| 释义 |
▪ I. torpedo, n.|tɔːˈpiːdəʊ|
Also 6 -ido. Pl. -oes.
[a. L. torpēdo stiffness, numbness, also the cramp-fish or electric ray, f. torpēre to be stiff or numb; = Sp., Pg. torpedo, It. torpedine. Cf. F. torpille, It. torpiglia from the same verb.]
1. a. A flat fish of the genus Torpedo or family Torpedinidæ, having an almost circular body with tapering tail, and characterized by the faculty of emitting electric discharges; the electric ray; also called cramp-fish, cramp-ray, numb-fish.
c1520L. Andrewe Noble Lyfe xcii. in Babees Bk. (1868) 239 Torpido is a fisshe, but who-so handeleth hym shalbe lame & defe of lymmes that he shall fele no thyng. 1589R. Harvey Pl. Perc. (1860) 13 Like the fish Torpedo, which being towchd sends her venime alongst line and angle rod, till it cease on the finger, and so mar a fisher for euer. 1603Sir C. Heydon Jud. Astrol. xxiii. 547 Neither doth the Torpedo benumme other things, though it benummeth the fishers hand. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. vii. 119 Torpedoes deliver their opium at a distance, and stupifie beyond themselves. 1772Chron. in Ann. Reg. Nov. 136/1 Mr. Walsh touched the back of the torpedo; when all the five persons..felt a shock at the same instant, which differed in nothing from the Leyden experiment. 1815J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art II. 253 The torpedo is a flat fish, of the ray tribe, very seldom exceeding twenty inches in length, and twenty pounds in weight... It inhabits the Mediterranean and the North Seas. 1879E. P. Wright Anim. Life 465 The Torpedo (T. vulgaris), is found occasionally on the south coasts of England and Ireland.
b. fig. One who or that which has a benumbing influence.
1590Marlowe Edw. II, i. iv, Fair queen, forbear to angle for the fish..I mean that vile torpedo, Gaveston. 1762Goldsm. Nash 34 He used to call a pen his torpedo whenever he grasped it, it numbed all his faculties. c1855B. S. Hollis Hymn-bk. C'tess Huntingdon's Conn. Pref., The torpedo of formality had benumbed the churches.
2. a. orig. A case charged with gunpowder designed to explode under water after a given interval so as to destroy any vessel in its immediate vicinity; later also, a self-propelled submarine missile, usually cigar-shaped, carrying an explosive which is fired by impact with its objective.
The original torpedo was a towed or drifting submarine mine, used to defend channels, harbours, and the like (drifting torpedo or moored torpedo); it was towed at an angle by means of a spar extending at right angles (otter torpedo or towing torpedo), or carried on a ram or projecting pole (boom-torpedo, out-rigger-torpedo, spar-torpedo).
1776J. Thacher Military Jrnl. (1823) 75 Mr. Bushnell gave to his machine the name of American Turtle or Torpedo. 1807W. Irving Salmag. (1855) xiii. 135 (Aug. 14), A torpedo; by which the stoutest line-of-battle ship..may be..decomposed [i.e. blown up] in a twinkling. 1807Admiralty Secretary In-Lett. No. 4353 (P.R.O.) (Sept. 6), A description of the machine invented by Mr. Robert Fulton for exploding under ships' bottoms and by him called the torpedo. 1810Fulton Torpedo War (N.Y.) 4. 1868 Daily News 3 Nov., The particular kind of torpedo used on this occasion is an American invention, which was found very effective in the defence of the harbour of Charleston. 1877Knight Dict. Mech. s.v., The drifting torpedo..is carried against the enemy's works or vessels by the current,..the tide, or..the wind... Anchored torpedoes are attached to mooring piles or anchors. 1880Standard 29 Dec. 6/1 In 1777 a schooner was destroyed in the harbour of New London, Connecticut, by a drifting percussion torpedo.
b. See aerial torpedo s.v. aerial a. 5. Also without specifying adj.
1922W. Raleigh War in Air I. 467 The hope of using the torpedo, launched from the air, against ships which are sheltered and protected from naval attack, was never long absent from the minds of those who directed the activities of the Royal Naval Air Service. 1943Jane's Fighting Ships 1942 5, 18 inch torpedoes are used by the torpedo bombers of the Fleet Air Arm.
3. a. Milit. A shell furnished with a percussion or friction device buried in the ground, which explodes when the ground is trodden upon; a petard. U.S. b. A toy consisting of fulminating powder and fine gravel wrapped in thin paper, which explodes when thrown on a hard surface. c. A cartridge exploded in an oil-well to cause a renewal or increase of the flow. U.S. (In use 1873: see torpedoed s.v. torpedo v.) d. A detonator placed on a railway line, as a fog-signal, etc. U.S.
