| 释义 |
pacific, a. and n.|pəˈsɪfɪk|
[ad. L. pācific-us peace-making, peaceful, f. pāx, pāc-em peace; see -fic: perh. through F. pacifique, -ficque (15th c. in Godef. Compl.).]
A. adj.
1. Making, or tending to the making of, peace; leading to peace or reconciliation; conciliatory, appeasing.
a1548Hall Chron., Edw. IV 248 b, Sore lamentyng..that I did not performe and finally consumate, suche pollitique diuises..in my long life and paciffique prosperitie. 1581Mulcaster Positions xxxix. (1887) 214 He appointed the pacificque, and friendly Embassages. 1667Milton P.L. xi. 860 An Olive leafe he brings, pacific signe. 1786W. Thomson Watson's Philip III (1839) 275 The marquis of Spinola..had strenuously supported the pacific counsels of Prince Albert at the court of Madrid. 1855Milman Lat. Chr. iii. vii. (1864) II. 135 The pacific influence which Gregory obtained in this momentous crisis.
2. a. Of peaceful disposition or character, not belligerent, peaceable.
1641J. Jackson True Evang. T. iii. 189 See whether is more pacifique and charitable, and by consequent whether is the more Euangelicall. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 185 ⁋10 This pacifick and harmless temper. 1774J. Adams in Fam. Lett. (1876) 40, I saw the tears gush into the eyes of the old grave pacific Quakers. 1879Dixon Windsor II. xii. 132 In the end he brought them to a more pacific view.
b. = peaceful a. 4.
1906Chambers's Jrnl. Jan. 61/2 It is by their mastery of the policy of ‘pacific penetration’ that the Chinese make themselves such formidable neighbours.
3. a. Characterized by peace or calm, peaceful, at peace; calm, tranquil, quiet.
1633T. James Voy. lv, Pacificke and open Seas. 1865Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xviii. xii. (1872) VIII. 26 The road has hitherto been mainly pacific.
b. Pacific Ocean, Pacific Sea, the ‘Great Ocean’ stretching between America on the east and Asia on the west; so called by Magellan, because found to be relatively free from violent storms.
[1555Eden Decades 220 The sayde sea cauled Pacificum that is peaceable.] 1660F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 332 The great pacifick gulph, which may be said one of the calmest Seas of the world. 1777Robertson Hist. Amer. v. Wks. 1826, VI. 19 They enjoyed an uninterrupted course of fair weather, with such favourable winds, that Magellan bestow'd on that ocean the name of Pacific.
4. phr. pacific blockade (see quots.). pacific iron, ‘an iron band round a lower yard-arm into which the boom-iron screws’ (Cent. Dict. 1890). † pacific letters (also letters pacifical = L. literæ pacificæ, Gr. ἐπιστολαὶ εἰρηνικαί), orig. letters of commendation to the church in another city or country recommending the bearer as one in peace and communion with the Church; later, esp. letters recommending the bearer to the alms of the faithful.
1709J. Johnson Clergym. Vade M. ii. 85 Let no foreigner be received without pacifick letters. Note. Pacifick Letters were those given to any whether bishop, clergyman, or layman on any occasion he had to travel to another city. 1725tr. Dupin's Eccl. Hist. 17th C. I. v. ii. 69 By Letters pacifick, we understand, those which the Bishops gave to the Poor who were unjustly oppress'd or had need of Relief. 1880Encycl. Brit. XIII. 194/1 The right of ‘pacific blockade’, i.e., the blockade of ports belonging to a nation with which we profess not to be at war, has been asserted in a few doubtful instances. 1889A. C. Boyd Wheaton's Elem. Internat. Law (rev. ed.) iv. i. 404 The above⁓mentioned proceedings against Greece and Brazil furnish instances of what is called ‘pacific blockade’; the blockading power blockading the coast, or a certain portion of the coast, of the blockaded power, but declaring, at the same time, that a state of peace is maintained. 1895T. A. Walker Man. Public Internat. Law ii. iv. 96 Pacific blockade consists in the cutting off by one state of communication with the ports or a particular portion of coast of another, otherwise than in the case of declared war, with the object of preventing commercial relations by sea. 1935T. A. Taracouzio Soviet Union & Internat. Law x. 299 Another form of redress to which nations sometimes resort, and which is yet not considered war, is pacific blockade.
