释义 |
atomn.Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Partly a borrowing from French. Etymons: Latin atomus; French atome. Etymology: Originally (in α. forms) < classical Latin atomus (see below). Subsequently (in β. forms) < Middle French athome, atome, etc. (French atome ) particle incapable of further division (2nd half of the 13th cent. in Old French), particle of dust rendered visible by light (1510 as antome ), small particle, grain (1535) and its etymon classical Latin atomus particle incapable of further division, atom, in post-classical Latin also brief moment, twinkling of an eye (Vetus Latina, early 3rd cent. in Tertullian), smallest medieval measure of time (13th cent. in a British source), particle of dust rendered visible by light (7th cent.; 1538 in a British source; compare quot. 1538 at sense 7) < ancient Greek ἄτομος particle incapable of further division, atom, twinkling of an eye, use as noun (partly short for ἄτομος ϕύσις indivisible substance, and partly short for ἄτομος χρόνος indivisible time) of ἄτομος (adjective) indivisible < ἀ- a- prefix6 + -τομος (see -tome comb. form); compare ἄτομον, use as noun (short for ἄτομον σῶμα indivisible body) of neuter of ἄτομος. Compare Spanish átomo (1348), Portuguese átomo (15th cent.), Italian atomo (late 14th cent.).Sense 1 is apparently not paralleled in French until considerably later (late 15th or early 16th cent. as antonne , antomne ; also as atomos (1530)). The sense ‘brief moment, twinkling of an eye’ is found for ancient Greek ἄτομος and post-classical Latin atomus in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 15:52, in the phrase ἐν ἀτόμῳ , in atomo in a moment (Vetus Latina; the Vulgate has in momento ). In the medieval period, post-classical Latin atomus denoted a specific measure of time: there were 376 ‘atoms’ in an ostent, the ostent being equivalent to a modern minute (see Du Cange). In Old English used with Latin case inflections (compare quots. OE1, OE2 at sense 1). Compare also the Middle English plural form attomos in quot. a1398 at sense 1, with Latin accusative plural ending. I. A unit of time. the world > time > period > a second > [noun] > specific part of OE Byrhtferð (Ashm.) (1995) ii. iii. 110 Se an dæg hæfð..ostenta an þusend and feowertig and feower hundred, and atomos fiftig [read fif hund] þusend and feowertig þusend and an þusend and feowertig and feower hundred. OE Byrhtferð (Ashm.) (1995) ii. iii. 112 Fif hund and feower and syxtig atomi gewyrcað an momentum. a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. ix. ix. 529 A quadrant [contains] sexe houres, and an hour foure poyntis, and a point ten momentis, and a moment twelue vncis , and an vnce xlvii. attomos. a1425 (?a1400) (Harl. 674) (1944) 17 Athomus, by þe diffinicion of trewe philisophres in þe sciens of astronomye, is þe leest partie of tyme. & it is so litil þat, for þe littilnes of it, it is undepartable & neiȝhonde incomprehensible. 1895 10 131 Let us reduce this..to our present standard: 376 Atoms = 1 Minute. 1 Ostentum = 1 Minute. 1 Momentum = 1½ Minutes. [Etc.]. 1929 S. J. Crawford I. 117 The day has one thousand four hundred and forty ‘ostents’. An ‘ostent’ is the sixtieth part of an hour, and contains three hundred and seventy-six ‘atoms’. 1952 10 23 In the medieval Latin tradition..we have the factor 47, resulting from the summation of the same prime numbers (47 = 19 + 17 + 11), which plays the main role in the division of the hour into atoms. 1998 89 59 An alternative calculation, using moments and atoms, is to be found in diverse texts. II. In philosophical and scientific uses chiefly relating to the structure of matter. the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > one > unity or undividedness > [noun] > indivisibility > indivisible thing OE Byrhtferð (Ashm.) (1995) ii. iii. 110 Eac þęs atomos byð on þam getele [i.e. arithmetic], swylce ic cweðe þam preoste þas þing to bysne:..Todæl þa twa; þonne byð an to lafe; þæt ys untodallic. the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > ancient Greek philosophy > pre-Socratic schools of philosophy > [noun] > indivisible particle hypothesized in atomism a1500 (c1477) T. Norton (BL Add.) (1975) l. 2296 Substance resoluynge in attoms with wondire. 1546 T. Langley tr. P. Vergil i. ii. 4 b Epicurus one of Democritus dysciples putteth two Causes Atomos or motes and Vacuitie or Emptinesse; of these he saith the foure Elementes come. 1635 D. Person v. 62 Democritus and Leucippus..imagined the beginning of the world and of all contained therein to have beene by the casuall encounter of Atoms..which are little insectile bodies..not unlike the Moates which wee see to tumble and rowle about in the Sunne beames. 