| 释义 |
▪ I. section, n.|ˈsɛkʃən|
Also 6 sectione, sectioun.
[a. F. section, or directly ad. L. sectiōn-em, f. sect-, ppl. stem of secāre to cut. Cf. Sp. seccion, Pg. secção, It. sezione.]
1. a. The action, or an act, of cutting or dividing. Now rare exc. with reference to surgery or anatomical operations.
1559tr. Geminus' Anat. 4/1 Neyther in man only, is seene the perfecte arte of nature, but in the Anatomie or Section of any other beast, shall you fynde the like wysdome and industrie of the worke master. 1577Hanmer Anc. Eccl. Hist. 226 That clause..The sonne to be of one substance with the father, was..allowed..neither to be by diuision of substance neither by section or parting asunder. 1600Holland Livy lv. Brev. 1241 The young prince pined away with the paine of the stone in the bladder, and whiles they would seeme to cut him for it they killed him out of hand in the very section. 1615,1661[see Cæsarean 2]. 1631Chapman Cæsar & Pompey Ded., The..section of acts and scenes. [Cf. ante, the division of acts and scenes.] 1656tr. Hobbes' Elem. Philos. (1839) 140 Lines and superficies may be exposed by section, namely, a line may be made by cutting an exposed superficies. 1657J. Watts Scribe, Pharisee, etc. i. 21 He will by a hasty and imprudent Saw, or Razor cut of a part, and make a section, and endanger life. a1682Sir. T. Browne Tracts (1683) 58 Their course of mowing seems somewhat different from ours. For they cut not down clear at once, but used an after section, which they called Sicilitium. 1836Todd's Cycl. Anat. I. 657/1 Animals have been bled to death by the section of the larger bloodvessels. 1870M. Foster in Q. Jrnl. Microsc. Sci. X. 125 The cake with the imbedded object..in a few minutes is ready for section. Ibid., The sections may then be made either with a microtome or with a hand razor. 1883Brunton in Nature 15 Mar. 467 Setchenow explains the increased rapidity of reflex action after section of the cord below the medulla oblongata.
†b. Division into parties. Obs.
1639Heywood Lond. Peaceable Estate Wks. 1874 V. 371 The Tranquillity of Kingdomes free from Section, tumult, and faction.
†c. = cæsura. Obs.
1585Jas. I Ess. Poesie (Arb.) 60 Remember also to mak a Sectioun in the middes of euery lyne, quhether the lyne be lang or short. 1695[? Wheeler] Roy. Gram., Prosodia 17 This Section of a word just before the last Syllable is call'd Cæsura.
†d. The point of cutting or division. Obs.
1571Digges Pantom. i. xxviii. H iv b, Multiply the portions that are betweene any two sections or places in the distance of your two stations. Ibid. i. xxxv. L ij, Cut this last drawen line, and at y⊇ section make a marke. 1599E. Wright Err. Navig. D 1, We may make a table which shall shew the sections and points of latitude in the meridians of the nautical planisphere: by which sections, the parallels are to be drawne.
2. A part separated or divided off from the remainder; one of the portions into which a thing is cut or divided.
a. gen.
1815J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 122 It is necessary that the water should begin to fall at BC, with the least possible velocity; and that the height of the water FB should be no more than is necessary to fill the section B. 1876J. Parker Paracl. i. vii. 106 The theologian is entitled to claim astronomy, geology, botany, agriculture, and chemistry, as sections of theology. 1884tr. Lotze's Logic 178 We have to content ourselves with breaking up the whole series of values into sections and acting as if the conditions were the same throughout each section.
b. A subdivision of a written or printed work, a statute, or the like. Often represented by the symbol § (preceding a numeral figure); also abbreviated sect. (rarely sec.).
Although in some few books section has been adopted as the designation of a division superior to the ‘chapter’ (cf. G. abschnitt), the common practice from the 17th c. onward has been to apply the word to the lowest order of numbered divisions. In most recent books the ‘section’ (or, at least, the division denoted by the symbol §) either consists of a single paragraph, or, if it extends to several paragraphs, commonly has no head-line separated from the text. In modern Acts of Parliament the ‘section’ (for which the abbreviations sect. and § are both in official use) is a subdivision of the ‘chapter’ (i.e. Act) containing a specific provision or enactment. In some works (e.g. Bell's Comment. Laws of Scotland), the ‘Section’ (abbreviated ‘Sect.’ in the table of contents) is the division next below the ‘Chapter’, and is itself subdivided into numbered portions marked with the symbol §.
