| 释义 |
perpendicular, a., adv., and n.|pɜːpənˈdɪkjʊlə(r)|
Also 6 -pent-.
[a. OF. perpendiculer, -ier, = Sp. perpendicular, It. perpendicolare, ad. L. perpendiculār-is, f. perpendicul-um: see prec. and -ar1. Mod.F. has the parallel form perpendiculaire, ad. L. perpendiculārius (both forms in Frontinus 1st c.).]
A. adj.
1. Situated at right angles to the plane of the horizon, or directly up or down; vertical.
c1391Chaucer Astrol. ii. §23 Thow most haue a plomet hanging on a lyne heyer than thin heued on a perche, & thilke lyne mot hange euene perpendiculer by-twixe the pool & thin eye. 1555Eden Decades 121 It receaueth the soonne beames at noonetyde directly perpenticular ouer their heades. 1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 193 In the Sunnes perpendicular glances, wee found it hot. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 326 The water of the lake was swelled about two feet perpendicular. 1822J. Imison Sc. & Art I. 74 Measure the perpendicular height of the fall of water, in feet. 1892Greener Breech Loader 211 The prettiest of shots and a difficult one to make is the perpendicular shot.
b. Of an ascent or descent: Nearly vertical; very steep, precipitous.
1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 378 The sprightly Scot of Scots, Dowglas, he that runnes a Horse-backe vp a Hill perpendicular. 1822Byron Heaven & Earth i. iii, Trees that twine their roots with stone In perpendicular places. 1838Dickens Nich. Nick. iii, A female voice, proceeding from a perpendicular staircase at the end of the passage. 1880Fraser's Mag. May 650 Slippery steps..connect the various stories of this perpendicular hamlet.
c. Of persons: Of erect figure or attitude when standing or riding; also, upright; (humorous) in a standing position.
1768Sterne Sent. Journ. (1775) I. 44 (Bidet) He canter'd away before me as happy and as perpendicular as a prince. 1826Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. (1863) 319 A stiff perpendicular old maid. 1851Carlyle Sterling ii. i. (1872) 89 A stout broad gentleman of sixty, perpendicular in attitude. 1859Sunday Times 16 Oct. 5/3 Every seat..was occupied and perpendicular accommodation threatened to be at a premium. 1897Daily News 24 Mar. 7/3 In the slang of the trade perpendicular drinking is the drinking that goes on at bars, the customer standing.
†d. fig. Directly leading to, entailing, or antecedent to; direct. Obs.
[1579J. Stubbes Gaping Gulf F iv b, Thys french mariage is..the very rightest perpendicular downfal that can be imagined from the point france to our English state.] 1632Lithgow Trav. iv. 166 To these of the first reason, there is another perpendicular cause. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. xi. 44 Distorting the order and theorie of causes perpendicular to their effects. 1651Biggs New Disp. 149 The prime indication perpendicular to health, and conducible to perfect restauration.
†e. Directly dependent. Obs.
1555Eden Decades 48, I haue added this [book] to the tenthe as a perpendiculer lyne, and as it were a backe guyde or rerewarde to the other. Ibid. 50, I wyll nowe therfore soo make an ende of this perpendiculer conclusion of the hole Decade. 1632Lithgow Trav. ii. 58 A perpendicular Prouince annexed to it. 1691–8Norris Pract. Disc. (1711) III. 239 To have our Wills intirely conformable, and as it were Perpendicular to his.
2. Geom. Of a line or plane: Having a direction at right angles to a given line, plane, or surface. Const. to († with).
A line is said to be perpendicular (now more usually normal) to a curve when it meets the tangent at the point of intersection at right angles.
1570Billingsley Euclid i. def. x. 3 The right lyne which standeth erected, is called a perpendiculer line to that vpon which it standeth. 1624Wotton Archit. in Reliq. (1651) 224 That the Walls be most exactly perpendicular to the Ground-Work; for the right Angle..is the true cause of all Stability, both in Artificial and Natural Positions. 1667Primatt City & C. Build. 159 How to draw a Perpendicular Line from any Point, to any Line given. 1715Leoni Palladio's Archit. (1742) I. 11 The middle of the upmost Wall ought to be perpendicular with the middle of the nethermost. 1882Minchin Unipl. Kinemat. 37 Moving in a plane perpendicular to the axis.
3. Arch. Applied (first by Rickman) to the third or Florid style of English Pointed Architecture, developed out of the Decorated style in the latter part of the fourteenth century, and prevalent throughout the fifteenth, characterized by the vertical lines of its tracery.
1812–15Rickman Styles of Archit. (1817) 44 Perpendicular English... The name clearly designates this style, for the mullions of the windows, and the ornamental pannellings run in perpendicular lines. 1820D. Turner Tour Normandy I. 167 Nowhere..have I been able to trace among our Gallic neighbours the existence of the simple perpendicular style. 1875Stubbs Const. Hist. II. xvii. 625 The unmeaning symmetry of the Perpendicular Style. 1904J. T. Fowler Durham Univ. 10 Three good Perpendicular windows.
