| 释义 |
▪ I. † ˈbuffer, n.1 Obs.
[f. buff v.1]
A stammerer.
1382Wyclif Isa. xxxii. 4 The tunge of bufferes [1388 stuttynge men; 1611 stammerers] swiftli shal speke.
▪ II. buffer, n.2|ˈbʌfə(r)|
[app. f. buff v.1 3 + -er1 (cf. buffing vbl. n.1).]
1. a. Mech. A mechanical apparatus for deadening the force of a concussion; as a round plate or cushion (usually supported by a strong spring) fixed in pairs at the front and back of railway carriages or engines, or on the face of a terminal wall of a line of railway. Extended also to the solid projecting beam-ends of railway trucks, etc., and strong bars across sidings, which sustain without deadening the concussion. (Formerly called also buffing apparatus: see buffing vbl. n.1)
1835Specif. Church's Patent No. 6791. 12 The buffers supported by metal springs x and air cylinder. 1841Penny Cycl. XIX. 258/2 Buffers or discs of wood or metal, sometimes covered with cushions. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. §2. 9 The shock..is harmless when distributed over the interval necessary for the pushing in of the buffer. 1867Pall Mall G. 27 July 9 He jumped on to a buffer of a carriage.
b. Chem. A substance or a mixture of substances, usu. of a weak acid or base and its salt, which stabilizes the degree of acidity or alkalinity of a solution; also, a buffer solution. Also attrib. in buffer action, buffer base, buffer salt; buffer solution (see 3).
1914Chem. Abstr. 3561 The action of moderators (buffers) in the shifting of the acid-base equilibrium in biological liquids... A monobasic acid shows its max. buffer reaction at a H-ion conc... The max. buffer action of all weak acids in equiv. concs. is the same. 1922Encycl. Brit. XXXI. 59/1 Death will be due to acid poisoning, and the administration of what are called ‘buffer salts’..is instrumental in postponing the fatal issue. 1926Tansley & Chipp Stud. Vegetation vii. 124 This substance acts as an acid ‘buffer’ to the soil solution. 1961Lancet 22 July 176/1 The solvent contains 45 ml. of phosphate buffer (pH = 7·4). 1965[see alkalosis].
c. Biol. (See quot. 1939 and cf. buffer v. c.)
1939H. J. Muller in Biol. Rev. XIV. 271 Some ‘buffers’ may eventually arise—that is, genes that compensate for a change in one or more of the secondary effects of the primary gene in question. 1943Nature 16 Jan. 68/2 The distinction between switch genes and buffer genes.
d. A ‘memory’ device in a computer (see quot. 1962); a buffer memory.
1948Math. Tables & other Aids to Computation III. 289 Two 32-word delay lines, or reservoirs..are used as buffers between the main electronic part of the machine and the tape. 1956Control Engineering Nov. 117/1 Input Information..is transferred to the internal memory of the computer either directly or through an external storage device or buffer. 1958M. Phister Logical Design Digital Computers viii. 216 The buffer memory must be independent of the operation of the rest of the main memory. 1962S. Handel Dict. Electronics 40 Buffer,..a memory device used to compensate for a difference in the rate of flow of information in the different parts of a computing system.
2. fig.; spec. used attrib. or quasi-adj. to designate a state, zone, etc., lying between two others, usu. owing allegiance to neither, and serving as a means of preventing hostilities between them.
1858Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. I. xliv. 170 With no excuse offered as a buffer against the manifest absurdity. 1870Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. ii. (1873) 313 A sense of humor..may have served as a buffer against the..shock of disappointment. 1876B. Frere in W. B. Worsfold Sir B. Frere (1923) 43 Using the Afghans as a ‘buffer’ to avoid immediate contact between our frontier and the Russian. 1883Daily News 27 July 5/1 The ‘buffer’ State—to borrow a simile from Indo-Afghan politics—which lies between Natal and the late King's dominion. 1908Westm. Gaz. 7 May 1/3 A ‘buffer’ zone, inhabited by independent tribes, lies between the boundaries of British India and Afghanistan. 1920Discovery May 133/2 That treaty settlement of neutrality which regulated the status of Luxemburg as a buffer-duchy. 1931A. P. Herbert Derby Day 27 Belgium's a buffer nation.