1576Fleming tr. Caius' Dogs (1880) 14 Such Dogges as serue for fowling, I thinke conuenient and requisite to place in this seconde Section of this treatise. 1628Coke On Litt. i. i. §1. 8 b, Whereof more hereafter in this Section. 1683Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing ii. 9, §2. Of the Office of a Master-Printer. Ibid. 10 (headed) Sect. II. 1714S. Cunn Doctr. Fractions 43 The Directions laid down in Sect. 3 of Chap. II. 1738Warburton Div. Legat. i. i. I. 1 Book I. Sect. I. 1769Beattie in Dyce Mem. (Aldine ed.) p. xxvi, It will be regularly distributed into chapters and sections. 1806Med. Jrnl. XV. 192 Mr. R. has divided his answer into several parts or sections. 1810Bentham Packing (1821) 187 In the printed editions (it is true) we see each statute divided into sections, and each section numbered. But this is the work of the printer only or his editor. 1857Act 20 & 21 Vict. c. 25 §2 Ordinances framed by the Commissioners under Sections Twenty-eight and Twenty-nine of the same Act. 1870Act 30 & 34 Vict. c. 75 §34 Provided that this section [of the Act] shall not apply to [etc.]. 1874Stubbs Const. Hist. xviii. (1896) III. 250 The preceding sections of this chapter.
c. Nat. Hist. Used variously by different writers for a subdivision of a classificatory group, e.g. of a class, order, family, or genus. In Bot. now chiefly = sub-genus; but some writers (as Bentley) use it for a division of a sub-genus.
1720P. Blair Bot. Ess. iii. 148 According to Tournefort's Method, Malva becomes the Section of a Class. Althæa, Alcæa, &c. are several Genera of this Section. 1819Macleay Horæ Entomol. I. 55 Latreille has..proposed to make but one genus of them, ascribing to the modern genera the name of sections. 1877Bennett Thomé's Bot. 238 It is usual to arrange the orders which make up a class into Series, the genera which make up a family into Tribes, and the species which make up a genus into Sections. 1885Athenæum 3 Jan. 20/3 The author..remarked that amongst the æluroids the section of Viverrina formed a very distinct group. 1899Heinig Gloss. Bot. Terms, Section, a part separated by division; a group of correlated species arranged under genera or sub⁓genera.
d. A separable portion of any collection or aggregate of persons, e.g. of the population of a country; a group, distinguished by a special variety of opinion, forming part of a political or religious party; one of several groups into which the membership of a learned society is divided according to the various branches of study in which the members are severally interested.
1832Babbage Econ. Manuf. xx. (ed. 3) 194 This section consisted of seven or eight persons of considerable acquaintance with mathematics. 1852Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. xvi. 205 The question..whether of the two sections held the abstract right. 1874Green Short Hist. vi. §1. 267 The Church had at this time..sunk into a mere section of the landed aristocracy. 1884Manch. Exam. 14 May 5/5 To one section of the House Mr. Power's speech gave great delight.
e. (a) French Hist. One of the electoral districts into which France was divided under the Directory. (b) U.S. An area of one square mile into which the undeveloped lands are divided. (c) Chiefly U.S. A district or portion of a town or country exhibiting uniform characteristics or considered as divided from the rest on account of such characteristics. (d) Austral. and N.Z. An area of undeveloped land, variable in size. (e) Austral. and N.Z. A plot of land suitable for building on. (f) In various African countries, an administrative district (see quot. 1951).
(a)1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. II. i. iv, The Sixty Districts shall become Forty-eight Sections.
