释义 |
▪ I. balloon, n.1|bəˈluːn| Forms: 6 ballone, balonne, 6–7 baloun(e, 7 balone, -oone, balloone, 8–9 ballon, 8– balloon. [ad. It. ballone ‘great ball, footeball’ (Florio 1598), augmentative of balla ball n.1 Cf. F. ballon (16th c.), which balloon subseq. followed in its senses.] †1. A large inflated ball of strong double leather, struck to and fro by the arm defended by a bracer of wood. Obs.
1592Sylvester tr. Du Bartas's Ship-Wracke of Jonas in Triumph of Faith 19 One ship that skips from stars to ground, From waue to waue (like windy Balloones bound). 1598Florio, Ballone, a great ball, a ballone to play at with braces, a footeball. 1626T. H. Caussin's Holy Crt. 234 Windblowne Balones..tossed this way and that way, sometyme with the foote, sometyme with the hand. 1801Strutt Sports & Past. ii. iii. 88 The balloon or wind-ball resembled the follis of the Romans. †2. The game played with this ball. Obs.
1580North Plutarch (1656) 960 He would play at Tennis, and at the Ballone. 1636Randolph in Ann. Dubrensia (1877) 19 Foote-ball with vs, may be with them Baloone. 1662Fuller Worthies ii. 137 Being challenged by an Italian Gentleman to play at Baloun. 1820Scott Monast. xxi, The winning party at that wondrous match at ballon. †3. Pyrotechny. ‘A ball of pasteboard, stuffed with combustible matter, which, when fired [from a mortar], mounts to a considerable height in the air, and then bursts into bright sparks of fire resembling stars.’ J. Also attrib. in balloon-wheel. Obs. (Now called shell or bomb.)
1634J. B[ate] Myst. Nat. & Art. ii. 83 How to make Balloones, also the Morter Peece to discharge them..Into this Balloone you may put Rockets, Serpents, Starres, Fiends, Petards. 1688in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 344 IV. 112 Several thousands of Baloons that are to be shot into the air. 1753Publ. Advertiser 24 Sept. 3/2 Order of Firing..(2) Sky-rockets..(4) Two Air-Balloons..(13) Two Balloons..(19) A large Balloon Wheel which throws out of eight Boxes, Stars and Serpents. 4. Arch. A round ball or globe placed on the top of a pillar, pier, etc., to crown it.
1656in Blount Glossogr. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., A balloon is to be proportioned to the magnitude, and altitude of the body. 1875Gwilt Archit., Balloon..the same name is given to the balls on the top of cathedrals, as at..St. Paul's in London. 5. Chem. A large globose glass vessel, with one or more short necks, used to receive the products of distillation, etc.
1727–51Chambers Cycl., Balloon or Ballon. 1783Priestley in Phil. Trans. LXXIII. 417 Interposing a large glass balloon between the retort and the recipient for the air. 1854Scoffern in Orr's Circ. Sc. Chem. 160 Let it pass through a glass balloon. 6. a. An air-tight envelope of paper, silk, or similar material, usually globose or pear-shaped, which, when inflated with light gas, rises in the air, and will carry with it a considerable weight; to large balloons a car strong enough to carry human beings can be attached, and hence they are used for observing atmospheric phenomena, for military reconnoitring, and, though with little success at present, as a means of travelling through the air.
1783Europ. Mag. IV. 272 Monsieur de Montgolfiers Air Balloon. 1783Cowper Lett. 29 Sept., What is your opinion of these air balloons? I am quite charmed with the discovery. 1785Priestley in Phil. Trans. LXXV. 297 Filling balloons with the lightest inflammable air. 1803Wordsw. Blind Highl. Boy xxxiv, The bravest traveller in balloon Mounting as if to reach the Moon. 1831Lardner Pneumat. vii. 339 The step from fire balloons to balloons filled with gas..was now easy and obvious. b. Similar to that described in sense 6 a, but of miniature size, usu. inflated with air, and designed as a child's toy. Quot. 1848 may be sense 6 a.
