| 释义 |
coventrate, v. (temporary.)|ˈkɒvəntreɪt|
[f. Coventr(y (see below) + -ate3 after G. coventrieren.]
To bomb intensively; to devastate sections of (a city) by concentrated bombing, such as that inflicted on Coventry, Warwickshire, in November 1940. So ˈcoventrating vbl. n.; covenˈtration.
1940Hutchinson's Pict. Hist. War 2 Oct.–26 Nov. 221 German bombers made prolonged mass attacks..on Coventry... And..they invented the verb ‘to coventrate’ to describe the indiscriminate mass murder of civilians. 1940New Statesman 21 Dec. 647 The fact was that ‘Coventrating’ meant that the nerves and sinews and muscles of local government were wrenched and lacerated. 1942L. E. O. Charlton Britain at War 22 Possibility of another ‘coventration’ of a manufacturing centre. 1944H. Hawton Night Bombing viii. 126 It was the Germans themselves who had coined so gloatingly the verb ‘to coventrate’. |