释义 |
ˈtouch-line Also touchline, touch line. [f. touch n. or v. + line n.2] †1. Geom. A straight line that touches a curve; a tangent. Obs.
1551Recorde Pathw. Knowl. i. Defin., A touche lyne, is a line that runneth a long by the edge of a circle, onely touching it, but doth not crosse the circumference of it. 1593T. Fale Dialling 7 Which shall be called the touch line or line of Contingence. 1675Collins in Rigaud Corr. Sci. Men (1841) I. 217 If you conceive a chord line to join R, T, and a touch-line to be drawn at either of those. 2. A line in a diagram representing the touch of the counter of a ship: see touch n. 23.
1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVII. 392/1 Take the round up of the upper counter from the dimensions, and set it below the touch at the middle, and with a pencil draw a level line; take also the round aft, and set it forward from the touch on the touch line, and square it down to the pencil line. 3. Football. The boundary line on each side of the field of play, extending from goal-line to goal-line: cf. touch n. 12. Also in some other ball games, and fig.
1868Boy's Own Bk. 132 [Diagram of football ground]. The goals at either end;..the goal lines;..touch, the touch lines. 1889Pauline VIII. 38 The kick, which was very near the touch-line, was not successful. 1895Outing (U.S.) XXVII. 247/2 The Canadian football field... Along the edges, from one end to another, run the ‘touch lines’, and when the ball goes over these it is not in play. 1932Auden Orators ii. 46 The two-faced, the obscure and amazed, the touch-line admirers. 1964Sunday Times 25 Oct. 22/5 A charming touchline companion called the [hockey] match ‘grotty’. 1973Park & Fahey Team Handball 50 The Boundary-Lines on the long sides shall be termed the Touch-lines. 1973Nature 9 Nov. 108/2 From the touchlines the editor does, however, bias the issue by setting H. G. Haas's article on ‘Active Ion Transport’ immediately before that on the sinoatrial node. |