| 释义 |
▪ I. vehicle, n.|ˈviːɪk(ə)l, ˈviːhɪk(ə)l|
Also 7 vehickle.
[ad. F. véhicule (= Sp. and Pg. vehiculo, It. veiculo, veicolo) or L. vehiculum, f. vehĕre to carry.
On the pronunciation see the note to vehemence.]
I.
1. A substance, esp. a liquid, serving as a means for the readier application or use of another substance mixed with it or dissolved in it: a. Med. A medium of a suitable kind in which strong or unpalatable drugs or medicines are administered.
1612Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 303 Let all your Vehicles for your Medicines..be soft and pleasing to your Patients. 1658A. Fox Würtz' Surg. iii. xix. 281 Let him have of the same pill in a convenient vehicle, of four grains. 1689G. Harvey Curing Dis. by Expect. v. 34, I seldom give less than half a spoonful,..diluted with a sufficient measure of a temperate Vehicle. 1733Cheyne Eng. Malady ii. iv. §4 (1734) 148 Mineral Chalybeat Waters..are the most agreeable and beneficial Vehicle for such Medicines. 1771Percival Ess. (1777) I. 72 A sufficient dose of the medicine cannot be given on account of the heating nature of its vehicle. 1816A. C. Hutchison Pract. Obs. Surg. (1826) 169 The Doctor..exhibited to him an ounce of castor-oil, uncovered by any vehicle. 1875H. C. Wood Therap. (1879) 31 The dried petals..are almost destitute of therapeutic virtues, but their preparations are used as elegant vehicles.
fig.1665Boyle Occas. Refl. (1848) 19 Both these pleasing Vehicles, if I may so call them, and Correctives of Reproofs [etc.]. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 87 ⁋3 With what vehicles to disguise the catharticks of the soul. 1755H. Walpole Lett. (1846) III. 181 The invasion..I really believe was dressed up for a vehicle (as the apothecaries call it) to make us swallow the treaties. 1844Wardlaw Prov. (1869) II. 102 If we have a bitter..medicine to administer, we are desirous..to convey it in a pleasant vehicle.
b. In general use.
1699Evelyn Acetaria (1729) 149 There ought to be one of the Dishes, in which to beat and mingle the liquid Vehicles, and a second to receive the crude Herbs in. 1725Fam. Dict. s.v. Malt-Liquor, The Substance of high dry'd Malts, which retain many fiery Particles in their Contexture, and are therefore best lost in a smooth Vehicle. 1831J. Davies Mat. Med. 376 It is..soluble..in more than 2000 of cold water, and 9000 of this vehicle when boiling. 1901Brit. Med. Jrnl. No. 2097. 39 When the crusts [of eczema] form, acid, salicyl., in a vehicle of olive oil, is useful.
c. Painting. A fluid (as water, oil, etc.) with which pigments are mixed for use.
1787Trans. Soc. Arts V. 103 The well known disadvantages that Paintings in Oil lie under, have rendered the discovery of some other Vehicle an object of attentive enquiry. 1807J. Opie in Lect. Art iv. (1848) 320 Colours..little muddled by vehicles. 1859Gullick & Timbs Paint. 202 The term ‘vehicle’, which is borrowed from pharmacy, is applied in art to the fluid employed to bring pigments into a proper working state. 1883R. Haldane Workshop Receipts Ser. ii. 427/1 A perfect vehicle mixes readily with the pigment.
2. That which serves as a means of transmission, or as a material embodiment or manifestation, of something:
a. With reference to matter or physical conditions.
1650Bulwer Anthropomet. 117 Drink may not be only esteemed the Vehicle of aliment. 1683Tryon Way to Health 265 To cleanse and purifie those grosser Excrements, the Vehickles (or Lodgings) of malignant Spirits. 1749Fielding Tom Jones x. ii, As fa, la, la, ra, da, &c. are in music, only as the vehicles of sound, and without any fixed ideas. 1779J. Moore View Soc. Fr. (1789) I. xxvii. 221 If the water be in reality the vehicle of this disease. 1813Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. (1814) 239 Water, as it is the vehicle of the nourishment of the plant, is the substance principally given off by the leaves. 1841Myers Cath. Th. iii. §14. 52 There is a considerable portion of all natural food..serving rather for the vehicle than for the substance of our support. 1874Carpenter Ment. Phys. i. i. (1879) 3 That more advanced Philosophy of the present day, which regards Matter merely as the vehicle of Force.
b. In other contexts.