1848Lowell Biglow Papers v. 69 ‘Yes, the North,’ sez Colquitt, ‘Ef we Southerners all quit, Would go down like a busted balloon.’ 1858Househ. Words CCCCX. 168/2 Amateurs were able to supply themselves with toy balloons made of goldbeaters' leaf, and bearing the name of Minimum. 1865A. Megson Recollections of Lupset 7 Then come the balloons,..those aerial toys which ever and anon drop short in the sheep pasture. 1877Punch 10 Nov. 210 And those lovely Balloons they give one, with ‘Louvre’ printed on them. 1902J. M. Barrie Little White Bird xiii. 128 You speak to the lady with the balloons, who sits just outside [Kensington Gardens]... She sits very squat, for the balloons are always tugging at her. 1908H. G. Wells War in Air vi. 181 Small children's air-balloons of the latest model attached to a string became a serious check to the pedestrian in Central Park. 1926A. A. Milne Winnie-the-Pooh i. 10 You had balloons at the party. 1937N. Streatfeild Caroline England xii. 186 I'm blown up like a penny balloon. c. Colloq. phr. (when) the balloon goes up, the operation, action, battle, affair, excitement, etc., begins (now or at some specified time).
1924P. Macdonald Rasp xv. 210 ‘When's the magistrate's court?’.. ‘The balloon, I believe, goes up at 10 a.m.’ 1925Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 15 The balloon, a colloquial term used of any event, e.g. ‘What time does the balloon go up?’ the speaker meaning, ‘What time is the parade?’ 1932Wodehouse Hot Water xiii. 222 This was the moment when he must put his fortune to the test, to win or lose it all. Now or never must the balloon go up. 1943H. Bolitho Combat Report xxx. 79 Suddenly the balloon went up. There were 110's and 87's all around us, and the 87's started dive-bombing a jetty. 1957J. Braine Room at Top v. 50 Merely because I let you give me a beery kiss in the Props Room, you think the balloon's going up. 1959Punch 21 Oct. 322/1 The international rules of war [are] apt to be waived when the balloon goes up. 7. a. fig. Anything inflated, empty, and hollow.
1812Byron Parenthet. Address, Borne in the vast balloon of Busby's song. 1829Carlyle Misc. (1857) I. 272 The hollow balloon of popular applause. b. A lofty hit or kick given to a cricket-ball, base-ball, or football. colloq.
1904Daily Chron. 8 June 5/3 With his score at 45 Jackson was missed off a ‘balloon’ in the long field by Gooder. 1922Daily Mail 8 Dec. 11 For the most part the ball was kicked anywhere—for choice high in the air. ‘There's no one up there,’ shouted an ironical spectator after one of many balloons. c. Cricket. = duck n.1 7. colloq.
1906A. E. Knight Complete Cr. 341 A batsman who has failed to score gets a ‘blob’, a ‘balloon’, a ‘duck’, or a ‘duck's egg’. 8. Horticulture. a. A method of training fruit-trees in which the branches are curved from a height of six or seven feet down to the ground, forming the shape of a balloon. b. A balloon-shaped trellis for training plants upon.
1834Penny Cycl. II. 191/1 A mode of managing apple-trees called Balloon training. 1881Gard. Chron. XVI. 336 Plants that have been trained on balloons twenty years ago, are treated in the same way still. 9. a. The balloon-shaped outline containing words represented in comic engravings as issuing from the mouth of a person. Also one containing thoughts represented as issuing from a person's head.
1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. xxxi. 376 Diabolical sentiments..were represented as issuing from his mouth in fat balloons. 1868L. M. Alcott Little Women (1871) iv. 66 She drew a picture of Mr. Davis, with..the words ‘Young ladies, my eye is upon you!’ coming out of his mouth in a balloon thing. 1947N. Marsh Final Curtain xii. 190 One almost expected some dubious caption to issue in a balloon from her lips. 1963Listener 7 Feb. 252/2 The device found in comics where a balloon is shown coming out of a character's head with ‘thinks’ written over it. b. A balloon-shaped outline containing words, etc., to be added to matter set up in proof, typed, or the like.
1935D. L. Sayers Gaudy Night iii. 45 I'm afraid it's rather full of marginal balloons and interlineations. 1956F. Swinnerton Background w. Chorus ii. xvii. 194 Balloons thereafter adorned the galley proofs. 10. Comb. a. objective with vbl. n. or agent-noun, as balloon-corps, balloon-driver, balloon-flying, balloon-navigation, balloon-shed, balloon-squadron; b. similative, as balloon-cap (so balloon ellipt.), balloon-foresail, balloon-hat, balloon-sail, balloon-sleeve; c. para-synthetic, as balloon-shaped adj. Also balloon barrage, a defence against hostile aircraft consisting of a connected system of balloons carrying wire cables reaching to the ground; also called balloon apron; balloon-brasser (cf. F. brassart ‘the woodden cuffe or bracer worne by Balloone-players,’ Cotgr. 1611); balloon cloth, fabric, a very strong, fine, closely-woven fabric orig. used for the envelopes of aerial balloons; balloon-fish (see quot.); balloon flower, a popular name for the Chinese bell-flower, Platycodon grandiflorus, an erect herbaceous perennial having large bell-shaped flowers which in bud resemble balloons; balloon frame, framing, a structure of light timbers fitted together to form the skeleton of a building (chiefly U.S.); balloonful, as much as a balloon will hold; balloon glass, goblet, a large globular drinking-glass (also balloon ellipt.; cf. ballon 2); † balloon-letter, a letter sent by balloon; so † balloon post, † balloon postman; balloon-like a., like a balloon, immoderately swollen or puffed up; balloon-satellite, a balloon-shaped communications satellite; balloon silk (see quot. 19401); balloon tyre, a low-pressure pneumatic tyre of large section; also balloon-tyred a.; balloon vine U.S., a tropical American vine, Cardiospermum halicacabum, which bears large balloon-like pods.
