| 释义 |
dead end, ˈdead-ˈend
[dead a. D. 2.]
1. A closed end of a water-pipe, passage, etc., through which there is no way; also attrib.
1886Pall Mall G. 12 Oct. 2/1 There are, of course, fire-cocks and valves on dead-ends, but these are not efficient to thoroughly free water-pipes from incrustations and deposits. 1889G. Findlay Eng. Railway 199 This is what is termed a ‘dead-end’ warehouse..the waggons come in and go out the same way, and cannot be taken through the warehouse. 1960D. & V. Nabokov tr. V. Nabokov's Invit. to Beheading xv. 147 Several times Cincinnatus found himself in a cul-de-sac, and then M'sieur Pierre would tug at his calves, making him back out of the dead end.
2. fig. Esp. a policy, course of action, etc., that leads nowhere; a ‘blind alley’.
1922M. Arlen Piracy iii. xiv. 257, I felt..that there was a ‘dead-end’ at the end of my life. 1928Daily Tel. 24 July 12/1 Young men..who are either working into a dead end or engaged in an industry that has a restricted future. 1934Discovery Mar. 60/2 Once we came to a dead-end when we had no idea which way to turn. 1941Auden New Year Let. iii. 46 From the dead-ends of greed and sin.
b. attrib. or as adj. (a) That leads nowhere; having no possibilities for advance, promotion, etc.; (b) dead-end kid: a tough young person such as lives in back-streets or slums; also transf.
1928Observer 15 Jan. 5 He deplores the fate of boys who get into dead-end employments. 1940J. B. Priestley Postscripts 17 Overgrown, tormenting, cruel schoolboys—middle-aged ‘dead end kids’. 1943J. S. Huxley TVA xi. 86 No dead-end formula has killed the creative ability of the team. 1946[see dead-ending below]. 1958New Statesman 20 Dec. 869/2 It is not difficult to present France..as Europe's Dead End Kid. 1963Economist 20 Apr. 254/1 Workers shifting out of dead-end jobs and dead-end areas into ‘approved’ new spots.
3. Electr. (See quot. 1940.)
1922Glazebrook Dict. Appl. Physics II. 670/1 A large increase in effective resistance also results from the attachment of a ‘dead’ end coil having large mutual inductance to the section. 1925P. J. Risdon Crystal Receivers & Circuits 10 The unused portion of the coil, although not directly in the circuit, is joined on to it, and produces an effect known as dead-end loss. 1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 226/1 Dead end, the unused portion of an inductance coil in an oscillatory circuit. Dead-end effect, the increase in effective resistance of an inductance coil due to currents circulating in the unused end-turns shunted by their self-capacity.
Hence dead-ˈend v. trans., to bring to a dead end; intr., to come to a dead end; dead-ˈendedness, the quality of leading nowhere or failing to advance; dead-ˈending vbl. n. (see quot. 1946).
1921Blackw. Mag. Nov. 641/2 Engineers..are not dead-ended so easily. 1946A. Phelps I couldn't care Less x. 75 There were some..Americans who..made a habit of flying through the most appalling weather. We nicknamed them the ‘Deadend Kids’... To this day the term ‘Dead-ending’ persists to describe flying through unusually bad weather. 1950H. J. Massingham Curious Trav. iii. 53 The dead-endedness of modern life in which the rational faculty has overborne the poetic perception of reality. 1958G. Usher Death in Bag xi. 105 The car..took an even narrower lane dead-ending in a concreted farmyard. |