1678 R. Cudworth i. i. 16 Asclepiades..supposed all the Corporeal world to be made..of Dissimilar and inconcinn Moleculæ, i.e. Atoms of different Magnitude and Figures. 1707 J. Swift Tritical Ess. in (1711) 249 That the Universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of Atoms. a1833 R. Watson (1850) 297 If the concourse of atoms could make this world, why not..a porch, or a temple, or a house, or a city, as Tully speaks? 1895 Apr. 492 A purely reasonless concourse of atoms. 1907 I. W. Riley iii. i. 197 The world had not a beginning from a casual concourse and jumble of atoms. 1947 H. Miller iv. 59 Smallest and smoothest of all, and therefore speediest and most penetrating, are the atoms of light, the movement of which Democritus identified with consciousness or intelligence. 2003 C. Wilson in J. Miller & B. Inwood v. 112 According to Cicero, the Epicureans, to avoid the inference that the gods were composed of atoms like everything else, and were perishable, ascribed to them quasi-bodies. the world > matter > chemistry > atomic chemistry > [noun] > atoms the world > matter > physics > atomic physics > [noun] > minute quantity of matter the world > matter > chemistry > atomic chemistry > [noun] > atoms > chemical atom the world > matter > chemistry > atomic chemistry > [noun] > atoms > physical atom 1555 R. Eden tr. V. Biringucci Pyrotechnia in tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria f. 335 The golde..is..very harde to bee gotten owte, bycause it consysteth of so smaule sparkes lyke vnto inuisible atomes of such lytelnesse that they can hardely bee perceaued with the eye. 1649 W. Charleton in tr. J. B. van Helmont Prolegomena sig. e The imperceptible Emissions streaming, in a semi-immaterial thread of Atomes, from sublunary bodies. 1691 (Royal Soc.) 16 469 If an Atom of Water were expanded into a Shell or Bubble so as to be ten times as big in Diamiter.., such an Atom would become specifically lighter than Air, and rise. 1700 W. Salmon (ed. 2) i. ii. 111/1 The Salt of Tartar which is an Alcali, breaks into Atoms the fixed Acid Salt of the Sal Armoniack. a1704 J. Locke Elem. Nat. Philos. in (1720) 229 It may be now fit to consider what these sensible bodys are made of, and that is, of unconceivably small bodyes, or atoms, out of whose various combinations bigger molleculae are made. 1729 S. Switzer I. i. x. 172 Air is a Body compos'd of minute, very light and inconspicuous Particles or Atoms, which mutually..cohere to one another, but yet leaves some small vacant Spaces within it self. 1764 tr. Voltaire viii. 68 He [sc. Newton], like Gassendi, admitted of real atoms in divisible bodies; but..he thought these atoms, these indivisible elements, were continually changing one into the other. 1776 B. Higgins I. 212 Wherein..each phlogistic atom shall touch an acid atom. 1810 J. Dalton I. ii. v. 365 It [sc. the ‘atom’ of oxynitric acid] consists of 1 atom of azote and 3 of oxygen. 1835 tr. A. M. Ampère in 7 343 The term molecules I give to an assemblage of atoms held at a distance from each other by the attractive and repulsive forces proper to every atom... What I call atoms, are the material points from which these attractive and repulsive forces emanate. 1873 A. W. Williamson (ed. 3) §85 Each atom of oxygen in water is combined with two atoms of hydrogen. 1915 W. H. Bragg & W. L. Bragg iii. 22 The X-ray spectrometer has already determined..the arrangement of the atoms in several crystals. 1934 C. C. Steele iii. viii. 66 Most of the natural sugars contain either six or twelve carbon atoms in the molecule. 1964 L. H. Van Vlack (ed. 2) iv. 101 Normally, no net diffusion is observed in a pure, single-phase material, because the atom movements are random, and the atoms are all identical. 1994 J. Farman (new ed.) viii. 176 Electrons occupy fixed energy levels in the atom and can only absorb or give off energy by jumping from one energy level to another. 2005 R. McNeill Alexander vi. 153 Tropical grasses such as maize form a molecule with four carbon atoms in the first stage of photosynthesis. the world > matter > chemistry > elements and compounds > [noun] > compounds > smallest known quantity of a compound 1810 J. Dalton I. ii. 219 An atom of water or steam, composed of 1 of oxygen and 1 of hydrogen. 1843 W. Gregory tr. J. Liebig (ed. 2) i. 90 If..we suppose that from 2 atoms of starch, C24H20O20, the elements of 9 equivalents of carbonic acid are separated. 