| 释义 |
▪ I. catamaran|ˌkætəməˈræn, kəˈtæmərən|
Also 7 cattamaran, 8 catamoran, kattamaran, 9 catamarran.
[ad. Tamil kaṭṭa-maram tied tree or wood (kaṭṭa tie, bond; maram wood).]
1. a. A kind of raft or float, consisting of two, three or more logs tied together side by side, the middle one being longer than the others; used in the East Indies, especially on the Coromandel coast, for communication with the shore. Also applied to similar craft used in the West Indies for short voyages, and to others of much larger size used off the coast of South America; as well as to a kind of raft made of two boats fastened together side by side, used on the St. Lawrence and its tributaries. In recent use, a sailing boat with twin hulls placed side by side, widely used as pleasure craft and in sailing contests.
1697W. Dampier Voy. I. vi. 143 The smaller sort of Bark-logs..are more governable than the other..This sort of Floats are used in many places both in the East and West Indies. On the Coast of Coromandel..they call them Catamarans. These are but one Log, or two, sometimes of a sort of light Wood..so small, that they carry but one Man, whose legs and breech are always in the Water. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 24 (Y.) Coasting along some Cattamarans made after us. 1779Forrest Voy. N. Guinea 263 Rafts of bamboo, like the catamarans on the coast of Coromandel. 1794Rigging & Seamanship I. 242 Balsas, or Catamaran, a raft made of the trunks of the balsa..lashed together, and used by the Indians..in South America. The largest have 9 trunks of 70 or 80 feet in length, are from 20 to 24 feet wide, and from 20 to 25 tons burthen. 1804A. Duncan Mariner's Chron. III. 112 We saw two of the catamarans..coming towards us, with three black men on each. 1834H. Caunter Orient. Ann. i. 4 The catamaran..is generally about ten feet long by eighteen inches broad. 1876Times 25 Oct. (D.) The fan of her screw propeller came in contact with a floating catamaran. 1957Times 13 Dec. 15/2 The catamaran has strongly caught the fancy of those to whom speed is the prime satisfaction to be had from sailing. There were races for catamarans at Cowes last summer.
b. attrib.
1883Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 47 Tumble overboard Life-raft. Reversible Catamaran principle.
†2. Applied to a kind of fire-ship or instrument of naval warfare resembling the modern torpedo; esp. to those prepared in 1804 to resist Napoleon's intended invasion of England. Obs.
1804Chron. in Ann. Reg. 419/2 This undertaking commonly known by the appellation of the Catamaran expedition. 1809Naval Chron. XXII. 453 The explosion of a catamaran. 1882Allardyce in Athenæum 26 Aug. 268/2 He experimented with Fulton's ‘catamarans’—the prototypes of the modern fish torpedoes—against the Boulogne flotilla.
fig.1822Byron in Moore Life V. 319 If you have any political catamarans to explode, this is your place. 1832Blackw. Mag. XXXI. 480 He is..the very catamaran of oratory, and when he explodes, etc.
3. Applied to a cross-grained or quarrelsome person, esp. a woman. colloq. [? Associated with cat.]
1833Marryat P. Simple vi, The cursed drunken old catamaran. 1848Lytton Harold iv. 168 To dress that catamaran in mail. 1868M. Collins Anne Page II. 223 That old catamaran of a maiden aunt of his.
▪ II. ˌcatamaˈran, v. nonce-wd.
[f. prec. n.]
To blow up with a catamaran. Also fig.
1820H. Matthews Diary Invalid (1835) 288 In fact, Napoleon has so catamaranned the foundations, that more than one écroulement has already taken place. |