| 释义 |
macadam|məˈkædəm|
(Formerly with capital M; also Mac-Adam, McAdam.)
1. The name of John Loudon McAdam (1756–1836) used attrib. to designate the kind of roadway which he invented and the material used in making it: see macadamize.
Now apprehended as an attributive use of 2.
1824Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. 277 We shall see no more of him [our surveyor]; for the Mac-Adam ways are warranted not to wear out. 1878N. Amer. Rev. CXXVI. 91 Closet warriors, in cozy studies, with smooth McAdam roadways before their doors. 1881Macm. Mag. XLIV. 342 All piles of spare macadam material were carefully removed.
2. The material of which a macadamized road is made.
1826J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 178 What a..rattle o' wheels!..intolerable aneuch ower the macadam, but Lord hae mercy on us, when you're on the causeway! 1831Moore Summer Fête 121 Where never gleam of gas must dare 'Gainst ancient Darkness to revolt, Nor smooth Macadam hope to spare The dowagers one single jolt. 1856Fonblanque in Life & Labours (1874) 520 He may gravely serve out Macadam for rations, and supply biscuit for making roads. 1862Athenæum 30 Aug. 268 The drab-coloured mud of the macadam. 1892Times 20 Apr. 7/4 It is broken up into macadam, and forms a splendid material for making roads.
fig.1871R. H. Hutton Ess. II. 126 He sprinkles a little macadam of stony fact along the fair upland path of his imagination. 1892Academy 29 Oct. 382/3 It is an unfinished macadam of inverted commas and references.
3. nonce-use as adj. Level as macadam.
a1845Hood St. to Tom Woodgate v, Does that hard, honest hand now..tug the oar, a gondolier On smooth Mac⁓adam seas? |