(b)1785Jrnls. Continental Congr. U.S. (1933) XXVIII. 299 The plats of the townships..shall be marked by sub⁓divisions into sections of 1 mile square. 1809F. Cuming Sk. Tour Western Country (1810) 197 This Crouse is a wealthy man, having..a farm of two sections, containing thirteen hundred acres. 1849E. Chamberlain Indiana Gazetteer (ed. 3) 420 North of Eel river are about 40 sections of barrens intermixed with small prairies. 1890Stock Grower & Farmer 8 Mar. 5/3 The intervening sections of the Atlantic and Pacific railroad land grant [in Arizona] are owned by the cattle men and are not fenced. 1924H. Croy R.F.D. No. 3 3 He had only one hundred and twenty acres of land, while most of the farmers had a quarter, or a half section, even a section. 1975New Yorker 27 Oct. 114/2 We have six hundred and forty acres—what you call a section—and they wish to flood it to make recreation.
(c)1816Pickering Vocab. U.S. 170 Section. Since the French Revolution this word has been much used here instead of part, quarter, &c. Ex. ‘In this section of the United States.’ It is not thus used in England. 1832Webster. 1865E. Burritt Walk to Land's End 171 In estimating the production of a dairy, the farmers of this section do not make much account of the breed, size or color of the cows. 1879Tourgee Fool's Errand iv. 20 The war is over... For a few months there may be disorders in some sections; but they will be very rare. 1907Standard 19 Jan. 7/2 The northern section of Kingston is deserted.
(d)1836S. Austral. Gaz. & Colonial Register 18 June 4/2 Surveyed land shall be divided, as nearly as may be, into sections of eighty acres each, with the exception of the site of the first town, which shall be divided into acre sections. 1841W. Deans Let. 25 Mar. in J. Deans Pioneers of Canterbury (1937) i. 31 Some part of the rural sections may not just be what could have been wished. 1923in J. Reid Kiwi Laughs (1961) His idea was that he and I should get the firewood rights on a thousand-acre section, up under the mountain reserve. 1950N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Jan. 26/2 Ten 10-acre sections have been allocated to returned servicemen.
(e)1836[see (d) above]. 1851Lyttelton (N.Z.) Times 11 Jan. 5 The immediate choosing of the town acre sections has been a most important and useful measure. 1886F. Hume Myst. Hansom Cab (1887) v. 19 She..purchased a small section at St. Kilda, and built a house on it. 1935J. Guthrie Little Country ii. 43 They would much rather have had an eighth-acre section. 1961B. Crump Hang on Minute Mate 97 Tony..was paying off a section in Tokoroa and talking about putting in for one of them Government loans to build a house with. 1977N.Z. Herald 8 Jan. 4–6/2 (Advt.), Waiheke Island, sections and batches urgently wanted.
(f)1951K. L. Little Mende of Sierra Leone v. 104 The overall picture..is one of small towns around each of which is spread a number of component villages. This combination of town and villages constitutes a social and political entity which, in the older sense, corresponds to what is officially termed, nowadays, the ‘section’ of a chiefdom. 1957M. Banton W. Afr. City viii. 151 He is assisted by seven section chiefs and certain tribal officials. 1977Times of Zambia 7 Sept. 7/7 He has received the reports from all governors in the province on the recent village and section elections.
f. Bookbinding. (See quot. 1859.)
1859Stationers' Hand-bk. 81 Section, any number of sheets of paper folded together are termed a Section. 1880J. W. Zaehnsdorf Bkbinding 5 The book should be divided into lots or sections of about half-an-inch thick, that will be about 15 to 20 sheets, according to the thickness of paper.
g. Mil. Orig., a fourth part of a company or the fourth part of a platoon. Now used of various small tactical units.
1863Kinglake Crimea (1877) III. i. 138 The Coldstream broke into open column of sections. 1889Infantry Drill 61 The company..will then be told off into two half-companies and four sections. 1913Army Order 323 1 Oct. 4 The non-commissioned officers and men of the machine-gun section..will be distributed for discipline and administration in peace amongst the four companies. 1915D. O. Barnett Let. 24 Mar. in Denis Oliver Barnett (1915) 100 At first I thought the whole section was done in, as rifles and equipment flew in the air. 1939J. T. Gorman Army of To-Day iii. 69 All the men in a section or platoon are taught to use the light (Bren) machine-gun individually. 1943Britain's Mod. Army ix. 192/2 Columns of threes are now used, each column in a platoon representing a section with the commander at its head. Thus a section can ‘peel off’ quickly to a threatened flank, without leaving a gap in the column as used to occur when a section left the old column of fours. 1968R. M. Barnes Brit. Army of 1914 i. 35 The infantry advanced in small parties—probably sections in fours, spaced out at fairly wide intervals, or in a ‘diamond formation’ of sections or platoons.
h. Prosody. Used by Guest for: A member of a verse, esp. a hemistich of an OE. or ME. alliterative line.
