| 释义 |
relaxation|ˌriːlækˈseɪʃən|
[ad. L. relaxātiōn-em, n. of action f. relaxāre: see prec. and relax v., and cf. F. relaxation (1314).]
1. a. Partial († or complete) remission of some penalty, burden, duty, etc.; † also, the document granting such remission.
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 42 The plenary remyssyons ben ever referred communly to relaxacyon of payne. 1533–4Act 25 Hen. VIII, c. 21 §1 Licenses, faculties, grantis, relaxacions, writtes called Perinde valere, rehabilitacions, abolitions, and other infinite sortes of buls. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage viii. x. (1614) 792 He..procured a relaxation of tribute from his father in law. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. iii. ii. §3. 19 Others conceive this relaxation indulged in favour to some great offenders. 1727–38Chambers Cycl. s.v., In this sense we say the relaxation of an attachment in the court of admiralty. 1791Burke Corr. (1844) III. 362 Hitherto all relaxation of penalties proceeded on principles of union. 1844H. H. Wilson Brit. India II. 405 Some relaxation was admitted in regard to the tributes.
b. Sc. Law. Release from a judicial penalty, esp. from a sentence of outlawry.
1546Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 59 His grace sall nowther giff respect nor remissioun, supersedere nor relaxatioun, to na maner of persoun..that sal happin to committ slauchter. 1601Acts Sederunt (1790) 34 Na relaxatioun..sall be grantit to ony rebell lawfullie denunceit to the horne. 1752J. Louthian Form of Process (ed. 2) 140 Follows the Letters of Relaxation on the foresaid Petition and Interlocutor. 1791Kames Dict. Decisions (ed. 2) I. 262 The Lords found that relaxations must be executed at the head⁓burgh of that same shire where the denounciation was made. 1838W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 844 In criminal prosecutions, one who has been outlawed may appeal..for letters of relaxation, reponing him against the sentence.
c. Release from captivity; restoration to freedom.
1609Bible (Douay) Isa. xxxii. comm., The fift part. Of the captivitie and relaxation of the kingdom of Juda.
d. (See quots. and relax v. 4 b.)
1826Blackw. Mag. XX. 84 Relaxation is the act by which the Inquisitors deliver over a person convicted of heresy to the royal judge ordinary, that he may be condemned to a capital punishment. 1894Month Mar. 335 The sentence of ‘relaxation’ comprised three parts; the judgment of the Inquisition, the verdict of the secular magistrate, and the execution—all this on the same day.
2. a. The action of unbending the mind from severe application; release from ordinary occupations or cares; recreation.
1548Udall Erasm. Par. Luke ix. 84 b, For of suche sorte ought the pastyme & relaxacion of suche men as are followers of the apostles to bee. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxx. §3 Those poore and needie,..at these times made partakers of relaxation and ioy with others. 1663Cowley Verses & Ess., Ode Liberty ii, To thy bent mind some relaxation give, And steal one day out of thy life to live. 1712Addison Spect. No. 487 ⁋3 In this case Dreams look like the Relaxations and Amusements of the Soul. 1818Hazlitt Eng. Poets ii. (1870) 45 The genius of his poetry..is inspired by the love of ease, and relaxation from all the cares and business of life. 1876Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. ii. 137 It is no marvel when even their relaxations were such downright hard work.
transf.1756Burke Subl. & B. iv. x. [The eye] has a sort of relaxation or rest. 1784Cowper Task i. 81 But relaxation of the languid frame..Was bliss reserv'd for happier days.
†b. Respite, rest. Const. of. Obs. rare—1.
1728Eliza Heywood tr. Mme. de Gomez's Belle A. (1732) II. 256 The little Walk would give..Julia some Relaxation of Speech, and the better enable her to continue her Recital.
3. Path. A loosening or slackening of the fibres, nerves, joints, etc., of the body; diminution of firmness or tension.
1626Bacon Sylva §730 Bathing or Anointing give a Relaxation or Emollition. 1661Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 289 The head is heavy with sleepe, and there is a relaxation of the nerves and ligaments. 1704F. Fuller Med. Gymn. Pref., It [is] impossible to remove some Diseases of the Limbs, without an universal equal Relaxation. 1808Barclay Muscular Motions 303 That state of relaxation which a muscle exhibits in the dead body. 1857Bullock Cazeaux' Midwif. 129 The relaxation of the pelvic symphyses is a frequent occurrence.
4. a. Diminution of, release or freedom from, strictness or severity.
a1626W. Sclater Exp. 4th ch. Rom. (1650) 116, I..can but wonder, How the severity of Laws against Popish Seminaries hath gotten relaxation. 1656Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. i. v. (1674) 5 Wholesome Institutions, which after a relaxation, are at last quite forgotten. 1772Junius Lett. Pref. (1788) 16 These are not times to admit of any relaxation in the little discipline we have left. 1835Thirlwall Greece viii. I. 298 The root of the evil lay in the relaxation of the royal authority. 1873Symonds Grk. Poets iv. 104 The relaxation of Ionian life..rendered the development of satire in Ionia more natural.
b. Extension of meaning.