3. attrib. and comb., as buffer-bank, buffer-frame, buffer-head, buffer-plate, buffer-rod, buffer-spring; buffer amplifier Electr. (see quot. 1938); buffer-bar, cross-piece (on an engine, etc.) carrying the buffers; buffer-block, (a) a framework of timber set up at the end of a railway line or siding; (b) a block on the end of a coach, which acts as a buffer; (c) the flat head of a buffer; buffer-box, -case, the case which encloses the buffer-rod and -spring; buffer-knot, an arrangement of two knots joining two parts of a fisherman's line in which the strain is taken by a piece of waxed silk which acts as a buffer; buffer-plunger, the portion of a buffer which slides in the buffer-case and carries the shock to the spring; buffer pool = buffer stock; buffer solution Chem., a solution containing a ‘buffer’ (see 1 b); buffer stock, a stock of a commodity held in reserve so as to reduce fluctuation in prices when supplies are low; buffer-stop = buffer-block (a); buffer store, (in a computer) = sense 1 d above.
1933J. H. Morecroft et al. Princ. Radio Communic. (ed. 3) vii. 727 The crystal oscillates at 2500 kc. and gives in its tank circuit about 50 volts of this frequency, and the *buffer amplifier raises this to about 400 volts at the same frequency. 1938G. P. Harnwell Princ. Electricity vii. 215 Multielectrode tubes not only amplify but also isolate the plate and grid circuits, avoiding the many undesired effects of interaction; these are frequently known as buffer amplifiers.
1900Westm. Gaz. 21 Aug. 6/1 The accident at Kent House Station, near Penge (in which a train ran into a *buffer-bank, injuring eleven people).
1889Century Dict., *Buffer-block. 1892Daily News 14 Jan. 3/4 The effect was to cause the waggon furthest from the engine to mount the fixed buffer block.
a1877Knight Dict. Mech. s.v. Buffer, The buffer bar or beam is attached to the framework of the car, and carries the *buffer-box, in which is the buffer-rod.
1880Engineering XXX. 294 Projections h′ on the *buffer case.
1883N.E. Railw. Specifications, 40 Also, the fixing of 6 Buffers, and *Buffer-frames, at ends of Sidings.
1835Specif. Bergin's Patent No. 6781 Within each *buffer head is a bar of iron.
1885Treherne in Pennell et al. Fishing 41 Although I can lay no claim to be the inventor of the ‘*buffer knot’, I can honestly say that I had never seen or heard of it before. 1895‘J. Bickerdyke’ et al. Sea Fishing 69 The buffer knot is another good one;..I learnt the way of tying it, shown in the illustration, from an Irish friend, who has greatly improved on the old original buffer.
1880Engineering XXX. 294 Tijou's mode of securing *buffer plungers.
1940Economist 24 Feb. 338/1 The price of the metal..had been previously pegged at the upper limit of {pstlg}230 per ton under the *buffer pool scheme.
1863Morning Star 13 Aug., The *buffer rod, which was..solid iron, was broken away.
1921Jrnl. Biol. Chem. XLIX. 183 The use of standard *buffer solutions for colorimetric comparison. 1951A. I. Vogel Text-Bk. Quantitative Inorg. Analysis i. 31 Buffer solutions usually consist of solutions containing a mixture of a weak acid or base and its salt.
1862Smiles Engineers III. 282 The necessity for..preventing hard bumping of the carriage-ends..hence the contrivance of *buffer-springs.
1935Economist 23 Feb. 456/1 At the end of February 7,476 tons of tin, being part of the *buffer stock held by the committee, will appear in ‘visible supplies’.
1878Engineer XLVI. 7 The standard *buffer stop on the London and South-Western Railway.
1962Gloss. Terms Automatic Data Processing (B.S.I.) 64 *Buffer store, a store used to compensate for a difference in rate of flow of data, or time of occurrence of events, when transmitting data from one device to another. 1964F. L. Westwater Electronic Computers iv. 80 Buffer stores are essentially a device for gaining time or for reconciling the different time scales inherent in a computing system.
▪ III. ˈbuffer, n.3
[f. buff v.3 to polish with a buff.]
a. A workman or workwoman who buffs knives, plate, etc.
b. = buff n.2 4.
c. In Photography, A machine used for polishing daguerreotype plates.