1917in H. A. Jones War in Air (1935) V. i. 68 On the 22nd of September [1917], in orders issued to home defence pilots, it was stated: ‘*Balloon Aprons and other obstructions will be established.’ 1925J. Morris German Air Raids on Gt. Brit. ii. iv. 253 The balloon apron..consisted of steel cables suspended from a line held in the air by means of captive balloons. 1929E. B. Ashmore Air Defence v. 55, I produced my idea for a balloon apron barrage to be put up just outside London and inside the aeroplane patrol lines.
1919R. H. Reece Night Bombing with Bedouins iii. 45 Small blue crosses represent the position of enemy *balloon barrages and their height. 1937Flight 16 Dec. 609/2 A balloon barrage, as part of the air defences of London, is almost an accomplished fact. 1939Guardian 20 Oct. 642/2 In my own garden at Lambeth Palace..are men who supply the balloon barrage... The men are good enough to call it the ‘archblimp’.
1650Weldon Crt. K. James (1817) 47 Lifting up his hand over his head with a *Ballon brasser.
1780–6J. Wolcott (P. Pindar) Odes R. Acad. Wks. 1794 I. 116 A *balloon cap, a shawl, a muff. 1784E. Sheridan Jrnl. (1960) 26 Even silk Balloons are almost out—I have not seen a Cap since I came.
1912C. B. Hayward Pract. Aeronaut. i. iii. 14 Three layers of this rubberized fabric are cemented together to form what is known as ‘*balloon cloth’, which is about as impermeable a material as can be made without involving undue weight. 1917Illustr. London News 17 Nov. 601/2, I walked inside the envelope [of a Zeppelin]... On the way I passed a tube of balloon cloth.
1865Mechanics' Mag. 4 Aug. 64/2 A *balloon corps should..assist in the operations of our own forces.
1838Let. in H. Turner Astra Castra 403 That..safest *balloon-driver in the world..Mr. Green.
1919U.S. Navy Dept.: Type ‘M’ Kite Balloon Handbk. iv. 37 All cloth used for *balloon fabric..is inspected for flaws... The raw cloth is then coated with rubber.
1834Griffith Cuvier's Anim. K. X. 579 From the faculty they [the Diodontes] possess of distending their bodies with air, these fishes have received the vulgar name of..*balloon-fish. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Balloon-fish, a plecto⁓gnathous fish, covered with spines.
1901G. Nicholson Dict. Gardening Cent. Suppl. 607/2 Platycodon. Chinese *Balloon Flower. 1962Amat. Gardening 31 Mar. 5/1 The platycodons are called balloon flowers because the buds before they open resemble a balloon.
1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. iii. viii. 130 A Golden or Paper Age of Hope; with its horse-racings, *balloon flyings, etc.
1883Times 27 Aug. 8/2 With *balloon foresails and flying jibs.
1853J. W. Bond Minnesota 122 A little clump of shanties and *balloon-frames. 1873E. Eggleston Myst. Metrop. xxxv. 302 When at last he saw the familiar balloon-frame houses. 1945Archit. Rev. XCVIII. 40/2 The great cities could never have arisen as quickly as they did if it were not for the invention of the balloon frame, which substituted a simple construction of nails and plates for the old craft of mortised and tenoned joints in wooden house construction.
1855Trans. Amer. Inst. N.Y. 394 The *balloon framing used in the Western States and California. 1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 73/2 Balloon framing, a cheap and rapid method of construction in which all timbers are of light scantling, and are held together entirely by nails and spikes, only the corner posts being tenoned: used in place of braced framing.
1883St. James's Gaz. 5 May, A *balloonful of lofty aims..and soaring ideas.
1940A. Hocking Wicked Flee x. 233 Austen slowly turned his *balloon glass of cognac between the palms of his hands. 1951‘J. Wyndham’ Day of Triffids v. 101 The plutocratic-looking balloon with the puddle of unpriceable brandy was mine.
