| 释义 |
multiˈlateral, a.
[multi- 1. Cf. med.L. multilaterus (Boeth.), multilaterālis (Duns Scotus).]
1. Geom. Having many (i.e. more than four) sides; = many-sided 1.
1696Phillips, Multilateral, all Figures that have more than four Right Lines. a1696Scarburgh Euclid (1705) 27 After the division of strait-lin'd Figures..into Trilateral..and Multilateral, Euclide begins [etc.]. 1766Complete Farmer s.v. Surveying 7 E 4/2 A regular polygon, otherwise called a regular multangular, or multilateral figure. 1862Todhunter Euclid Def. 23 Multilateral figures, or polygons, [bounded] by more than four straight lines. 1875Bennett & Dyer tr. Sachs' Bot. 765 Multilateral erect stems.
2. fig. = many-sided 2.
1784Sir W. Jones in Burke's Corr. (1844) III. 31 The charter of justice..makes me multilateral; it gives me an equity side, a law side, an ecclesiastical side, a crown side, an admiralty side. 1869J. F. Clarke Brahmanism in Atlantic Monthly May 561/1 The whole poem represents the multilateral character of Hinduism.
3. (See quot. 1802-12) spec. Pertaining to or concerning three or more countries, esp. of the trade and financial agreements made by them, or of the control of (part of) their armed forces by a supranational authority.
1802–12Bentham Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827) II. 495 In the case of a bilateral or multilateral deed, viz. to which there are parties more than one. 1946Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. L. 734/1 These agreements were mostly bilateral, and few were multilateral. 1948Hansard Commons 29 Jan. 1290 The Opposition are asking us to support a conception of multi-lateral trade to which the Government have paid lip-service. 1955Times 29 June 9/3 The west, he [sc. J. F. Dulles] said, had worked out the first effective system of multilateral arms control the world had ever known. 1957Economist 30 Nov. 807/1 Commercial and financial relations..can move on to a fully multilateral basis. 1960Times Lit. Suppl. 27 May 334/1 The elaborate build-up of good will by multilateral visits between the heads of government. 1963[see multinational a. and n.].
4. Educ. Of a school providing for two or more types of secondary education; also ellipt. as n., a school of this kind. Cf. comprehensive a. 1 d.
1938Rep. Consultative Comm. Secondary Educ. (H.M.S.O.) p. xix, We use the term ‘multilateral’ to describe a school which by means of separate streams would provide for all types of secondary education with the exception of that provided by Junior Technical Schools. 1947[see comprehensive a. 1 d]. 1956Times Educ. Suppl. 27 Apr. 536/3 The case against big multilateral schools has been so often put that it needs no repetition. 1959Punch 17 June 797/1 He saw it in his mind's eye..as a vast multilateral school bringing instruction in basket⁓weaving and psychology to all the scattered villages of the hilly north. 1967Listener 13 July 41/2 Soon the multilaterals were being called comprehensive and one or two big authorities were actually building a few.
Hence multiˈlateralism, the quality of being multilateral (sense 3); multiˈlateralist a. and n., (one) advocating multilateral disarmament; multiˈlateralize v., to embrace in an agreement amongst many parties; so multiˌlateraliˈzation, the integration of armed forces under supranational authority; multiˈlaterally adv., so as to make a multilateral figure; also, amongst three or more parties; multiˈlateralness, the condition or quality of being many-sided.
1731Bailey vol. II, Multilateralness. 1847Tulk tr. Oken's Physiophilos. 222 The spiriform ranks higher. In it the stem is manifestly differenced more multilaterally. 1879Haeckel's Evol. Man I. viii. 214 Granular entodermcells, which, by mutual pressure, are flattened multilaterally. 1928Glasgow Herald 13 June 10/6 M. Briand insisted specifically on the term ‘war of aggression’ after first talking generically of all war. The reason was the transformation of bilateralism into multilateralism. 1940Economist 20 July 94/1 This element of multilateralism will in future be introduced by appropriate amendments to the Regulations governing each Special Account agreement. 1950Sun (Baltimore) 19 June 10/4 Dr. Dalton says their move to abolish quotas and multilateralize commerce among the nations is really an incitement to class hatred. 1951Ann. Reg. 1950 47 It [sc. the European Payments Scheme] was a step towards the complete multilateral system of payments desired by America, and was part of the plan to progress towards world economic multilateralism. 1957Essays & Stud. New Ser. X. 7 No one would willingly admit to our vocabulary so unprepossessing and nebulous a word as multilateralization. 1960News Chron. 7 Oct. 6/3 How ought we ‘multilateralist’ Labour MPs to vote on defence? 1960Guardian 11 Oct. 11/1, I am resolutely opposed to urging any member of the Labour party to resign because he is a unilateralist or a multilateralist. Ibid. 22 Oct. 1/1 Mr Harold Wilson..declared that the issue was not multilateralism versus unilateralism, but unity versus civil war. 1964Listener 30 July 169/2 The British Government has recently suggested the mixed manning, the multilateralization, of the so-called tactical nuclear weapons now in western Europe. 1965Economist 17 July 207 The Germans still don't want to non-proliferate until they've been multilateralised. 1972Sci. Amer. Apr. 17/2 Government representatives from East and West met.., bilaterally and multilaterally, to discuss increased trade. 1973Current Hist. May 202/1 Yugoslavia supports the convening of a European Security Conference, which would multilateralize the European territorial status quo. |