| 释义 |
propel, v.|prəʊˈpɛl|
[ad. L. prōpell-ĕre to drive before one, push or urge forward, f. prō, pro-1 1 + pell-ĕre to drive.]
†1. trans. To drive forth or away; to expel. Obs.
c1440Pallad. on Husb. i. 1034 Fer awey propelle Horrende odour of kichen, bath, gutteris. 1658Phillips, Propelled,..thrust out, or driven forward. 1666G. Harvey Morb. Angl. xxx. (1672) 89 Avicen doth witness, the blood to be frothy, thats propell'd out of a Vein of the Breast.
2. To drive forward or onward; to impart an onward motion to; to cause to move onwards.
1658[see 1]. 1692Bentley Confut. Atheism ii. (1693) 24 Too feeble and languid to propell so vast and ponderous a Body with that prodigious velocity. 1762–9Falconer Shipwr. ii. 24 Propell'd by flattering gales, the vessel glides. 1790Rumsey Patent Specif. No. 1738. 2 To cause..the vibrating water..to propell the vessel. 1816R. Buchanan (title) Treatise on propelling Vessels by Steam. 1822J. Imison Sc. & Art I. 225 Among the..applications of steam is that of propelling vessels by it, without the aid of sails or oars. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xvi. III. 649 Each galley was propelled by fifty or sixty huge oars.
b. fig. To give a forward impulse to; to impel or urge onward; in quot. 1762, to accelerate.
1762Kames Elem. Crit. I. 389 The rate of succession may be retarded by insisting upon one object, and propelled by dismissing another before its time. 1830D'Israeli Chas. I III. xiii. 279 The terror of Romanism propelled Protestantism. 1902E. R. Bevan Ho. Seleucus II. 158 He was propelled not only by the desire of glory, but by the urgent necessity of money. |