| 释义 |
▪ I. slope, n.1|sləʊp|
Also 7 sloop, 8 sloap.
[Aphetically f. aslope adv.
The adv. was freq. written and printed as two words, and occurs in contexts which would readily admit of taking a as the indefinite article, e.g.1551More Utopia ii. (1895) 129 An other ryuere..runneth downe a slope.]
1. a. A stretch of rising or falling ground; a portion of the earth's surface marked by a gradual ascent or descent, whether natural or artificial. spec. in pl., ski-slopes.
1626Bacon Sylva §537 The growing [of moss] upon Slopes. 1693Evelyn De la Quint. Compl. Gard I. 167 These Banks or Slopes are very useful..for producing Early and Hasting Peas. 1727–46Thomson Summer 603 Falling fast from gradual slope to slope. 1799Young View Agric. Lincoln. 19 A slope of country..very well wooded. 1809–10Coleridge Friend (1865) 88 The very large garden that occupies the whole slope of the hill on which the house stands. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. ii. 11 My eyes were fixed upon a white slope some thousands of feet above me. 1891E. Peacock N. Brendon I. 340 The village stood on a gentle slope. 1924, etc. [see nursery slope s.v. nursery 8 c]. 1972P. A. Whitney Snowfire (1973) vi. 100 Snow bunny..was a term applied to beginners, usually female, who haunted the slopes. 1976J. Farris Fury (1977) xviii. 306 He bought..clothing for the slopes and for après-ski.
transf.1784Cowper Task iv. 202 The self-complacent actor, when he views..The slope of faces, from the floor to th' roof.
fig.1850Tennyson In Mem. lxiv, On Fortune's crowning slope. 1887Besant The World went ii. 14 We are now nearing three score years, and on the downward slope of life.
b. An inclined surface of the nature of a bank, esp. one artificially constructed, as in fortification or engineering.
1702Milit. & Sea Dict. (1711) s.v. Counterscarp, Counterscarp is properly the Talus, or Slope of the Ditch, on the farther side from the Place. 1707Mortimer Husb. (1721) I. 12 You may lower the Ground on each side with a slope two Foot deep. 1774Hull Dock Act 8 At any time after that the said slope or batter is made. 1811Wellington in Gurw. Disp. (1837) VII. 638 Some time must elapse before a slope will be made in it by battering. 1838Simms Public Wks. Gt. Brit. 19 The slopes of the excavation shall be finished as the cutting advances. 1876Voyle & Stevenson Milit. Dict. 390/1.
c. Mining. An inclined roadway.
1863Harper's Mag. Sept. 459/2 There is an entrance to the mine by means of an inclined plane, called a slope. 1874Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 41 To get down to these [seams] there are at present two slopes and one tunnel... Each of the slopes is furnished with hoisting-engines. 1883Gresley Gloss. Coal-m. 227. 1890 Daily News 8 Feb. 5/8 A dozen men escaped..in the log slope some distance away from Cook's slope.
2. a. Upward or downward inclination; deviation from the horizontal or perpendicular.
1611Cotgr., Talus, a slope, sloping, slopenesse. 1664Evelyn tr. Freart's Archit. iii. 16 Its extraordinary projecture, which is after a sort augmented by the sloops which the Architect has given to the drops which compose the ornament of the nether face. 1704J. Harris Lex. Techn. I. s.v. Talus, The Talus of a Bastion or Rampart, is the Slope allowed to such a Work. 1759Mills tr. Duhamel's Husb. ii. i. (1762) 125 Where the ground had not slope enough for the water to run off. 1815Elphinstone Acc. Caubul (1842) I. 117 The slope of the countries on each side of the mountains, is pointed out by the direction of the streams. 1863Barry Dockyard Econ. 139 The frame timbers are then cut by the sawyers to the slope required by the moulds. 1878Huxley Physiography 15 The rapidity with which a river flows will depend upon the amount of slope in its bed.
b. Mil. A position between perpendicular and horizontal.
1868Regul. & Orders Army §615 e, The crowbar is carried at the Slope resting on the right Shoulder. 1887Times (weekly ed.) 28 Oct. 18/4, I..brought the rifle from the ‘slope’ to the ‘port’.
c. The tangent of the angle between a line and the horizontal; the ratio of the projection on the y-axis of an infinitesimal segment of a graph to its projection on the x-axis; the value of the first differential of some quantity, esp. with respect to distance.
