| 释义 |
pointer|ˈpɔɪntə(r)|
[f. point1 + -er1.]
†1. A maker of points or laces for fastening clothes. Obs.
1500Nottingham Rec. III. 72 Ricardi Byrch, poynter. 1520Whitinton Vulg. (1527) 16 b, In the townes ende be pynners, poynters,..dyers, tanners. 1609in Digby Myst. (1882) p. xxii, Hatters, Poynters, Girdlers.
2. One who points anything, who puts on or sharpens to a point, as a pointer of pins, pencils, etc.
1839Ure Dict. Arts 956 The intermediate portions are handed over to the pointer.
3. One who or that which points out.
a. A person who points or indicates with his finger or otherwise. rare.
b. A rod used by a teacher or lecturer to point to what is delineated or written on a map, diagram, blackboard, or the like.
The meaning in quot. 1621 is doubtful.
1621Fletcher Pilgrim iii. iii, Do'st thou hear boy, thou pointer? 1658J. Spencer in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. cxix. 71 God's rod is as the schoolmaster's pointer to the child, pointing out the letter. 1887Overland Monthly (Farmer Amer.), On the march the mighty herd sometimes strings out miles in length, and then it has pointers, who ride abreast at the head of the column. 1897Daily News 28 Sept. 6/5 He has died from the results of a blow from either a ruler or pointer. Mod. No pointer had been supplied to the lecturer.
c. The index-hand or indicator of a clock, balance, or other instrument.
1667Hooke in Phil. Trans. II. 544 The distance of the Object-glass from the Pointers. 1672Vestry Bks. (Surtees) 338 For putting on the pointer of the clocke, 6d. 1774M. Mackenzie Maritime Surv. 37 The Pointer of the Vernier. 1834J. Todd Lect. Childr. i. 3 You hear it tick and see the pointers move. 1879Thomson & Tait Nat. Phil. I. i. §424 The divisions being read off by a pointer or vernier attached to the frame of the instrument. 1894S. R. Bottone Electr. Instr. Making (ed. 6) 119 A small pointer..is to be lightly glued to the top of the pivot at right angles to the needle below.
d. An indicator used in whale-fishery to point out to the boats the place of the whale: see quots.
1877W. H. Macy There she blows! 143 The extended ‘pointer’ (a light pole with a black ball on the end of it, to be used at the masthead, when the boats are down) told us that the whale was off the ship's lee bow. 1887Fisheries U.S. Sect. v. II. 258 note, In right whaling, a pointer..is often used. The pointer is a large basket or frame of wood covered with canvas and painted black, placed at the end of a 12 foot pole, used at mast-head and pointed in the direction of the whale.
e. Short for station-pointer.
1875in Knight Dict. Mech.
f. colloq. (orig. U.S.). A hint, a point; a piece of information; a suggestion.
1884Lisbon (Dakota) Star 10 Oct. 5/2 There's a pointer for you! 1887Bulloch Pynours v. 41 In this fact there seems to be another pointer to the fishing population. 1891Anthony's Photogr. Bull. IV. 247 Let me give any equestrian photographer a pointer. Don't tie your instrument to yourself, tie it to your horse. 1957V. Brittain Testament of Experience i. iii. 104, I liked the sound of the Bill not better than she; it was another ‘pointer’ towards the impending shadow of war and its threat to human liberty. 1961Lancet 29 July 245/1 Experimental evidence provides some pointers. 1977J. F. Fixx Compl. Bk. Running vii. 82 An experienced runner may occasionally offer some pointers to a friend, but most of the time we coach ourselves. 1977Oxford Diocesan Mag. Nov. 8/3 Other significant pointers to the future.
g. (See quot. 1872.)
1866in Nebraska Hist. Mag. (1932) XIII. 149 After awhile I get my last pointer yoked, drive the whole team around and hitch it on the wagon tongue. 1872C. H. Eden My Wife & I in Queensland 36 Twelve bullocks is the usual number in a team, the two polers and the leaders being steady old stagers; the pair next to the pole are called the ‘pointers’. 1941Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 55 Pointers, two of the bullocks in a team, placed next to the ‘polers’.
4. A dog of a breed nearly allied to the true hounds, used by sportsmen to point at or indicate the presence of game, especially birds; on scenting which the dog stands rigidly, with muzzle stretched toward the game, and usually one foot raised. (In quot. 1717, the proper name of a dog.) Also attrib.