1786F. Burney Diary 8 Aug., To receive a favour through the vehicle of insolent ostentation—no! no! 1796Morse Amer. Geog. I. 297 They viewed the tea as a vehicle of an unconstitutional tax. 1870Dale Week-day Serm. ii. 51 Making the very form of Christian forgiveness the vehicle of revenge. 1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. IV. lix. 183 It is..possible to feel gratitude even where we discern a mistake that may have been injurious, the vehicle of the mistake being an affectionate intention prosecuted through a lifetime of kindly offices.
c. A substance employed as a material in or on which some work is executed.
1837Hallam Hist. Lit. i. i. §58 The more extended use of paper as the vehicle of writing instead of parchment. 1850A. Jameson Leg. Monast. Ord. 441 The whole [picture] has been significantly described as a ‘parody of Divine love’. The vehicle, white marble,—its place in a Christian church,—enhance all its vileness.
3. a. A means or medium by which ideas or impressions are communicated or made known; a medium of expression or utterance.
a1652J. Smith Sel. Disc. iv. 123 A spiritual kind of vehicle, whereby corporeal impressions are transferred to the mind. 1709T. Robinson Vindic. Mosaick Syst. Introd. 7 Philosophical Mythology..a more agreeable Vehicle, found out for the conveying to us the Truth and Reason of Things. 1762in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. I. 347 It might not be improper to contradict it by some vehicle of the publick papers. 1836Thirlwall Greece xii. II. 138 But a metrical vehicle did not so well suit Zeno's dialectic genius. 1887Saintsbury Hist. Elizab. Lit. x. (1890) 378 Quarles was a kind of journalist to whom the vehicle of verse came more easily than the vehicle of prose.
b. Const. of.
1687Dryden Hind & P. iii. 106 And alms are but the vehicles of pray'r. 1688J. Hall-Stevenson Mr. Bays Pref. A 2, Rhyme (which he very Judiciously somewhere calls the Vehicle of Nonsense). 1751Johnson Rambler No. 121 ⁋14 Allegory is perhaps one of the most pleasing vehicles of instruction. 1781Cowper Charity 625 Did charity prevail, the press would prove A vehicle of virtue, truth, and love. 1822Hazlitt Table-T. Ser. ii. xv. (1869) 305 Music is not made the vehicle of poetry, but poetry of music. 1856Merivale Rom. Emp. xxii. (1865) III. 40 In the common intercourse of life Greek became a fashionable vehicle of expression. 1885Clodd Myths & Dr. i. iv. 77 The myths..yielded themselves with ease as vehicles of new ideas.
c. Const. to or for.
1722Wollaston Relig. Nature v. 123 Words seem to be as it were bodies or vehicles to the sense or meaning. 1753–4Richardson Grandison I. xii. 67 You consider skill in Languages then as a Vehicle to Knowledge—Not I presume as Science itself. 1836Thirlwall Greece xii. (1839) II. 141 It is extremely doubtful how far they were ever used as a vehicle for the exposition of theological doctrines differing from the popular creed. c1850Kingsley Misc. (1860) I. 385 Which makes it..a far better vehicle..for many forms of thought. 1877Dowden Shaks. Primer iv. 45 In the same play, rhyme is often employed as a vehicle for generalising reflections.
d. In a metaphor, the literal meaning of the word or words used metaphorically, as distinct from the subject of the metaphor; the image or idea whose association with the subject constitutes the metaphor. Opp. tenor n. 1 d.
1936, etc. [see tenor n. 1 d]. 1957S. Ullmann Style in French Novel vi. 214 It is an essential feature of a metaphor that there must be a certain distance between tenor and vehicle. Their similarity must be accompanied by a feeling of disparity. 1977Studies in Eng. Lit.: Eng. Number (Tokyo) 36 In this metaphor, the tenor and vehicle are not expected to fit each other perfectly.
4. The form, the material or other shape, in which something spiritual is embodied or manifested.
Freq. c 1650–1700, esp. of the body in relation to the soul or spirit.
a1652J. Smith Sel. Disc. v. 176 The spiritual vehicle of the soul,..a kind of umbra or aërial mantle in which the soul wraps herself. 1670Moral State England 121 When our souls are divested of their grosser vehicles. 1699Burnet 39 Art. i. 18 God being considered as the Supreme Light, this might lead men to worship the Sun as his chief Vehicle. 1756T. Amory J. Buncle iv. (1770) 288 My friend is now present with his Saviour, beholding his glory, in a vehicle resembling the body of the Lord. 1773Cook's Voy. (1784) II. iii. ix. 164 They speak of spirits being..not totally divested of those passions which actuated them when combined with material vehicles. 1836I. Taylor Phys. The. Another Life i. (1847) 19 There is a spiritual body and another vehicle of human nature as well as a natural body.