1889J. A. Fleming Alternate Current Transformer I. iii. 92 We shall call the trigonometrical tangent of the angle PTN, the slope of the tangent at the point P. Ibid. 93 The firm line curve is a curve of sines... The dotted line is a curve of sines, whose ordinate QN at any point represents the slope of the tangent at P on the original curve. 1898Proc. R. Soc. LX. 478 If the slope of RR is positive we may say that large values of x are on the whole associated with large values of y, if it is negative large values of x are associated with small values of y. 1905Physical Rev. XX. 174 The difference of temperature slope at different parts of the two bars was measured by means of thermoelectric couples. 1933G. van Praagh Introd. Calculus i. 9 If y is a function of x, the differential coefficient or derivative of y with respect to x measures the rate of change of y with x for some particular value of x, x1, and is the slope of the graph of f(x) at the point x1. 1959Listener 26 Feb. 371/2 The ball will slow up because of the gravitational ‘slope’. 1971Physics Bull. Feb. 86/1 A ln σ against 1/T plot should, at the temperature of conversion, exhibit a change of slope.
3. a. A slant; an inclined surface of any kind.
1707Mortimer Husbandry 397 [In] those Boughs that lean from the Head, cut the sloap on the lower side. 1828Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. II. 98 Shell triangular,..cartilage slope rather protruded. 1837Goring Microgr. 91 Two pieces of wood carved out to fill the slope of the upper part of the face. 1928L. E. H. Whitby Med. Bacteriol. iii. 46 Secondary cultures, or subcultures, are made by picking colonies from the plate and planting them on to slopes. 1951― & Hynes Ibid. (ed. 5) iii. 24 Slopes are made by allowing the medium to set in test-tubes or bottles tilted about 10° from the horizontal. 1974R. K. Pawsey Techniques with Bacteria iv. 51 The loop is introduced to the base of the slope and a wavy line made on the slope with the loop gradually rising to the top.
b. A desk, or substitute for this, having a sloping top.
1833T. Hook Love & Pride, The Widow xi, A small writing-desk, or as it is technically called by cabinet-makers, a slope. 1897Army & Navy Stores List 742 Blotting Desk Slopes.., room under the pad for loose papers.
4. Naut. (See quot.)
1867Smyth Sailor's Work-bk., Slope of Wind, a breeze favouring a long tack near to the required course, and which may be expected to veer to fair.
5. Electronics. The mutual conductance of a valve (so called because it is numerically equal to the slope of one of the characteristic curves of the valve).
[1918Wireless World Nov. 458 (heading) A thermionic valve slopemeter. Ibid., The effectiveness of a valve as a relay and amplifier depends primarily on the slope of the grid voltage-plate current characteristic.] 1932B.B.C. Year-bk. 395 It is now the common practice of valve manufacturers to give a figure for the mutual conductance (or slope) of each of their products. 1948C. A. Quarrington Mod. Practical Radio & Television (ed. 2) I. x. 78 The measurement of slope may be carried out under any conditions of grid voltage. 1953A. H. W. Beck Thermionic Valves ix. 246 The mutual conductance or slope = (∂Ia/∂Vg), Va const.
6. U.S. slang. An oriental; more recently, spec. a Vietnamese. (Abusive.) Cf. slopehead s.v. slope- a, slopy n., and slant n.1 10.
1948G. H. Johnston Death takes small Bites v. 121 He seemed a hell of a lot more concerned with his bunch of flea-bitten slopes and his pots of medicine. 1966Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. 1964 xlii. 45 Slope and slopehead were the most popular terms applied to all ‘indigenous personnel’ [in Korea in 1950–1]. 1966New Statesman 25 Mar. 436/3 He confirms the soldiers' contempt for the Vietnamese (‘slopes’ and ‘gooks’). 1969[see dink n.3]. 1978R. Thomas Chinaman's Chance iii. 35 All the Chinaman's gotta do is get into Saigon... Once he's in nobody's gonna notice him, because all those slopes look alike.
7. Used attrib. to designate a quantity defined as a rate of change or derivative instead of as a ratio; chiefly in slope resistance.
1931L. B. Turner Wireless vii. 203 In the metallic parts of the circuits..the slope resistance ∂e/∂i and Ohm's resistance e/i are equal. Ibid. viii. 235 It is necessary to allow..for the very small slope or differential permeability dB/dH of the core. 1971Gloss. Electrotechnical Power Terms (B.S.I.) ii. ii. 18 Slope resistance, value of forward resistance calculated from the slope of the straight line used when determining the threshold voltage from the forward current/voltage drop characteristics of a diode or thyristor in the on-state.
