| 释义 |
ocean, n. (a.)|ˈəʊʃən|
Forms: 3–6 occean, -ian, (4 oxian, 4–5 occion(e, occyon, 5 -an), 4–6 occeane, 5–6 -iane, 6 -æan, ocian, -eane, -yane, 6– ocean.
[a. F. océan (occean 12th c. in Littré), ad. L. ōcean-us, f. Gr. ὠκεανός, orig. the great stream or river (cf. ῥόος Ὠκεανοῖο, Ὠκεανός ποταµός, in Homer) supposed to encompass the disk of the earth, and personified as ‘the god of the great primeval water’, the son of Uranus and Gaia, and husband of Tethys; hence, the great outer sea, as opposed to the Mediterranean.]
1. The vast body of water on the surface of the globe, which surrounds the land; the main or great sea. (Down to c 1650, commonly ocean sea; before 1400 also sea ocean, sea of ocean = L. mare oceanum (Cæsar Bell. Gall. ii. vii, Tacitus Hist. iv. xii); OF. mer oceane, ocianne, occeanne mer, where oceane was adj. fem. qualifying mer; and ocean may sometimes have been viewed as an adj. in Eng.)
In early times, when only the one great mass of land, the Eastern hemisphere, with its islands, was known, the ocean was the Great Outer Sea of boundless extent, everywhere surrounding the land, as opposed to the Mediterranean and other inland seas.
(a)c1290St. Brandan 16 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 220 In þe mochele se of Occean [MS. Harl. 2277 occian] as ore louerd þe hath i-send. c1374Chaucer Boeth. iv. met. vi. 111 (Camb. MS.) The same sterre vrsa..ne coueytith nat to deeyn his flaumbes in the see of the occian. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. xxviii. (Tollem. MS.), Þe sonne was faste by þe see of occian [L. juxta mare oceanum]. c1400Mandeville (1839) xiii. 143 Toward the see Occyan in Inde. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 412 b/2 The hete of thoccean see threwe them to the refudge. 1545Brinklow Compl. 45, I thynck it is as well possyble for the ocyane se to be without water. 1652Earl of Monmouth tr. Bentivoglio's Hist. Relat. 1 These Provinces are inviron'd..by the Ocean Sea. 1744Ozel tr. Brantome's Sp. Rhodomontades 38 The King had given Orders to the Great Ocean-Sea. 1847M. Howitt Ballads 71 The ocean-sea doth moan and moan Like an uneasy sprite.
(b)a1300Cursor M. 11395 A folk ferr and first vncuth, Wonnand be þe est occean [v.rr. occyon, -eane, -ione]. 1340–70Alex. & Dind. 533 Þat þou miht ouur oxian, wiþ þin ost saile. 1490Caxton Eneydos xxiii. 84 About the lymytes of the grete see that men calle occeane in the marches or the sonne goynge-vnder. 1591Spenser Ruins of Time 541 For from the one he could to th' other coast, Stretch his strong thighes, and th' Occæan ouerstride. 1635Swan Spec. M. vi. §2 (1643) 187 The ocean, is that generall collection of all waters, which environeth the world on every side. 1713Young Last Day i. 34 See how earth smiles, and hear old ocean roar. 1801Campbell Ye Mariners of Eng. ii, The deck it was their field of fame, And Ocean was their grave. 1834Nat. Philos. III. Phys. Geog. 2/1 (U.K.S.) The Ocean is spread over nearly seven-tenths of the globe.
