| 释义 |
break-down
(breɪkdaʊn; see below)
[f. the verbal phrase break down (see break v. 51).
In this and similar verbal formations, the stress seems primarily to be even (ˈbreak ˈdown), or with stronger force on the adv. (ˌbreak ˈdown); but in familiar and well-established expressions (as sense 2), there is a tendency to take the combination without analysis as a single word, and to say ˈbreakˌdown, or even ˈbreakdown: this is also regularly done in attributive use, (as in ‘ˈbreakdown ˈgang’).]
1. a. The act of breaking and falling down; a ruinous downfall, a collapse. lit. and fig.
1832Marryat N. Forster xxii, These unfortunate break downs. 1835Browning Paracelsus iii. 70 The break-down of my general aims. 1883Chalmers Local Govt. 152 Any break-down or hitch in the working of the sanitary laws.
b. esp. A fracture or dislocation of machinery resulting in a stoppage. Hence attrib., as in break-down gang, break-down train.
1838Civil Engineer I. No. 11. 296/1 Railway Casualties—obstructions from cattle wagons and breaks down. 1852J. Ludlow Master Engineers, &c. 105 Double pay for over-time caused by break-down or accident. 1863Times 6 Apr., Break-down gangs from Peterborough and Grantham. 1866Standard 15 Sept. 4/5 A mine where there had been a breakdown. 1893Funk's Standard Dict., Breakdown van (Gt. Brit.), a wrecking-car. 1933in Amer. Speech (1942) XVII. 4/2 Morton, my car's outside Savarin's... Get your breakdown lorry round for it. 1953A. Smith Blind White Fish in Persia i. 22 One of its hands..prepared the breakdown lorry.
c. Of the animal functions, or health (esp. of the mental powers); spec. nervous breakdown: (a case of) neurasthenia; a vague term for any severe or incapacitating emotional disorder.
1858J. H. Bennet Nutrition iv. 91 A complete break⁓down of the general health. 1875M. Pattison Casaubon 465 Walter Scott had the first warning of his own break⁓down in similar symptoms. [1904J. London Sea-Wolf xxxvi. 290 There had been his terrific headaches, and we were agreed that it was some sort of brain break-down.] 1905A. Bennett Sacred & Profane Love III. i. 212, I read in the papers..that you were suffering from neurasthenia and nervous breakdown. 1907J. London Iron Heel x. 141 Hints were made of mental breakdown on his part. 1927J. S. Huxley Relig. without Rev. iv. 125 The phase of conflict ended with that crash known generally as a ‘nervous breakdown’. 1930B. Russell Conquest of Happiness 75 One of the symptoms of approaching nervous break-down is the belief that one's work is terribly important. 1959J. Braine Vodi v. 82 He was never seen at the school again. The official explanation was a complete nervous breakdown.
d. Electr. The sudden passage of electric current through an insulating medium. Also attrib., as breakdown voltage, the voltage required to cause a break-down.
1915F. W. Peek Dielectric Phenomena vi. 154 The moisture may even be removed from the space between the electrodes by the action of the field, in which case its presence would not be detected by low-voltage breakdowns. Ibid. 155 The relative breakdown voltages of gaps in oil, at 60 cycles, and for impulse voltages..are given. 1962Simpson & Richards Junction Transistors iv. 67 The voltage V B at which this sudden decrease in resistance occurs is called the breakdown voltage.
e. Chemical or physical decomposition. Also attrib., as breakdown product, a product resulting from the disintegration of a substance.
1928A. B. Callow Food & Health 24 Certain chemical compounds when eaten cause a flow of gastric juice. The chief of these substances are the break-down products of proteins (peptones, etc.). 1959Listener 2 July 38/2 Organic materials of a fibrous nature..encourage green water and algae during the inevitable breakdown processes. 1961Lancet 19 Aug. 395/2 Hæmoglobin breakdown was completely inhibited.
f. An analysis or classification (of figures, statistics, etc.). Cf. break v. 51 g.
1936Harrison & Mitchell Home Market 140 Such families were extremely few and their breakdown according to density was impossible. 1948Observer 18 Apr. 4/5 The latest threat to clarity is the use of ‘breakdown’ to mean ‘analysis’ or ‘classification’. 1957Times (Canada Suppl.) 12 Nov. p. viii/1 Figures rose..to 73,578 for the corresponding period this year. The breakdown of this..figure was English 47,240, Scots 15,124, Irish 9,646, Welsh 1,568.
2. ‘A riotous dance, with which balls are often terminated in the country. A dance in the peculiar style of the negroes.’ Bartlett Dict. Amer. (U.S.; but frequently humorously in Eng.)
a1864New Eng. Tales (Bartlett), Don't clear out when the quadrilles are over, for we are going to have a break⁓down to wind up with. 1877Burnand ‘Ride to Khiva’ 11 Clog-dancers, or nigger duettists, at a Music Hall with a breakdown. 1881Gd. Words XXII. 41/2 The men followed with a fiendish ‘breakdown’.
3. Sawmilling. (See quot. 1957.) Also (N.Z.) applied to the building in which the initial cutting of timber from logs is done. Also attrib. Cf. breaking-down.
1923C. M. Malfroy Small Sawmills 17 The laying of the foundations of the breakdown should first be proceeded with. Ibid., The logging delivery-tram, mill log-skids, engine, breakdown bench. 1943Amer. Speech XVIII. 85 The cleared tracks..carry logs to the mill, where it is handled by a break-down man. 1957Brit. Commonw. Forest Terminol. ii. 33 Breakdown, the initial operation in converting from the round, by sawing a log longitudinally into cants, and, by extension, cants into large timber, preparatory to further manufacture. |