| 释义 |
shrapnel, n.|ˈʃræpnəl|
Also erron. -ell. Orig. with capital initial.
[f. the name of Gen. H. Shrapnel, who invented this shell during the Peninsular War.]
1. A hollow projectile containing bullets and a small bursting charge, which, when fired by the time fuse, bursts the shell and scatters the bullets in a shower.
The term Shrapnel shell was adopted officially (instead of spherical case shot) in accordance with the Report of a Select Committee at Woolwich dated 11 June, 1852. Used in forms Shrapnel's or shrapnel shell, shrapnel shot or as collect. sing.
(a)1806Capt. J. F. Ogilvie in Shrapnel Petit. Ho. Lords 14 The excellent effect of your Spherical Case (Shrapnel Shells). 1807Sir R. Wilson in Life (1862). II. 148 If we had only some of Shrapnell's shot. 1812Lieut. Boucher in Shrapnel Petit. Ho. Lords 10 The French complained much of the ‘Shrapnel Case Shot’. 1870Daily News 31 Aug. 2 The new Indian gun..throwing a nine-pound shrapnel shell. 1890Nature 4 Sept., The efficiency of a projected shrapnel shell is materially altered by an increase in the velocity. 1940[see sense 3 below]. 1944Daily Tel. 22 Feb. 4/6 Most people know what a shrapnel shell (now temporarily obsolete) used to be.
(b)1812Lieut. H. Hough Diary 27 June (MS.), Our batteries cracking shrapnells over their ears. 1858Maj. Singleton in Shrapnel Petit. Ho. Lords 21, I ordered Shrapnel to be fired, which did great execution. 1877Field Exerc. Infantry 384 A slight earthen parapet is sufficient to protect men from the effects of Shrapnel.
attrib. and Comb.1854F. A. Griffiths Artil. Man. (ed. 6) 82 The Shrapnell fuze. 1909Dehan Dop Doctor xxx, A dusty stretch of shrapnel-raked ground. 1918G. Frankau Judgement of Valhalla 7 And floundered, torn and bleeding, Over trenches, through the wire, With the shrapnel-barrage leading To the prey of our desire. 1923Kipling Irish Guards in Gt. War I. 222 A shrapnel-barrage fell also on the supports. 1939Auden & Isherwood Journey to War 71 If you looked closely you could see dull red shrapnel bursts.
2. Austral. and N.Z. Mil. slang. Small change, notes, or coins of low denominations.
1919W. H. Downing Digger Dialects 44 Shrapnel,..tattered French bank notes of small denominations. 1977Camera & Ciné Nov. 24 ‘I don't suppose you'd have a bit of shrapnel?’.. I shook fifty cents out of my purse and handed it to him.
3. Fragments from shells or bombs (see quot. 19401).
1940N. & Q. CLXXIX. 278/1 The public has chosen to ignore the facts that shrapnel shell has become obsolete and that anti-aircraft guns fire high-explosive only. In consequence the shell fragments which are at present descending upon its devoted head are unhesitatingly referred to by the public as ‘shrapnel’ and the correct expression, ‘shell fragments’, has begun to verge on pedantry. 1940W. S. Churchill Secret Session Speeches (1946) 20 Our barrage will be firing, and..great numbers of shell splinters usually described most erroneously as shrapnel, will be falling in the streets. 1946Chambers's Jrnl. May 228/2 A viciously singing piece of shrapnel put his helmet straight for him. 1976Times 18 Aug. 12/5 What journalists and other non-gunners call shrapnel are in fact fragments from high explosive bombs or shells. 1982Times 21 June 4/5 One found a piece of shrapnel from the bomb in the pocket of his overalls.
Hence (rare) ˈshrapnel v., to shell with shrapnel; ˈshrapnelize v. (transf.).
1837T. Hook in New Monthly Mag. L. 156 They were sweeping up the mud, and spooning it into a cart with an almost inevitable certainty of Shrapnelizing the ‘passing villagers’. 1901Westm. Gaz. 2 Dec. 7/1 Our guns shrapnelled their advance. |