| 释义 |
▪ I. precinct, n.|ˈpriːsɪŋkt|
Forms: 5–6 -cincte, -cynct(e, 6 -cynkte, -sinkt, -sinct, -cinte, 8 -cint, 6– precinct.
[ad. med.L. præcinctum (also præcincta) enclosure, precinct, subst. use of pa. pple. of L. præcingĕre to gird (in front), encircle, f. præ, pre- A. 4 c + cingĕre to gird. See also the earlier procinct, purcinct.]
1. a. The space enclosed by the walls or other boundaries of a particular place or building, or by an imaginary line drawn around it; spec. the ground (sometimes consecrated) immediately surrounding a religious house or place of worship.
1547Boorde Brev. Health 4 Within the precynct of S. Peters church..standeth a pyller of white marble. 1585T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. ii. xx. 57 b, Without the presinct of the Mosquee, there are.. tenementes for the poore of the citie. 1774Pennant Tour Scot. in 1772, 251 The precinct of these tombs was held sacred. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. ix. II. 437 In process of time not only the dwelling, but a large precinct round it, was held inviolable. 1882Myers Renewal of Youth, etc. 174 The thronged precinct of Park and Serpentine. 1915W. S. Maugham Of Human Bondage xvi. 60 The precincts, with the exception of a house in which some of the masters lodged, were occupied by the cathedral clergy. 1956Newsweek 9 Jan. 66/3 Just a few days before Christmas, nevertheless, the 230 tenants found eviction letters under their doors. In this way they learned that their proud precincts would be converted to house between 1,100 and 1,500 students by 1957. 1961K. J. Franklin William Harvey 59 He was offered an official residence in the precincts of Bart's.
b. esp. in pl., often applied more vaguely to the region lying immediately around a place, without distinct reference to any enclosure; the environs.
1485Surtees Misc. (1888) 44 Ye citie of York, suburbs, or precinctes of ye same. 1612Bacon Ess., Judicature (Arb.) 456 Not onely the bench, but the..precincts and purprise thereof ought to bee preserued without scandall. 1848Lytton Harold i. i, Once out of sight of those fearful precincts, the psalm was forgotten. 1855Brewster Newton II. xvi. 110 From the precincts of the High Court of Commission, Newton returned to Trinity College to complete the Principia. 1921L. Strachey Queen Victoria 415 For more than half a century no divorced lady had approached the precincts of the Court.
c. transf. and fig.
1565T. Stapleton Fortr. Faith 6 b, Brought to the faith in the precinct of this tyme. 1750Gray Elegy xxii, For who..This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd, Left the warm precincts of the chearful day, Nor cast one longing lingering look behind?
2. A girding or enclosing line or surface; a boundary or limit, a compass.
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 217 b, The bruite of..his high praise and commendacion was not to be hidden or pended within the limites and precintes of grece. 1580–1Act 23 Eliz. c. 5 Wood or Underwood nowe growinge..within the Compasse and precincte of xxij myles from and above the Cyttye of London. 1654tr. Martini's Conq. China 86 The enemy had passed the first Wall, and Precinct. 1703Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 45 Near about Sidon begin the precincts of the Holy Land. 1843Prescott Mexico ii. ii. (1864) 80 Nor to be cooped up within the precincts of a petty island.
fig.1550in Foxe A. & M. (1563) 773/2, I haue euer bene agreable to this precinct, I haue oftentimes reasoned in it, I haue spoken & also written in it. Ibid. 774/1. a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Poems 14 The Precinct's strengthened with a Ditch of Feares In which doth swell a Lake of inky Teares. 1657Owen Communion i. iii. Wks. 1851 II. 19, I intend not..to shut up all Communion with God under these precincts, His ways being exceeding broad. 1842Manning Serm. (1848) I. 3 He might have girdled the world about with the precinct of His own holiness, so that sin should have never entered.
3. A district defined for purposes of government or representation; a district over which a person or body has jurisdiction; a province; also, a division of a city, town, or parish; spec. in U.S., a subdivision of a county or ward for election purposes, or of a city for the purpose of police control; ellipt., = precinct-house (b), -station (see sense 5 below).
