| 释义 |
attrition|əˈtrɪʃən|
Also 4–6 -icioun, -ycyon, etc.
[ad. L. attrītiōn-em, n. of action f. attrīt-: see attrite and -ion1. The theological sense 4 was earliest in Eng.]
1. The action or process of rubbing one thing against another; mutual friction.
1601Holland Pliny I. 490 They make shift for to rub and grate one wood against another, and by this attrition there fly out sparkes. 1776Priestley in Phil. Trans. LXVI. 230 Some..think that heat is produced in the lungs by the attrition of the blood in passing through them. 1822J. Imison Sc. & Art. I. 70 When the mill is too slowly fed..the stones, by their attrition, are apt to strike fire.
fig.1656Bp. Hall Occas. Medit. (1851) 34 The dangerous attritions of stubborn and wrangling spirits. 1782V. Knox Ess. (1819) II. lxviii. 55 Nor have yet become callous by attrition with the world.
2. a. The action or process of rubbing away, wearing or grinding down, by friction.
1601Holland Pliny II. 466 Polished by that rubbing and attrition which it meets withall, in the course and stream of the water. 1718J. Chamberlayne Relig. Philos. I. iv. §6 The Attrition or Breaking of the Food. 1830Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 250 Pebbles and sand..decrease in size by attrition.
fig.1682Sir T. Browne Chr. Morals (1756) 58 The compage of all physical truths is not..always so closely maintained, as not to suffer attrition. 1858Max Müller Chips (1880) II. xxvii. 354 Contact with English society exercises a constant attrition on the system of castes.
b. Mil. The wearing down of the enemy's strength and morale by unremitting harassment, esp. in phr. war of attrition.
1914Sphere 21 Nov. 181/1 This is a war of attrition, in which each side tries to wear down the other. 1915Kitchener Memorandum in Lloyd George War Mem. D. Lloyd George (1933) I. xii. 435 The end of the War must come through one of the two following causes: (1) by a decisive victory..or (2) by attrition. 1918E. S. Farrow Dict. Mil. Terms 45 Attrition, in a military sense, the act of wearing away the enemy's strength, increasing his mortality list, and lowering his morale. 1919Haig Desp. 21 Mar. (1919) 326 The rapid collapse of Germany's military powers..would not have taken place but for that period of ceaseless attrition. 1927W. S. Churchill World Crisis 1916–18 i. ii. 45 The only method of waging war on the Western Front was by wearing down the enemy by ‘killing Germans in a war of attrition’. 1958Listener 13 Nov. 791/3 Nor did Montgomery, unfairly scornful though he is of generalship in the first world war, disdain tactics of attrition at times.
fig.
1930Daily Express 30 July 3/7 Fine weather at the Oval may mean an endurance test—perhaps a full week of slow batting and attack by process of attrition.
3. Surg.
a. Rubbing away of the skin or tissue; excoriation, abrasion.
b. Comminuted fracture. (With quot. 1585 cf. OF. attrice hæmorrhoid.)
1543Traheron Vigo's Chirurg. vi. 184 A greate medicine in all wrestyngs and attritions of lacertes. 1585Lloyd Treas. Health M ij, Hemorroydes and attrycions in the fundament. 1634T. Johnson tr. Parey's Chirurg. xv. i. (1678) 327 They call it Attrition, when the bone is broken into many small fragments. 1853Mayne Exp. Lex., Attrition..(Surg.) violent crushing of a part. 1875H. Wood Therap. (1879) 582 Whenever surfaces become sore by attrition, or chafe.
4. Theol. An imperfect sorrow for sin, as if a bruising which does not amount to utter crushing (contrition); ‘horror of sin through fear of punishment, without any loving sense, or taste of God's mercy’ (Hooker), while contrition has its motive in the love of God. (A sense invented by scholastic theologians in 12th c.; the earliest in Eng.)
c1374Chaucer Troylus i. 557 Thou..wailist for thi synne and thyn offence, And hast for ferde caught attrition. 1506Ord. Crysten Men iv. iii. 171 Attrycyon..is a maner of contrycyon unparfyte. 1765Tucker Lt. Nat. II. 65 Three stages in the passage from vice to virtue: attrition, contrition, and repentance. The first is a sorrow for the mischiefs men have brought upon their own heads by their ill doings. 1875H. E. Manning Mission H. Ghost i. 16 Sacramental grace to raise our sorrow from attrition to contrition. |