| 释义 |
border-line
[border n.]
1. The strip of land along the border between two countries or districts; a frontier-line; often fig., the boundary between areas, classes, etc.
1869Cassell's Mag. Dec. 31/1 On the very border-line of the Black Country. 1889Kipling Barrack-room Ballads (1892) 81 Thou must harry thy father's hold for the peace of the Border-line. 1890W. James Princ. Psychol. II. xvii. 22 Simultaneous contrast is always strongest at the border-line of the two fields. 1917‘Contact’ Airman's Outings 143 Weather conditions place such duties near the border-line of possible accomplishment. 1965M. Spark Mandelbaum Gate vii. 313 The armed border patrol..returned along the border-line.
2. attrib. or as adj. Occupying a border-line; esp. in phr. border-line case; spec. (a) verging on the indecent or obscene; (b) verging on insanity.
1907F. J. Poynton in Edin. Med. Jrnl. Sept. 232 There are border-line cases which are well worthy of consideration by those who are interested in this form of arthritis. 1913R. H. Cole Mental Dis. 223 Many come within the range of the so-called ‘Border-line’ cases. 1917E. F. Ballard Epit. Mental Dis. 10 Therapeutic suggestive conversation with these early or border-line types of disorder is never wasted. 1928Sunday Express 29 Apr. 3/4 Men are fond of ‘thrillers’. Girls prefer rather shocking ‘border-line’ books. 1928Daily Tel. 11 May 7 [He] described the cases..as border-line cases, and bound them over under probation for two years. 1937Mind XLVI. 478 This clear central nucleus is surrounded by a penumbra of borderline cases, such as the credibility of witnesses. 1956J. E. Floud Social Class iv. 54 To aid the assessment of borderline candidates, a Composition test was administered. 1965F. G. Cassidy in Bessinger & Creed Medieval & Linguistic Stud. 78 This has left uncertain the status of the ‘borderline cases’.
Hence border-liner, a border-line case.
1953E. Partridge ‘Shaggy Dog’ Story ii. 48, I finally reduced the candidates to five that can fairly be adjudged eligible for the description ‘border-liners’. |