1854Scoffern in Orr's Circ. Sc. Chem. 90 Exposing them [Daguerreotype plates] to the friction of rubbers or buffers of cotton velvet or doeskin. 1875Ure Dict. Arts II. 3 The application of the highest polish by the use of a buffer. 1882Times 27 June, Robert Taylor, comb buffer.
d. A farrier's shoeing tool having a blunt chisel at one end to remove clinch nails and a point at the other to punch out nails embedded in the hoof.
1902V. Jacob Sheep-Stealers xiv, A smith's buffer. 1907Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 706/2 Farriers' tools, set of,..containing shoeing hammer, pointing hammer, rasp, whetstone, buffer, [etc.].
▪ IV. ˈbuffer, n.4 slang.
[Origin obscure; with sense 1 cf. bufe, bugher; with 2 and 3 cf. buffer n.1 and buffard; (but also the use of dog in sense 3).]
1. a. A dog. b. transf. A pistol; = barker 4.
[1688R. Holme Armoury iii. iii. §68 Cant Voc., Buffar, Dog-like.] 1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Buffer, a dog. 1824Scott Redgauntlet ch. iii, Here be a pair of buffers will bite as well as bark.
2. Sc. & dial. ‘A foolish fellow’ Jamieson 1808.
3. A fellow: usually expressing a slight degree of contempt.
1749H. Fitzcotton Homer i. (1748) 23 You're a buffer always rear'd in The brutal pleasures of Bear-garden. 1835Marryat Jacob Faithf. xxx, As the old buffer, her father, says. 1863M. E. Braddon Lady Audley iv. 30, I always said the old buffer would. 1876M. Hay Norah's Love T., Unless some old buffer is struck by..my sermons.
4. Naut. A chief boatswain's mate. Also, a petty officer.
1864Hotten Slang Dict. (ed. 3) 87 Buffer, a navy term for a boatswain's mate, part of whose duties is to administer the ‘cat’. 1916‘Taffrail’ Stand By! 30 It wus all I could do to stop meself larfin', 'specially when Number One sings art fur the chief buffer. 1941Weekly Telegraph 25 Oct. 6/3 The ‘Buffer’..is a petty officer ‘go-between’, his duty being that of passer-on of orders from officers to seamen.
▪ V. † buffer, n.5 Obs. slang.
[? f. buff n.2 2 + -er1.]
(See quot.)
1690B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Buffer, a Rogue that kills good sound Horses, only for their Skins. 1874J. C. Hotten Slang Dict. [cites Bacchus & Venus].
▪ VI. buffer, n.6 slang.
[f. buff v.4 + -er1.]
(See quot.)
1874J. C. Hotten Slang Dict., Buffer, the term was once applied to those who took false oaths for a consideration.
▪ VII. buffer, v.|ˈbʌfə(r)|
[f. buffer2.]
trans. To lessen the impact of, with or as with a buffer; to act as a buffer to; freq. fig.
1894Speaker 16 June 658/1 The crude..opinionativeness of the permanent official—which is used to being discounted and buffered by a lay chief. 1958Listener 2 Jan. 32/3 Continental statesmen..saw, with a clarity which has so far eluded our more buffered countrymen. 1958House & Garden Apr. 73/2 The kitchen..buffers the children's area from the main reception rooms.
b. Chem. To treat with a buffer (see buffer2 1 b). Also intr., to act as or use a buffer.
1923W. M. Clark Determ. Hydrogen Ions (ed. 2) ii. 44 Unless a solution is buffered..it is almost impossible to make an accurate electrometric determination of the pH... The failure to buffer against the effect of so-called neutral salts..may lead to gross error. 1955Sci. Amer. Feb. 60/3 A thin layer of protein solution..is inserted between a pair of liquids, one acid and one alkaline, which are ‘buffered’ to maintain a constant pH. 1956Nature 10 Mar. 478/1 The salivary glands..were incubated on a welled microscope slide in buffered substrate (pH 6·8).
c. Biol. To limit the effect of.
1936J. S. Huxley in Rep. Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci. 82 Each such step is immediately buffered by ancillary changes in genes and gene-combinations. 1944― On Living in Revol. vi. 71 Slightly deleterious genes have been rendered harmless or even beneficial by being ‘buffered’..by new combinations of other genes. |