2. One of the main areas or regions into which this body of water is divided geographically.
These divisions are partly natural, through the intervention of portions of land, partly arbitrary for geographical convenience. It is usual to reckon five of them, the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic Oceans, of which the first two are sometimes subdivided into Northern and Southern. But the Pacific, Indian, and Antarctic really form one great ocean, the ‘South Sea’; of which the Atlantic and Arctic again form a smaller prolongation, divided from the larger basin only by an imaginary line drawn between the southern points of Africa and America. The name ocean was formerly given to smaller portions of some of these; the North Sea has still the synonym German Ocean.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 53 Þere þe see of occean of Athlant brekeþ out [1432–50 (Harl. MS.) the occean Atlantyke]. 1601Holland Pliny I. 51 The Spanish Atlantick Ocean. 1684tr. Eutropius vi. 96 He marched a Conquerour even to the British Ocean. 1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v., According to Maty, the ocean may be commodiously divided into superior or upper, and inferior or lower. Upper Ocean which the Ancients called the exterior, as environing all the known parts of the world... Inferior or American Ocean..which washes the coast of America; unknown in great measure, at least, to the Ancients. 1730–6Bailey (folio) s.v. Ocean, Hyperborean Ocean..Pacifick Ocean..South Ocean. 1814Scott Jrnl. Voy. Lighth. Yacht 9 Aug., As the Atlantic and German Oceans unite at this point, a frightful tide runs here. 1827Ld. King in Hansard 28 Mar. (1828) XVII. 112 It was as feasible to bring about such an event..as it was to attempt to ‘bottle off the Atlantic ocean’. 1828J. H. Moore Pract. Navig. (ed. 20) 54 That part of the North Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and America is frequently called the Western Ocean. 1880Geikie Phys. Geog. i. §5. 35 Though the sea is one continuous liquid mass, it has been for the sake of convenience in description divided into different areas, termed oceans.
3. transf. and fig.
a. An immense or boundless expanse of anything; hyperbolically, a very great or indefinite quantity. Also pl., lots of.
1590Spenser F.Q. ii. ii. 22 A Beare and Tygre being met..on Lybicke Ocean wide. 1591Shakes. Two Gent. ii. vii. 69 A thousand oathes, an Ocean of his teares,..Warrant me welcome to my Protheus. 1642Sir T. Stafford in Lismore Papers Ser. ii. (1888) V. 82, I am now plung'd into an ocean of troubles. 1649J. H. Motion to Parl. Adv. Learn. 26 Then are they..with their paper-barks committed to the great Ocean of Learning. a1711Ken Edmund Poet. Wks. 1721 II. 167 Oceans of Sweetness overflow'd the Shore, And yet his thirsty Spirit long'd for more. 1812Brackenridge Views of Louisiana (1814) 110 To the left, we behold the ocean of prairie, with islets at intervals. 1827Keble Chr. Y., Evening xiv, Till in the ocean of Thy love We lose ourselves in Heaven above. 1834M. Somerville Connex. Phys. Sc. xxvi. (1849) 273 The ocean of light and heat perpetually flowing from the sun. 1840Spirit of Times 25 Apr. 85/3 The leader of this predatory band had oceans of money which he looked to when he sat down, and then crammed his greasy wallet back into his pocket. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 338 Ale flowed in oceans for the populace. 1886H. Baumann Londinismen 123/2 He's got oceans o' money. 1926Amer. Mercury Dec. 465/1 She is a flaming flamboyant blonde with oceans of stuff. 1952M. Laski Village ii. 36 Poor People's children..had oceans of pocket-money because Poor People didn't understand the value of money.
b. Phr. ocean of being.
1652N. Culverwel Worth of Souls in Lt. Nature [ii]. 201 All beings they are within the souls Horizon... It can take in the several drops of Being, and it can take in much of the Ocean of Being. 1690Locke Essay Hum. Und. i. i. 3 We let loose our thoughts into the vast ocean of Being. 1931G. F. Stout Mind & Matter 14 Knowledge of this type..leaves us adrift on the ocean of being, with oars indeed, but without rudder or compass.
4. attrib. and Comb.
a. simple attrib. (often hyphened): of or pertaining to the ocean in its natural and physical relations, as ocean arm, ocean bed, ocean-blue, ocean bottom, ocean brim, ocean cave, ocean cliff, ocean current, ocean-deep, ocean depth, ocean-flood, ocean floor, ocean foam, ocean fowl, ocean front, ocean-green, ocean ice, ocean isle, ocean level, ocean main, ocean monster, ocean nymph, ocean rock, ocean roll, ocean-side, ocean storm, ocean tide, ocean water, ocean wave, etc.; connected with the ocean in its commercial, political, or social aspects, as ocean-inn (nonce-wd.), ocean line, ocean liner, ocean port, ocean postage, ocean power, ocean scout, ocean-song, ocean steamer, ocean war, ocean warrior, etc.