B. n.
†1.
a. pl. Peace-offerings [rendering L. pācifica.]
b. An offer or overture of peace, an Eirenicon. Obs.
1609Bible (Douay) Ezek. xlv. 15 One ramme of a flocke of two hundred..for holocaust, and for pacifiques. 1687Let. from Country 10 If..she persists obstinately to refuse this national Paciffick; the Dissenters, I hope, will consider their honest Interest.
2. a. The Pacific Ocean.
a1821Keats Sonn., On first looking into Chapman's Homer 12 Like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes He stared at the Pacific. 1855Maury Phys. Geog. Sea §54 The Atlantic is the most stormy sea in the world, the Pacific the most tranquil. 1894Westm. Gaz. 4 Dec. 8/1 Because Keats made a mistake, is the real discoverer to be defrauded to all time? The Pacific was discovered September 26, 1513, by Vasco Nuñez de Balboa.
b. attrib. ‘of the Pacific Ocean’, as Pacific coast, Pacific coaster, Pacific Northwest, Pacific seaboard, Pacific slope, Pacific state, Pacific style. Comb., as Pacificwards. Pacific slope, (a) (see quot. 19021); hence Pacific sloper; (b) an escape across the Pacific Ocean to avoid arrest (chiefly Austral. and N.Z. slang); Pacific time, time as reckoned on the 120th meridian west of Greenwich.
1855Maury Phys. Geog. Sea §276 The great chain [of mountains] that skirts the Pacific coast. 1872R. G. McClellan Golden State xxxi. 523 The Pacific coast..contains an area equal to one-half of the whole territory of the Republic of America. 1948Denison (Texas) Herald 2 July 12/2 The most valuable fish is the Pacific Coast salmon. 1970J. H. Paterson N. Amer. (ed. 4) xix. 287/1 Like other Pacific coast cities, it has a small steel output, based on scrap.
1883Harper's Mag. Nov. 943/1 [The completion of the Union Central route has not] given the ‘boost’ to California that the ‘Pacific coasters’ so fondly dreamed of.
1855Maury Phys. Geog. Sea §283 On the Pacific [Aleutian] islands there is an uninterrupted rain-fall during the entire winter.
1889Wealth & Resources of Oregon & Washington (Union Pacific Railway Co.) 3 The resources and industries of the Pacific Northwest are so varied..as to not only suggest but enforce its consideration in sections. 1938G. Cash I like Brit. Columbia 100 The Provincial Library at the Parliament Buildings is quite one of the most interesting in the Pacific Northwest. 1977Time 12 Dec. 61/3 They take the armchair beachcomber on a scenic tour..past the cypresses of Monterey and the great coastal forests of the Pacific Northwest to the fog-shrouded Aleutians.
