| 释义 |
ˈsafety-valve
1. A valve in a steam-boiler which automatically opens to permit steam to escape when the pressure is becoming dangerous. Also, a similar valve opening inwards, to admit air when a partial vacuum has been formed.
1815J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 134 The safety-valve..is loaded so that the steam escapes when it is stronger than the engine requires. 1832Babbage Econ. Manuf. ii. (ed. 3) 26 The boiler of a steam engine some⁓times bursts even during the escape of steam through the safety-valve.
transf.1830Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 371 The volcanos in different parts of this island are observed..to be in activity by turns, one vent often serving for a time as a safety-valve to the rest. 1876C. D. Warner Wint. Nile i. 22 The volcanic islands which serve as chimneys and safety-valves to this part of the world.
2. fig. An opening or channel for ‘letting off steam’, giving vent to excitement, getting rid of a dangerous excess of energy, or the like. Also attrib.
1818Lady Morgan Autobiog. (1859) 172 Our hereditary nobility have safety-valves in their rank, and in the offices of which they are the inheritors in church and state. 1825Hone Every-day Bk. I. 1344 As a sort of ‘safety valve’,..recourse is had..to the flinging about of..cabbage stalks. 1835Marryat Olla Podr. xix, I am convinced that they [sc. public lotteries] were beneficial, acting as safety-valves to the gambling spirit of the nation. 1861M. Arnold Pop. Educ. France 183 What a safety-valve to the high pressure of a compulsory system is here! 1878Stubbs Const. Hist. III. xviii. 276 Commercial activity..was..a safety-valve for energies shut out of their proper sphere. 1925I. A. Richards Princ. Lit. Crit. xxxi. 232 If we do not..try to bring under this Safety-valve heading work with which it has no concern, it may be granted that in some cases the explanation is in place. 1956‘J. Wyndham’ Seeds of Time 100 There had been nothing worse than safety-valve grumbling. 1964R. Miliband in I. L. Horowitz New Sociol. 868 What Mills condemned in Safety-valve welfarism was not the welfare.
Hence ˈsafety-valving vbl. n. (nonce-use), letting off or discharging as though through a safety-valve.
1965K. Amis James Bond Dossier ix. 93 Violent films, TV shows and the like are useful in safety-valving off our private aggressions. |