1871R. Ellis Catullus iv. 9 Propontis, or the gusty Pontic *Ocean-arm.
1637Milton Lycidas 168 So sinks the day⁓star in the *Ocean bed.
1842W. C. Bryant Child's Funeral in Fountain 62 Flowers of the morning—red, or *ocean-blue. 1936Times 6 Jan. 11/3 It is in a number of good colours, including ocean-blue.
1886A. Winchell Walks Geol. Field 197 There must have been an *ocean-bottom for the very first sediments to rest on.
1667Milton P.L. v. 140 The Sun..yet hov'ring o're the *Ocean brim.
1808Scott Marm. i. xxix, To fair St. Andrews bound, Within the *ocean-cave to pray.
1847M. Howitt Ballads 346 Every bird that builds a nest on *ocean-cliffs is mine.
1856Kane Arct. Expl. I. xxiii. 339 The influence which *ocean-currents may exert on the temperature. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 173 The direction of the great ocean currents.
1926J. Pedersen Israel I. ii. 463 He is overwhelmed by the surges of death..and desires to be pulled up from the t⊇hōmōth of the earth, its *ocean-deep. 1966‘J. Hackston’ Father clears Out 43 His diving-dress would enable a diver to go down to the very depths of the ocean-deep.
1884–92J. Tait Mind in Matter 39 He knew that the work of death goes on in *ocean-depths as elsewhere.
a1957R. Campbell tr. F. García Lorca's He died of Love in Coll. Poems (1960) III. 78 The *ocean-flood of perjured oaths Was thundering.
1820Shelley Ode to Liberty v, in Prometh. Unb. 211 The *ocean-floors Pave it. 1884R. Bridges Prometheus 5 This variegated ocean-floor of the air. 1968Times 3 Oct. 13/3 The ocean floor is spreading out from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at a rate of between one and three centimetres a year. 1974L. Deighton Spy Story xix. 202 The ship sank to the ocean floor.
1818Shelley Rosalind & H. 1092 Frankincense, Whose smoke, wool⁓white as *ocean foam, Hung in dense flocks.
1864Tennyson En. Ard. 584 The myriad shriek of wheeling *ocean-fowl.
1934Webster, *Ocean front. 1963New Yorker 8 June 104 Your own ocean-front cottages. 1975R. L. Simon Wild Turkey (1976) xxii. 159 We headed..onto the street by the pier... We were alone on the ocean front.
1922Joyce Ulysses 253 By bronze, by gold, in *oceangreen of shadow. 1976Yorkshire Even. Press 9 Dec. 20/2 (Advt.), 1973 L 144 saloon de luxe, ocean green, black trim, two bar, wing mirrors, push button radio.
1667Milton P.L. iv. 354 The Sun..hasting now with prone carreer To th' *Ocean Iles.
1851H. Melville Moby Dick II. ii. 7 His casual stopping-places and *ocean-inns, so to speak.
1900Whitaker's Almanack 713 heading, A Review of the Earliest Steamboats and *Ocean Lines.
1939T. S. Eliot Family Reunion i. i. 41 These *ocean liners With all their swimming baths and gymnasiums. 1964M. McLuhan Understanding Media ii. x. 94 People used to say that an ocean liner might as well be a hotel in a big city. 1974W. Garner Big Enough Wreath 154 Like a power-boat brought under the bows of an ocean liner.
1600W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 237 Tossed to and fro vpon the *Ocean maine.
1819Shelley Cyclops 243 Calypso and the glaucous *ocean Nymphs.
1851A. Lawrence Offic. Desp. to Daniel Webster, A large reduction on the *ocean-postage between the two countries.
1885Tennyson Fleet ii, His Isle, the mightiest *Ocean⁓power on earth.
1824J. Bowring Batav. Anthol. 61 Sterner than the *ocean-rock That stands unmoved by tempest shock.
1872Symonds Introd. Stud. Dante 230 Dante's Rime..has no Homeric *ocean-roll.
1813Walker Poems 146 (Jod.) Tidings of war and death I bring, The *Ocean⁓scout replied.
1934Webster, *Oceanside. 1962J. D. MacDonald Girl, Gold Watch & Everything vi. 71 These [rooms] interconnect so this whole oceanside can be turned into a big suite. 1975Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 3 May 62/3 Immaculate oceanside apartments.
