| 释义 |
preferred, ppl. a.|prɪˈfɜːd|
[f. prefer + -ed1.]
†1. Put forward, advanced, promoted. Obs.
1483Cath. Angl. 290/2 Preferryd, prepositus, prelatus. 1656Stanley Hist. Philos. viii. (1701) 328/1 We call not those things which are in the first place, the preferred or promoted, but those which are in the second.
2. That has obtained preferment or promotion.
1720Swift Fates of Clergymen Wks. 1755 II. ii. 28 Censorious upon all his brethren..while they continued meanly preferred. 1772Burke Sp. Acts of Uniformity Wks. 1812 V. 328 They want to be preferred Clergymen in the Church of England as by Law established, but their consciences will not suffer them to conform to the doctrines and practices of that Church. 1837Alison Hist. Europe (1850) VIII. xlix. §31. 34 Individual injustice is not to be always excused by the merits of the preferred functionary.
3. a. Approved, chosen, or desired by preference.
1871E. F. Burr Ad Fidem xiv. 273 Twist, and strain, and mutilate facts, into a preferred shape. 1887Lit. World (U.S.) 23 July 228/1 His preferred plan was to betroth her to the English Prince of Wales.
b. Applied to a set of numbers or values forming an approximate geometrical progression and used to determine the officially recommended values of a dimension or other characteristic with which standard components should be made, so as to cover most efficiently the range of possible requirements.
1922Mech. Engin. XLIV. 791/1 A careful study of manufactured articles shows that even when sizes are determined by utility or use value, the choice of size is largely arbitrary. It is therefore obvious that if certain numerical values are universally accepted as preferred values, and if they are so spaced and of such extent as to fit in with all requirements met in deciding on sizes to be used, the arbitrary choices may be so made as to yield sizes expressible in terms of these preferred numbers. 1936Proc. IRE XXIV. 159 Preferred numbers are certain numbers that have been selected to be used for standardization purposes in preference to any others. 1962S. Handel Dict. Electronics 269 Manufacturers and users of electrical and electronic components such as fixed resistors and capacitors find that there are advantages in standardizing component values and adopt preferred values so that each value differs from the preceding one by a constant multiplier. 1963Jerrard & McNeill Dict. Sci. Units 110 Preferred numbers are conventionally rounded off terms in a geometrical progression whereby a tenth multiple of the initial term is obtained after a predetermined number of terms, viz: p, pq, pq2,..pqn-1, pqn, where p is the initial number, n is the number of terms and q a factor such that qn = 10.
4. Having a prior claim to payment; privileged. preferred share, preferred stock: = preference share, stock.
1864Webster s.v. Prefer, Preferred stock, stock which takes a dividend before other capital stock;—called, in England, preferential stock. 1890Cent. Dict., Preferred creditor. 1901N. Amer. Rev. Feb. 201 In 1805..he [Marshall] found ..authority for a law making the United States a preferred creditor. 1904Q. Rev. Jan. 194 The preferred stock of a combination is an investment security.
5. transf. That is exhibited or adopted by a natural system, object, or substance more commonly than, or to the exclusion of, other apparently possible properties or modes of development; preferred orientation, an orientation which crystals in a material tend to adopt or in which they tend to form, usu. because of applied stress.
1929Chem. Abstr. XXIII. 1051 The detn. of the presence and the quant. description of preferred orientations in cryst. masses. 1954R. L. Parker tr. Niggli's Rocks & Min. Deposits v. 153 If the variable attribute (grain diameter, for instance) can be characterized both by size and by frequency, a mean size must first be determined. To this end the central or preferred value (modal value) in the distribution must be sought..or the value of the arithmetic mean..calculated. 1956Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. CLXXXIII. 99/2 The Zn coating on galvanized wire shows no preferred orientation. 1956Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc. CXII. 123 A specimen from Logie Head..shows no apparent preferred orientation of quartzes and the measurements are evenly scattered over the fabric diagram. 1962E. S. Gould Inorg. Reactions & Struct. (rev. ed.) iii. 64 The configuration with bond directions towards the corners of a regular octahedron..may be shown to be preferred. 1968M. S. Livingston Particle Physics x. 171 In such a plot, broad peaks are frequently observed centred about specific values of energy. Such a preferred value of energy indicates a state of the system of two particles for which decay into the final products is more probable than for lower or higher values. 1971Nature 4 June 306/2 The wind has a strongly preferred direction up and down the length of the steep-sided Loch. 1974D. M. Adams Inorg. Solids v. 97 In Chapter 4 we saw that the relative sizes of the ions in a crystal could be related to preferred coordination arrangements.
Hence preˈferredness.
a1866J. Grote Exam. Utilit. Philos. iii. (1870) 51 This preferability he makes matter again of simple experience..we should rather call it actual preferredness.
▸ preferred provider n. orig. and chiefly U.S. a health-care provider (such as a doctor, clinic, etc.) offering reduced-cost treatment to subscribers to a particular health-care plan or insurer; freq. attrib. (cf. preferred provider organization n.).
1982Business Week 8 Feb. 62/3 Employees..are offered financial incentives to utilize designated ‘*preferred providers’. 2001Wall St. Jrnl. 17 Jan. a10/1 Less-stringent products that have become popular with consumers and employers, including preferred-provider networks and point-of-service plans.
▸ preferred provider organization n. orig. and chiefly U.S. an organization that gives its members access to a network of health-care providers at a much-reduced fee, and also allows patients to consult such providers from outside this network on less advantageous terms; abbreviated PPO.
1982Business Week 8 Feb. 62/3 Another new form of competitive health plan is the so-called ‘*preferred-provider organizations’. In such plans, employees are free to go to their regular physicians under their ordinary insurance coverage but are offered financial incentives to utilize designated ‘preferred providers’—doctors and hospitals that agree to combine efficient practice styles with discounted fees. 2002Time 28 Jan. 29/3 Preferred provider organization..is a hybrid of managed care, as delivered through an HMO, and the old-fashioned fee-for-service plan. In a PPO, you can go to any doctor you want. But out-of-pocket costs are much higher if you go outside the plan's network of providers. |