| 释义 |
clock-work|ˈklɒkwɜːk|
1. The mechanism or works of a clock.
1662S. P. Acc. Latitude Men in Phenix II. 509 The Farmer..desir'd this Artificer to show him the Nature of Clockwork, and what was requisite to make up a perfect Clock. 1816J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art I. 374 Clock⁓work, originally imported those wheels, pinions, and other mechanism, which constituted the striking part, or what was formerly called the clock part of a movement for measuring time..But at present..the larger movements whether they strike or not, are called clocks.
b. transf. Mechanism similar to that of a clock, wheels set in motion by weights or springs.
1712Arbuthnot John Bull (1755) 17 A puppet moved by clock-work. 1716Lady M. W. Montagu Lett. I. xiv. 49 A large cabinet full of curiosities of clockwork..one of which..was a craw-fish. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. iii. 263 A silver triumphal car..which moves by clock-work about the room. 1874Knight Dict. Mech. I. 572/1 Clock⁓work has been applied to lamps..to light them at a specific prearranged time. 1878N. Amer. Rev. CXXVII. 215 To go off by clock-work.
c. with reference to the automatic and mechanical nature of the action, or its unvarying regularity; hence such phrases as like clock-work, regular as clock-work, etc.
1679J. Goodman Penitent Pard. i. ii. (1713) 22 Their Religion was a kind of clock-work..moving in a certain order, but without life or sense. 1789H. Walpole Reminisc. vii. 29 The king's last years passed as regularly as clock-work. 1799Southey Nondescripts, Dancing Bear, He would have tortured my poor toes..and made them move like clock⁓work In musical obedience. 1824Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 194 This jewel of a valet, this matchless piece of clock-work. 1849Hare Par. Serm. II. 215 Acting together without any jarring, going as the phrase is by clock⁓work. 1872Mark Twain Innoc. Abr. xii. 78 All is clock⁓work, all is order.
2. fig.
a1628Preston Serm. Bef. His Majestie (1630) 18 In this curious clocke-worke of religion, every pin and wheele that is amisse distempers all. 1657T. Jordan Tricks of Youth Prol., Lest I betray The Plot, and show the clockwork of the play. 1710Berkeley Princ. Hum. Knowl. §60 The clockwork of nature..is so wonderfully fine and subtle. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 84 The play of vegetative and vital clock-works.
3. a. attrib. or adj. (rarely as predicative adj.): Of or like clock-work; automatic, mechanically regular. b. comb., as clockwork-like adj.
a1764Lloyd To G. Colman Poet. Wks. 1774 I. 116 A kind of clock-work talking. 1780Cowper Table Talk 529 The clockwork tintinnabulum of rhyme. 1824S. E. Ferrier Inher. lvii, A very..quiet, old-fashioned family, quite clock-work in our ways and hours. 1847Tennyson Princ. Prol. 71 Round the lake A little clock-work steamer paddling plied. 1861Sat. Rev. 7 Dec. 583 A pattern of clock⁓work punctuality and concentrated energies. |