1858Gladstone Homer III. 20 This relaxation in the sense of βασιλεῦς is no inconsiderable note of change.
5. Abatement of intensity, vigour, or energy.
1695Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth iii. i. (1723) 142 Relaxation of the Heat. 1756Burke Subl. & B. iv. xx, Disposing to an universal relaxation, and inducing..that species of it called sleep. a1781Watson Philip III, iii. 244 It might occasion too great a relaxation of the vigour which you have been so long accustomed to exert. 1875Lyell Princ. Geol. (ed. 12) I. ii. xx. 514 The grassy covering of the sloping talus marks a temporary relaxation of the erosive action of the sea. 1882C. Pebody Eng. Journalism xi. 83 Stuart complains..of his dilatoriness, of his relaxation of energy.
6. Engin. and Math. A method of solving a set of simultaneous equations (originally spec. ones describing the equilibrium of a rigid load-bearing structure) by guessing a solution and successively modifying it to accord with whichever equation or constraint is currently least closely satisfied. Freq. attrib.
1935Proc. R. Soc. A. CLI. 60 The method of systematic relaxation... Imagine that one constraint is relaxed, so that one joint is permitted to travel slowly through a specified distance in some specified direction. 1940R. V. Southwell Relaxation Methods in Engin. Sci. i. 11 The relaxation procedure is a means whereby simultaneous equations may be solved, not exactly, but with steadily increasing approximation. 1957L. Fox Two-Point Boundary Problems iii. 39 In most problems of the type suitable for relaxation the equations can be arranged so that the biggest coefficient in any row lies in the diagonal. 1972Physics Bull. May 273/1 During the war, Southwell and his team had been extending relaxation methods from redundant pin-jointed frameworks to the stress analysis of the continuum.
7. Chiefly Physics. The gradual return of a system towards equilibrium; esp. the reduction of stress caused by gradual plastic deformation in material held at constant strain. Freq. attrib., as relaxation time, the time taken for a system to return to a state of equilibrium; spec. (in cases in which the process of return is exponential), the time taken for the deviation from equilibrium to be reduced by a factor e.
1867J. C. Maxwell in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. CLVII. 53 A time T, which may be called the ‘time of relaxation’ of the elastic force. 1908J. H. Jeans Math. Theory Electricity & Magnetism x. 349 The time..in which all the charges in the dielectric are reduced to 1/e times their original value, is called the ‘time of relaxation’, being analogous to the corresponding quantity in the Dynamical Theory of Gases. The relaxation-time admits of experimental determination. 1937Trans. Amer. Soc. Mech. Engineers LIX. 451/2 There are many reasons why relaxation tests at constant extension are useful and significant. 1949Aircraft Engin. Jan. 2/1 The field of research offered by the plastic, creep and relaxation properties of metals under general stress systems at high temperatures is yet only partially explored. 1958Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. CXC. G3/1 The experiments on relaxation here described based on 10,000 h duration have given some quantitative characteristics for relaxation for 4 types of steel at 410° and 470° C. 1959G. Troup Masers iii. 35 We shall see that collisions are in fact a form of ‘relaxation process’ (process tending to restore the system to equilibrium). 1962Corson & Lorrain Introd. Electromagn. Fields v. 191 The free charge density ρ therefore decreases exponentially with time at a rate such that after a time..called the relaxation time, it is reduced to 1/e or 36·8% of its original value. 1969C. O. Smith Sci. of Engin. Materials xiii. 367 The relaxation test is usually performed by maintaining total strain (elastic plus plastic) at a constant level and measuring the decrease in load (or stress) as a function of time. 1971Nature 8 Jan. 93/1 Many phenomena, for example, may be assigned their typical relaxation times—the average time for an effect to fade away... Thus, a fit of temper may have a relaxation time of a few minutes, the satiation of hunger by a meal lasts for a few hours. 1972Ibid. 22 Dec. 447/1 Physicists are also interested in such phenomena as the changes in the qualities of the varnish on a Stradivarius violin, these being relaxation phenomena demonstrating both temporal and irreversible properties.
8. Special Comb.: relaxation oscillator Electr., a form of oscillator in which the period and resulting waveform are determined by the slow charge and rapid discharge of a resistor-capacitor or inductor-capacitor circuit. See also sense 7 above.
1942E. Williams Thermionic Valve Circuits v. 128 The simplest relaxation oscillator is perhaps the series connexion of a d.c. supply voltage, a resistance and a condenser, a neon lamp being shunted across the condenser. 1943Electronic Engin. XV. 412 In general the time-base will be derived from a relaxation oscillator producing a ‘saw-tooth’ wave-form. 1966McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. XI. 438/2 One of the most widely used forms of relaxation oscillator is the astable multivibrator..which generates a rectangular or square wave. |