| 释义 |
▪ I. relay, n.1|rɪˈleɪ, ˈriːleɪ|
[ad. OF. relais (13th c.), hounds or (in later use) horses held in reserve, f. relayer to relay.]
1. A set of fresh hounds (and horses) posted to take up the chase of a deer in place of those already tired out; † also, the place where these are posted. Obs. exc. arch.
c1410Master of Game (MS. Digby 182) Prol., And whan he shall comm ayenn to the semble or metynge, thenn hath he moste to done, forto ordeyne his fynders and the relaies. Ibid. xxxiii, And at euery relay suffiseth ii. couple of houndes or iii. atte moste. a1500Chaucer's Dreme 362 A great rout Of hunters, and eke of foresters, And many relaies, and limers. 1575Turberv. Venerie i. xiv. 36 Then may you choose out a Forest wherein the Relaies be of equall proportion. 1637B. Jonson Sad Sheph. i. ii, Rob. What relays set you? John. None at all; we laid not In one fresh dog. 1651Davenant Gondibert i. ii. xxviii, [They] now dispose their choice Relays Of Horse and Hounds, each like each other fleet. 1735Somerville Chase iii. 506 Press'd by the fresh Relay, no Pause allow'd, Breathless and faint, he faulters in his Pace. 1842Sir H. Taylor Edwin i. vi, Oh, the best bitch! She holds them all together, Relay or vauntlay, 'tis the same to her.
attrib.1706Phillips (ed. Kersey) s.v., The Cry, or Kennel of Relay-Hounds.
2. a. A set of fresh horses obtained, or kept ready, at various stages along a route to expedite travel.
1659Howell Vocab. xxix, A horse of relay or return. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Relays, is also sometimes taken for fresh Horses, or the Stage where they are kept. 1713Lond. Gaz. No. 5137/8 [They] came hither..with three Relays of Horses. 1763Smollett Trav. (1766) I. 137 It was as disagreeable to him as to me to wait for a relay. 1843Lytton Last. Bar. iv. i, Relays of horses are ready, night and day, to bear you to the coast. 1879A. R. Wallace Australasia xvi. 327 A traveller may have relays of horses to carry him day and night at the rate of ten miles an hour.
transf. and fig.1709Mrs. Manley Secret Mem. II. 42 It is impossible for Virtue to subsist without the Relay of Vice. 1742Young Nt. Th. ii. 250 Who call aloud..For change of follies, and relays of joy, To drag your patient through the tedious length Of a short winter's day. 1860Maury Phys. Geog. Sea (Low) xii. §552 Thus we are entitled to regard the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and Persian Gulf as relays, distributed along the route of these thirsty winds..to supply them with vapours.
b. The place where a fresh relay is obtained.
1706[see above]. 1834James J. Marston Hall xxi, I rode on as fast as possible to the next post relay. 1873Browning Red Cotton Night-Cap Country iv. 9 How the mind runs from each to each relay, Town after town, till Paris' self be touched.
c. relay-horse, a fresh or reserve horse.
1802James Milit. Dict., Relay-horses in the artillery are spare horses that march with the artillery and baggage, ready to relieve others. 1818Jefferson Writ. (1830) IV. 447 Couriers and relay-horses by land, and swift-sailing pilot-boats by sea, were flying in all directions.
d. A series of motor vehicles intended to cover a prescribed route (usu. in sequence); an operation involving this.
1942R.A.F. Jrnl. 27 June 6, I chartered a relay of cars which got us to Beirut..up the coast road. 1971M. Tak Truck Talk 129 Relay, a procedure commonly used in companies to keep as many trucks as possible moving over the road. 1973Amer. Speech 1969 XLIV. 207 Relay, driving operation in which the driver takes his unit from one terminal to another, where a new driver takes over to deliver it to the next terminal, and so on. 1975Drive Nov.–Dec. 110/1 The travellers soon continued their journeys—care of AA Relay. Ibid. 110/2 Relay's south-east team had to recover a Rolls-Royce..from east London and take it back to..Chelsea.
e. Bridge. In full, relay bid. (See quot. 1964.)
