| 释义 |
▪ I. rectangle, n.|ˈrɛktæŋg(ə)l|
[ad. late L. rectiangulum a right-angled triangle (7th c.), neut. of rectiangulus adj.: see next. Cf. F. rectangle n.]
1. a. In Geom., a plane rectilinear four-sided figure having all its angles right angles, and therefore its opposite sides equal and parallel; gen., something that has the shape of a rectangle.
Usually limited to figures whose adjacent sides are unequal, and so contrasted with square.
1571Digges Pantom. i. Elem. B iij b, If one side containing the right Angle, be longer than the other containing side, then is that figure called a Rectangle. 1690Locke Hum. Und. iv. iv. §6 The Mathematician considers the Truth and Properties belonging to a Rectangle, or Circle, only as they are in Idea in his own Mind. 1726tr. Gregory's Astron. I. 441 The Rectangle NQK is given, since its sides NQ and KQ are given. 1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 689 To find the area of a rectangle, whose length is 9, and breadth 4 inches, or feet. 1871Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (1879) I. ii. 43 Its face is a rectangle, which..can be rendered as narrow as desired. 1885C. Leudesdorf Cremona's Proj. Geom. 223 Any parallelogram inscribed in a circle must be a rectangle. 1898G. B. Shaw Arms & Man i. 8 For an instant the rectangle of snowy starlight flashes out. 1901‘Linesman’ Words by Eyewitness iii. 60 The indistinct rectangles of the companies shook themselves out into a single rank. 1925F. Scott Fitzgerald Great Gatsby vii. 174 A small rectangle of light which I guessed was the pantry window. 1940W. Faulkner Hamlet iii. i. 168 As if a rectangle of opaque glass had been set into nothing's self. 1965A. Lurie Nowhere City (1977) ix. 103 The shop windows had been painted over in irregular rectangles of red, blue, green and white.
transf.1671Hobbes Three papers Wks. 1845 VII. 438 A square root (speaking of quantity) is not a line, such as Euclid defines, without latitude, but a rectangle.
†b. The product of two quantities. Obs.
Used on analogy of square: cf. preceding quot.
1674S. Jeake Arith. (1696) 616 The Rectangle of the Means is equal to that of the Extreams. 1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v. Product, In lines it is always (and sometimes in numbers) called the rectangle between the two lines, multiplied by one another. 1763Emerson Meth. Increments 9 The increment of a rectangle or product.
†2. A right angle. Obs. (Cf. rect a. c.)
1656in Blount Glossogr. 1703Moxon Mech. Exerc. 247 A Large Square, to set their Walls at rectangles, which may also be done..by setting 6 foot from the angle one way, and 8 foot the other way, then if the Diagonal..be exactly 10 feet, the angle is a rectangle. 1795Herschel in Phil. Trans. LXXXV. 388 This machine consists of a bottom frame, and a bar..at rectangles to it.
†3. A right-angled triangle. Obs. rare—1.
1798Canning, etc. Loves Triangles 76 in Anti-Jacobin, The sly Rectangle's too licentious love.
▪ II. † rectangle, a. Obs.
[ad. late L. rectiangulus right-angled (Boethius), f. rectus straight + angulus angle. Cf. F. rectangle adj. (1556).]
= next. (Used only with triangle.)
1570Billingsley Euclid i. xlvii. 58 In rectangle triangles, the square whiche is made of the side that subtendeth the right angle [etc.]. 1625N. Carpenter Geog. Del. i. xii. (1635) 262 The square of the Hypotenuse of a Rectangle Triangle. 1708Brit. Apollo No. 34. a 1796 Burns Caledonia in Works (1800) IV. 356 Rectangle-triangle, the figure we'll chuse. |