| 释义 |
weaponize, v.
Brit. |ˈwɛp(ə)nʌɪz|, U.S. |ˈwɛpəˌnaɪz|
Forms: 19– weaponise, 19– weaponize
[‹ weapon n. + -ize suffix. Compare slightly earlier weaponized adj.]
1. trans. To adapt for use as a weapon; spec. to provide (a nuclear or other explosive device) with a mechanism for being launched and propelled toward a target.
1957W. von Braun in N.Y. Times 10 Nov. 36/1 The United States went into a serious ballistic missile program only in 1951, with the decisions to weaponize the Army's J. P. L. Corporal rocket and to develop the Redstone. 1963R. S. McNamara in N.Y. Times 14 Aug. 14/4 The United States now has the capability..to weaponize a variety of possible ABM warheads. 1977Science 22 Apr. 407/1 The Soviet Union is successfully developing a proton beam as an antiballistic missile device, whereas the American effort to weaponize a charged particle beam was abandoned because it was staked on electrons. 1991Economist 2 Nov. 123/3 Sandia ‘weaponises’ these packages. It turns them into robust, fused and safety-locked front-ends for missile warheads. 2001Nation 12 Nov. 9/1 To determine whether anthrax has been weaponized, three questions must be answered. First, have the spores been ‘milled’ to a small size—‘aerosolized’—so they can float in the air, thereby infecting many people; second, have they been selected for virulence; third, have thay been engineered to produce immunity to antibiotics?
2.
a. intr. To build and deploy a nuclear arsenal.
1982Pacific Affairs 55 152 The implication is that India need not react precipitously by ‘weaponizing’ and, if reason prevails, could choose to avoid a nuclear arms race. 1995Internat. Security 20 95 According to former Foreign Secretary Abdul Sattar, Pakistan's nuclear capabilities had not yet ‘flowered’ by the time of Brasstacks. They were, he said, ‘nascent’, but ‘not yet actual’. The Indian perception was also that Pakistan ‘had not weaponized’. 2000Contemp. South Asia 9 25 They sought not to further disarmament, but to create the context in which they could weaponise with impunity.
b. trans. To realize (a weapons-development programme, etc.) in the form of weapons suitable for immediate use.
1986C. S. Gray in S. J. Cimbala Strategic War Termination 91 If the Western alliance mends its non-nuclear fences, modernizes a strongly dissuasive strategic counterdeterrent—and possibly moves to weaponize the SDI—a future war could be protracted. 2002K. Matinuddin Nuclearization of S. Asia v. 118 Only when India weaponizes its nuclear deterrent capabilities will it be able to address its security challenges.
3. trans. To install weapons in (a place, esp. space).
[1975N.Y. Times 17 Feb. 21/5 We can all play a part in this struggle to de-weaponize America.] 1984M. Levine in Congress. Rec. 23 May 13,913/3 This administration could begin to pursue a course of weaponizing space that would ultimately prompt a more fierce phase in the arms race on Earth. 1994Omni July 4 The peaceful, cooperative development of space without the contaminating intention to weaponize it. 2001N.Y. Times Mag. 5 Aug. 32/2 Such critics see the Pentagon's effort to weaponize space as profoundly dangerous for national security. |