| 释义 |
half-way, halfway, adv., a., n., and prep.
(hɑːfweɪ: see below)
[f. half a. + way n.]
A. adv. (Stressed ˈhalfway when preceding the word it qualifies, ˌhalfˈway when following.) At or to half the distance. to meet halfway: see meet v.
c1386Chaucer Reeve's Prol. 52 Lo Depeford and it is half wey pryme. 1530Palsgr. 861/2 Halfe waye, au milieu du chemyn, or a my chemyn. 1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. i. i. 62 I-wis it is not halfe way to her heart. 1674N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. Contents, An halfway boundless Bulk. c1696Prior Love Disarmed 12 Her bodice half-way she unlac'd. 1717Frezier Voy. S. Sea 106 A little above half way up a high mountain. 1726G. Shelvocke Voy. round World (1757) 198 Before I had got half way off. 1766Goldsm. Vic. W. x, About halfway home. 1812Byron Ch. Har. ii. lxix, Combined marauders half-way barr'd egress. 1886Besant Childr. Gibeon ii. vi, The morning service was halfway through. 1926J. Black You can't Win (1927) v. 60 She had cleaned up the room till it looked halfway decent. 1938Times 25 May 17/3 He shows how much remains to be done before the standard of life of the West Indian labourer and of the West Indian peasant is raised to a level which can be regarded as halfway tolerable. 1942R.A.F. Jrnl. 16 May 12 There is a drill which must be followed if the voyage is going to be halfway comfortable for everybody. 1960H. Pinter Caretaker iii. 77 He's nutty, he's half way gone.
B. adj. (Usually stressed ˈhalfway.)
1. Midway or equidistant between two points. half-way house, a house (often an inn) situated midway between two towns or stages of a journey, and therefore considered as a convenient halting-place. Also fig.
1694W. Burnaby tr. Petronius's Satyricon 21 We could not reach Lycurgus's that Night, and therefore he brought us to a half-way House. 1711Addison Spect. No. 511 ⁋3 He was resting with it upon a half-way Bridge. 1793in Corr. Ld. Auckland (1861) II. 515 Yours will be an excellent half-way house, almost as good as the inn at Bromley. 1839Alison Hist. Europe (1849–50) VII. xlii. §32. 115 The Cape of Good Hope had become a half-way house to their possessions in Bengal. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. I. xvi. 195 My aim was to reach the halfway tent. 1901S. E. White Westerners xix. 164 Copper Creek had begun as a half⁓way house, and had ended as a camp. 1967Canad. Ann. Rev. 1966 92 There was still need for such things as halfway group homes, preventive delinquency programs [etc.]. 1970‘T. Coe’ Wax Apple (1973) iii. 24 Halfway houses are places for people returning to society but unable or unwilling to make the plunge all at once. There are halfway houses for ex-drug addicts, former convicts. 1973Canadian Antiques Collector Jan.–Feb. 26/2 The buildings known as half-way houses..were the inns stationed halfway between the larger centres to accommodate weary travellers.
2. fig. That is midway between two states or conditions; half one thing and half another.
169.Ad Pop. Phaleræ ii. ii. 29 You're then Phanatick, Neuter, Half-way-man, Or mungrel Latitudinarian. 1790H. More Relig. Fash. World (1791) 231 Some half-way state, something between paganism and christianity. 1855Prescott Philip II, I. ii. xi. 261 It fared with this compromise..as with most..half-way measures. 1903Daily Chron. 3 Nov. 4/4 The halfway state between maidenhood and womanhood. 1909Ibid. 31 Dec. 1/5, I am no halfway burglar, and I would kill a man for 2½d. 1962Guardian 19 Nov. 16/1 These buildings are used by the LCC as ‘halfway housing’ for homeless families.
C. n.
a. A point or position midway between two extreme points; a halfway place or house.
1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 13 Cape of good Hope..being the halfe way into India. c1665Mrs. Hutchinson Mem. Col. Hutchinson (1848) 46 In the halfway between Owthorpe and Nottingham. 1897Daily News 23 Feb. 3/1 The door opens to a hospitable halfway.
b. The half-way line in a football field.
1960V. Jenkins Lions down Under 202 New Zealand brought the ball back to half-way.
†D. prep. Half-way up, down, along, etc. Obs.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 488 A cloth..which reacheth halfe way the thigh. 1706Watts Horæ Lyr. i. Devotion & Muse iii, Faint devotion panting lies Half way th' ethereal hill. |