| 释义 |
geriatric, a. and n.|dʒɛrɪˈætrɪk|
[f. as next.]
A. adj.
a. Of or pertaining to geriatrics; designed for use by old people.
1926Med. Rec. of Revs. XXXII. 193/1 We will publish a special geriatric number which will cover the field of diseases of old age. 1947Times 20 June 5/4 Small, long⁓stay annexes, under the direct control of the ‘geriatric’ departments, for patients in need of constant nursing care. 1956W. Hobson Mod. Trends in Geriatrics xiv. 345 The organization of a geriatric unit requires..a flexible attitude of mind towards the rearrangement of the hospital. 1963Times 16 Feb. 5/6 A new and deceptive form of restraint which has appeared in certain mental hospitals to fill the vacuum left by the strait-jacket—the geriatric chair.
b. In weakened use, esp. contemptuously: old or senile. colloq.
1968Time 26 Jan. 78/2 This character was a geriatric loser with a Yiddish accent who invented the wheel but made it square. 1972Times 24 Oct. 18/4 Invention only too easily becomes bizarre. Yet without vigorous encouragement the whole thing becomes..‘geriatric’. 1977Western Mail (Cardiff) 5 Mar. 8/4 The Welsh pack was led by the superb Bunner Travers, getting his ninth cap after an interval of 10 years! In one sense, the geriatric brigade was out again. 1978Insight Nov. 8/1 For President Chiang Ching-kuo and his mainly geriatric advisers in the all-powerful Kuomintang 30 years of exile is but a temporary phase. 1981Times 10 Feb. 9/3 Geriatric judges with 19th century social and political prejudices only bring the rule of law into disrepute. 1982Financial Times 15 Feb. 6/8 What the work force consider a ‘geriatric’ 98 series engine. 1984Observer 4 March 7/7 I hear and read such phrases as ‘geriatric old twit’: an expression which would hardly have sprung to the lips of the pious Aeneas.
B. n.
a. An old person receiving geriatric care; a patient in a geriatric ward or institution.
1974New Statesman 25 Jan. 105/2 Ban all hospital treatment for miners, and send geriatrics and mental defectives back to their pit villages. 1980Guardian 1 Oct. 2/5 Nurses and..patients..barricaded themselves inside a ward..in protest at the proposed mixing of geriatrics with surgical patients.
b. In weakened use: an old or senile person. Also transf., anything old or outdated. colloq.
1977P. Johnson Enemies of Society viii. 105 Old people are senior citizens, or, worse, geriatrics. 1978Economist 4 Mar. 7/2 The greater pain has suddenly become the tendency for statesmen to flee from the old sensible ideas.. to older, more foolish ones like..pre-Keynesianism or infant industry protection for dying geriatrics like British Shipbuilders. 1982Spectator 18 Sept. 3/3 Hua Kuo-feng was replaced by Teng Hsiao-ping but a number of geriatrics remained. 1983Observer 5 June 3/4 A sparse audience of geriatrics listened in polite mystification to Mr Powell's anti-nuclear thoughts. 1985Financial Times 23 Nov. i. 8/8 The US stock market rally is already a geriatric at 39 months old. |