| 释义 |
black-out|ˈblækaʊt|
[f. phr. to black out (black v. 3 b).]
1. Theatr. The darkening of a stage during a performance; a darkened stage.
1913G. B. Shaw Let. 3 Apr. (1956) 188 The more I think of that revolving business the less I see how it can be done... There will have to be a black-out. 1918E. T. Dent in R. Brooke Coll. Poems p. xxxii, The elder generation were scandalized almost before the play began: no scenery..no music, no footlights, frequent ‘black-outs’. 1932A. J. Worrall Eng. Idioms iii. 20 Immediately after the murder there is a black-out; when the lights come on again the stage is empty. 1952Granville Dict. Theatr. Terms 28 In revue a black out serves as a quick curtain to a sketch.
2. transf. and fig. A condition of (temporary) obscuration; spec. (a) a temporary loss of memory; (b) suppression of information or news; (c) loss of a radio signal (because of an electrical storm, etc.).
1924Galsworthy Forest iii. i, What do you think death really is?.. Change of trains, or a black-out, eh? 1934Atlantic Monthly Mar. 350/1 ‘Black-out’..is now used of a temporary loss of memory, or failure of the electric light. 1935C. Day Lewis Time to Dance 55 The arctic winter and black-out of your dreams. 1940H. G. Wells Babes in Darkling Wood iv. iii. 356 There's not a trace now of the original concussion... But there is still a black-out in the memory. 1941Wyndham Lewis Let. 17 Oct. (1963) 301 If my eyes go I go too. Loathsome as the world is, I do like to see it. That sort of blackout I could not live in. 1942Mind LI. 257 It is only when we reach the rarefied air of high theology that this particular intellectual black-out occurs. 1945Daily Express 19 Apr. 1/1 There is still a news blackout in Moscow. 1958Listener 25 Dec. 1072/1 The normal reflections from the F-layer [of the ionosphere] cease and there is prolonged disturbance of short⁓wave reception. This is what has been called the radio ‘black-out’.
3. The action of extinguishing, covering, or obscuring lights as a precaution against air-raids, etc.; the resulting darkness; the time or period of compulsory covering of lights; the material used to obscure the lights. Also attrib.
1935Lancet 3 Aug. 281/1 Mr. Harcourt Johnstone asked the Prime Minister whether instructions for compulsory ‘black-outs’ in districts where experiments were being carried out against air attacks were issued by authority of any Government department. 1939L. MacNeice Autumn Jrnl. 35 Black-out practice and A.R.P. 1939Archit. Rev. LXXXVI. lvi/3, I slept right through the ‘black out’ on August 10th. 1940Ann. Reg. 1939 127 Of the inconveniences the most serious continued to be the ‘black-out’. 1940Flight 8 Aug. 102/2 Also fitted are special ‘black-out blinds’ controlled from the pilot's compartment, which completely cover all the windows within the passenger cabin. 1940‘N. Shute’ Landfall i. 7 No parking allowed on these common roads after black-out. 1941New Statesman 17 Aug. 154/2 Sick people cannot be nursed in wards with broken windows or with damaged black-out. 1942E. Waugh Put out More Flags 252 It's like walking in the blackout with a shaded torch. You can see just as far as the step you're taking. 1960J. Lehmann I am my Brother i. 3 That night—the first night of black-out—I struggled out in the slithery rainy darkness to dine up in Highgate.
4. Temporary complete loss of consciousness; also, in flying, temporary blindness resulting from physical derangement produced by a sudden sharp turn or acceleration.
1940Hutchinson's Pict. Hist. War 14 Feb.–9 Apr. 217 The problems of future fighters of over 400 m.p.h. are: to defeat the pilot's ‘black-out’ [etc.]. 1940Times 30 Mar. 9/6 The actual black-out the Germans..call the ‘curtain’. There is no loss of consciousness..merely this ‘curtain’ of black before the eyes. And so soon as the turn is eased and the g brought down, sight returns. 1959Daily Mail 2 Apr. 10/5 The man-carrying centrifuge at the Farnborough Institute of Aviation Medicine..tests pilots for ‘black⁓outs’. 1961Lancet 5 Aug. 322/1 He had had several ‘black⁓outs’ resembling epilepsy. |