| 释义 |
‖ cul-de-sac
(ˈkʌldəsæk; formerly as Fr., kydsak, often kyl də sæk)
Pl. culs-de-sac.
[F. = sack-bottom, bag-bottom.]
1. Anat. A vessel, tube, sac, etc. open only at one end, as the cæcum or ‘blind gut’; the closed extremity of such a vessel, etc.
1738Med. Ess. & Observ. (ed. 2) IV. 92 An Infundibuliform Cul de Sac or Thimble-like cavity. 1809Brodie in Phil. Trans. XCIX. 163 The œsophagus..terminated in a cul-de-sac. 1841–71T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4) 878 In many Ruminants..a cul de sac occupies the commencement of the vascular bulb of the urethra.
2. A street, lane, or passage closed at one end, a blind alley; a place having no outlet except by the entrance; in Milit. use, said of the position of an army hemmed in on all sides except behind. Also fig.
1800A. Paget Let. 10 May in Paget Papers (1896) I. 201 This [i.e. Palermo] is such a cul de sac that it would (be) ridiculous to attempt sending you any news. 1819Wellington in Gurw. Desp. IV. 518 The bridges..being irreparable, they would be in a cul de sac. 1828Scott Jrnl. (1890) II. 163 Coming home, an Irish coachman drove us into a cul de sac, near Battersea Bridge. 1872Baker Nile Tribut. ix. 143 The herds of game found themselves driven into a cul-de-sac. 1885A. Dobson At Sign of Lyre 30 You tried the cul-de-sac of Thought; The montagne Russe of Pleasure. 1955Sci. Amer. July 96/1 It has enlisted great talent in what appears to be the ‘most hopeless cul-de-sac in the novel's history’. 1955Times 23 July 6/3 The Constitution would then be a sham and a cul de sac, not a bridge to self-government later. 1968Listener 25 July 105/1 My concentration then upon something which was past, something that could never be recovered, was a sort of cul-de-sac.
3. fig. ‘An inconclusive argument.’
In some mod. Dicts. |