, I should like Charles telegraphed for.
b. trans. To send, transmit, or announce (a message, news, etc.) by telegraph (with simple obj. or obj. clause). In Cricket, etc., to exhibit (the score, etc.) on the telegraph-board (see prec. 4).
1805Capt. Crumby in 19th Cent. Nov. (1899) 720 Seeing the Admiral telegraph to Captain Blackwood..‘I rely on your keeping sight of the enemy through the night’. 1832Marryat N. Forster xli, The reconnoitring ships telegraphing ‘a French squadron’. 1842Dickens Amer. Notes ii. (1850) 15/2 Soon afterwards the Britannia steam⁓packet, from Liverpool, eighteen days out, was telegraphed at Boston. 1862F. Lillywhite Guide to Cricketers 37 A model of a newly-built covered stand on rollers, with figures for telegraphing on each side. 1895Westm. Gaz. 9 May 5/3 The play was again spirited, and in less than ten minutes 200 was telegraphed.
fig.1885Ranney in Harper's Mag. Mar. 636/2 The eye..telegraphs the outline..to the cells in the cortex.
c. To send a message to (a person, etc.) by telegraph; to summon by a telegram.
1810Capt. Maurice in Naval Chron. XXV. 218 The..gun-brig was telegraphed to send a boat. 1828Sporting Mag. XXII. 130 The pointers were telegraphed, and so were his attending boys. 1891F. W. Robinson Her Love & His Life vii. v, Felix has been telegraphed to town.
2. fig.
a. intr. To make signs, signal (to a person).
b. trans. To make (a signal); to convey or announce by signs.
c. To signal to (a person). Now rare.
1818‘T. Brown’ Brighton I. 230 They nod and telegraph to their favourites. 1825[see telegraphing below]. 1825C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I. 167 Never telegraph'd the big wigs. 1842S. Lover Handy Andy viii, Tom Durfy..began telegraphing Biddy, who..had shoved herself well before the door. 1844Alb. Smith Adv. Mr. Ledbury xiii, Emma telegraphed a nod of assent. 1848Thackeray Bk. Snobs l, They telegraphed each other with wondering eyes. 1888Burgon Lives 12 Gd. Men II. v. 63 He telegraphed to me (I was in the area) to come up to him.
†3. trans. To send (esp. information about police movements) by bush telegraph. Austral. colloq. Obs.
1863Mudgee (N.S.W.) Liberal 15 Oct. 2/4 The police might have scouts if they would; scouts which would be a match for any system of telegraphing among the bush⁓rangers. 1878Australasian Sketcher 23 Nov. 135/2 The object of the expedition leaked out, and, no doubt, was rapidly telegraphed across the bush to Edward Kelly. 1880Victorian Rev. I. 428 News of the movements of the troopers were ‘telegraphed’ to them by their confederates.
4. a. In Boxing and other sports: to initiate (a punch, throw, etc.) in such an obvious way as to reveal one's intention. Also in fig. contexts.
1925J. J. Corbett Roar of Crowd v. 77 Before I would start my right I would, as they say in boxing, ‘telegraph’ the blow, purposely. 1937Daily Mirror 16 Mar. 30/4 Ford was also landing with some heavy left hooks to the body and although he had never telegraphed his right hand punches..he was now finding Farr's face with such regularity [etc.]. 1945E. Nichols Hunky Johnny 68 He telegraphs every curve he throws. 1959Charlottesville (Va.) Daily Progress 18 Apr. 10/1 (caption), I thought you said he telegraphed his punches! All I saw he delivered personally. 1969Wall St. Jrnl. 1 Dec. 14/1 For competitive reasons, the company won't disclose the nature of the new products now, Mr. Arneson said. ‘We're not about to telegraph our punches.’
b. gen. To give a clumsily obvious hint or premature indication of (something to come).
1952N.Y. Times 13 Aug. (Late City ed.) 29/5 Inevitably the pay-off gag was ‘telegraphed’ to the audience far in advance. 1959Wall St. Jrnl. (Eastern ed.) 3 Mar. 12/6 One subplot involving Claudell's mother figures in the story but this development is telegraphed early and does nothing to broaden the book. 1968Punch 16 Oct. 558/3 The exasperating way music [in a film] sometimes not only over-emphasises but even telegraphs effects. 1977Time 7 Nov. 14/2 Young was accurately telegraphing the Administration's view.
Hence ˈtelegraphed |-grɑːft, -æ-| ppl. a., ˈtelegraphing vbl. n. and ppl. a.; also ˌtelegraˈphee, the person to whom a telegram is sent.
1825T. Hook Sayings Ser. ii. Sutherl. (Colburn) 15 Nor was this telegraphing wholly unnoticed by George. a1837Warren Diary Late Physic. (1838) III. 275 A kind of telegraphing courtship was carried on between them daily. 1875Kinglake Crimea V. vi. 91 note, Telegraphed signals. 1894H. Drummond Ascent Man 234 More perfect forms of human intercourse than telegraphed or telephoned words. 1895Westm. Gaz. 4 Nov. 2/3 A decision of Lord Coleridge's that there was no property in a special telegram, though it may have cost the telegraphee a thousand pounds to procure. |