| 释义 |
critical, a.|ˈkrɪtɪkəl|
[f. L. critic-us (see critic a.) + -al1.]
1. Given to judging; esp. given to adverse or unfavourable criticism; fault-finding, censorious.
1590Shakes. Mids. N. v. i. 54 That is some Satire keene and criticall. 1604― Oth. ii. i. 120, I am nothing, if not Criticall. 1665–9Boyle Occas. Refl. iii. vi. (1675) 157 The more Witty and Critical sort of Auditors. 1683D. A. Art Converse 49 Those that are of a too critical humour approve of nothing. 1828Southey Ballads, Brough Bells, ‘What! art thou critical?’ quoth he; ‘Eschew that heart's disease’. 1881Russell Haigs Introd. 3 It was not in his nature to be either critical or indifferent.
†2. Involving or exercising careful judgement or observation; nice, exact, accurate, precise, punctual. Now Obs. (or merged in other senses).
1650Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. v, Exact and critical trial should be made..whereby determination might be settled. 1654Whitlock Zootomia 186 He is not criticall and exact in Garbes and Fashions. 1692Ray Disc. ii. v. (1732) 272, I can hear of nobody that was so critical in noticing the Time. 1716Cibber Love makes Man v. iii, Well, Madam, you see I'm punctual..I'm always critical—to a Minute. [1806Herschel in Phil. Trans. XCVI. 463 The air is beautifully clear, and proper for critical observations. 1832Regul. Instr. Cavalry ii. 37 A critical dressing need not be required.]
3. a. Occupied with or skilful in criticism.
1641J. Jackson True Evang. T. i. 69 The Millenaries, a sect of learned, and criticall Christians. 1766Entick London IV. 165 Of which a critical writer remarks [etc.]. 1871Morley Voltaire (1886) 26 Molière is only critical by accident.
b. Belonging or relating to criticism.
1741Middleton Cicero II. viii. 237 Cæsar was conversant also with the most abstruse and critical parts of learning. 1768W. Gilpin Ess. Prints 169 How far the works of Hogarth will bear a critical examination. 1843Macaulay (title), Critical and Historical Essays. 1867Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) I. App. 585 He shows a good deal of critical acumen.
c. critical theory [tr. G. kritische Theorie, M. Horkheimer (1937) in Zeitschr. f. Sozialforschung 245], a dialectical critique of society (esp. of the theoretical bases of its organization) associated with the leaders of the Institute for Social Research at Frankfurt (the Frankfurt School).
1968J. J. Shapiro tr. H. Marcuse's Negations iv. 155 The rigorously scientific character that critical theory has always made a criterion of its concepts. 1972M. J. O'Connell tr. Horkheimer's Crit. Theory 207 The separation between individual and society in virtue of which the individual accepts as natural the limits prescribed for his activity is relativized in critical theory. 1973M. Jay Dialectical Imagination ii. 41 At the very heart of Critical Theory was an aversion to closed philosophical systems... Critical Theory..was expressed through a series of critiques of other thinkers and philosophical traditions. 1977A. Giddens Stud. in Social & Polit. Theory i. 65 If there is a single dominating element in critical theory, it is the defence of Reason (Vernunft) understood in the sense of Hegel and classical German philosophy. 1985R. J. Siebert Crit. Theory Relig. p. xi, J. Habermas's theory of communicative praxis..the most advanced stage in the development of the critical theory of subject, society, history and religion, initiated..by M. Horkheimer..and others in..the so-called Frankfurt School.
4. Med. (and Astrol.) Relating to the crisis or turning-point of a disease; determining the issue of a disease, etc.
1601Holland Pliny xvii. ii. I. 500 The foure decretorie or criticall daies, that give the dome of olive trees, either to good or bad. 1602W. Vaughan Nat. Direct. 47 The Moone..passeth almost euery seuenth day into the contrary signe of the same quality..and..bringeth the criticall daies. 1684tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. iii. 72 You may reckon it [the Head-ach] critical, if in a Fever it fall upon a critical day. 1733Cheyne Eng. Malady ii. viii. §7 And so the Fever terminates in a critical Abscess. 1843T. Watson Lect. Physic. iv. (1857) 53 The moment of exhalation is very transient..It is evidently critical, for the congestion is relieved.
5. Of the nature of, or constituting, a crisis:
a. Of decisive importance in relation to the issue. spec. critical path: the most important sequence of stages in an operation, determining the time needed for the whole operation; freq. attrib.