1717Prior Alma i. 319 The sport and race no more he minds; Neglected Tray and Pointer lie: And covies unmolested fly. 1768Pennant Zool. I. 54 The Pointer, which is a dog of foreign extraction, was unknown to our ancestors. 1784Cowper Task ii. 753 Booted sportsmen, oftener seen With belted waist and pointers at their heels. 1797J. Woodforde Diary 15 Jan. (1931) V. 5 One of his Pointer Dogs..was gone mad. 1811Jane Austen Sense & Sens. III. viii. 181 He reminded me of an old promise about a pointer puppy. 1822J. Woods Two Years' Residence Eng. Prairie 287, I lately saw a young pointer⁓dog,..that had three days before been bitten by a rattle⁓snake. 1837T. Bell Hist. Brit. Quadrupeds 217 The Spanish Pointer was formerly well known as a stanch, strong, and useful, but heavy and lazy dog. The English breed, however, is now very much preferred. 1849J. W. Audubon Western Jrnl. (1906) 46 Some of the men had stolen a valuable pointer dog. 1859Darwin Orig. Spec. i. (1873) 25 The English pointer has been greatly changed within the last century. 1979Times 24 Nov. 26/6 (Advt.), For sale: Pointer puppies.
5. pl. The two stars α and γ in the Great Bear, a straight line through which points nearly to the pole-star. Sometimes also applied to the two stars α and γ in the Southern Cross, which are nearly in a line with the South Pole of the heavens.
1574Bourne Regiment for Sea vi. (1577) 28 b, If the two Starres of Charles wayne, called the poynters, be due East from the north Starre. 1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag. ii. x. 76 The lower of the Pointers. The White or North Pointer. 1879Newcomb & Holden Astron. 4 The two stars which form the pointers in the constellation Ursa Major. 1892E. Reeves Homeward Bound 34 High overhead..the noble Southern Cross and its pointers gleam like a piece of jewelry in a deep blue setting.
†6. pl. The antennæ of an insect or crustacean.
1664H. Power Exp. Philos. i. 2 The Flea..hath..two pointers before which grow out of the forehead, by which he tryes and feels all objects. Ibid. 11 A Wood-Louse..hath two pointers..like a pair of pincers.
7. Printing. A layer-on who secures the register in printing the reverse side by ‘threading’ the sheet through the point-holes made in printing the first side.
1882Southward Pract. Printing ii. xxiii. 543 The word ‘pointer’ has lately come into use to describe a man who can do work requiring exact register, with points. 1888in Jacobi Printer's Voc. 102.
8. Naut. (pl.) Timbers sometimes fixed diagonally across the hold, to support the beams.
1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) H iij b, The pointers, if any, are..fixed across the hole diagonally to support the beams. 1820Scoresby Arctic Regions II. 191–3. 1830 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7) XIX. 219/2 In the plates of a Dutch work of the date of 1697, there are diagonal pointers in an athwartship direction. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. s.v., All braces placed diagonally across the hold of any vessel, to support the bilge and prevent loose-working, are called pointers.
9. In various technical applications:
a. A name of particular pointed tools used in various trades, for boring, cutting, graving, etc., e.g. a pointed chisel used by stonemasons, a silversmith's pointer. b. A bricklayer's tool for clearing out the old mortar between the courses of bricks in a wall which is being pointed. c. In U.S., the lever by which a railway switch is moved, a point-lever.
1875in Knight Dict. Mech.
d. A person who does the ornamental work on the backs of gloves.
1903Sci. Amer. Suppl. 24 Jan. 22629/3 Some make the gloves,..others, called ‘pointers’, work the ornamental lines on the back. 1921Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §411.
e. The person who lays or points a gun. U.S.
1904Sci. Amer. 18 June 475 The turrets are trained by one man, the trainer; and each gun is pointed by another man, the pointer, who fires the gun.
f. The person who ‘points’ a block of marble, etc.
1911[see point n.1 A. 21 d].
g. A person who points furs.
1929Fur Trade Directory (N.Y.) 73 James Feuerlicht, Inc. ‘The Old Reliable Fur Pointer’. 1930M. Bachrach Fur xxiii. 431 The other use of the Badger is by a separate branch of the Industry known as the Pointers. These people furnish new hairs for a peltry by a method known as pointing. 1936F. Grover Practical Fur Cutting & Furriery xv. 23 Badger hairs are also used for pointing of other furs; the pointer taking the skins for pointing ascertains the sort of pointing necessary. 1953Fur Trade Directory (N.Y.) 66 Artistic Fur Pointers. Lydia Silver Fox Pointing Co.
10. [f. point n.1] With a prefixed numeral: A stag having horns bearing so many points, e.g. ten-pointer, fourteen-pointer, etc.
1893Westm. Gaz. 18 Sept. 6/3 The magnificent 20-pointer shot..in Glenquoich is said to be the only stag of the kind ever killed in a Scottish forest. 1899H. Maxwell in Pall Mall G. 3 Oct. 3/2, I stood beside a ten-pointer.
11. U.S. A herdsman riding at the head of a herd of cattle on the march to keep it going in the desired direction.
1869Overland Monthly III. 126 On the march the mighty herd sometimes strings out miles in length, and then it has ‘pointers’, who ride abreast of the head of the column, and ‘siders’, who keep the stragglers out of the chaparral. 1908Pacific Monthly Mar. 324/2 The pointer is the herdsman who rides at the head of a straggling herd of cattle on the march, a sort of Cowboy John the Baptist. 1943L. V. Hamner Short Grass 50 Two men, his best, were put near the front of the line... These were the pointers.
