| 释义 |
obliteration|əblɪtəˈreɪʃən|
[ad. late L. oblit(t)erātiōn-em, n. of action f. oblit(t)erāre to obliterate: cf. F. oblitération (1787 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. The action of obliterating or fact of being obliterated; erasure; effacement; extinction.
1658Phillips, Obliteration, a blotting out, a cancelling or abolishing. 1670in Somers Tracts l. 30 This..is of so odious a Condition, as pity it is, there cannot be a total Obliteration of it. 1793Beddoes Demonstr. Evid. 96 Cause, from being the name of a particular object, has become, in consequence of the obliteration of that original signification, a remarkable abbreviation in language. 1830Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 223 The examination of almost all valleys in mountainous districts affords abundant proofs of the obliteration of a series of lakes. 1858Ld. St. Leonards Handy Bk. Prop. Law xviii. 143 If the obliteration is effectual, of course the disposition in the will as it originally stood cannot be made out.
(b) attrib., as obliteration bombing: heavy bombing intended to destroy a target completely.
1943Spectator 24 Sept. 289/2 (heading) ‘Obliteration’ bombing. Ibid. 8 Oct. 337/2 The question of ‘obliteration bombing’..raises more difficulties than Mr. Johnstone envisages. 1944Sat. Rev. Lit. (U.S.) 8 Apr. 14/1 Vera Brittain, has become the spearhead of a movement..directed against the mass air attacks of enemy cities, which she describes as ‘obliteration bombings’. 1945L. Mumford City Devel. (1946) 173 This failure would still be serious..even if obliteration bombing had not been practised.
2. Phys. and Path. The disappearance or extinction, in regard to its original purpose, of a structure, vessel, cavity, etc., e.g. of a duct through adhesion of the walls.
1857Mayne Expos. Lex. 784/2 Obliteration. 1875H. C. Wood Therap. (1879) 402 Iodine has been very largely employed by injection into serous cysts..for the purpose of exciting inflammation and causing obliteration of their cavity. 1876Trans. Clinical Soc. IX. 117 The curative effect in aortic aneurism of obliteration of the carotid artery. 1884Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 542 The obliteration of the sieve-tubes begins in the oldest external zones of the cortex, and advances..in the centripetal direction. |