1959T. Reese Bridge Player's Dict. 183 The relay method is used in some systems played by European teams. In certain sequences the responder does not try to give a picture of his own hand but makes a series of relay-bids at the lowest level so that he can learn more about his partner's hand. 1961Times 30 Aug. 11/5 If the partner responds the minimum in the suit immediately above the opening bid..his response is either negative (discouraging) or natural (with more than 10 points). In either event it is known as a ‘relay’ bid and is forcing; it does not indicate a real suit but invites the opener to disclose what values he holds. 1962Listener 27 Sept. 494/2 In this auction North's 1 NT and 2 NT were ‘relay bids’, just asking partner to describe his hand. 1964Official Encycl. Bridge 452/1 Relay, a minimum bid unrelated to the bidder's hand, aimed simply at keeping the bidding open so that the bidder's partner can describe his hand. 1980Times 12 July 7/4 After One Club—One Diamond—One Heart—the usual rebid by responder is One Spade. This is a ‘relay’ bid, asking opener to clarify his hand.
3. a. A set of persons appointed to relieve others in the performance of certain duties; a relief-gang.
1808H. More Cœlebs I. 346 Nicholas Ferrar..had relays of musicians every six hours to sing the whole Psalter through. 1840Carlyle Heroes (1858) 233 They have mosques where it [the Koran] is all read daily; thirty relays of priests take it up in succession, get through the whole each day. 1881Jowett Thucyd. I. 144 The army was divided into relays, and one party worked while the other slept and ate.
attrib.1886Telegraphist (Dec.) 14/1, I beg to call your attention to the anomalous position of relay clerks.
b. In full, relay race. A race of runners in sequence; spec. one run by teams of four athletes, a baton being passed in each team from one runner to the next. Also (in quot. 1920), each of the four sections of a relay race. Also in other sports, e.g. Swimming, where members of a team perform in sequence. Also attrib.
1898M. Shearman Athletics x. 301 So popular has this form of racing become that within the last year a number of athletic meetings have been held at which there were a series of these relay races. 1908T. A. Cook Olympic Games 187 Relay Race 1600 Metres... Teams of four with four reserves. 1908Daily Chron. 18 Apr. 5/6 It looked as if its representatives would carry off the prize for the one mile relay race, in which four runners run one lap, carrying a flag each. At the end of the lap the flag is handed to a relay walker, and in his turn the walker hands the flag to a cyclist who completes the race. 1920Isis 13 Oct. 2/2 Ten yards is allotted each side of the starting line in which to pass the baton to the next competitor, for every relay subsequent to the one which begins the race. 1922F. W. H. Nicholas Handbk. Athletics for Beginner (ed. 2) x. 44 Relay 100 yards and relay hurdles may be run up and down. 1927W. Deeping Kitty xxiv. 310 To him life was like a relay-race: you snatched the baton from the failing hand of the past, and sped ahead without looking back till some other racer took the baton from you. 1929G. M. Butler Mod. Athletics ii. 8 Names are taken..and made up into senior and junior relay teams of four each. Ibid. 9 Juniors are under no circumstances allowed to compete in the senior relays. 1939Encycl. Brit. Bk. of Year 650/2 Peter Fick lowered the world's record for the 400-metre relay..while Ralph Flanagan swam 400 metres free style in 4 min. 46·2 sec. 1950Oxf. Jun. Encycl. IX. 454/1 There are also two kinds of team relay race: the medley, in which there are exponents of all three styles of swimming; and the free-style, in which all members swim the same stroke. 1952Armbruster & Morehouse Swimming & Diving (ed. 2) x. 201 The types of relays in swimming are usually of two kinds. Ibid. 204 The swimming take-off in relay racing differs from that in back relay racing. 1955R. Bannister First Four Minutes ii. 18 He had helped Hungary on two occasions to capture the 4×1,500 metres relay World record. 1958Times 13 Aug. 2/6 The main hopes in this country lie in the men's four by 100 and four by 400 metres relays. 1958[see baton n. 2 b]. 1974Country Life 14 Feb. 292/3 The England women's only gold medal in athletics..came in 4×400 metres relay. 1976Liverpool Echo 6 Dec. 18/1 Visibility on the course, however, was too poor to permit the senior relay and a three miles race was substituted. 1978G. Wright Illustr. Handbk. Sporting Terms 150/3 Relays, events in which teams of swimmers swim in sequence... A relay team usually consists of four swimmers, but occasionally larger numbers are used.
4. a. An instrument used in long distance telegraphy to enable an electric current which is too weak to influence recording instruments, or to transmit a message to the required distance, to do so indirectly by means of a local battery brought into connexion with it. In mod. use, any electrical device, usu. incorporating an electromagnet, whereby a current or signal in one circuit can open or close another circuit. Also transf.