II.
5. A material means, channel, or instrument, by which a substance or some property of matter (as sound or heat) is conveyed or transmitted from one point to another.
1615H. Crooke Body of Man 80 The vmbilicall veine..is the first of all the veines,..because it is the vehicle or conueigher of blood. 1660Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. xvii. 120 If I thought your Lordship could..imagine that Light could be convey'd without..having (if I may so speak) a Body for its Vehicle. 1707Cur. in Husb. & Gard. 39 He had observ'd..Pores or little Channels in..the Wood of different Trees... Some of these little Vehicles of Communication go from the bottom upwards. Ibid. 49 Fibres and little Vehicles that are in the Bodies of Plants. 1776Burney Hist. Music (1789) I. 433 Pythagoras supposed the air to be the vehicle of sound. 1803Imison's Sci. & Art (1822) I. 227 Air is the usual vehicle of Sound, but it is not absolutely essential. 1861Buckle Civiliz. II. 499 The vapour..becomes another storehouse of heat, and a vehicle by which it is removed from the earth.
transf.1783Burke Rep. Affairs of India Wks. 1842 II. 18 Finding a great parliamentary corporation turned into a vehicle for remitting to England the private fortunes of those [etc.].
6. A means of conveyance provided with wheels or runners and used for the carriage of persons or goods; a carriage, cart, wagon, sledge, or similar contrivance.
1656Blount Glossogr., Vehicle, a Cart, Wain, Wagon, or Chariot. 1700Collier 2nd Def. Short View 56 You may take it in a Cart, or a Waggon, but..I think a Wheelbarrow may do; for the word Vehicle..will carry that sense. 1709Tatler No. 32 ⁋2 She calls her Chariot, Vehicle. 1749Byrom Rem. (1857) ii. 486, I went with Mr. Freke, who had his vehicle there, to the King's Chapel. 1784Johnson in Boswell 17 Nov., I staid at Oxford till Tuesday, and then came in the common vehicle easily to London. 1829Lytton Disowned 28 The rumbling and jolting vehicle stopped at the door of a tavern in Holborn. 1856Kane Arctic Explor. I. x. 113 The shortest, directly fastened to the sledge runner, as a means of guiding or suddenly arresting and turning the vehicle. 1872Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 327 The direct effects of superior means of communication have been to create a better class of vehicles.
Comb.1768Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 493 Such a peculiar species of insanity as vehicle-madness must have been pointed at by everybody. 1843Zoologist I. 36 Several vehicle-drivers tried to cut it down. 1890Daily News 10 Dec. 3/6 The National Coach and Van Trade Union, which comprised the whole of the workers in the vehicle-building trades.
7. a. Any means of carriage, conveyance, or transport; a receptacle in which anything is placed in order to be moved.
1678Butler Hud. iii. i. 1572 The Spirit hors'd him like a Sack, Upon the Vehicle, his Back. 1692Bentley Boyle Lect. 220 Unless the æthereal matter be supposed to be carried about the sun like a vortex or whirlpool, as a vehicle to convey it and the rest of the planets. 1728Morgan Hist. Algiers I. ii. 21 The Sunbeams are so fierce and scorching, that all the Water would, infallibly, be exhal'd thro' the Pores of those leathern Vehicles. 1774Bryant Mythol. II. 407 It was a cup..in which Hercules passed the seas; and the same history is given of Helius, who was said to have traversed the ocean in the same vehicle. 1812Ann. Reg., Chron. 120 The balloon descended... On a sudden, his crazy vehicle struck upon the roof of a house. 1815Ibid. 4 His three sons fatally committed themselves to this treacherous vehicle [sc. a boat], in order to shoot wild-fowl. 1841Peter Parley's Ann. II. 250 The show-woman now procured a lamp; and, fixing it in a proper vehicle, gradually lowered it to the bottom of the well. 1947N.Y. Times 20 Mar. 3/1 The statement ‘there is no defense against the atomic bomb’..assumes that this bomb is being carried by a vehicle at a velocity well in the supersonic range. Ibid., V-2 type vehicles. 1973Sci. Amer. Feb. 72/3 [They] mounted sensitive probes on a vehicle towed horizontally behind a ship. 1982Nature 27 May 254/1 Vehicles carrying people, whether ships or aircraft, moving in an environment in which radar detection at long range is technically straightforward, have become exceedingly vulnerable to attack.
b. A space rocket, in relation to its (actual or intended) payload.