1838Guest Eng. Rhythms i. vii. I. 149.
i. Mus. (See quot. 1866.)
1866Engel Nat. Mus. ii. 83 A section consists generally of two phrases; and a simple period consists of two sections.
j. U.S. A portion of a sleeping-car containing two berths.
1874M. E. Herbert tr. Hübner's Ramble i. iv. (1878) 38 Each window [in the U.S. railroad cars] allows for two beds, one at the top of the other, unless the traveller has taken a ‘section’, i.e., the whole space of one window. 1892Gunter Miss Dividends (1893) 245 Making up his bed in the state⁓room which is unoccupied, and more roomy than a section.
k. U.S. Railways. ‘The smallest administrative subdivision of a railroad. It is usually a mile or two in length and is designated by a number.’ (Cent. Dict. Suppl.; see also quot. 1890.)
1890E. P. Alexander in Railways of Amer. 156 Each of the supervisors of road has his assigned territory divided into ‘sections’, from five to eight miles in length. At a suitable place on each section are erected houses for a resident section-master and from six to twelve hands. Ibid., At least twice a day track-walkers from the section-gangs pass over the entire line of road. Ibid., The work of the section⁓men is all done under regular system.
l. One of the component parts of something which is built up of a number of similar portions so as to admit of enlargement when necessary, or which is constructed to be taken to pieces for facility of transport.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., Section,..a detachable portion of a machine or instrument when made up of a number of parts: e.g. one of the triangular knives; a row of which is attached to the cutter-bar of a harvesting-machine. Ibid., Sectional Steam-boiler, one built up of portions secured together in such a way that the size may be increased by addition of sections. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 355 There is always a steamer in sections in every story of a good expedition.
m. Geol. (See quot.)
1882Geikie Text-bk. Geol. vi. 635 A number of groups or stages similarly related constitute a series, section (Abtheilung) or formation, and a number of series, sections, or formations may be united into a system.
n. U.S. Railways. (See quot. 1890.)
1872Newton Kansan 3 Oct. 3/2 The caboose and the next three cars to it of the 1st section was badly smashed up. 1890Railways of Amer. 162 But the more usual way of handling extra trains, when circumstances will permit, is to let them precede or follow a regular train upon the same schedule. The train is then said to be run in ‘sections’, and a ten minutes' interval is allowed between them. 1948Chicago Tribune 11 Apr. 1 Ho! the second section! And no flagman out from the train we stopped.
o. Mus. A group of similar instruments forming part of a band or orchestra; also the players of such instruments. See also rhythm section s.v. rhythm n. 9 a.
1880Grove Dict. Mus. II. 569/2 The Instrumental Band, as now constituted, naturally divides itself into certain sections, as distinct from each other as the Manuals of an Organ. 1944W. Apel Harvard Dict. Mus. 520/1 It is only in the use of a relatively strong string section that Monteverdi's orchestra is progressive. 1955Keepnews & Grauer Pictoral Hist. Jazz 103/2 Those two men added were both saxophone players; the total of three, instead of a single clarinetist, made a ‘section’. That of course is one of the key words, one of the fundamentals of big-band music. 1977J. Wainwright Do Nothin' viii. 124 The sax section—Ric..fills it out, with the tenor.
p. A metal bar, esp. one with a cross-section that is not a simple shape (see quots.).