12. Either of two sharks belonging to the family Isuridæ, the blue pointer, Isurus glaucus, or the white pointer, Carcharodon carcharias.
1882J. E. Tenison-Woods Fishes & Fisheries N.S.W. iv. 95 On the appearance of a ‘blue pointer’ among boats fishing for schnapper..the general cry is raised. 1896F. G. Aflalo Sketches Nat. Hist. Austral. iii. 222 The Blue-Pointer..is the favourite shark of that particular form of fiction which passes for popular natural history. Ibid. 223 Such are the chief sharks, the others being the huge White-Pointer [etc.]. 1963H. W. McCormick et al. Shadows in Sea iv. 101 The Mako shark of the western Atlantic is a very close relative of the Blue Pointer (Isurus glaucus) of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Ibid., The Blue Pointer, in turn, is a name given by some South African Fishermen to the shark elsewhere known as the Great White, called in Australia the White Death or White Pointer. 1973Parade (Melbourne) Sept. 63/1 The shark was a white pointer, of the maneater variety. 1975Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 20 Dec. 7/6 Terry Page also offered odds in favour of Australian diver Wally Gibbons killing the white pointer shark before it kills him.
13. Canad. A rowing boat, pointed at both ends and having a shallow draught, used by loggers.
1901‘R. Connor’ Man from Glengarry 13 Swiftly the pointer shot down the current, the swaying bodies and swinging oars in perfect rhythm with the song that rose and fell with melancholy but musical cadence. 1947J. J. Rowlands Cache Lake Country 96 And all the while men in pointers..big boats with high pointed ends, move about picking up drivers, working logs off rocks. 1950J. Hambleton Abitibi Adventure 140 They would use ‘pointers’, twenty-foot heavily built craft with steeply sloping sides, which seemed very tippy but actually were the most practical craft ever devised for Canadian logging. 1961Price & Kennedy Notes on Hist. Renfrew County 156 At the suggestion of J. R. Booth, who wanted a useful river craft, John Cockburn in 1883 designed the ‘pointer’, a sharp-pointed boat that is still widely used in the lumbering business. 1964Canad. Geogr. Jrnl. Feb. 67/3 If you ask Emmett Chartrand about the driving boat or ‘pointer’ he has a faraway look when he answers, ‘― used them, wore them out, broke them.’ 1970Canad. Geogr. Mag. Feb. 51/1 But now that Mr. John A. Cockburn has retired and his family's boatbuilding workshop has been demolished, the red Pointer will slowly disappear from the Canadian scene.
14. Comb. pointer reading, the reading of an instrument as shown by a pointer; also fig.
1933Mind XLII. 108 The reduction of the objects of physics to pointer-readings is not for him..a mark of the finality of physics. 1961Listener 17 Aug. 245/2 There are no public pointer-readings in religion. 1967Philos. XLII. 285 The doctrine that science is all about pointer-readings.
Add:[3.] h. Computing. A numerical representation of the address in memory of a piece of data, esp. as part of a composite data type.
1963P. M. Sherman Programming & coding Digital Computers viii. 152 These index registers point to the locations in memory; hence they are called pointers when so used. 1973C. W. Gear Introd. Computer Sci. vii. 278 It is assumed that the first word can be used to store..a pointer if the doublet is used for an access table entry. 1980C. S. French Computer Sci. x. 53 We regard each word in our sentence as a data-item or datum which is linked to the next datum by a pointer. 1987Electronics & Wireless World Jan. 56/1 When the allocated section of memory is full, the data starts overwriting the same section so that using a pointer allows the most recent six seconds of speech to be retained.
▸ Computing. Esp. in a graphical user interface: an arrow or other symbol on a screen display which can be moved (using an appropriate input device) to select a graphical object on which an operation is to be performed. Also more fully mouse pointer (when the input device is a mouse). Cf. pointing device n. at pointing n.1 Compounds 2.
1971I. W. Cotton Request for Comments (Network Working Group) (Electronic text) No. 7118. 7 Pointing devices such as light pens and tablets may be simulated by associating particular keys with screen directions (up, down, right, left) and using them to position a pointer on the screen face. 1984PC Mag. (Nexis) 12 June 264 You ‘pick up’ the icon with the mouse pointer and transport into the main screen area above the other icons. 1990Micro Decision Feb. 66/3 Instead of selecting a command from a menu, the user can position a mouse pointer over an ‘icon’, and press the mouse button to start the relevant process. 2000Daily Tel. 23 Mar. (Connected section) 19/1 To switch it off right-click into an empty area of the desktop, move the mouse pointer to Arrange Icons and then click to deselect Auto Arrange. |