4. Comb.
c1865Ld. Brougham in Circ. Sc. I. Introd. Disc. 6 The third side of a perpendicular-sided triangle.
†B. adv. In a perpendicular manner; perpendicularly, vertically. Obs.
[c1391: see A. 1.] 1527R. Thorne in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 253 The one in the Occidentall part descendeth perpendicular vpon the 175 degree. 1699Evelyn Kal. Hort. (ed. 9) 63 If the Tree be too ponderous to be lifted perpendicular by the Hand alone. 1792Munchausen's Trav. Suppl. 80 To fall near two miles perpendicular.
C. n.
1. An instrument or appliance for indicating the vertical line from any point: e.g. a mason's or builder's plumb-rule or plumb-level; a gunner's level: see quots.
1603B. Jonson Jas. I Entertainm. Wks. (Rtldg.) 531/2 In her lap she held a perpendicular or level, as the ensign of evenness and rest. 1664Butler Hud. ii. iii. 1019 I'll make them serve for perpendic'lars As true as e'er were used by Bricklayers. a1727Newton Chronol. Amended i. (1728) 148 Dædalus..invented the chip-ax, and saw, and wimble, and perpendicular. 1792Trans. Soc. Arts (ed. 2) III. 184 An instrument..called a Perpendicular, to be used instead of a quadrant of altitude with the artificial globes. 1819Pantologia, Perpendicular, in gunnery, is a small instrument, used for finding the centre line of a piece in the operation of pointing it to a given object. 1859F. A. Griffiths Artil. Man. (1862) 121 One quadrant, one perpendicular, for every four or five mortars.
2. A line at right angles to the plane of the horizon, a vertical line; also, a vertical plane or face; loosely, a very steep or precipitous face; a steep. the perpendicular (sc. line, direction).
1632Lithgow Trav. x. 432 The Perpendiculars of long-reaching Caucasus. 1656Heylin Surv. France 4 Rising from the bottom to the top in a perpendicular. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) III. 343 The tower of this church is observed to lean a little from the perpendicular. 1772–84Cook's Voy. (1790) IV. 1501 The tide rises and falls about six feet, upon a perpendicular. 1817Byron Manfred ii. ii. 4 O'er the crag's headlong perpendicular. 1837–9Hallam Hist. Lit. I. i. iii. §29. 160 Fioravanti..is said..to have restored to the perpendicular [a tower] at Cento seventy-five feet high, which had swerved five feet. 1838Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 394/1 The length of the Ruby is 155 feet between the perpendiculars.
b. Upright or erect position or attitude; also fig. moral uprightness, rectitude.
1859Geo. Eliot A. Bede iv, For my part, I think it's better to see when your perpendicular's true, than to see a ghost. 1862Lowell Biglow P. Ser. ii. iii, They suit..nut your Southun gen'leman thet keeps his parpendic'lar. 1874T. Hardy Madding Crowd iii, Springing to her accustomed perpendicular like a bowed sapling..she seated herself in the manner demanded by the saddle. 1884Tennyson Becket ii. ii, Your lordship affects the unwavering perpendicular.
c. (slang.) A meal taken standing; an entertainment or party at which most of the guests remain standing.
1871‘M. Legrand’ Camb. Freshm. xxi, This was the first occasion on which he had been honoured with an invitation to a Perpendicular, as such entertainments are styled. 1873Slang Dict., Perpendicular, a lunch taken standing-up at a tavern bar. 1882Edna Lyall Donovan ix. I. 207, I dutifully attended my mother to three fashionable crowds—‘perpendiculars’ is the best name for them, for there is generally barely room for standing. 1890Romanes in Life 266 Yesterday we had here [at Edinburgh] what at Cambridge used to be called a ‘perpendicular’—twenty students to supper.
3. Geom. A straight line at right angles to a given line, plane, or surface. (Chiefly in phr. to draw a perpendicular to a line, to raise a p. upon a line, to let fall a p. upon a line from a point without it, etc.)
1571Digges Pantom., Math. Treat. def. xxiii. T iij, A line falling from any solide angle of these bodyes perpendicularlye on the opposite playne or base, shall be named that solides Perpendiculare. 1704J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, Perpendicular to a Parabola, is a Right Line cutting the Parabola in the Point in which any other Right Line touches it, and which is also its self Perpendicular to that Tangent. 1806Hutton Course Math. I. 286 A Perpendicular is the Shortest Line that can be drawn from a Given Point to an Indefinite Line. 1827Ibid. II. 346 A perpendicular measures the distance of any point from a plane. |