1881Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. 703 A book containing rules and measurements for the construction of various forms of sections of rolled iron, has been drawn up... It is full of formulae applicable to different sizes and forms of sections. 1902Ibid. LXII. 499 Vollkommer suggests an arrangement of plant for the continuous casting and rolling of light sections from fluid metal. 1924H. J. Skelton Econ. Iron & Steel 278 In Great Britain the product in bars or rods shaped in a rolling mill, when not round or square or flat in cross section, is called a ‘section’ or sectional material. 1956A. K. Osborne Encycl. Iron & Steel Industry 412/2 Structural shapes. (Sections.) Hot rolled steel bars of various cross-sectional contours such as channels, angles, bulb angles, I and H beams, T and Z bars, joists and other complicated contours. 1965M. H. T. Alford tr. Tselikov & Smirnov's Rolling Mills ii. 28/2 The second type [of mill] is used for lighter sections nearer in size to the products of medium section mills. 1971W. K. V. Gale Iron & Steel Industry 181 Section (shape) (profile), any rolled product which is not a round, square, or flat. This is British usage. In USA the term is often shape and in Europe, profile.
q. Austral. and N.Z. A fare stage on a bus or tram route.
1931V. Palmer Separate Lives 285 He had travelled out the two sections to Aunt Rachel's dingy little house in the suburbs. 1948Landfall June 112 He fingered the two pennies that remained from the half-crown... He'd have to walk to the end of the first section, catch the tram there.
3. Math.
†a. A segment of a circle. Obs.
1570Billingsley Euclid i. Def. xix. 4 A section or portion of a circle, is a figure which is contayned vnder a right lyne, and a parte of the circumference, greater or lesse then the semicircle. 1654H. Phillippes Purch. Pattern (ed. 2) 165 The half-Circle and quarter-Circle may be measured also by this rule, but other Sections are very hard and troublesome, and scarce to be found out, without knowing the content of the whole Circle or Semicircle. 1715Leoni Palladio's Archit. (1742) I. 91 If..a perfect semicircle should not be convenient..we must then make use of a lesser section.
†b. Intersection. Obs.
1667Primatt City & C. Build. 159 From the section of these Arches to the point given, a right Line drawn cuts the Line given perpendicularly. 1830J. de Vega's Jrnl. Tour xiii. (1847) 102 A curiously-built cross, situated in the section of the four principal streets.
c. The curve of intersection of two superficies.
1704J. Harris Lex. Techn. I. s.v., The common Section of two Planes is always a right Line, being the Line supposed to be drawn on one Plane by the Section of the other, or by its Entrance into it. a1845Levy in Encycl. Metrop. II. 165 If through a given point..on this surface, we conceive a normal plane, the intersection of this plane with the surface will be a certain curve, which we shall call a normal section. 1887J. H. Smith Geometr. Conic Sect. 43 For ab is the common section of the plane of projection with a plane perpendicular to it and passing through AB.
d. The cutting of a solid by a plane; the plane figure resulting from such a cutting; the area of this. (Cf. conic section .) Hence, of a material object, the figure which would be produced by cutting through it in a certain plane.
1704J. Harris Lex. Techn. I., Section in Mathematick, signifies the cutting of..a Solid by a Plane. 1715Desaguliers Fires Impr. 156 The Passage in the Brick-Work.., whose Section must be 36 Inches, whether it be square or oblong. 1824Tredgold Strength Cast Iron, etc. 59 Of the strongest Form of Section for revolving Shafts. 1831Brewster Optics xvii. 151 Every plane passing through the axis is called a principal section of the crystal. 1839G. Bird Nat. Philos. 115 A tube, or channel, whose section is greater at one part than another. a1878Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. (1879) I. 248 Thus, if the normal section of the rib be square, the section of the mouldings is made to fit that figure. 1885J. Casey Analyt. Geom. 281 Sections of a cone made by parallel planes are similar. 1898H. R. Mill in Jrnl. Sch. of Geog. (U.S.) II. 293 Great screes, which give to the valleys a rounded or U-shaped section.
e. The action of dividing a line into parts. golden section, also medial section, median section: the division of a line in extreme and mean ratio.
1820Leslie Elem. Geom. & Pl. Trig. (ed. 4) 63 It will be convenient..to designate..this remarkable division of a line..by the term Medial Section. 1898Chrystal Introd. Algebra xxii. 329 To find a point P in the line AB such that AP2 = AB, PB (Problem of ‘Golden Section’).
4. a. A drawing representing an object (e.g. a building, a piece of machinery, a portion of the earth's crust) as it would appear if cut through in a plane at right angles to the line of sight.
In strict use, the term denotes a delineation confined to what is in actual contact with the imaginary cutting plane. Sometimes, as in quot. 1793, it is loosely used for what is more properly called a sectional elevation.
