| 释义 |
concentration|kɒnsənˈtreɪʃən|
[n. of action f. concentrate: see -ation. Cf. F. concentration.]
1. a. The action of bringing to or towards a common centre or focus; the state of being so brought or massed together.
1634Peacham Gentl. Exerc. i. xi. 38 The concurse and concentration of the broken beames. a1691Boyle Wks. II. 630 (R.), I could not perceive by any concentration of the lunar beams..that her light did produce any sensible degree, either of cold or heat. 1804Wellington in Gurw. Disp. III. 393 The concentration of your force in one position. 1881Hooker in Nature No. 619. 446 The concentration of related species in the same area.
attrib.1841Catlin N. Amer. Ind. (1844) II. xxxii. 1 It is the concentration point of a number of hostile tribes.
fig.1646H. Lawrence Comm. Angells 92 There is a concentration of thoughts. 1750Johnson Rambler No. 80 ⁋8 Gloom and silence produce composure of mind, and concentration of ideas. 1874Green Short Hist. vii. 340 This concentration of all power in the hands of a single man.
b. The keeping of the mental faculties fixed on one object or set of objects.
a1846B. R. Haydon (O.), The evidence of superior genius is the power of intellectual concentration. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Manners Wks. (Bohn) II. 49 Nothing so much marks their manners as the concentration on their household ties. 1865Tylor Early Hist. Man. i. 13 It is a question, whether the student..might not lose more in largeness of view than he gained by concentration.
c. concr. A concentrated collection or mass.
1783Phil. Trans. LXXIII. v, A great quantity of water coming..from the subterraneous concentrations.
†2. (See quots.) Obs.
1674Grew Anat. Plants, Lect. Mixture i. (1682) 233 Take good Oyl of Vitriol, and drop it upon Oyl of Anise⁓seeds; and they will forthwith incorporate together; and..harden into a perfect Rosin..The Concentration of these two Liquors is likewise so universal, that the Rosin is not made by Precipitation, but almost a total Combination of the said Liquors. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Concentration (according to Dr. Grew), is the highest Degree of Mixture, as when two or more Atoms or Particles of the Mixture, do touch by the receiving or thrusting of one into the other.
3. a. Chem. The strengthening of a solution by contraction of its volume, as by evaporation of part of its water; the condition thus produced.
1790Blagden Spir. Liquors in Phil. Trans. LXXX. 338 To shew when a given weight, or volume, of a certain spirit and water are mixed together, how much their bulk would be diminished; or, what is called by the distillers the concentration. 1799Hatchett in Phil. Trans. LXXXIX. 316 The phosphoric acid..was proved, after concentration. 1882Vines Sachs' Bot. 758 Solutions of medium concentration.
†b. The separation of gold, etc., from an alloy by a chemical process: cf. cementation.
1689Packe tr. Glauber's Wks. i. 325 Where more such like concentration of Metals shall be mentioned. Ibid. ii. 100 The concentration of Gold and Silver into Tinctures. 1799G. Smith Laborat. I. 75 Parting of gold from silver by cementation..is also called parting by concentration.
c. Mining. ‘The removal by mechanical means of the lighter and less valuable portions of ore’ (Raymond Mining Gloss. 1881).
1873J. S. Phillips Metallurgist's Comp. (ed. 2) 472 Dry concentration by Hand..should always be resorted to.
4. The bringing of parts or elements closer together; condensation.
1865M. Arnold Ess. Crit. i. 19 But epochs of concentration cannot well endure for ever; epochs of expansion, in the due course of things, follow them. 1869Huxley in Sci. Opinion 28 Apr. 486/3 As the result of this concentration, he argues for the development of an amount of heat which will dissipate the mass once more into a molecular chaos such as that in which it began. 1871Ruskin Munera P. Pref. (1880) 26 My affected concentration of language.
5. Pathol. ‘A term for the character of a pulse which is small and thready’ (Syd. Soc. Lex. 1882).
6. Amalgamation of business firms, factories, etc., in a particular industry; more generally, the action of developing parts of an industry at the expense of other parts.
1930Economist 1 Mar. 455/1 In Westphalia, where the greatest degree of ‘concentration’ had been achieved, the process had been based on a quota system regulated by a compulsory cartel. 1940Ibid. 16 Mar. 455/2 In industry, a policy of concentration on the largest and most suitably located producers..was carried out, and a similar policy in retail distribution led to the closing of a large number of small shops. 1941Ibid. 8 Mar. 297/1 The necessity for a measure of induced—and, if necessary, compelled—concentration of production in restricted industries is no novelty. 1961Times 31 May 23/3 ‘Diversification’ and ‘concentration’ have come to have popular meanings often divorced from reality. ‘Concentration’, he claimed, was often used to describe growing monopoly.
7. attrib.: concentration camp, a camp where non-combatants of a district are accommodated, such as those instituted by Lord Kitchener during the South African War of 1899–1902; one for the internment of political prisoners, foreign nationals, etc., esp. as organized by the Nazi regime in Germany before and during the war of 1939–45; also fig.; concentration cell Electr., a cell whose difference of potential is due to the difference of concentration of the solutions in which the electrodes are immersed.
1901J. Ellis in Hansard's Parl. Deb. Ser. iv. XC. 180 The policy of placing the women and children confined in the concentration camps in South Africa, whose husbands and fathers are in the field, on reduced rations. 1901Contemp. Rev. Oct. 528 Considerable controversy has taken place concerning the Concentration Camps. 1930O. Williams tr. P. Monelli's Toes Up iii. 210 Those who returned from being prisoners were parked in a concentration camp under the guard of other soldiers. 1934Ann. Reg. 1933 173 Germany..For dealing with the masses of prisoners special concentration camps were opened. 1934C. Lambert Music Ho! i. 52 The purely fashionable change in the tastes of the concentration camp of intellectuals to whom Diaghileff played up. 1935B. Russell Relig. & Sci. x. 248 In Germany and Russia,..those who openly disagree, even if they escape with their lives, are liable to forced labour in a concentration camp. 1940H. G. Wells Babes in Darkling Wood iii. i. 234 The White Paper of Nazi atrocities in the concentration camps and elsewhere. 1941[see Aryanization b]. 1943[see Aryan a. 2]. 1959J. Braine Vodi v. 76 He caught sight of his own arms, reduced almost to concentration-camp dimensions, the veins blue and obscenely swollen against the white skin.
1900Jrnl. Phys. Chem. IV. 413 The electromotive force of some concentration cells and of cells with zinc and copper electrodes in organic solvents. 1916W. C. McC. Lewis Phys. Chem. II. 194 Concentration Cells with Single Selections. 1959Chambers's Encycl. V. 121/1 Where the two electrodes are of the same chemical nature but some difference of concentration or activity is involved, e.g. two silver electrodes dipping into solutions of silver nitrate of different concentrations, they are termed concentration cells. |