| 释义 |
▪ I. million|ˈmɪljən|
Forms: 4 melione, milyon, 4–5 mi-, mylioun, 4–7 milion, 5 myl(l)ione, melyone, mi-, myllyon, Sc. mylȝon(e, mulȝeon, 6 myllyant, -io(u)n, -ian, mylion, millian, 7 Sc. milleoune, 4, 6– million.
[a. F. million (1359 in Hatz.-Darm.) = Sp. millon, Pg. milhão, ad. It. millione (now written milione), f. mille thousand + -one augmentative suffix. From Fr. the word has passed into the Teut. langs.; G. million, Du. miljoen, Sw., Da. million.]
1. The cardinal number equal to a thousand thousands. (Often used indefinitely or hyperbolically for an enormous number.)
a. As n. or quasi-n., with plural.
(a) In singular. Usually a, emphatically one million; in phrases expressing rate, the million. Also in phr. thanks a million: see thank n.
1370–80XI Pains of Hell 316 in O.E. Misc. 232 Þen kneled Poul, and Mihel And a Milioun Angeles, wel. c1386Chaucer Sompn. Prol. 21 Now sire quod he han freres swich a grace That noon of hem shal come to this place? Yis quod this Angel many a Millioun. c1420Anturs of Arth. 706 (Douce MS.) Prestes with processione to pray were prest, With a mylione of masses to make þe mynnynge. 1480Caxton Chron. Eng. ccxxx. 243 Ye shal vnderstonde that a myllyon is /M/M/. 1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 391 What is he among a myllian that is not surprised with sorrowe, when [etc.]. 1591Shakes. Two Gent. ii. i. 105 Oh, 'giue ye-good-ev'n: heer's a million of manners. 1629Wadsworth Pilgr. i. 5 Through a Million of dangers we arriued the Spanish coasts. 1710Palmer Proverbs 334 'Tis a million to one but they wish it had never been done. 1726Swift Gulliver iv. v, A million of yahoos might have been killed. 1778F. Burney Evelina (1791) II. xxvii. 171 He had a million of things to say to me. 1800E. Hervey Mourtray Fam. II. 6 We charged him with a million of thanks. 1815J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art I. 524 The sun is a million of times larger than the earth. 1885Manch. Exam. 24 July 5/1 He could count his soldiers by the million. 1934J. B. Priestley Eng. Journey ix. 316 This [ship-] yard..had been a spectacular failure in which over a million of money had been lost.
(b) In plural: millions.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. x. 148 Mony Milions mo of Men and of Wymmen. 1494Fabyan Chron. vii. 471 Thre millyons of scutes of golde. 1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 277 His head being fraught wt myllians of imaginations. 1597J. King On Jonas (1618) 18 Ten and ten millions of men. 1611Bible Gen. xxiv. 60 Be thou the mother of thousands of millions. 1615Mure Misc. Poems xiv. 12 Till contrarie fortoun..Metamorphos'd his thowsands in milleounes of lyce. 1708J. Phillips Cyder i. 345 The polish'd Glass, whose small Convex Enlarges to ten Millions of Degrees The Mite. 1834Penny Cycl. II. 339/1 Hundreds of thousands of millions of millions. 1893R. T. Jeffrey Visits to Calvary 366 After millions of millenniums.
(c) After a numeral adjective, million sometimes occurs as a collective plural. (Cf. dozen, hundred.) Now rare or Obs.
c1530Crt. of Love 589 Yet eft again, a thousand milion, Rejoysing, love, leding their life in blis. c1590Greene Fr. Bacon ii. 160 A thousand thousand million of fine bells.
b. As adj. or quasi-adj. (in prose use, always with a or prefixed multiplier), followed immediately by a plural (or collective) noun. Also in phr. (chiefly U.S.) (like) a million dollars: excellent, splendid, magnificent (usu. prec. by to feel or to look).