1669Staynred Fortif. 7 They are represented in the Profile, or Section. 1691T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. 121 Three perpendicular length-way sections..and..a transverse section of the Hull. 1725Halfpenny Art Sound Building Pl. 19 The Chamber Plan, and Section. 1793Smeaton Edystone L. §32 The Plate..shews part of the outside and part of the inside, so as to be at once, both an elevation and a section. 1845Darwin Voy. Nat. xx. (1852) 473 It is a real section (on the scale of ·517 of an inch to a mile) through Bolabola in the Pacific. 1879Encycl. Brit. IX. 422/1 The section or profile is made on a plane perpendicular to the lines of intersection of the planes or slopes, and therefore represents the traces of these planes on the sectional plane.
b. advb. phr. in section.
1860Tyndall Glac. ii. xvii. 321 The portion of the glacier which is shown in section. 1904R. C. Jebb Bacchylides (Proc. Brit. Acad.) 6 The painter's plan was to show both the sea-depths and the upper world in section.
c. Geol. A surface exposed by a cutting or by some natural agency, showing the succession of strata.
1858H. D. Rogers Geol. Pennsylv. II. ii. 1027 Section, an actual or ideal exposure of any part of the earth's crust, showing the strata edgewise, as if they were laid open by a cut. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. xxiii. 162 The wall of the Mattmark See is a fine glacier section. 1877Huxley Physiogr. 23 Natural sections are frequently exposed in river-beds, sea-cliffs and inland valleys.
5. A thin slice of a vegetable or animal structure, or of an inorganic body, cut off for microscopic examination.
1870Stirling in Jrnl. Anat. May 234, I can slice such an embryo into from seventy to eighty sections in the long direction. 1874Amer. Naturalist Apr. 252 Mr. Charles Stewart obtains sections of fresh leaves by [etc.]. 1902G. H. Fowler in Encycl. Brit. XXX. 739/1 The tissue..is cut into sections either by the Rutherford, Cathcart, or some similar section-cutter.
6. Printing. The sign §, originally used to introduce the number of a ‘section’ (sense 2 b); subsequently used also as a mark of reference to notes in the margin or at the foot of a page. Also called section-mark.
The primary use of the sign seems to have become rare in the 18th c., and to have been revived in the latter part of the 19th c. under German influence. German printers give to this mark the name of paragraph.
1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. Character, Characters in Grammar, Rhetoric, Poetry &c...§ Section, or Division. 1770Luckombe Hist. Printing 259 The Sign which implies the word Section, is a Sort..seldom employed, because in Work which is divided into Chapters, Articles, Paragraphs, Sections, or any other Parts, they are commonly put in lines by themselves, either in Large Capitals, Small Capitals, or Italic... But the Sign of Section is sometimes used in (Latin) Notes, and particularly such as are collected from foreign books. 1875Southward Dict. Typogr., Section (§), a mark of reference. It stands fourth in order, and immediately after the double dagger. Sometimes it is used to mark the division of a chapter into parts or sections, whence its name. 1894Amer. Dict. Printing, Section-mark.
7. Comb.
a. objective; as (sense 5) section-cutter, section-cutting, section-smoother; (sense 2 e (b)) section corner; (sense 2 g) section-commander, section-leader; (sense 2 k) section boss, section crew, section-gang, section hand, section-man, section master, section work; (sense 2 o) section man, section work.
1870Daily Territorial Enterprise (Virginia City, Nevada) 22 Oct. 3/1 The clothes of the *section boss caught upon the brake..as he was in the act of jumping off. 1947K. D. Lumpkin Making of Southerner 163 The deacon was section boss on the railroad.
1889Infantry Drill 306 During an extension *section commanders will see that the men take their proper intervals.
1817Niles' Weekly Reg. XII. 97/2 At the distance of every mile..*section corners are established. 1947Mich. Hist. Sept. 319 He traced it up to the section corner and discovered that the cruiser had signed his name on the tree.
1884*Section-crew [see push-car s.v. push-]. 1962W. Stegner Wolf Willow i. ii. 33 Anonymously denounced in the Leader for nearly derailing the speeder of a section crew. 1976Columbus (Montana) News 1 July 8/4 My sister and her friend thought I should go on the hand-car with the section crew.