▪ II. slope, n.2 colloq.|sləʊp|
[f. slope v.2]
An act of making off, running or slinking away, etc.
1859Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 2) 416 Slope, a running away, elopement, escape. 1897–in Eng. Dial. Dict. (‘to do a slope’).
▪ III. slope
obs. var. slap n.2 Sc., sleep n.
▪ IV. slope, a. Now poet.|sləʊp|
Also 6 sloape, 8 slop.
[f. as slope n.1]
1. Sloping, slanting.
1502Arnolde Chron. 64 Thou most..kitt it soo with a slope draught. 1555W. Watreman Fardle of Facions App. 315 But se there be none ascence ther vnto by staiers, but onely..by a slope bancque of Turfes. 1594Blundevil Exerc. iii. i. ii. (1636) 295 What is the Zodiaque? It is a broad, oblique, or slope Circle. 1626Bacon Sylva §880 There the Water Rowleth, and Moveth,..with a Sloper Rise, and Fall. 1677Moxon Mech. Exerc. iii. 46 The slope Teeth of the Worm wheel will gather into the slope Grooves of the Spindle. 1724Sir W. Hope Vind. Art. Self-defence 131 Cross his sword..by a slop or squint motion of your sword-hand. 1735Somerville Chase iii. 440 To drain the stagnate Fen, to raise the slope Depending Road. 1811Self Instructor 27 For the slope hands, turn your left side a little towards the desk. 1884Tennyson Becket ii. ii, Holy Church..will not wreck, nor our Archbishop Stagger on the slope decks.
†2. Affording no certainty. Obs. rare.
1587Mirr. Mag., Forrex xviii. 6 For hope is sloape, and hold is hard to snatche.
▪ V. slope, v.1|sləʊp|
Also 6–8 sloap (7 sloape), 7 sloop-, 8 slop.
[f. slope a.]
1. intr. To take, to move or proceed in, an oblique direction.
In some cases with suggestion of sense 2.
1591Sylvester Du Bartas i. v. 538 He..sloaping swiftly overthwart those Seas..Makes double haste to finde some happy strand. 1598Ibid. ii. ii. iv. Columnes 319 Where Titan's..Chariot sloaps. 1633Cal. of State P., E. India & P. VIII. 380 The houses being so near the waterside that a man coming ashore may presently slope into one and find chapmen. 1798Coleridge Ball. Dark Ladie iv, The sun was sloping down the sky. 1825W. Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) II. 1 Crossing Lord Carnarvon's park,..and sloping away to our right over the downs. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. ii. 22 The sun was sloping to the west. 1890Clark Russell Marriage at Sea iv, The [setting] sun that was now sloping into the Atlantic.
2. To assume, to have or be in, a sloping or slanting position or direction.
α1709W. Dampier Voy. III. ii. 88 The burning Island..runs from the Sea a little sloaping towards the Top. 1765A. Dickson Treat. Agric. (ed. 2) 226 That the first coulter be set almost perpendicular..; that the second slope but a little. 1796T. Twining Trav. India, etc. (1893) 128 On the left of the fire-place was a sofa, which sloped across the room. 1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 106 The canal..should slope about four inches in the first 200 yards. 1877A. B. Edwards Up Nile xviii. 478 The corner where the mountain slopes down to the river.
β1707Sir W. Hope New Method Fencing (1714) 11 His Sword's Point must slop towards the middle part of his Adversary's advanced Thigh.
3. trans. To bring into, to place or put in, a sloping or slanting position; to bend down; to direct downwards or obliquely.
1605Shakes. Macb. iv. i. 57 Though Pallaces and Pyramids do slope Their heads to their Foundations. 1638Milton Lycidas 31 Till the Star..Toward Heav'ns descent had slop'd his westering wheel. 1667― P.L. i. 223 The flames..slope their pointing spires. 1748Thomson Cast. Indol. i. lviii, When Dan Sol to slope his wheels began. 1833Ellis Elgin Marbles I. 14 They come.., sloping their way. 1844Ld. Houghton Mem. Many Scenes 104 His spirit of splendour has gone forth, Sloping wide violet rays.
b. spec. To bring (a weapon) into, or hold (it) in, a sloping position. Also transf.