1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) II. 97 Wapentake and hundrede be the same as the precincte of an c. townes [1387 Trevisa, þe contray of an hondred townes], whiche were wonte to yelde there weppens in the first commenge of theire lorde. 1494Fabyan Chron. vi. clxxii. 168 All suche Angles as dwelled there, and within y⊇ precynct of them [the Danes], were vnder his obedyence. 1577–87Holinshed Chron. I. 57/1 Lord lieutenant of some precinct and iurisdiction perteining to the Romane empire. 1647N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. i. xii. (1739) 23 Dioceses have also been subdivided into inferiour Precincts, called Deanaries or Decanaries. Ibid., The smallest Precinct was that of the Parish, the oversight whereof was the Presbyters work. 1672Petty Pol. Anat. iii. Tracts (1769) 311 If 100 ministers can serve all Ireland, they must have precincts of near 13 or 14 miles square. 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 129 All agree, that there are three and twenty thousand Precincts in Caire... A Precinct is a Quarter, and in some of them there are several Streets. 1713S. Sewall Diary 29 Oct., Ipswich Hamlet [U.S.] petitions the Genl Court to give them the Powers of a Precinct. 1735Amherst Rec. (U.S.) (1884) 5/1 The Request of several freholders of the third or East Precinct of Hadley for the Calling of a precinct Meeting. 1766Entick London IV. 17 This ward is divided into ten precincts. 1864[see precinct station house]. 1882J. D. McCabe New York xxiii. 374 The city is divided into thirty-five precincts, in each of which there is a station-house. 1884Boston (U.S.) Jrnl. 15 Sept., The precinct election officers need not necessarily vote in the precinct in which they are appointed. 1891San Francisco Examiner 15 Dec. 6/4 The place of residence, giving the ward or precinct. 1894P. L. Ford Honorable Peter Stirling 142, I had to go with them..to the precinct and speak to the superintendent. 1953W. Burroughs Junkie (1972) ix. 90 They didn't find any junk on him so they took him to the third precinct to ‘hold for investigation’. Ibid. x. 98 They drove back to the precinct and I was locked in. This time I was locked in a different cell. 1955W. Gaddis Recognitions ii. vi. 555 The case you reported to us as sadism and brutality reported by you to this precinct Tuesday December 20 at 10:17 a.m. resulted in false arrest. 1971N. Freeling Over High Side iii. 163 Watching..the cops from the ninety-ninth precinct, on the telly. 1974Amer. Speech 1971 XLVI. 83 Police station, precinct.
fig.1586W. Webbe Eng. Poetrie (Arb.) 71 The myddle sillables which are not very many, come for the most part vnder the precinct of Position, whereof some of them will not possibly abide the touch.
4. A part of a town or community designated for a specific purpose; spec. one from which motor vehicles are excluded, esp. to allow pedestrians to shop in safety.
1942H. A. Tripp Town Planning & Road Traffic vii. 75 A great number of pockets will have been created, each of which will consist of a little local system of minor roads, devoted to industrial, business, shopping or residential purposes... Each pocket represents in its way a separate little community... The best term..seems to be ‘precinct’. 1943Forshaw & Abercrombie County of London Plan 51 Precincts are formed which can be maintained or replanned as residential communities, business or industrial precincts. 1958Listener 23 Oct. 643/1 The exclusion of wheeled traffic from the main shopping precinct. 1959Ibid. 19 Mar. 509/2 The word ‘precinct’ implies an area free from through-traffic. Ibid. 22 Oct. 674/2 The Stevenage pedestrian precinct. 1961L. Mumford City in Hist. ix. 276 In the original layout of the colleges in Oxford and Cambridge, medieval planning made its most original contributions to civic design: the superblock and the urban precinct divorced from the ancient network of alleys and streets.
5. Comb., as (sense 3) precinct caucus, precinct level; precinct captain, a leader of a political party in a precinct; precinct court, a court with jurisdiction over a precinct, subordinate to a county court; precinct house, (a) the headquarters of an election precinct; also attrib.; (b) a police station; precinct sheet, a register of eligible voters in a precinct; precinct station = precinct house (b) above; also precinct station house; precinct worker, one who promotes the interests of a political party in a precinct.