1870Stirling in Jrnl. Anat. May 230 The *section cutter which I am about to describe. 1874Amer. Naturalist Jan. 59 A new section cutter which is principally adapted for preparing sections of soft vegetable tissues and organs.
1878S. Marsh (title) *Section-cutting.
1890*Section-gang [see 2 k].
1873Newton Kansan 27 Feb. 3/2 A drunked *section hand..laid down upon the railroad track to take a nap. 1904F. Lynde Grafters xxiii. 284 When the section hands pelt stray dogs with new spikes from the stock keg. 1969Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 2 Nov. 5/2 There are no sectionhands in the pass these days, nature finally triumphed in the thirties, closing the line.
1903Daily Chron. 28 Dec. 3/2 Controlled individual firing, under the direction of group and *section leaders, is the only effective method.
1869W. H. Jackson Jrnl. 1 Aug. in Time Exposure (1940) xi. 182 Got the *section men to take us aboard their handcar. 1890[see 2 k]. 1921Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 23 Oct. 27/5 A section man..was killed last night while jumping from a moving train. 1936D. McCowan Animals Canad. Rockies viii. 73 In spring..the section men burn the grass along the right-of-way of the railroad. 1955L. Feather Encycl. Jazz vii. 194 Reluctant soloist but excellent sectionman.
1872W. S. Huntington Road-Master's Asst. p. iii, The enormous expense of track repairs..may be greatly reduced by a reform in the every-day practice of the track-layer and *section-master. 1890Section-master [see 2 k].
1887Amer. Naturalist XXI. 597 Dr. P. F. Mall recommends a *section-smoother constructed on the following principle.
1891C. Roberts Adrift in Amer. 71 *Section work is track repairing. 1958C. Fox in P. Gammond Decca Bk. Jazz vii. 91 Its attack and vitality..made up for any roughness in the section-work. 1977J. Wainwright Do Nothin' v. 66 Miller's secret? Size, tight section work and damn good arrangers.
b. Special comb.: section-beam (see quot.); Section Eight (also 8) U.S. Mil. slang, discharge from the Army under section eight of Army Regulations 615–360 on the grounds of insanity or inability to adjust to Army life; hence section-eight v., (usu. in pass.) to discharge from the Army on such grounds; section head, (a) the person in charge of a section of an organization; (b) the heading of a section of a newspaper or periodical; section house, (a) (see quot. 1856); (b) U.S. a house occupied by the men responsible for the maintenance of a section of a railway; section-line, (a) the boundary of a section (now only U.S.); (b) a line drawn to indicate the manner of making a section; section-liner (see quot.); section-mark (see sense 6); section-plane, a surface exposed by section; section-point, a mark used to indicate the end of a section of a verse; section sergeant, a police sergeant in charge of a section.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Section-beam (Warping, etc.), a roller which receives the yarn from the spools, either for the dressing-machine or for the loom.
1943Yank 23 July 15/2 If it weren't for Yank and its puzzles I'm sure there would be plenty of *Section 8s in places like this. 1945Yank 7 Dec. 8/1 Nobody knew whether he was getting section-eighted out of the Army. 1950E. Hemingway Across River & into Trees xxxiii. 207 You stay in until you are hit badly or killed or go crazy and get section-eighted.
1971J. Aiken Nightly Deadshade iii. 31 The place..becomes a reservoir of feebles, bullied by the *section heads. 1973W. H. Hallahan Ross Forgery ii. 14 Redhaired man with a Sandhurst accent..a former section head of British Military Intelligence. 1977Time 15 Aug. 5/2 The new format includes different section heads, a new type face for headlines, hairline rules to set off columns.
1856A. Wynter Curios. Civiliz. 465 The *section-house, an establishment generally attached to the chief station of each division, in which the unmarried policemen are lodged. 1869W. H. Jackson Jrnl. 24 Aug. in Time Exposure (1940) xi. 183 Decided to board at the section house rather than cook ourselves. 1890Pall Mall Gaz. 7 July 5/1 This daring disobedience was loudly cheered by the men who crowded the section-house windows as spectators. 1903N.Y. Even. Post 29 Aug. 1/2 Crowbars and tools..were identified as having been taken from the railroad section house. 1976Columbus (Montana) News 1 July 8/4, I accompanied my sister and her beau to a dance at a section house near the railroad.