1860G. B. Prescott Electr. Telegr. 81 The relay is a very essential apparatus in Morse's telegraphic system. 1876Preece & Sivewright Telegraphy 60 The forms of relay more largely used are called polarized. 1907Cornhill Mag. Mar. 363 The difficulty is overcome by using the partly exhausted current to move a special kind of ‘switch’, or key, called a ‘relay’. 1923E. W. Marchant Radio Telegr. & Teleph. v. 71 The telephone may be replaced by an ordinary Post Office relay, such as is used for working on the ordinary telegraph line. 1935Monseth & Robinson Relay Systems i. 1 The function of protective relays in modern power systems is to initiate the operation of devices to isolate transmission circuits and apparatus when trouble develops. 1956G. A. Montgomerie Digital Calculating Machines x. 211 For adding numbers, three sets of relays are used, designated as A, B, and C; they are wired together so that, if two numbers are sent respectively to A and B, the sum of the two numbers appears on C. 1969Times 16 Jan. 4/7 Relays are instruments used to switch electrical circuits on and off automatically. They usually consist of an electromagnet which, when activated by an electrical signal, opens or closes a switch in another circuit.
attrib.1875Knight Dict. Mech. 1915/2 By means of the relay magnet. 1878Stewart & Tait Unseen Univ. vii. §256. 261 As it were by some relay battery of the universe. 1968Brit. Med. Bull. XXIV. 200/2 The sensory relay region in the thalamus.
b. An installation or satellite which receives, amplifies, and retransmits a radio transmission so that it may be received over a wider area. Freq. attrib.
1921Wireless World 10 Dec. 575/1 These men have banded themselves into a relay organisation. They have laid out in definite form certain traffic routes.., and messages..are broadcasted across the country any time of the night... These relay routes enable the transmission of personal messages from coast to coast, and from the Canadian border to the Mexican border. 1923Radio Times 28 Sept. 26/3 The engineers of the British Broadcasting Company will employ a wireless relay across the Thames. 1945Wireless World Oct. 305 (heading) Extra-terrestrial relays. Can rocket stations give world-wide radio coverage? 1962Rep. Comm. Broadc. 1960 257 in Parl. Papers 1961–2 (Cmnd. 1753) IX. 259 The relay companies are prohibited from originating any programmes of their own. 1966McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. XIII. 469/2 By far the largest number of television circuit miles is provided by microwave radio relay. 1966Electronics 14 Nov. 47 The company has developed an antenna that allows a plane, say flying over North America, to communicate with a relay satellite orbiting about the equator. 1975D. G. Fink Electronics Engineers' Handbk. xxii. 61 The communications satellite is a radio relay, consisting of a receiver and transmitter, plus a command receiver and transmitter, to control the satellite.
c. A radio transmission or programme which has been relayed.
1929Radio Times 8 Nov. 395/3 We were testing all the arrangements for the Schneider Trophy relay, making sure that the loud-speaker system at various points round the coast could pick up our broadcast. 1929B.B.C. Yearbk. 1930 383 Listeners can..expect to find a number of relays of Central European stations included in the British programmes. 1965Listener 25 Nov. 873/2 Don Carlos (Third Programme, November 20) was a direct relay. In spite of all the disadvantages—in timing, indifferent quality of reception, and applause—this kind of broadcast has the incalculable quality of excitement and immediacy that no recording or tape can hope to equal.
5. Special Combs.: relay rack, a rack or frame on which relays are mounted, usu. used in a telephone exchange; relay station, a radio station that serves as a relay; also fig.; relay valve Engin., a fluid valve in which the main flow is controlled by a diaphragm actuated by a weep derived from the main flow.
1908Daily Chron. 8 Apr. 3/6 Each girl sits in front of a relay rack, fitted with a bewildering number of small holes, each of which represents a subscriber. 1930[see rack n.2 5 g]. 1970Jrnl. Gen. Psychol. LXXXII. 58 A desk-type relay rack with two standard rack panels and an enclosed back stood on a table in the experimental room.
1923Radio Times 28 Sept. 2/2 The proposed relay stations..will have a power of 100 to 150 watts. 1969Times 26 Feb. 8/7 Light..is converted to a train of nervous impulses which are transmitted down the optic nerve to a relay station known as the lateral geniculate body (L.G.B.) and from there to the striate cortex. 1974B.B.C. Handbk. 1975 21/1 Savings on capital expenditure in 1974–5 were achieved through postponement of work on the proposed Caribbean relay station.