1786tr. Beckford's Vathek (1883) 127, I will spring mines of serpents and torpedos from beneath them, and we shall soon see the stand they will make against such an explosion. 1831T. P. Jones Convers. Chem. xix. 197 Those dangerous playthings called torpedoes, which explode when thrown upon the floor, derive this property from some preparation of silver. 1877Knight Dict. Mech. s.v., Torpedoes for opening the fissures of oil-wells... 4. (Railway.) A cartridge placed on a rail to be exploded by a passing train. 1909Westm. Gaz. 28 July 2/1 The use or abuse of Roman candles, paper-caps, display pieces, small crackers, or..torpedoes.
4. slang.
a. U.S. A professional gunman.
b. A tablet or capsule of a narcotic drug.
1929G. L. Hostetter It's a Racket! 241 Torpedo, a professional gunman or bomb tosser. 1940R. Chandler Farewell, my Lovely xxxvi. 239 There's yellow cops and there's yellow torpedoes. 1971Go ask Alice (1972) 28 He introduced me to torpedoes on Friday and Speed on Sunday. 1973P. Evans Bodyguard Man iii. 24 Ask Al Capone. Mention his torpedoes to most people and they conjure up mental sketches of middle-aged heavyweights. 1978M. Russell Daylight Robbery xv. 154 The phial..contained more tablets... He tried to estimate how long..it took a couple of the torpedoes to send him off.
5. = torpedo-body. Also, a car with such a body.
1909Daily Chron. 13 Nov. 9/6 There is a general tendency..to utilise the form of body known as the ‘torpedo’. 1930V. Palmer Passage iii. i. 213 Another car coming! They..watched with strained eyes as the dusty torpedo shot into view. 1968Compl. Encycl. Motorcars 624 Torpedo,..an open touring car with an unbroken line from bonnet to windscreen, and from windscreen right through to the back of the car, the seats being flush with the body sides. Bodies of this design began to appear in about 1910.
6. attrib. and Comb.; in sense 1, as torpedo-fish, torpedo-ray; esp. fig. in allusion to its benumbing power, as torpedo history, torpedo narrative, torpedo quality, torpedo touch; torpedo-like adv.; in sense 2, as torpedo armament, torpedo bomber, torpedo coxswain, torpedo craft, torpedo department, torpedo flat (flat C. 10 b), torpedo-fuse (Knight Dict. Mech. 1877), torpedo gunner, torpedo-instructor, torpedo-launch, torpedo plane, torpedo room, torpedo school, torpedo ship, torpedo-vessel, torpedo-works; torpedo-carrying, torpedo-launching, torpedo-proof, torpedo-shaped adjs.; also torpedo-anchor, an anchor for mooring a stationary torpedo (Knight, 1877); torpedo beard, a pointed beard; torpedo-body, a motorcar body tapered at the ends; torpedo-boom, ‘a spar bearing a torpedo on its upper end, the lower end swiveled and anchored to the bottom of the channel’ (Knight, 1877); torpedo-catcher, (a) see quot. 1877; (b) a torpedo-boat catcher; torpedo-cruiser, a cruiser which serves also as a torpedo-boat; torpedo destroyer, a torpedo-boat destroyer (officially called simply ‘a destroyer’); torpedo director, an instrument by which the direction for aiming a locomotive torpedo is determined; torpedo-drag, a cable with a grapple or drag for clearing a channel of torpedoes (Knight, 1877); torpedo gun = torpedo-tube; torpedo juice slang, intoxicating liquor extracted from torpedo fuel; any strong home-made alcoholic liquor; torpedo-lieutenant, a naval officer in charge of torpedoes; torpedo man, in the British navy, a man who has passed certain courses of training in torpedo-work, to whom a non-substantive rating is granted; (U.S.), one whose business is the clearing of oil-wells by means of torpedoes (see 3 c); torpedo-net, a steel-wire netting suspended round a ship on projecting booms as a protection against torpedoes; torpedo-ram, a ram (ram n.1 3 c) provided with torpedo-tubes; torpedo-spar, a spar rigged to a torpedo boat, to which a torpedo is attached; torpedo-tube, a kind of gun from which torpedoes are discharged by compressed air or gunpowder. See also torpedo boat.
1896Daily News 4 Nov. 7/2 As to the *torpedo armament, it is instructive to quote Commander Bacon's words.
1899Somerville & Ross Irish R.M. 29 A saturnine young man with a black *torpedo beard.
1924Motor 21 Oct. 630 (caption) A handsome *torpedo body, on a Voisin chassis, by H. J. Mulliner.
