| 释义 |
softball|ˈsɒftbɔːl, sɔːft-|
Also soft-ball, soft ball.
[f. soft a. + ball n.1]
1. Confectionery. (As two words or with hyphen.) A soft globule of sugar formed (e.g. by dropping into water) as a means of testing that the mass of sugar being boiled has reached a certain stage; hence used attrib. and absol. to designate this stage.
1894E. Skuse Compl. Confectioner 70 Add the cocoanut slices and allow the whole to boil, for say ten minutes, or until the sugar comes to a soft ball. 1907J. Kirkland Mod. Baker, Confectioner & Caterer IV. iv. 13 The soft-ball or full-feather degree is tested by making a small bulb of sugar between the fingers while cooling in cold water. 1921[see panoche 2]. 1980T. Stobart Cook's Encycl. 404/1 Soft ball—116°C (240°F). The sugar clinging to the skimmer will now, when shaken, produce a feathery, downy effect. The syrup is now beginning to thicken and will form a soft ball if a little of it is dropped into cold water.
2. orig. N. Amer.
a. A game resembling baseball but played on a smaller field with a larger ball that is pitched underarm.
1926Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 2 July 5/3 The remainder of the morning was occupied by the younger members of the party in playing soft ball and other less strenuous games. 1947J. Steinbeck Wayward Bus 54 A big and muscular young woman who taught ice hockey and softball and archery at the university. 1977J. F. Fixx Compl. Bk. Running p. xvi, Someone who all his life had played tennis, touch football and Saturday-afternoon softball shouldn't be thus laid low.
b. A ball of the kind used in the game of softball.
1914Vanity Fair Feb. 49 (caption) Soft ball, soft hands and a soft game. 1918Playground Sept. 223 Suffice it to say that Playground Baseball..differs from ordinary baseball in four ways, namely: (1) A big soft ball is used [etc.]. 1974[see softball throw, sense c below]. 1975R. Kroetsch Badlands 136 Lumps of ice the size of softballs.
c. attrib., as softball court, softball field, softball game, softball team; softball question, a question that is easy to answer; softball throw, an athletic event in which a softball is thrown as far as possible.
1943J. S. Huxley TVA ix. 73 The playground is floodlit to give the adults a soft-ball court after their day's work is over. 1958J. Kerouac On Road iii. i. 180 A softball game was going on under floodlights. 1974News & Press (Darlington, S. Carolina) 25 Apr. 11/1 Beverly Robinson won first-place in the long jump and the softball throw. 1976New Society 28 Oct. 209/3 ‘Why Switzerland?’ may seem the ultimate softball question, its answer to be found behind those discreet name-plates along Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse. 1977J. Cheever Falconer 4 There was a softball field where the gallows had stood. 1977Sci. Amer. Nov. 15/2 He has also collaborated with Groth ‘on a number of double plays for the physics department softball team’.
3. Tactical slow and gentle play in lawn tennis. Also attrib. So soft-balling ppl. a., soft-ball v. trans. and intr.
1961Times 18 May 5/2 Not only did Sangster adapt his game to the slow court and a soft-balling opponent. 1962Times 25 Apr. 4/7 It was the Chilean's soft ball game that ruffled his opponent's feathers. Ibid. 26 June 4/2 Playing soft ball, and apparently resigned to defeat, he was offered a reprieve by a casual opponent. 1976Observer 2 May 23/2 Miss Mottram, who was being made to run hard and dig deep on the dusty red court to stay in the game, decided to soft-ball her, to slow the pace. 1980Amer. Speech 1976 LI. 294 Softball, play slow soft shots. |