1931R. Aldington Colonel's Daughter iii. 166 A large *balloon goblet of very thin glass with a shallow gold deposit of brandy still in it.
1803Lett. Miss Riversdale III. 202 She kept..running her *balloon hat into every eye.
1870L. Russell Let. 7 Nov. in Amberley Papers (1937) II. xvi. 454, I have had three *balloon letters quite lately [from her parents in Paris].
1861A. Wynter Soc. Bees 120 The dominant *balloon-like tumour. 1879Geo. Eliot Theo. Such 96 His addled originalities..and balloon-like conclusions.
1816G. Cayley in Phil. Mag. XLVII. 328 *Balloon navigation does hold out the capabilities I have so daringly ventured to investigate.
1870Food Jrnl. 1 Nov. 539 By *balloon post. Oct. 19.
1885Encycl. Brit. XIX. 581/2 The heroism displayed by French *balloon postmen.
1899Cent. Dict., *Balloon sail. 1948R. de Kerchove Internat. Maritime Dict. 34/2 Balloon sail, a general term used for light racing and cruising sails found on yachts, such as balloon jib, balloon topsail and foresail. 1961F. H. Burgess Dict. Sailing 19 Balloon sails, extra large sails of light material used as large jibs or spinnakers in yacht racing.
1960Aeroplane XCIX. 270/3 The minute pressure of sunlight is forcing the 80-lb., 100-ft.-dia. *balloon-satellite Echo steadily towards the Earth's atmosphere and ultimate destruction. 1962Ibid. CII. 58/2 After being launched successfully from the Thor booster on Jan. 15, the first of the rigidized balloon-satellites on sub-orbital test..began to inflate according to programme but disrupted before reaching its full diameter of 135 ft. 1964Yearbook Astr. 1965 141 Transmissions from the United States were being sent by conventional means to Jodrell Bank for reflection to Gorky via the polar-orbiting balloon-satellite.
c1900in M. Johnson Amer. Advertising (a 1960), Long sleeves, *balloon shaped bottom with wide lace trimming. 1936T. Rohan Conf. of Dealer (ed. 4) 8 A large 18th century English balloon-shaped bracket clock.
1907Westm. Gaz. 11 Sept. 8/3 The great doors of the *balloon-shed were slowly opened.
1940G. W. Martin Modern Camping Guide v. 69 Terms used in connection with tent materials... *Balloon Silk..a fine cloth made of Sea Island or Egyptian cotton. The term is misleading, as no silk is used in its manufacture. 1940Hemingway For whom Bell Tolls viii. 74 The worn, spotted green balloon silk outer covering of the five-year-old down robe.
1837Southern Lit. Messenger III. 3 Women come to the spring for water in great *balloon sleeves and prunella shoes. 1857Geo. Eliot Amos Barton iii. in Blackw. Mag. Jan. 17/1 Very stiff balloon sleeves..without which a woman's dress was nought in those days. 1860All Y. Round 477 By the help of balloon sleeves and peg-tops.
1940Ann. Reg. 1939 23 The *balloon squadrons in London were now practically up to establishment.
1924Motor 27 May 715/1 The low-pressure or *balloon tyre manufacturers in the United States have adopted the straight-sided type of rim exclusively. 1933Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XXXVII. 795 Two types of aeroplane balloon tyres are shown.
1895Daily News 1 June 3/1 The Princess Maud..here mounted on a *balloon-tired ‘safety’.
1836A. H. Lincoln Botany (1837) App. 84 *Balloon vine, East Indies. 1901C. T. Mohr Plant Life Alabama, Balloon Vine..Louisianian area, South Carolina, [etc.]. Hence ballooˈnation, ballooning, baˈlloonism, balloonoˈmania (all used by Horace Walpole). Also the nonce-words: baˈlloonacy (with word-play on lunacy), mania for ballooning. baˈlloonatic a. and n. (cf. lunatic), (one who is) balloon-mad. baˈlloo nical a., connected with balloons, aeronautical. baˈlloonicism, a technical phrase in ballooning.
1864Daily Tel. 19 Feb., We live in an age of balloonacy. 1882West. Daily Press 27 Mar. 3/1 A sharp epidemic of balloonacy. 1865Daily Tel. 22 Nov. 5/3 That Nadar, the balloonatic, has sold his balloon. 1882Moonshine V. 163 Another balloonatic attempt to cross the Channel. 1784in Athenæum (1865) No. 1968. 78/3 ‘Balloonation,’ as it was called. 1851Househ. Words 25 Oct. 103 The four hundred and eighty-ninth year of his balloonical age; having made that number of ascents. 1838Let. in H. Turner Astra C. 399 How could I have avoided the perpetration of a few balloonicisms?