1954B. & R. North tr. Duverger's Pol. Parties i. i. 19 In the United States the caucuses formed at the county or city level co-ordinate the action of the *precinct-captains. 1956E. O'Connor Last Hurrah iii. 45 John, you'll see the precinct captains? 1977Time 3 Jan. 38/2 Daley became a precinct captain at 21.
1976New Yorker 24 May 118/2 In South Carolina *precinct caucuses last night, the highest percentage of the votes—forty-seven per cent—was for ‘Uncommitted’.
1704in N. Carolina Colonial Rec. (1886) I. 605 Ordered that the Marshall bring forth the body of Tho: Evans to the next *pr[e]cinct Court to answer the compl[aint]. 1943L. E. Price in Boatright & Day Backwoods to Border 210 [Hooper] drove out to the precinct court in his rubber-tired carriage.
1863Rebellion Rec. V. i. 77 The Mayor of Philadelphia..called upon all able-bodied men to assemble next morning at the *precinct-houses of the election districts. 1899T. Hall Tales 171 He did very well to copy off the entries in a precinct house register or to discover the important arrivals at the hotels. 1968Globe & Mail (Toronto) 13 Jan. 25/5 Imagine committing a robbery half a block from a precinct house! 1972Village Voice (N.Y.) 1 June 69/3 Up the street the team went, stapling on posters, casually strolling by the precinct house with the ladder. 1974Nation (Barbados) 10 Mar. 3/5 Mr. Staines wrote his neighborhood precinct house asking that his thanks be passed on to the policeman.
1954Newsweek 26 July 40/3 Latin America must be approached on the ‘*precinct level’. Labor leaders, teachers, local politicos must be convinced that inter-American cooperation will benefit the little groups. 1957Time (Atlantic ed.) 20 May 13/2 Ike seems to find something distasteful in precinct-level party politics.
1974Union (S. Carolina) Daily Times 23 Apr. 2/3 How do you catch the fraudulent? Would there ever be an updated *precinct sheet to work from?
1936J. Steinbeck In Dubious Battle ii. 12, I think I'll stop in at the *precinct station. She might of got run over. 1975New Yorker 16 June 114/2 The alleged beating two weeks earlier of a twenty-seven-year-old Chinese engineer inside the Fifth Precinct station.
1864N.Y. Herald 4 Apr. 8/3 The body was removed to the Fourth *precinct station house.
1952Time 2 June 19/1 His deepest political instinct is party loyalty. From his start as a *precinct worker and doorbell pusher in the wards of Cincinnati,..he has been unmistakably Republican. 1976Washington Post 19 Apr. b 2/3 More recently, Ray Krasnick, who headed the Tydings effort among precinct workers in Prince George's County, became Sarbanes' county co⁓ordinator.
▪ II. precinct, ppl. a. rare.|prɪˈsɪŋkt|
[ad. L. præcinct-us, pa. pple. of præcingĕre to gird, encircle, f. præ, pre- + cingĕre to gird.]
Girt about; girdled, encompassed. Also const. as pa. pple.
1641J. Jackson True Evang. T. i. 38 The sixt Persecution..[was] limited to a short time (for it was precinct with a triennial girdle). 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 176 Aristotle, who..affirmeth this sound to be made, by the allision of an inward spirit upon a pellicle, or little membrane about the precinct or pectorall division of their body. 1866J. B. Rose tr. Ovid's Fasti iii. 280 The lake Arician precinct is with groves.
So preˈcinction [ad. L. præcinctio lit. a girding about, a girdle] Rom. Antiq., the broad landing-place running round the amphitheatre between each tier of seats; preˈcinctive a., see quot.; preˈcinctuary a. nonce-wd., of or pertaining to a (cathedral) precinct or close.
1730A. Gordon Maffei's Amphith. 330 The first Bench or Precinction. Ibid. 343 The Space between one Bench or Precinction, and the other. 1900D. Sharp in Fauna Hawai. II. iii. 91 note, I use the word precinctive..in the sense of ‘confined to the area under discussion’... ‘Precinctive forms’ means therefore forms that are confined to the area specified. 1897Sat. Rev. 2 Jan. 8/2 The Dean and Chapter..being..artistically ignorant, and socially mundane and precinctuary,..know no better. |