1649Bp. Reynolds Hosea iv. 65 Mercies are never..so seasonable as in the very turning and criticall point. 1673S. C. Art of Complaisance 25 There is in the Court, as there is said to be in Love, one critical minute. 1786T. Jefferson Writings (1859) II. v. 5 That month, by producing new prospects, has been critical. 1833Alison Hist. Europe II. vii. §100 Three hundred horse, at that critical moment, might have saved the monarchy. 1871Blackie Four Phases i. 145 note, Socrates taught that on great and critical occasions he was often directed by a mysterious voice. 1959in Jrnl. Industr. Engin. (1962) XIII. 508/2 (title) Critical Path planning and scheduling. An Introduction. 1960Sayer et al. in Factory July 75/1 The critical path technique forces management to recognize planning and scheduling as two distinct functions. For example, the planning of sequence of roof construction on a building job would be done as a separate critical path analysis operation. 1964C. Dent Quantity Surveying by Computer vii. 114 The critical path schedule indicates to what extent an operation may be delayed before the job becomes ‘critical’, i.e. before the completion date must be put forward. 1964K. G. Lockyer Introd. Critical Path Analysis i. 2 In 1958, the E.I. du Pont de Nemours Company used a technique called the Critical Path Method (CPM) to schedule and control a very large project. Ibid. 6 This determining sequence is critical to the performance of the project, and is hence known as the Critical Path. 1970Daily Tel. 13 Oct. 21/4 The critical path through a diagram..is the one which takes the longest, because it is on that route the time for completing the whole operation depends.
b. Involving suspense or grave fear as to the issue; attended with uncertainty or risk.
1664Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 198 Acquaint them [tender-plants] gradually with the Air..for this change is the most critical of the whole year. 1767Junius Lett. iv. 25 Considering the critical situation of this country. 1836W. Irving Astoria I. 149 The relations between [them]..were at that time in a critical state; in fact, the two countries were on the eve of a war. 1883Manch. Guardian 17 Oct. 5/2 Mrs. H―'s throat was badly cut, and her condition is deemed critical.
6. Tending to determine or decide; decisive, crucial.
1841Myers Cath. Th. iv. vii. 201 The alterations..in our conceptions of the material Universe..are critical instances of the influence [of]..Natural Philosophy..over Scholastic Theology. 1860Tyndall Glac. ii. i. 230 Here..we have a critical analogy between sound and light.
7. Math. and Physics.
a. Constituting or relating to a point at which some action, property or condition passes over into another; constituting an extreme or limiting case; as critical angle, in Optics, that angle of incidence beyond which rays of light passing through a denser medium to the surface of a rarer are no longer refracted but totally reflected; critical damping, damping which is just sufficient to prevent oscillations; critical point or critical temperature for any particular substance, that temperature above which it remains in the gaseous state and cannot be liquefied by any amount of pressure; critical potential = ionization potential; critical pressure, the pressure required to liquefy a gas at its critical temperature; critical state, the state of a substance when it is at its critical temperature and critical pressure; critical volume, the volume of unit mass of a substance at its critical temperature and pressure.
1841J. R. Young Math. Dissert. Pref. 7 Even in the extreme and critical case of the problem. 1869T. Andrews in Phil. Trans. CLIX. 583 Below the critical temperature this distinction is easily seen to have taken place. 1873W. Lees Acoustics ii. iii. 53 This angle is called the limiting or critical angle of refraction. 1876Tait Rec. Adv. Phys. Sc. xiii. 336 The temperature rises to the critical point, i.e. the temperature at and above which the presence of liquid and vapour together becomes impossible. 1879Encycl. Brit. VIII. 732/1 Clerk Maxwell has calculated that the critical temperature for water should be about 434° C., the critical pressure about 378 atmospheres, and the critical volume about 2·52 cubic [printed cubit] centimetres per gramme. 1881T. Matthieu Williams in Knowledge No. 8. 157 That Jupiter is neither a solid, a liquid, nor a gaseous planet, but a critical planet. 1884Phil. Mag. XVIII. 212 These cooling agents may be said to lower the temperature sufficiently to produce liquid oxygen, provided a pressure of the gas above the critical pressure, which is 50 atmospheres, is at command. 1899T. O'C. Sloane Liquid Air i. 20 When a gas is at the critical temperature and at the critical pressure also, the least increase of pressure or decrease of temperature will convert it into a liquid. When in this condition, ready to be a gas or a liquid, it is said to be in the critical state. 1908K. Edgcumbe Industr. Electr. Meas. Instrum. 35 It is easy to determine how nearly a given instrument approaches the point of critical damping, by noting how much the pointer overshoots a reading as it flies up to it. 1916Physical Rev. VII. 687 To determine this critical potential more accurately, and..to demonstrate whether or not ionization took place there, current-potential curves were taken. 1922Glazebrook Dict. Appl. Physics II. 373/2 In galvanometers of the Thomson type the damping due to induced currents is small, and if critical damping is desired the retardation by air friction must be capable of adjustment. 1931Rev. Mod. Physics III. 347 Bohr's theory was so quickly supported by the experiments on critical potentials. 1933in J. K. Henney Radio Engineering Handbk. §7. 146 The smallest amount of damping which will cause the coil to come to rest with no oscillation whatever is called the critical damping, and the coil is said to be critically damped. 1947Sci. News V. 164 No amount of compressing will liquefy it [sc. a gas] as long as it is hotter than this critical temperature.
