| 释义 |
widget orig. U.S.|ˈwɪdʒɪt|
[Perh. alteration of gadget.]
An indefinite name for a gadget or mechanical contrivance, esp. a small manufactured item.
1931Amer. Speech VI. 259 Widget. 1937E. Lyons Assignment in Utopia (1938) iii. iii. 299 Every time the percentage of widgets turned out by her factory rose her features shone. 1961N.Y. Times Mag. 26 Nov. 109 Widgets by wire... Suppose something goes wrong with your Westinghouse appliance. What then? Your Westinghouse dealer can get you any new part faster than anyone around. He orders it by special telegraph line. 1966‘E. Lathen’ Murder makes Wheels go Round i. 5 The corporation would..go about its business of producing bigger and better widgets. 1973S. Alsop Stay of Execution (1974) ii. 193, I asked Joe if the widget could be protected by patent. Joe said..it couldn't... A few weeks ago,..IBM began to make its own widget, cheaper and better serviced than the Intercomp widget. 1982Barr & York Official Sloane Ranger Handbk. 11/1 You never have to see the industry (‘widget factories’) and commerce (‘selling brushes’) that make the money.
▸ Computing. A visual symbol on a computer screen; a graphical device in a graphical user interface; the software and data involved when the operations represented by such a device are invoked, esp. regarded as jointly constituting a tool.
1987Nifty Little X Hacks Wanted in comp.windows.x (Usenet newsgroup) 2 Aug. The sort of things I want are akin to desk accessories on the Macintosh, little useful programs that can be called from the menu or (ideally) from a widget or icon. 1990DEC Professional Feb. 38/1 A sophisticated widget set consisting of high-level user interface abstractions such as push buttons, labels, sliders and text field entry fields. 1995X Jrnl. May–June 60/2 In contrast, writing your own widget is something that makes even the most macho Motif gurus cringe! 2002Network Computing (Nexis) 15 Sept. 20 A navigational widget on the top of every Web page lets you return to the IVE home or log out.
▸ spec. In some cans or bottles of beer (or stout): a plastic bladder or floating capsule of pressurized nitrogen and beer which discharges when the can or bottle is opened and causes the beer to form a creamy head in imitation of draught beer, esp. when the beer is poured into a glass.
1991Financial Times 4 Apr. 10/8 Its in-can ‘widget’ releases a squirt of nitrogen into the beer when the can is opened, giving the same draught effect. 1995New Scientist 9 Sept. 89/1 This widget is a hollow plastic insert which is squeezed in through the neck of the bottle and floats on the beer surface. 2000M. Hughes World Food: Ireland 228 Cans of Guinness have a widget which, when the can is opened, releases gas into the drink which allows you to pour it as if it were coming from a keg. |