1939R. N. Le Fevre Man. Pract. Gas Fitting xix. 390 The relay valve..is made in a variety of sizes to suit particular gas rates and pipe connections. 1970Miles & Pinkess Gas Appliance Control ii. 41 It is..possible to have a leak in a joint in the weep pipe or in the cover of the relay valve itself which would pass sufficient gas to hold the relay valve open, even if the control were shut. 1977R. Pritchard et al. Industr. Gas Utilization ix. 414 Relay valves are used to control gas or air flows using a small actuating valve, which may be a solenoid valve or a thermostat in the weep line.
▪ II. relay, v.1|rɪˈleɪ, ˈriːleɪ|
[ad. F. relayer (13th c.), of obscure origin.]
†1.
a. trans. Of a hunter: To let go (the fresh hounds) upon the track of the deer. Also absol. Obs.
c1410Master of Game (MS. Digby 182) xxxiii, He shuld lat þe deere passe and go to þe fues..and relay his houndes vpon þe fues. Ibid., If it so be, þat þe hunter þat haþe relayed, se þat þe deere is lickely to fall in daunger,..he shuld, whan he hath relayed, stonde still in þe fues and halowe þe houndes.
†b. To hunt (a deer) with relays. Obs. rare—1.
c1410Master of Game (MS. Digby 182) xxxiii, When he hath be so wele ronne to and enchased and retreved and softe relayed and vanleyed to,..þenne turneth he his heed and stondeth at abaye.
2. To place in relays: to provide with, or replace by, fresh relays.
1788Earl Malmesbury Diaries & Corr. II. 427 The emissaries of this Cabal had been relayed (if I may use the expression) on the road. 1883Pall Mall G. 18 Dec. 4/2 Our human ponies were not relayed. 1883Daily News 3 Jan. 5/6 Those who watched in the mortuary room were relayed every ten minutes.
3. intr. To get a fresh relay.
1829P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 4, [I] relayed with a horse at Winchester that..could only toddle along. a1868M. J. Higgins Ess. (1875) 158 He endeavours to make up for the time lost in relaying by what he calls ‘pousser les postillons.’
4. trans.
a. To pass on or retransmit (telephonic or broadcast signals received from elsewhere); loosely, to transmit.
1878Telegr. Jrnl. VI. 274/2 They have finally solved the important problem of relaying telephone sounds. 1904Marconigram July 16/2 With a telegraphone in Chicago, one may telephone from New York, have the telegraphone record his message and repeat it over another wire to St. Louis, where another machine relays it to Denver. 1923Glasgow Herald 22 Mar. 9/2 Little progress has so far been made, as the experiments have only recently been commenced, but last night a Birmingham concert was relayed for London with some success. 1923Daily Mail 14 Aug. 5/3 A special orchestral concert which will be relayed to all the broadcasting stations in Britain. 1958Radio Times 14 Feb. 3/3 The sensitive receiving equipment is also used for relaying programmes from the Commonwealth and the U.S.A. 1969Times 16 July 4/1 The television pictures to be relayed back to earth will be taken by a camera fixed on a special attachment. 1974B.B.C. Handbk. 1975 20/2 Prokofiev's opera War and Peace was relayed from the New Sydney Opera House in Australia. 1977Rep. Comm. Future of Broadcasting (Cmnd. 6753) iii. 21 We saw a cable company in Toronto relaying programmes on 24 channels: but several of them were relaying the same programme.
b. transf. To pass on (a message or information).
1956A. H. Compton Atomic Quest ii. 117 These men were thoroughly acquainted with our wartime methods of bomb construction and relayed the techniques to Russia. 1974State (Columbia, S. Carolina) 13 Feb. 5-a/1 President Nixon relayed word through a spokesman Tuesday that he has no plans to visit the Middle East.
Hence ˈrelayed ppl. a.; ˈrelaying vbl. n.
1904Marconigram July 16/1 The steel belt machine will transmit a record..by relaying, to great distances. 1949Radio Times 15 July 6/1 [We] presented an electrophone to our aged father on October 5th, 1908... I have a vivid recollection of..listening to a relayed programme.
▪ III. relay
obs. form of rely v.1 |