1922Joyce Ulysses 261 Lips that..hummed..the *oceansong.
1861W. Fairbairn Addr. Brit. Assoc., The large *ocean steamers..abundantly show what can be done with iron.
1768Beattie Minstr. i. xxxviii, The hollow murmur of the *ocean-tide.
1827Keble Chr. Y., 1st S. Advent, Some majestic cloud, That o'er wild scenes of *ocean-war Holds its still course in Heaven afar.
1801Campbell Ye Mariners of Eng. iv, Then, then, ye *Ocean⁓warriors! Our song and feast shall flow To the fame of your name.
1775Romans Florida App. 65 If in the morning you find yourself in *ocean water, run SW by S for the Matancas.
1590Spenser F.Q. ii. x. 5 The *ocean waues. 1667Milton P.L. iii. 539 Where bounds were set To darkness, such as bound the Ocean wave.
b. instrumental and locative, as ocean-born, ocean-compassed, ocean-flooded, ocean-flowing, ocean-girdled, ocean-going, ocean-guarded, ocean-rocked, ocean-severed, ocean-skirted, ocean-smelling, ocean-sundered adjs.; ocean-farer, ocean-flyer, ocean-goer; similative, as ocean-wide adj.; objective, as ocean-cleaving, ocean-dividing adjs.
1886A. Winchell Walks Geol. Field 197 We must look on all these rocks as *ocean-born.
a1926R. Campbell Golden Shower in Coll. Poems (1957) II. 21 The *ocean-cleaving whale.
1885H. O. Forbes Nat. Wand. E. Archip. 112 The most *ocean-compassed speck.
1954W. Faulkner Fable 232 The mutual rage and fear of the three *ocean-dividing nations themselves.
a1806K. White Christiad i. xxvi, The spirit that commands The *ocean-farer's life.
1878B. Taylor Deukalion iii. i. 95 The *ocean-flooded throats Of headland caverns.
1922Joyce Ulysses 656 Confluent *oceanflowing rivers with their tributaries and transoceanic currents.
1884Pall Mall G. 15 Aug. 4/1 The procession of steamers of all sorts and conditions,..spick-and-span *ocean-goers, graceful yachts, and ugly barges, is never ending.
1885Whitaker's Almanack 450/2 Lines of steamships..omitted..because they do not fall within the category of ‘*ocean-going’ ships.
1838J. Pardoe River & Desert II. 45 As the day-god sank to his *ocean-rest.
1895Stead in Westm. Gaz. 4 Sept. 3/3 The *ocean-severed members of the Anglo-Saxon race.
1864Tennyson En. Ard. 94 Enoch's ocean-spoil In *ocean-smelling osier.
1863W. Phillips Speeches i. 4 No matter whether the line..be an imaginary one or *ocean-wide.
c. Special combs., as ocean-basin, the depression of the earth's surface in which an ocean lies; ocean-crown (rhet.) the imaginary symbol of the sovereignty of the seas; ocean-fountain (rhet.), the source of the waters of the ocean; ocean god, a marine deity, esp. the Roman Neptune; ocean greyhound, a rhetorical appellation of a swift ocean steamer; ocean-king = ocean-god; also, the monarch of an island or maritime region; ocean-lane, a lane or track across the ocean; esp. a track prescribed for ocean steamers; oceanless a. (nonce-wd.) devoid of or lacking an ocean; ocean-line (only Melville) = ocean-lane; ocean-palace (rhet.), a sumptuously fitted and furnished ocean passenger-steamer; ocean pipe-fish, a pipe-fish, Entelurus æquoreus, found in oceanic waters of north-western Europe; = snake pipe-fish (snake n. 12 b); ocean-river, ocean-stream, the great stream anciently supposed to encompass the earth (see sense 1); ocean-sea (see sense 1); ocean spray N. Amer., a shrub of western North America, Holodiscus discolor, of the family Rosaceæ, sometimes included in the genus Spiræa, and distinguished by curving branches bearing large panicles of small white flowers; ocean tramp (see quots.); ocean-trout (U.S.), the menhaden (Cent. Dict. 1891); ocean wave, rhyming slang for ‘shave’.