1828P. Cunningham N.S. Wales (ed. 3) II. 148 The *section-lines being made to run either east and west, or north and south, according as the general course of the river best suits. 1872Newton Kansan 12 Sept. 2/4 The farmers..are leaving space for a road along the section lines. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. I. 100/2 To trace the section-line on this development—that is, to draw the line in which the material is to be cut so as to form both the parts of the cylinder—erect perpendiculars [etc.]. 1948H. A. Jacobs We chose Country 24 We bowled along, climbing past snatches of woods and the straight section-line roads to a high plateau.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Section-liner, a device for ruling parallel lines.
1889Buck's Handbk. Med. Sci. VIII. 109 The *section-plane, as made by the saw, passed just sinistrad of the meson.
1893F. Thompson Poems 55 note, I have..used an asterisk to indicate the caesura in the middle of the line, after the manner of the old Saxon *section-point.
[1956Police Jrnl. XXIX. i. 52 Sergeants are ‘right in the picture’. Supervising each man on his patrol is still an important part of his duties but he is now the head of a team whose job is to police the section.] 1964M. Banton Policeman in Community ii. 15 The division is divided into four sections, each of which is in the charge of a sergeant... Their *section sergeants use the station as their headquarters and go out from there to supervise their constables. 1973J. Wainwright Pride of Pigs 12 Sergeant Crawley took some backhanders... And you in favour of section sergeants taking nawpings?
Add:[1.] e. A Caesarean section; = Cæsarean n. 2. colloq.
1960G. W. Target Teachers 211 Well, you see, I was small—though I've broadened out since then—and they said my babies would always be too big, I'd always have to have a section. 1978S. Kitzinger Experience of Childbirth (ed. 4) 315 During labour the obstetrician may decide that a section is necessary if there is evidence of foetal distress. 1986Daily Tel. 5 Feb. 19/1 Delays in ordering sections..contributed, it is alleged, to the death of two children.
▪ II. section, v.|ˈsɛkʃən|
[f. section n.]
1. trans.
a. To divide into sections.
1819Keats Cap & Bells xi, With special strictures on the horrid crime, (Section'd and subsection'd with learning sage,) Of faeries stooping on their wings sublime To kiss a mortal's lips. 1856Lady Lytton in Devey Life (1887) 413 The rest was geographically sectioned out for the rest of Europe.
b. To cut through so as to present a section.
1891G. Neilson in Athenæum 30 May 707/3 The mound, wherever sectioned, invariably shows a steady succession of horizontal layers.
c. With off: to make (an area, part of a structure, etc.) into a separate section.
1960‘E. McBain’ Give Boys Great Big Hand xiii. 156 The Carellas had sectioned off one corner of the house and disconnected the heating to it. 1976J. Snow Cricket Rebel 72 The authorities sectioned off the stand next to the dressing room for Army marksmen.
2. intr. To admit of being cut into sections.
1903E. H. Sellards in Amer. Jrnl. Sci. July 89 The spores..are brown in color, somewhat flexible, and section readily on the microtome.
3. trans. To cause (a person) to be compulsorily detained in a mental hospital in accordance with the provisions of the relevant section of the Mental Health Act of 1983 or (formerly) that of 1959.
1984Brit. Med. Jrnl. 1 Dec. 1542/3 Before the 1983 Act came into being no social worker ever refused my request to come and see a patient with a view to sectioning the patient under the old section 29. Ibid., I..needed to section a mentally ill patient urgently. 1986M. Dunbar Catherine vi. 91 Personally, I do not believe that sectioning an anorectic is any answer at all, unless he or she wishes it. 1987Openmind Feb–Mar. 5/1 The author uses the case of Mrs Z as an example. Sectioned by her husband, she was then confined in a secure unit.
Hence ˈsectioning vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1887Amer. Naturalist XXI. 595 For the purpose of sectioning, the eggs are transferred from the water used in washing to 50% alcohol. 1900Brit. Med. Jrnl. 5 May 1110 A happy stroke of the sectioning knife, passing through the entire length of the proboscis of a filariated mosquito. |