Add:[10.] balloon angioplasty Surg., the widening of a blocked or narrowed blood vessel, esp. an artery, by means of a small balloon that is inserted into it and then inflated; an operation to perform this.
1980Radiology CXXXV. 571/1 Significant compression or redistribution of atherosclerotic plaques could not be demonstrated histologically following *balloon angioplasty. 1988Daily Tel. 22 Nov. 6/5 [She] needed pioneering heart surgery called balloon angioplasty when she had a heart attack while five months pregnant. 1992Wall St. Jrnl. 25 Nov. b1/2 Balloon angioplasties..don't require the open-heart surgery of a coronary bypass. balloon catheter Surg. [tr. G. Ballonkatheter (coined by C. Müller 1949, in Zeitschr. für Urologie XLII. 4)], a type of catheter incorporating a small balloon which may be introduced into a canal, duct, or blood vessel and then inflated in order to clear an obstruction or dilate a narrowed region.
[1951Jrnl. Thoracic Surg. XXII. 536 The pulmonary artery was occluded on one side by means of a cardiac catheter provided with an inflatable balloon.] 1952Q. Cumulative Index Medicus LII. 397 (title) Problems in wet colostomy management following radical pelvic surgery; use of new giant *balloon catheter. 1963Amer. Jrnl. Roentgenol. XC. 650/2 Tourniquets, balloon catheters and gravity have been employed to achieve the desired distribution of injected contrast agents. 1989Jrnl. R. Soc. Med. Sept. 542/2 A Fogarty biliary balloon catheter was introduced proximally to remove residual stones. ▪ II. ‖ baˈlloon, balloen, n.2 Hist. Also 7 balon, 8 ballong, baloen. A Siamese state-barge, upwards of a hundred feet long, and richly decorated.
1633H. Cogan Pinto's Voy. xi. (1663) 35 With a Galley, five Foists, two Catures, 20 Balons and 300 men. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., Balloon, or Baloen..The balloons are a kind of brigantine, managed with oars. 1755Capt. R. Jackson in A. Dalrymple Oriental Repertory I. 195 The Burmas has now Eighty Ballongs, none of which [h]as great Guns. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Balloen. ▪ III. balloon, v.|bəˈluːn| [f. balloon n.1] 1. trans. To carry up in, or as in, a balloon.
1792T. Twining in Country Clergym. 18th C. (1882) 163 I..never yet seemed so ballooned and above the globe as in ascending this great hill. 1802G. Colman Br. Grins, Reckoning with Time vi, Thy pinions next Ballooned me from the schools to town. 2. intr. To ascend in a balloon. (trans.; cf. race.)
1821[see ballooning vbl. n. 1 a] 1881Echo 3/4 An American balloonist has offered to ‘balloon’ anybody in the United States. 1882Standard 2 Feb. 5/7 Whose wife was afterwards killed whilst Ballooning. 3. a. intr. To swell or puff out like a balloon.
1841J. W. Orderson Creol. ix. 99 En bon point that..ballooned to dimensions which..filled her arm chair. 1872Cornh. Mag. June 708 His red gown ballooning behind him. b. trans. To puff out or cause to be inflated like a balloon; spec. to distend with air, gas, or water, as the abdomen in tympanites, or the rectum or vagina with specially constructed apparatus.
1889[see ballooning vbl. n. 2]. 1906Macm. Mag. Dec. 119 The wind..ballooned his cassock and carried his hat into the ditch. 1909Practitioner Dec. 807 Several equal lengths of rubber tubing..were obtained, and at about the centre of some of them aneurysms..were ballooned. 4. To hit (a cricket-ball) or kick (a football) high in the air. colloq.
1904Daily Chron. 20 July 7/2 As he did not quite get to the ball, he ballooned it to Garnett in the out-field, who brought off a well-judged catch. 1927Daily Tel. 8 Feb. 16/3 As for the half-backs, they lacked method; it was not a light or flighty ball, but they were for ever ballooning it. 5. intr. Of an aeroplane: to rise up in the air, esp. as the result of a hard bounce on landing.
1931P. W. F. Mills Angles on Pract. Flying vi. 54 Certain types of aeroplane..retain [in landing] a degree of buoyancy sufficient to cause an uncomfortable tendency to ‘balloon’. 1949J. R. Cole It was so Late 87 The aircraft ballooned when the wheels hit; it shot up thirty feet and seemed to hang suspended. |