1930Flight 16 May 535/2 The aircraft equipment consists of..two flights of two-seater fleet *torpedo bombers. 1970Times 24 Mar. 2/4 (caption) Using engine cylinders taken from an exhibit at the Imperial War Museum, the last air-worthy Swordfish torpedo bomber in the Royal Navy.
1922W. Raleigh War in Air I. 466 The *torpedo-carrying aeroplane or seaplane would outrival the submarine as a weapon of offence against enemy shipping.
1877Knight Dict. Mech., *Torpedo-catcher, a forked spar or boom extending under water, ahead of a vessel, to displace or explode torpedoes. 1888Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 451/2 Special vessels, called ‘torpedo catchers’, are being built by most nations.
1903Windsor Mag. XIX. 6/2 Speakin' as a *torpedo-coxswain,..I presume we fall in. 1918Kipling Land & Sea Tales (1923) 107 If his torpedo-coxswain had ever allowed anyone to look there.
1885Times 30 Apr. 10/6 The four first-class *torpedo craft which have hoisted the white ensign are being fitted with Nordenfelt guns.
1901Daily Graphic 12 July 6 The *torpedo-cruiser Kapitan Sacken.
1896World 12 Feb. 29/1 It would not cost us much—not so much, in the long run, as a single *torpedo-destroyer. 1899Westm. Gaz. 8 Mar. 9/2 The torpedo destroyer instructional flotilla.
1825J. Neal Bro. Jonathan I. 29 Lying in wait like a *torpedo-fish.
1885Times 30 Apr. 10/6 Each boat will have five *torpedo guns or tubes.
1903Windsor Mag. XIX. 9/2 What's a *torpedo-gunner more or less to a full lootenant? 1928C. F. S. Gamble Story N. Sea Air Station xiv. 234 The crew consisted of the pilot, the observer, the torpedo-gunner, and a machine-gunner for the back seat.
1845Carlyle Cromwell (1871) I. 3 Dryasdust, who wishes merely to compile *torpedo Histories.
1946Seafarers' Log 31 May 13/5, I have known many Navy men who were chronic drinkers at sea as well as ashore. Some have gone blind from drinking *torpedo juice. 1961Guardian 26 Sept. 9/5 Torpedo juice is a combination of these [sc. bush beer and toddy] and acquires its name from its lethal effect. The original torpedo juice was the neat alcohol extracted from torpedoes during the war by American servicemen and sometimes mixed with local bush beers to soften the blow.
1878N. Amer. Rev. CXXVII. 384 Dispatched their *torpedo-launches against their intended victim.
1895Daily News 29 May 6/4 She still has..quick-firing guns, and two *torpedo-launching tubes.
1718Entertainer No. 12. 74 'Tis the way to lay waste the Fences of Virtue,..and *Torpedo-like, petrify and benum us. 1839Bailey Festus xix. (1852) 307 As though to touch but on that topic had, Torpedo-like, numbed thought.
1883Century Mag. July 330/2 The ‘*torpedo man’..travels about in a light vehicle with his tubes and his nitro-glycerine can.
1885Times 30 Apr. 10/6 The Colossus is coaled and has been fitted with *torpedo nets.
1917Flying 1 May 317/2 Admiral Fiske declared that *torpedo-planes in the battle of Jutland would have given a tremendous advantage to the side employing them. 1981G. MacBeth Kind of Treason xi. 106 The Prince of Wales and the Repulse had been sunk by Japanese torpedo planes.
1914H. H. Asquith Let. 27 Oct. in M. Gilbert W. S. Churchill (1972) III. Compan. i. 220 *Torpedo-proof harbours and refuges.
1828Carlyle Misc. (1857) I. 82 The old man has a *torpedo quality in him.
1877Knight Dict. Mech., *Torpedo-ram. 1900Daily News 4 May 2/5 The Polyphemus, torpedo-ram, arrived at Sheerness yesterday from the Mediterranean.
1804Shaw Gen. Zool. V. 297 *Torpedo Ray. 1822–34Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) IV. 214 The torpedo-ray was well known by the Romans to possess this extraordinary power.
1889Welch Text Bk. Naval Archit. xii. 133 The air finally reaches the under-water *torpedo room.
1899Westm. Gaz. 29 June 1/3 A telephone chamber communicating with the *torpedo-school ship and also with the target.
1903Ibid. 2 July 7/3 The *torpedo-shaped blue Mors cars.
1873Illustr. London News 29 Mar. 294/2 It is also proposed to build a small *torpedo-ship of 214 tons burden by way of trying experiments. 1911Q. Rev. Oct. 476 This gradual merging of the essential features of the gun-ship and the torpedo-ship is now about to find expression in the submarine.