b. critical mass or critical size: in Nuclear Physics, the minimum mass or size of fissile material required in a nuclear reactor, bomb, etc., to sustain a chain reaction.
1940in M. Gowing Britain & Atomic Energy 1939–1945 (1964) 391 For a sphere well above the critical size the loss through neutron escape would be small. 1941Ibid. 402 For a low critical mass, the material must be as dense as possible. 1945Statements relating to the Atomic Bomb (H.M.S.O.) 16 This estimate was very rough and the critical size was known only to a factor of three. 1946E. S. C. Smith et al. Appl. Atomic Power 202 No explosion occurs at all unless the mass of the fissionable material exceeds the critical mass. 1958J. Cleugh tr. Jungk's Brighter than Thousand Suns xii. 191 The determination of this ‘critical size’—referred to simply as ‘crit’ in the Los Alamos jargon—had been one of the chief problems studied by the theoretical department.
c. Nuclear Physics. Of a nuclear reactor: maintaining a self-sustaining chain reaction; esp. in phr. to go critical, to reach the stage of maintaining such a reaction. Also transf.
1949H. Soodak in C. Goodman Sci. & Engin. Nuclear Power II. viii. 91 For a critical pile, the fundamental mode, j = 1, is constant in time whereas the higher modes decay. 1955Ann. Reg. 1954 393 At Harwell the more important news of reactors was that ‘Zephyr’ became critical in February. 1955Sci. News Let. 6 Aug. 83/1 The possibility of really putting atoms to work for the good of the world will go ‘critical’, to use a term applicable to the atomic reactor. 1957New Scientist 26 Dec. 6/2 The prototype reactor went critical at the end of 1954. 1970Nature 21 Nov. 704/1 Sizewell B will be the largest nuclear power station in Britain when the last of its four reactors goes critical in 1977.
8. Zool. and Bot. Of species: Distinguished by slight or questionable differences; uncertain or difficult to determine.
1854Woodward Mollusca iii. (1856) 360 Most of these are minute or ‘critical’ species. 1858Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XIX. i. 104 Crossing often renders certain species of plants very ‘critical’. 1884Jrnl. Bot. XXII. 128 When he..ran down some less familiar or critical species.
9. Comb., as critical-minded adj.
1899W. James Talks Teachers Psychol. i. 6 Where the disciples are not independent and critical-minded enough. 1956A. Toynbee Historian's Approach to Religion x. 128 Philosophies have been apt to arise in..critical-minded, disillusioned social milieux.
▸ critical care n. Med. (orig. N. Amer.) specialized medical care for patients with acute, life-threatening conditions; the ward or wing of a hospital where such treatment takes place; freq. attrib., esp. in critical care unit; cf. intensive care at intensive adj. 8.
1959Chron.-Telegram (Elyria, Ohio) 2 July 15/8 *Critical care unit which would provide services similar to those in a recovery room. 1971Amer. Jrnl. Nursing 71 2374/2 The nurse who assumes responsibility for the cardiovascular patient during his acute illness must be an expert in critical care. 1986S. J. Youngner Human Values in Crit. Care Med. 140 The critical care nurse is literally at the bedside on a continuous basis. 2006Gold Coast Bull. (Austral.) (Nexis) 7 June 4 Their two-year-old son..is stable but remains in critical care at the Royal Children's Hospital. |