1843Borrow Bible in Spain xv. 107 The roar of a million cannon. 1846Landor Imag. Conv., Windham & Sheridan Wks. 1853 II. 179/2 The crown-lands in Ireland,..are large enough to support half a million subjects. 1868Lynch Rivulet clxv. iii, From Thee million spirits have their name. 1885W. Watson Poems (1892) 106 Her veins are million but her heart is one. 1925Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves! iii. 55 It was one of those topping mornings, and I had just climbed out from under the cold shower feeling like a million dollars. 1933E. E. Cummings eimi 109 Something which might be port..‘Looks like a million dollars’—and which tastes like awfully watered vino rosso à l'américain. 1933Ade Let. 13 Nov. (1973) 176 Those [farm buildings] that have been repaired..and painted look like a million dollars compared with most of the nearby so-called improvements. 1947Time 17 Mar. 43 You'll go home feeling like a million dollars, rested and refreshed as never before! 1956D. Gascoyne Night Thoughts 35 You'd look a million dollars at your worst. 1969C. Allen Text-bk. Psychosexual Disorders (ed. 2) xx. 400 If..abnormal habits are allowed to become fixed, the patient becomes a million times more difficult to treat. 1973Times 23 Apr. 5/6 A formula not a million miles removed from that of BBC 2's now defunct Late Night Line-up. 1973Boyd & Parkes Dark Number xiii. 150 Dorothy looked, as they say, a million dollars: brushed, scrubbed, wholesome and sane. 1974Wodehouse Aunts aren't Gentlemen ix. 75 His refusal to do as Miss Cook asked was unequivocal. ‘Not in a million years’ was the expression he used.
c. The cardinal form million is also used as an ordinal when followed by other numbers, the last of which alone takes the ordinal form.
1866J. H. Newman Gerontius §3 Divide a moment, as men measure time, Into its million-million-millionth part.
2. Elliptical uses.
a. A million coins or units of money of account of some understood value, esp. (in British use) a million pounds or (in the U.S.) dollars.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. iii. 255 Coueyte not his goodes For Milions of Moneye. c1422Hoccleve Learn to Die 397 Many a milioun Of Gold and siluer. c1430Batayle of Eyngecourte 82 in Hazl. E.P.P. II. 96 Our kynge they solde, For a myllyant of golde. c1470Henry Wallace iv. 142 Of cler gold a fyne mylȝone and mor. 1570Ibid. vii. 1280 Thocht he him gaif ane mulȝeon of gold. c1586C'tess Pembroke Ps. cxix. I. iv. [verse 72], Millions then, and mines adieu, Gold and silver, drosse you be. 1625Massinger New Way i. iii, We must be strangers, Nor would I haue you seene here for a million. a1704T. Brown Sat. Fr. King Wks. 1730 I. 59 I'd not be, for a million, in thy jerkin. 1790Beatson Nav. & Mil. Mem. I. 391, Increasing the national debt to near eighty millions Sterling. 1841R. P. Ward De Clifford III. vii. 111 By loans,..and other speculations, he achieved his million, and now acts the grandee. 1902Westm. Gaz. 10 June 2/2 This four millions was taken account of in the Budget statement.
b. the million: the multitude; the bulk of the population.
1602Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 457 The Play I remember pleas'd not the Million. 1762Foote Lyar i. Wks. 1799 I. 283 If you would descend a little to the grovelling comprehension of the million, I think it would be as well. 1894K. Grahame Pagan P. 29 The two-and-sixpenny edition for the million.
c. a million to one: a million chances to one; hence, an expression indicating very low probability. Freq. attrib.
1761Sterne Tr. Shandy IV. ix. 73 Calculate it fairly..and it will turn out a million to one, that..the forceps should have the ill luck just to fall upon.. that one part. 1900C. H. Chambers Tyranny of Texas i. 9 The article hasn't a million to one chance of being finished this afternoon. 1962P. Brickhill Deadline v. 78 So I'm supposed to..roam Paris for weeks on the million-to-one chance of spotting someone. 1974J. Wainwright Hard Hit 103 It might go wrong—there's a million-to-one chance.
d. pl. In full, millions fish; = guppy1.
1906Chambers's Jrnl. Apr. 345/2 A tiny fish known locally by the name of ‘millions’. 1908Science 18 Dec. 885/2 ‘Millions’ are among the most active natural enemies of mosquitos. 1924Glasgow Herald 2 June 11/2 In Barbadoes..the natives are accustomed to keep in their rain barrels the minute fish known as ‘millions’... Hence the absence of mosquitoes. 1966D. W. Tucker tr. Sterba's Freshwater Fishes of World (ed. 2) 568 Lebistes reticulatus... Guppy, Millions Fish. Venezuela, Barbados, Trinidad, parts of northern Brazil and Guiana.
e. (one) in a million: (a person, thing, etc.) that is very rare, unusual, or valuable.
1900Conrad Ld. Jim viii. 99 The occasion was obscure, insignificant—what you will: a lost youngster, one in a million—but then he was one of us. 1906E. Nesbit Railway Children xiii. 288 Take care of your Mother... She's a woman in a million. 1925Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves! i. 30 You know, Jeeves, you're by way of being rather a topper... One in a million, by Jove! 1931Times Lit. Suppl. 5 Feb. 96/3 Emily was, of course, a chimp..in a million.
f. gone a million: (having) completely lost, done for, in a hopeless state. Austral. and N.Z. colloq.
