| 释义 |
perambulator|pəˈræmbjʊleɪtə(r)|
[Agent-noun f. L. perambulāre to perambulate: see -or 2.]
1. One who perambulates.
a. gen. One who walks or travels through or about a place; a traveller, pedestrian. Also fig. rare.
1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. vii. ii. 259 Their Metropolitane Citie Canterbury, which was the paterne (saith that Countries Perambulator [Lambarde]) that this Sigebert followed in the erection of his. 1630J. Taylor (Water P.) Wks. ii. 81 The Longing desire that America hath to entertaine this vnmatchable Perambulator. 1832G. Downes Lett. Cont. Countries I. xix. 305 (Italy) Were it not for the canals..the element, water, would be altogether absent from the perambulator's view. 1870Hazlewood & Williams Leave it to Me 3 Joe's a perambulator;..a perambulating greengrocer, called by vulgar people a costermonger. 1925J. Bone (title) The London perambulator. 1930R. Campbell Adamastor 64 Speed, motion, flight!.. Perambulator of the Bored And ambulance of broken hearts! 1971Daily Tel. 18 Oct. 10 (Advt.), Dickens was a determined perambulator of London, either in search of material..or simply wandering the streets.
†b. One who performs a perambulation for determining boundaries: see perambulation 3. Obs.
1667Rec. Muddy River & Brookline, Mass. (1875) 39 Mr. John Hull,..Peter Aspinwall are chosen perambulators for the bounds between Muddy River and Roxbury. 1699Boston Rec. (1881) VII. 234 The perambulators chosen by the Selectmen to run the line between Charlestown and Boston. 1815Sir W. Grant in Cooper's Rep., Chancery 315 The Course taken by the Perambulators..was such as to include the Whole of..what they claimed as Common belonging to the Parish.
2. A machine for measuring distances, consisting of a large wheel trundled by a handle along the ground, with attached clockwork and dial for recording the revolutions; a hodometer.
1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 374/2 A Perambulator..by which they measure the distances between place and place. 1752W. Stukeley in Mem. (Surtees) III. 465 The machine called perambulator, or way-wiser, which measures the road. 1792Phil. Trans. LXXXII. 113 From the mouth of Cuddalore river to the north end of the base I measured, with a perambulator, just four miles and one furlong. 1828Hutton Course Math. II. 57 The perambulator..has a wheel of 81/4 feet, or half a pole, in circumference. 1855J. Butler Trav. & Adventures Assam i. v. 56 Some idea may be formed of the impassable nature of the country we travelled over this day, when I state that we only came eight miles one furlong, by the perambulator, in eight hours. a1877[see delineator 3]. 1913Close & Cox Text Bk. Topogr. & Geogr. Surveying (ed. 2) iv. 76 A perambulator should not be used over very rough ground, and both it and the cyclometer should be checked over known measured distances. 1964D. Greenhood Mapping ix. 262/2 For doing the same kind of measuring on the ground itself, there are various makes of distance meters, sometimes called ‘perambulators’, which are wheels that you push by a handle, like a roller toy. They register distances up to 10,000 ft. 1969Tooley & Bricker Hist. Cartogr. 42 (caption) Colles's map..was probably made with compass, plane table, and perambulator.
3. A hand-carriage, with three or four wheels, for one or two young children, pushed from behind. (The current sense; often colloquially abbreviated to pram.) Also attrib., Comb., and fig.
1856Chambers's Jrnl. 23 Aug. 116/2 The Perambulator..has given us children, looking on with their grave smooth faces at the business of life,..as they lean back philosophically in their carriages. 1856Punch 22 Mar. 118/2 (caption) I shan't play no more with that Matilda Jenkins.—'Er doll ain't got no Perambylatur. 1857C. M. Yonge Let. 1 Oct. in C. Coleridge Life & Lett., Then little Constantia Wood arrived driven up in a perambulator. 1860All Year Round No. 52. 35 Small perambulators for the weakly dolls to be trundled in. 1861Temple Bar I. 539 These creatures [sc. kangaroos]..have the power of carrying their delicate, prematurely born young about with them wherever they go. They have this condition, viz. a soft, warm, well-lined portable nursery-pocket, or ‘perambulator’. 1866Leisure Hour XV. 347/2 Certain ill-tempered bachelors did indeed protest against them, complaining that perambulator-drivers did occasionally drive their new-fangled machines against their shins. 1936P. M. Clark Autobiogr. Old Drifter iv. 47 Some time after this I was on my way to Rondebosch to meet a married cousin whom I had not seen since my perambulator days. 1972Daily Tel. 3 June 32/4 They came with shopping bags, picnic baskets, babies in perambulators and pushchairs, babies in arms. |