1838Knickerbocker June 556 Where the prairie stretches away..shall sweep the long, hissing train of cars, crowded with passengers for the Pacific seaboard. 1845J. C. Frémont Rep. Exploring Expedition 274 [We were] now about to turn the back upon the Pacific slope of our continent. 1855Maury Phys. Geog. Sea §355 The dry season on the Pacific slopes. 1901Hall & Osborne Sunshine & Surf 38 There is such a thing known in Australia, America, and Canada as ‘the Pacific slope’, which, being interpreted, means a hurried departure, down to these regions [sc. Tahiti] of gentlemen who find these countries too hot to hold them. 1902Webster, Pacific slope, that part of North America..lying west of the continental divide. 1902W. S. Walker Zealandia's Guerdon 292 Perhaps he [sc. the missing man] accomplished the ‘Pacific Slope’. Ibid. 326 He [sc. the detective] has packed so many ‘confidence men’ off to penitentiary that the others have done the ‘Pacific Slope’ in various directions, chiefly towards Australia. 1915H. B. Niver Elem. Geogr. 167/1 By means of irrigation, the Pacific Slope has become one of the greatest fruit-growing sections of the world. 1938R. Gilkison Early Days in Dunedin xiii. 133 In the 'seventies and 'eighties many fraudulent debtors, embezzlers and rich thieves escaped from New Zealand before arrest, by doing what came to be known as the ‘Pacific Slope’. 1945Baker Austral. Lang. xiv. 243 Eucalyptian, the Pacific slope,..and tiersman, are not so important to our language that we could not do without them. Yet we would tend to class these as standard. 1954E. Gunther in Freeman & Martin Pacific Northwest (ed. 2) 16 Salmon runs occur in all streams in the Pacific slope.
1876Benton Democrat (Corvallis, Oregon) 18 Aug. 2/3 (heading) Pacific slopers. 1883Harper's Mag. Mar. 648/1 ‘Well,’ said the Pacific sloper, ‘if it's a private funeral, what do they call it a reception for?’
1820W. Tudor Lett. on Eastern States 57 When the future Pacific states come to be represented in congress. 1949Los Angeles Times 6 Nov. 1/8 The overall increase for Pacific States is 5,251,000 or 53·9%. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 2 Oct. 1/2, 16 South Atlantic and South Central states got back $11.5 billion more than they paid in taxes. Thirteen Pacific and Mountain states came out $10.6 billion ahead.
1959Wall St. Jrnl. 13 July 1/4 Increasing numbers of home builders..are experimenting with the new style, often called..‘Pacific style’.
1883N.Y. Herald 18 Nov. 12/3 In the United States the standards will be known as the ‘Eastern’, ‘Central’, ‘Mountain’ and ‘Pacific’ times. 1958‘Castle’ & ‘Hailey’ Flight into Danger ii. 36 ‘How soon do you expect to land?’ ‘About five a.m., Pacific Time.’ 1976National Observer (U.S.) 7 Aug. 16/1 Broadcast times apply to Eastern and Pacific time zones.
1897Daily News 30 Dec. 6/5 Russia's progress Pacificwards.
c. Used to designate a type of steam locomotive with a 4-6-2 wheel arrangement designed to pull express passenger and freight trains; also absol.
1903Amer. Engineer & Railroad Jrnl. Oct. 351 (caption) Pacific-4-6-2 Type Passenger Locomotive—Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway. 1905Railroad Gaz. 9 June 620/1 (heading) Pacific locomotive with superheater for the Erie Railroad. 1908Westm. Gaz. 31 Dec. 3/1 The most interesting locomotive novelty of the year was the Great Western Company's ‘Pacific’ type of express engine. 1910Ibid. 25 Jan. 2/1 French railways..built their first ‘Pacific’ not long before ours, and this season most of the ‘Riviera’ expresses will be horsed by these vast machines. 1938L. M. Beebe High Iron iii. 97 The most important U.S.R.A. designs, for present purposes, fall into four wheel arrangements: the 4-6-2 or Pacific, the 4-8-2 or Mountain, the 2-8-2 or Mikado, and the 2-10-2 or Santa Fe types. 1972B. C. Blanton 400,000 Miles by Rail iii. 37/1 The last major rail trip I took with my parents was in November, 1910. Our route was over the Katy's rails to St. Louis. The Katy Flyer was now headed by a Pacific locomotive. Ibid., The Royal Blue was advertised as a solid-vestibuled train... It was headed by a Pacific and carried a Pullman parlor-observation car with open platform. 1978Observer 26 Mar. 2/5 ‘Swanage’..was built in 1950 and died in 1964. It is a 4-6-2 Pacific type.
Hence paˈcificness (Bailey vol. II, 1727). |