1959Daily Tel. 13 Mar. 15/6 Black Knight is entirely a research vehicle and will never be manufactured into a weapon. 1967Technology Week 20 Feb. 36/1 A satellite launched into an eight-hour orbit by an Atlas-Agena vehicle. 1983Chicago Sun-Times 13 July 17 Last week, the Soviets proposed a sub-ceiling of 1,100 on MIRVed missiles and bombers within the over-all ceiling of 1,800 strategic nuclear delivery vehicles.
8. fig. A song, play, film, etc., that is intended or serves to display the actor (or performing artist) to the best advantage.
1863Illustrated Times 15 Aug. 103/3 Then came..Lady Gifford's quasi-comedy of ‘Finesse’, which..simply served as a vehicle for some of Mr. Buckstone's practical drolleries and preposterous costumes. 1868in P. Bailey Leisure & Class in Victorian Society (1978) vii. 152 A good song must be written, not for its own sake, but for that of the singer... It must simply be a vehicle. 1922N.Y. Times 16 Oct. 20/2 Charles Ray is back on Broadway—his vehicle being ‘A Tailor Made Man’, and his stopping place for a week the Strand Theatre. 1928Mrs. P. Campbell Let. 19 Jan. in B. Shaw & Mrs. Campbell (1952) 264, I only saw it as a commonplace, ordinary and good sort of working vehicle, or whatever the right word or expression is for that kind of play. 1955Times 16 Aug. 5/4 It might be as well to rule out at the beginning the ‘vehicle’ especially created to exploit the talents and personality of the individual actor. 1966Listener 27 Jan. 131/1 If at the start of his career an actor can somehow gain acceptance from the critics, it is possible for him to go on and give a series of inadequate performances in low-calibre vehicles and still emerge with reputation intact. 1981Times 2 July 10/6 Star names and vast budgets..wedded to a limp vehicle, can destine a feature to oblivion.
9. Comb., as vehicle-park; vehicle-actuated adj.; vehicle-mile, a distance of one mile travelled by one vehicle, used as a statistical unit; vehicle mine, a land-mine designed to destroy vehicles.
1937Times 13 Apr. p. viii/1 With the wide adoption of electromatic vehicle-actuated traffic lights of recent years, complaints of unnecessary delay at signal-controlled crossings have been much dispelled. 1967Gloss. Highway Engin. Terms (B.S.I.) 62 Vehicle actuated traffic signals, traffic signalling equipment in which the duration of the red and green signals and the time of the cycle vary in relation to the traffic flow into and through the controlled area. It is actuated by the traffic.
1964Times Rev. Industry Feb. 36/2 The statistics of vehicle-miles travelled..show that usage of light vans has, in fact, been steadily increasing faster than road transport in general. 1976New Yorker 16 Feb. 68/2 About eighty per cent of highway use (measured in vehicle-miles) is auto travel.
a1944K. Douglas Alamein to Zem Zem (1946) xiv. 82 The verges of gaps in the road were mined with anti-personnel and vehicle mines. 1972Times 27 Dec. 6/2 There had been almost no interference with road building, apart from the odd vehicle mine.
1940Vehicle park [see gun-park s.v. gun n. 16 a]. 1976Cumberland News 3 Dec. 11/6 (Advt.), Training hall and use of adjacent site as vehicle park at Parkhill Road, Kingstown, Carlisle.
Add:[I.] [2.] d. spec. in Comm. A privately controlled company through which an individual or company conducts a particular kind of business, esp. investment.
1972Real Estate Rev. Winter 5/2 A black who has invested his savings in a commercial or residential venture is not permitted..to parlay small investments into big ones by spinning them off through refinancing vehicles. 1980[see quote n. 3]. 1984Observer 25 Nov. 30/8 He has begun to repeat the success he achieved at the pest control company with his new vehicle—Erskine House. 1989Sunday Times 19 Feb. (Business) 4/6 Dwek..has a 22{pcnt} stake held through Seaforth, his private vehicle, and is likely to increase his holding.
▪ II. vehicle, v.|ˈviːɪk(ə)l, ˈviːhɪ-|
[f. prec.]
trans. To place or convey in a vehicle. Chiefly in pa. pple.
a1711Ken Hymns Evang. Poet. Wks. 1721 I. 28 There the Babe's Soul is vehicled, said he; God must with perfect Man united be. 1717Fenton Poems (1790) 38 When vehicled in flame, thou slow didst pass Prone through the gates of night. 1732M. Green Grotto Wks. (1790) 251 O..guard us through polemic life; From poison vehicled in praise. 1905Salmond Relig. Quest. France iii. 33 Helping to vehicle to heaven the praises of ransomed souls. |