1625Markham Souldiers Accid. 24 Sloape your Musquet. 1634Massinger Very Woman iii. i, Face to your left hand;—Feather you hat;—slope your hat;—now charge. 1688Holme Armoury iii. xix. (Roxb.) 147/2 Slope your pike, is to draw the But end of the pike (being shouldred) almost to the ground and the point aloft. 1707Sir W. Hope New Method Fencing 13 He must, as the thrust is coming home, slop his point to make a cross. 1796Cavalry Instr. (1813) 243 In general swords will be carried with the blade resting on the hollow of the shoulder, and by the word Slope Swords. 1807J. Barlow Columb. vii. 346 Till..the meeting ranks Slope their strong bayonets. 1859F. A. Griffiths Artill. Man. (1862) 34 The leading division will..slope arms.
4. To cut, form, or make, with a slope or slant.
1611Cotgr., Taluër, to slope, to set, cut, or make aslope. 1715Desaguliers Fires Impr. 122 Let both be bezell'd or sloap'd. 1763Mills Pract. Husb. IV. 216 The first [way] is, to slope the cion off a full inch, or more. 1797Trans. Soc. Arts XV. 188 The bank and ditch being properly laid out and sloped. 1815J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art I. 216 Each side..should be sloped off, to receive the bond of the adjoining work. a1878Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. (1879) l. 249 Mouldings which received much rain..were very much more sloped than in Classic work.
b. absol. To give a slope to the letters in writing.
1837Dickens Pickw. xiv, The lines they used to rule in the copybooks at school, to make the boys slope well.
▪ VI. slope, v.2 colloq.|sləʊp|
[Originally U.S.; perh. formed by wrong analysis of let's lope (see lope v.), but cf. some of the uses of slope v.1 1.]
1. a. intr. To make off, depart, decamp.
1830Palladium of Brit. N. Amer. (Toronto) 29 Aug. 224/1 Bad climate indeed, wonder people dont all slope. 1839Marryat Diary America Ser. i. II. 232 Here are two real American words:—‘Sloping’—for slinking away; ‘Splunging’, like a porpoise. 1857Slang Dict. 19 He sloped, he went off. 1866M. E. Braddon Lady's Mile i, We may as well slope,..it's nearly 7 o'clock. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 80 You may go straight..to the..police station as soon as I slope.
b. With advs., esp. off. Also, to move (off, in, etc.) in a leisurely manner; to amble (in, etc.); to depart surreptitiously, sneak off.
1851Mayne Reid Rifle Rangers vi. 50 We can't go on to Washington—what can we do but slope home again? 1861Sat. Rev. 22 June 629 If it is pretty lively, they stay; if it is dull, they slope off. 1876Trollope Prime Minister II. xvi. 265 You should have seen the policeman sloping over and putting himself in the way. 1898G. W. E. Russell Collect. & Recoll. xxxiv. 477 Whoever slopes homewards, the Government must stay. 1922Joyce Ulysses 298 Come in, come on, he won't eat you... So Bloom slopes in with his cod's eye on the dog. 1980Private Eye 26 Sept. 13/1 Anyway, he sloped in for a chinwag with the Boss.
2. trans. To leave (lodgings) without paying.
In the sense of ‘cheat, trick’, slope is recorded in dialect use from 1828 onwards.
1908Reminis. Stonemason 100 They had ‘sloped’ their lodgings.
▪ VII. † slope, v.3 Obs.—1
(Meaning obscure.)
13..Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. xxxvii. 772 And ȝif þe luste riȝt wel slope, Cum whon he doþ of his Masse-cope.
▪ VIII. slope, adv.|sləʊp|
[Aphetic for aslope adv.]
In a sloping or slanting manner or position. (In later use only poet.)
a1470Tiptoft Cæsar v. (1530) 8 Theyr horsys ronne in placys slope steepyng. 1572L. Mascall Plant. & Graff. (1592) 73 Ye shall bore slope a hole with an Auger, in the biggest part of the bodie of the Tree. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 129 Both sortes must be laied slope, that the water may run away. 1653H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. lv. (1663) 217 The Temple..is built all slope fifteen fathom high. 1667Milton P.L. iv. 591 That bright beam, whose point now raisd Bore him slope downward to the Sun. 1807J. Barlow Columb. i. 188 Steep before them stood, Slope from the town, a heaven-illumined road. 1820Keats Hyperion i. 204 Hyperion..Came slope upon the threshold of the west. |