1886Act 49 & 50 Vict. c. 26. Sched. B. ii. Class 4. (9) The expedition of Her Majesty's ship ‘Challenger’..to investigate the physical and biological conditions of the great *ocean basins.
1861W. F. Collier Hist. Eng. Lit. 150 When Britain began to take her first steps towards winning that *ocean⁓crown which she now so proudly wears.
1671True Non-conf. 3 All our gloryings..ought to be carried back to, concentred in, and swallowed up of the *Ocean-fountain, whence they proceed.
1819Shelley Cyclops 24 The one⁓eyed children of the *Ocean God, The man-destroying Cyclopses.
1891Daily Chron. 24 Mar. (Farmer), An unarmoured cruiser, a ‘commerce destroyer’..capable of catching any of the great *ocean greyhounds. 1913F. H. Burnett T. Tembarom xl. 519 An ocean greyhound had landed the pair at the dock. 1967Economist 23 Sept. 1109/1 Ironically, the airlines which once had only speed to offer against the one-time ocean greyhounds, can now anticipate the lounges, cinemas, etc., which until the jumbo jets get going remain one of the few prerogatives of the ocean liners.
1725Pope Odyss. xi. 161 A threefold offering to his altar bring..and hail the *Ocean-King. 1819Shelley Cyclops 266 Great offspring of the ocean-king.
1842Tennyson Voyage 19 How oft we saw the Sun retire,..Fall from his *Ocean-lane of fire, And sleep beneath his pillar'd light!
1941T. S. Eliot Dry Salvages ii. 9 We cannot think of a time that is *oceanless.
1851H. Melville Moby Dick II. ii. 5 The sperm whales..mostly swim in veins, as they are called; continuing their way along a given *ocean-line with..undeviating exactitude.
1900E. C. Brodrick Mem. & Impr. 60 The so-called *ocean-palaces which now crowd the Atlantic, the Mediterranean [etc.].
1865J. Couch Hist. Fishes Brit. Islands IV. 358, I have possessed a male of the acknowledged *Ocean Pipefish which in length measured twenty-six inches. 1925J. T. Jenkins Fishes Brit. Isles 372/2 Ocean pipefish.
1906Contrib. U.S. Nat. Herbarium XI. 330 Schizonotus discolor... *Ocean spray. 1940Oregon: End of Trail 20 In the spring and early summer..sweet syringa, ocean spray, and Douglas spirea form streamside thickets of riotous blossom. 1971Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 28 Mar. 12/2 A rod made from a seasoned spirea (ocean spray), a common shrub around Victoria.
1667Milton P.L. i. 202 That Sea-beast Leviathan, which God of all his works Created hugest that swim th' *Ocean stream.
1891Labour Commission Gloss., *Ocean Tramps or Tramp Steamers, a nautical term applied to all seagoing steamships (outside the regular liners, i.e. not confined to one particular trade) which earn their freight solely by cargo-carrying to all or any parts of the world. 1899Daily News 9 Jan. 6/1 Ocean tramps or cargo boats, jerry-built, run up by contract.
1928M. C. Sharpe Chicago May 287/2 *Ocean waves [sic], shave. 1934John o' London's Weekly 9 June 353/1, I 'as my ocean wave an' when I've got my mince-pie properly open I goes down the apples and pears.
Hence (nonce-wds.) ˈoceaned a., provided with an ocean or oceans; ˈoceaner, † (a) one of an oceanic race; (b) an ocean-going vessel; ˈoceanet, a small ocean; ˈoceanful, as much as an ocean contains, an immense quantity; ˈoceanly adv., in a manner like that of the ocean.
1853Alex. Smith Poems Sonn. i, A porter is a porter though his load Be the *oceaned world.
1658Harrington Oceana 43 This an Army of *Oceaners in their own Country..will never bear. 1879W. Whitman Specimen Days (1882–3) 136 The proud, steady, noiseless cleaving of the grand oceaner down the bay.
1681Cotton Wond. Peak (ed. 4) 26 Three minutes space To highest mark this *oceanet does raise.
1883Stevenson Silverado Sq. (1886) 34 It [the air] came pouring over these green slopes by the *oceanful.
1835Clare Rural Muse 167 The chill air comes around me *oceanly. |