1873 A. W. Williamson (ed. 3) xiii. 122 N H4 is a radical, analogous to potassium, and N H4 is capable in many compounds of taking the place of K. N H4 is called an atom of Ammonium. 1962 W. J. Moore (ed. 4) vii. 212 The elementary corpuscles of compounds were then [sc. around 1811] called ‘atoms’ of the compound. society > occupation and work > materials > fuel > chemical fuel > [noun] > nuclear 1945 9 Nov. 6/4 Dr. Edward V. Condon..mentor to the Senate atom group. 1951 19 Sept. 1/3 There are those who warn against viewing the atom as a magic weapon. 1959 29 Oct. 713/2 We ought..to be eager in principle to put aside the atom as a factor in national defence. 1989 C. Caufield (1990) xvi. 153 The atoms for peace programme had created a privately owned nuclear power industry. 1992 30 Sept. 15/1 The hundreds of..‘nuclear mutants’—the most recent victims of the Soviet Union's costly, often tragic relationship with the atom. 2004 Sept. 160/2 A new nuclear power facility that promises to be a better way to harness the atom: a pebble-bed reactor. III. In extended use. the world > relative properties > wholeness > incompleteness > part of whole > [noun] > a separate part > a piece or bit > a particle > of dust 1538 T. Elyot at cited word Atomi, be motes of the sonne.] 1588 J. Harvey 96 Cabalisticall coiners, and impostural wringers, making at their own pleasure..bodies of Atomes, or sun motes, something of nothing. 1605 Z. Jones tr. P. le Loyer 27 Atomes signifie motes in the Sunne. 1627 M. Drayton 42 Bills and Axes play, As doe the Attom's in the Sunny ray. 1630 M. Drayton 53 The Siluer-scaled Sholes, about me in the Streames, As thick as ye discerne the Atoms in the Beames. 1785 W. Cowper i. 361 The rustling straw sends up a frequent mist Of atoms. 1821 Ld. Byron Two Foscari iii. i, in 234 Moted rays of light Peopled with dusty atoms. 1911 W. D. Foulke iii. iii. 56 And he clutched the ray that glittered With its countless atoms floating In the pathway of the sunbeam. 8. The smallest conceivable part or fragment of anything; a very minute portion; a particle, a jot. Now chiefly as an extended or figurative use of sense 4.1610 J. Healey tr. St. Augustine xxii. xx. 901 Farre bee it from vs to thinke..Gods power insufficient to recollect and vnite euery atome of the bodie, were it burnt, or torne by beasts, or fallen to dust. 1644 K. Digby i. vi. 44 Litle atomes of oyle..ascend apace vp the weeke of a burning candle. a1649 W. Drummond (1656) 166 Like tinder when flints atoms on it fall. 1731 Mar. 110/2 With much solemnity observing the Atoms round the Cup. 1790 R. Burns 11 Jan. (1985) II. 3 My nerves are in a damnable State.—I feel that horrid hypochondria pervading every atom of both body & Soul. 1835 J. Ross xxxiv. 477 There was not an atom of water. 1896 ‘Iota’ 251 John..flicked an atom of fluff off his trouser-knee. 1972 N. Freeling ii. 189 In fact it had been very hardbought, some of the winnings, taking fearful tolls of nerve, straining every atom of him. 2000 (Nexis) 11 Apr. All that glitters is not gold, including the U.S. Mint's new ‘Golden Dollar’... There is not a single atom of gold in the Golden Dollar. the world > relative properties > quantity > smallness of quantity, amount, or degree > [noun] > a small quantity or amount > a very small amount > specifically of something immaterial the world > relative properties > quantity > smallness of quantity, amount, or degree > [noun] > a small quantity or amount > the smallest amount > a jot the world > relative properties > wholeness > incompleteness > part of whole > [noun] > a separate part > a piece or bit > a particle 1626 W. Prynne 408 You who haue but the least sparke and attome of true and sauing grace began within you. a1649 W. Drummond (1656) 136 We as but in a Mirrour see, Shadows of shadows, Atomes of thy Might. 1789 A. M. Bennett III. lvi. 228 Agnes, said my lover,..if thou hast an atom of love for thy Douglas, forbear to wound him. 1867 G. MacDonald I. i. 3 I do not feel one atom older than I did at three-and-twenty. 1898 July 266/1 I'm not an atom sleepy, but I'm hungry and thirsty. 1955 A. Atkinson (1957) v. 208 You haven't an atom of what I'd call real honest-to-God proof. 1970 I. Montagu 240 I have yet to see an atom of evidence that pornography ever did anyone any harm. 2005 3 Apr. 35/2 I create a global supply chain down to the last atom of efficiency. 