1916C. J. Dennis Battle of Wazzir in A. H. Chisholm Making of Sentimental Bloke (1963) 131 Fer young Bill wus gone a million, an' 'e never guessed the game. 1922A. Wright Colt from Country 142 What hope would you have when that came out? You'd be gone a million. 1930K. S. Prichard Haxby's Circus xvi. 187 If it weren't for you, I'd be gone a million on the minx. 1941Coast to Coast 209 No doubt about it, Sim was right. If they drop their bundles they're gone a million. 1958N.Z. Listener 23 May 6/4 We scraped in in that game, only because Elvidge scored his usual try... Otherwise, we were gone a million.
3. attrib. and Comb., (a) simple attrib. or objective, as million maker; million-billowed, million-dollared (absol. in quot. = ‘a person who has a million dollars’), million-eyed, million-footed, million-handed, million-minded, million-pointed, million-voiced adjs.; (b) parasynthetic, as instrumental, as million-peopled adj.; million-act, an act of parliament authorizing a lottery to be held in 1694 and succeeding years, by which a million pounds was to be raised by the sale of lottery tickets at ten pounds each; so million lottery; million-dollar a., worth or costing a million dollars; (also transf. and fig.) expensive-looking; magnificent, splendid; very attractive; millionheiress, an heiress to a ‘million of money’; million-seller, a gramophone record, book, etc., of which a million copies have been sold.
1694J. Briscoe (title) A Discourse on the late Funds of the *Million-Act, Lottery-Act, and Bank of England.
1895W. Watson Apologia, He..beholds..In *million-billowed consentaneousness, The flowing, flowing, flowing of the world.
1892A. E. Lee Hist. Columbus, Ohio II. 90 The General Assembly..passed this *milliondollar bill. 1921Discovery Feb. 48/1 The water hyacinth..is a beautiful aquatic plant..but its spread in St. John's River and the enormous sums spent in attempting its suppression have earned it the name of the ‘million-dollar weed’. 1932Amer. Speech VII. 250 Bing Crosby plaintively croons that he has ‘Found a Million Dollar Baby in the Five and Ten Cent Store’. 1959Listener 5 Mar. 432/1 A man in a million-dollar suit. 1961J. Heller Catch-22 (1962) xxvii. 296 I've got this million-dollar leg wound that will take me out of combat. 1972News & Observer (Raleigh, N. Carolina) 30 Dec. 4/2 We don't hear much [nowadays] about..million dollar rains, and undertakers.
1857J. G. Whittier Barefoot Boy in Poetical Works II. 230 Let the *million-dollared ride! Barefoot, trudging at his side, Thou hast more than he can buy.
1893C. Rossetti Verses 101 Wisdom that loveth thee grows *million-eyed.
1865W. Whitman Drum-Taps 61 When *million-footed Manhattan, unpent, descends to its pavements. 1885W. B. Yeats Island of Statues ii. iii, in Dublin Univ. Rev. July 137/1 Though I be Far fleeter than the million-footed sea.
1847Emerson Poems (1857) 47 The *million-handed painter pours Opal hues and purple dye.
1919W. De Morgan Old Madhouse 457 His mind took kindly to the interruption of this young man's nuptials with an American *millionheiress of startling beauty. 1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §417 Millionheiress, a woman who is a millionaire.
1710Swift Jrnl. to Stella 15 Sept., Colonel Fremd, and I, went to see the *million lottery drawn at Guildhall.
1849Robertson Serm. Ser. i. i. (1866) 10 The *million-minded Poet.
1819Shelley Prometh. Unb. i. 551 A *million-peopled city.
1923*Million-pointed [see million-voiced below].
1969N. Cohn AWopBopaLooBop (1970) iii. 27 He [sc. Elvis Presley] has racked up twenty worldwide *million sellers. 1971Shout Dec.. They performed Ship of Love & of course the near-millionseller Story Untold. 1972Jazz & Blues Sept. 11/2 Fats Domino cut 16 million-sellers in this town.
1894‘Mark Twain’ Those Twins 322 The two sat unconscious of the *million-voiced music of the mosquitos. 1923Belloc Sonnets & Verse 149 To-night in million-voicèd London I Was lonely as the million-pointed sky.
▪ II. million
obs. form of melon, Milan1. |