1792S. Rogers Pleas. Mem. i. 278 What tho' the fiend's *torpedo-touch arrest Each gentler, finer impulse of the breast. 1809–10Coleridge Friend i. xvi. (1865) 220 Benumbed into selfishness by the torpedo touch of extreme want.
1893Souvenir World's Fair: Naval Exhibit, The battery mounted comprises..two Gatling guns, and six *torpedo tubes or torpedo guns. 1898Kipling in Morn. News 10 Nov. 5/1 We are blessed with a pair of deck torpedo-tubes, which weigh about ten tons, and are the bane of our lives.
1877Illustr. London News 16 June 556 Steel *Torpedo-vessel used by the Russians on the Danube. 1878N. Amer. Rev. CXXVII. 230 The torpedo-vessel has been successfully developed.
Hence torˈpedoic a. (nonce-wd.), of a torpedo, like that of a torpedo; torˈpedoism (torˈpedism), (a) action or quality like that of a torpedo or electric ray; (b) the use of the torpedo (sense 2) in warfare; torˈpedoist (torˈpedist), one who is employed or skilled in, or advocates, the use of torpedoes; torˈpedo-less a., having no torpedoes.
1893H. W. Lucy in Strand Mag. Feb. 201 Mr. Gladstone leaped to his feet with *torpedoic action and energy.
1845Carlyle Cromwell (1871) I. 68 Dilettantisms, Dryasdust *Torpedoisms. 1880Athenæum 21 Aug. 242/2 Readers must not expect to find..an elaborate treatise on torpedism, nor..the so-called secret of the Whitehead torpedo.
Ibid. 242/1 During..1877, the Russian *torpedists made a night attack upon the Ottoman squadron lying off Batoum. 188319th Cent. May 796 The naval officer should be a perfect navigator, a good artilleryman, torpedoist, and electrician, a steam engineer, &c.
1886Pall Mall G. 29 Dec. 6/2 The command of a small *torpedo-less cruiser in the Indian Ocean.
▪ II. torˈpedo, v.
[f. prec. n.]
†1. trans. To benumb, deaden; = torpefy. Obs.
1771–2Ess. fr. Batchelor (1773) I. 269 The faculties of that consummate orator..may be torpedoed by that wicked weed, before he has half delivered the following abstract of his sentiments.
2. To destroy or damage by means of a torpedo; to attack with a torpedo.
1879in Webster Suppl. 1881P. Robinson Under the Punkah 221 If..an ironclad were to be run down, accidentally torpedoed, or suffer from an explosion. 1898Westm. Gaz. 1 Apr. 7/2 In action the battleship would have been torpedoed before she could have fired a gun.
b. fig. To paralyse, destroy: cf. to explode.
1895Sir W. Harcourt Sp. Ho. Comm. 18 Feb., The consummate speech..might be described as having torpedoed the amendment. 1899Folk-Lore Mar. 105 It seems effectually to have torpedoed the enemies' arguments.
c. intr. To discharge torpedoes.
1896Westm. Gaz. 15 Jan. 2/1 In four hours they'd be inside the Isle of Wight, torpedoing away right and left.
d. trans. To lay (a channel, etc.) with torpedoes or submarine mines; to defend with torpedoes.
1877Daily News 16 Nov. 5/7 The Russians are supposed to have immediately torpedoed the river in his front and rear. 1890Sat. Rev. 11 Jan. 29/1 The canard that German officers have been torpedoing the Tagus.
3. To explode a ‘torpedo’ at the bottom of (an oil-well) to increase the output by shattering the rock or clearing the passage. Also intr. U.S.
1873[see torpedoed below]. 1883Century Mag. July 330/1 When a well fails it is usually ‘torpedoed’ to start the flow afresh. A long tin tube containing six or eight quarts of nitro-glycerine, is lowered into the hole and exploded by dropping a weight upon it. Ibid. 330/2 Sometimes well-owners ‘torpedo’ their wells..by night to avoid paying the..price charged by the company.
Hence torˈpedoed |-əʊd| ppl. a., torˈpedoing vbl. n.; torˈpedoer |-əʊə(r)|, one who operates torpedoes.
1873Howells Chance Acquaint. vi, As if I were..an inflammable naiad from a torpedoed well. 1884Pall Mall G. 1 Sept. 8/1 It may be said torpedoing is a game at which two can play. 1903Contemp. Rev. Aug. 186 Captain Sigsbee, formerly commander of the torpedoed ‘Maine’. 1905Edin. Rev. Oct. 322 Our torpedoers, operating in the open sea, were at no small disadvantage. |