| 释义 |
▪ I. clause, n.|klɔːz|
Also 4–6 claus, 5 clawse, clausse.
[a. OF. clause, ad. late or med.L. clausa, app. in sense of L. clausula close of a period or formula, conclusion, clause, dim. of *clausa, itself not recorded as n. in ancient Latin; f. L. claudĕre, claus-um to close. Cf. Pr. clauza; It. uses clausula.]
1. a. A short sentence; a single passage or member of a discourse or writing; a distinct part or member of a sentence, esp. in Gramm. Analysis, one containing a subject and predicate. Also attrib. and Comb.
a1225Ancr. R. 46 Vour crevices a uour halue, mid teos uour efter clauses. Crux fugat omne malum, etc. a1300Cursor M. 25257 (Cott. Galba) Þis claus es cald þe thrid bone, Fader in erth þi will be done. 1399Langl. Rich. Redeles Prol. 72 Constrewe ich clause with þe culorum. 1413Lydg. Pilgr. Sowle i. xv. (1859) 12, I can speke neyther word ne clause. 1577tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 556 The testimony of Dauid..doth in a maner conteine three sundry members or clauses. 1601Shakes. Twel. N. iii. i. 165 Do not extort thy reasons from this clause, For that I woo, thou therefore hast no cause. 1742Young Nt. Th. vii. 751 Why thunder'd this peculiar clause against us, All-mortal, and All-wretched! 1865Dalgleish Gram. Analysis 15 A phrase is a combination of words without a predicate; a clause is a term of a sentence containing a predicate within itself; as, a man who is wise. 1925Grattan & Gurrey Our Living Lang. 89 Such a link is most accurately described as a Co-ordinating Clause-link. 1928Jespersen Internat. Lang. ii. 152 Ke that, conjunction..corresponds with its initial k to the other relative (i.e. clause-connecting words). 1961R. B. Long Sentence & its Parts i. 20 The second type of clause equivalent makes use of words that normally do not participate in clause structure at all. 1964C. Barber Present-Day Eng. vi. 143 A formal clause-structure with main–subordinate relations.
b. (= L. clausula.) The close or end of a period.
c1440Prompt. Parv. 80 Clawse or poynte (or clos P.), clausula (clausa P). 1605Bacon Adv. Learn. i. iv. §2 Men began to hunt more after..the choiceness of the phrase..and the sweet falling of the clauses.
2. A particular and separate article, stipulation, or proviso, in any formal or legal document.
Often used with attribute or defining phrase as codicillary clause, penal clause, saving clause, etc. Also, in Sc. Law, clause of devolution, a clause devolving an office or duty upon a person in certain contingent circumstances; clause irritant, a clause in a deed of settlement by which the acts and deeds of a proprietor contrary to the conditions of his rights become null and void; clause resolutive, a clause by which the rights of a proprietor rendered null and void by a clause irritant, become resolved and extinguished. (See1807–8Bell Dict. Law Scotl.)
c1374Chaucer Troylus ii. 679 He shall me never binde in soche a clause. 1447O. Bokenham Seyntys (1835) Introd. 1 The formal cause [he] Settyth in dew ordre clause be clause. 1495Act 11 Hen. VII, c. 42 Pream., A Clause of Warantise accordyng to the seid dede. 1574tr. Littleton's Tenures 45 a, Without anye suche clause sette or put in the deede. a1600Hooker Eccl. Pol. viii. §6 Add thereto an express clause of special provision. 1730Baker's Chron. an. 1678 (R.) [A bill] for exclusion of all popish members to sit in..parliament (with a clause in favour of the Duke of York). 1792Anecd. W. Pitt II. xxix. 125 There is a clause in the Act of Settlement, to oblige every Minister to sign his name to the advice which he gives his Sovereign. 1858Bright Sp. India 24 June, I am not proposing any clause in the Bill. 1875Stubbs Const. Hist. III. xviii. 23 The passing of a statute of twenty clauses.
†3. Close, conclusion. Obs.
[1275Stat. Westm. I, Pream., In crastino clausi Paschae.] 1581Lambarde Eiren. iv. xix. (1588) 600 The clause of Easter. 1630M. Godwyn tr. Ann. Eng. 301 God was pleased he should end his long life..with so happy a clause. 1634–5in N. Riding Rec. IV. 24 After the clause of Easter next. 1724Ramsay Tea-t. Misc. (1733) I. 100 Be thou merry late and air This is the final end and clause.
†4. clause-rolls (Rotuli clausi): = close-rolls.
1700J. Tyrrell Hist. Eng. II. 837 These Letters..remain upon Record in the Tower on the Clause Roll of this Year.
▸ Clause 28 n. Polit. (in the United Kingdom) a clause of the 1988 Local Government Bill (which became section 28 of the 1988 Local Government Act) which forbids public spending by local authorities on any activity that promotes homosexuality, and thereby imposes restrictions on certain books and educational material, works of art, etc.
1988Financial Times 7 Apr. 19/7 He is donating the proceeds to ‘Stop the Clause’, the lobby against *Clause 28. 1997D. K. Peacock Harold Pinter & New Brit. Theatre vi. 138 The increasing limitation of dissent that was pervading Britain..was most clearly evident in legal restraints such as Clause 28, the Official Secrets Act, and, somewhat less overtly, the gradual extension of police powers. 2001Mirror (Electronic ed.) 18 June Relations plummeted to an all time low during the debate over the repeal of an anti-gay law, Clause 28, last year.
▪ II. clause, v.
[f. clause n. 1.]
intr. To construct clauses.
1895Proc. 14th Conv. Am. Instruct. Deaf 124, I have endeavored to make my pupils read and speak like hearing people, teaching them to phrase and clause.
So ˈclausing vbl. n.
1908Daily Chron. 3 Feb. 3/5 The clausing of the Bill..is not..as effectual as it might be. |