| 释义 |
ˈslingshot orig. U.S.
Also sling-shot.
1. a. A catapult.
1849N. Kingsley Diary 23 Oct. (1914) 77 Many are getting up sling-shots,..but I hope we shall never have occasion to use them, but we must all do something to pass away the time. 1895Outing XXVII. 51/1 The natives, who now and then throw stones from a sling-shot at the bolder birds. 1901Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 15 Oct. 5/2 The police have started a crusade against the use of slingshots and air and pea guns by boys. 1966Economist 2 July 28/2 In peasant style, they placed women and children to the fore, and used slingshots with shepherds' accuracy to defend themselves against the detachment of police cavalry. 1977C. McCullough Thorn Birds i. 3 She played happily with the whistles and slingshots..her brothers discarded.
b. In various fig. and transf. uses implying propulsion from or as from a catapult (see quots.) Also as quasi-adv.
1951Sun (Baltimore) 10 July 15/3 [In a game of soft⁓ball] I've never seen a pitcher get away with an illegal pitch in the national or league play... Most of them throw just like I do—straight windmill—and out on the Coast, they throw slingshot. 1964W. Golding Spire ix. 159 The weather..began to squeeze bursts of rain out of the air like slingshot, so that although the men were wet, they were warm with the stinging. 1975New Yorker 30 June 81/1 That's the slingshot there—where the rubber is stretched between bumpers [in a pinball machine]. 1976J. James Bridge of Sand iii. 62 There came immediately on us a great storm of hail. The sling⁓shots of the Gods rattled on our helmets, bounced off our shields, almost cut our faces. 19766,000 Words 184 Slingshot. n, 1: a maneuver in auto racing in which a drafting car accelerates past the car in front by taking advantage of reserve power 2: a dragster in which the driver sits behind the rear wheels. 1979‘A. Hailey’ Overload iii. vii. 222 Harry London's feet hit the floor like slingshots.
c. Astronaut. A space flight which uses the gravitational pull of a celestial body in order to accelerate sharply and, usu., to change course. Freq. attrib. (see sense 3 below.)
1970N. Armstrong et al. First on Moon viii. 174 The three men on Apollo II had to decide whether to allow themselves to be ‘captured’ by lunar gravity—or take the slingshot and come home. 1971Encyclopedia Science Suppl. 350 The next flight now scheduled is for 1973, a ‘slingshot’ that will pass close to Venus on its way to Mercury.
2. A weapon consisting of a heavy weight wrapped in a cloth or equivalent and used as a cosh; a blackjack. ? Obs.
1891H. Herman His Angel ix. 149 He made a ghastly horrible sling-shot by filling a heavy tumbler with the iron tops screwed off from the fire-irons, and tying the lot in a handkerchief. 1904N.Y. Evening Post 24 June 2/6 The guards..are authorized to carry slingshots... [They] are heavily loaded with lead, and are securely attached to the wrist.
3. attrib., as (sense 1 a) slingshot crotch; (sense 1 b) slingshot dragster; (sense 1 c) slingshot action, slingshot attitude, slingshot flight, slingshot manœuvre, slingshot trajectory.
1979Guardian 3 Sept. 11/3 Accelerated and turned by the slingshot action of Saturn's gravitational field, the spacecraft is heading out past Titan on a new trajectory.
1970N. Armstrong et al. First on Moon iv. 83 We've completed our maneuvers to observe the slingshot attitude.
1923W. Cather Lost Lady ii. 16 They had behaved like wild creatures all morning;..cutting sling⁓shot crotches. 1962Engineering 5 Jan. 5/1 Sydney Allard's immaculately prepared ‘slingshot’ dragster, with its 480 hp. Roots-blown Chrysler V8 engine. 1971Guardian 16 Dec. 13/5 Designed..to use the gravitational fields of the planets for ‘sling-shot’ flights which—using Jupiter as the primary springboard—visit Saturn and Pluto, then Uranus and Neptune.
1970N. Armstrong et al. First on Moon iv. 82 A ‘slingshot’ maneuver, a trajectory which would take it behind the trailing edge of the moon. 1976Sci. News 18 June 391 The ‘slingshot’ trajectory between the worlds has carried Pioneer 11 about 16° above the plane of the ecliptic.
Hence ˈslingshot v. intr.; ˈsling-shooting ppl. a.
1969Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 5 July 6/4 ‘I could stay with him in a draft (the two cars running one behind the other).’.. Yarborough said he purposely gave Baker two chances to slingshot past to learn if he was fast enough. 1975B. Garfield Death Sentence xxi. 106 The lights were all gone: stone-throwing and sling-shooting kids routinely used them for target practice. 1980Dirt Bike Oct. 68/1 Ward's body inched forward with increasing speed until he slingshotted at blurring velocity to and beyond the Yamaha. |