9. the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > smallness > [noun] > that which is small > a small thing 1633 G. Herbert 184 The smallest ant or atome knows thy power. 1664 H. Power i. 26 Her eyes are two such very little black Atoms. 1709 No. 67 You would please to remove the Ten Black Atoms on your Ladyship's Chin, and wear one large Patch instead of 'em. 1798 T. Connelly & T. Higgins I. 239/3 Atoms, an appellation given to very small insects. 1884 Mar. 616/1 A saucy little atom of a bird. 1901 M. C. Dickerson i. 14 After eating the shell the tiny atom of life crawls to the inner face of the newest leaf at the top of the plant. 1985 (Nexis) 5 Oct. (Weekend FT) p. xvii We watch young Marco [Polo] grow up from a little atom pestering the pigeons [in St Mark's Square] into handsome Ken Marshall. 1959 2 Jan. 20/1 An Atom division for boys under 10 years of age. 1978 (Nexis) 16 Aug. The OMHA refused to certify Gail Cummings, now 12, as a player after she had played four games with the atom team. 1990 R. Olver 190 I went out with a Minor Atom team tonight and really enjoyed that. 2005 26 Oct. 34/2 The Dollard des Ormeaux Civics came back to beat them 2-1 in atom B girls action Saturday afternoon. 1942 43 334 An element..is an atom if it contains no proper subelements. 1969 21 742 Any singleton of positive measure must be an atom. 2003 31 1058 If h is the distribution function of some probability measure then the transition from h to h° corresponds to the removal of the atom at zero of this measure. Phrasesthe world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > breaking or cracking > break [verb (transitive)] > break to pieces, shatter, or burst the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > breaking or cracking > break [verb (transitive)] > break to pieces, shatter, or burst > blow up or explode 1612 G. Chapman v. sig. I4v O I could teare my selfe into Atomes. 1664 H. More Apol. in 495 They would nimbly take a-pieces and consume to Atomes any such Terrestrial consistency of flesh and bloud. 1680 T. Otway v. 64 If but your word can shake This world to Atomes. 1765 W. Shirley iii. ii. 48 From your hands the vengeful bolts are hurl'd That shall to atoms shake this solid earth. 1793 R. Burns ?Mar. (1985) II. 190 If you send me a page baptised in the font of sanctimonious Prudence—By Heaven, Earth & Hell, I will tear it into atoms! 1851 G. H. Kingsley in Aug. 145/2 The bottle is smashed!—smashed to atoms! 1875 A. Helps iii. 51 Which should shiver into atoms some of our present most potent ideas. 1898 Nov. 761 The prospect of sailing out with him, and being blown to atoms by the guns of our own fleet. 1905 A. Conan Doyle 226 His second bust..had been smashed to atoms where it stood. 1950 I. Asimov xvii. 179 It was a full-size blaster that could shred a man to atoms. 2006 (Nexis) 24 Nov. 32 Nayla Moawad, whose president-husband, Rene, was blown to atoms by a bomb in November of 1989. Compounds C1. 1647 H. More i. ii. x His Ideall, And Centrall presence is in every Atom-ball. 1686 H. Grenfield iii. 30 The world in a blind Atom-dance, Stumbled into its beauteous form by chance. 1743 E. Young 25 And shall an Atom of this Atom-World, Mutter in Dust, and Sin, the Theme of Heaven? 1813 L. Hunt in 15 Feb. 104/1 The swarm Of atom bees. 1835 R. Manley 4 Yet wisdom's searching eye delights to trace God's skill and pow'r e'en in this atom race. 1878 ‘G. Eliot’ College Breakfast Party in July 165 You saw the final atom-dance. a1887 S. Cruikshanks in A. Wilmot (1887) 177 This world of sin, This atom earth. 1907 J. A. Spender viii. 63 A multitude of planetary systems..reproducing the pageant of night and morning..on millions of atom-planets. 1999 D. Mahon 248 Genes perform their atom-dance of mad mutation. b. With sense ‘atomic’ (see atomic adj. II.). 1945 24 Aug. 28/3 Atom Age Begins Now. 1946 24 Sept. 3/7 A pre-vision of interplanetary travel in the atom age. 2006 (Nexis) 18 July (Times2 section) 27 An unusually sombre atom-age thriller..stars Barry Jones as an ethically troubled nuclear scientist. 1933 55 1483 Mechanical models for atomic structures involving definite circuits of electrons have been abandoned by atom physicists. 2005 D. Forbes in S. Behr & M. Malet 74 Tudor-Hart..continued to concern MI5 because of her relationship with the Austrian atom physicist, Engelbert Broda. 1944 19 Jan. 15/3 Dr Kai Siegbahn, noted Swedish atom scientist. 1964 31 173 The atom scientist tries to master the energy of elementary particles. 2007 C. Seely 252/1 Alec Issigonis filled the post left by Director of Engineering, atom physicist Dr. Stefan Bauer. 1945 4 Dec. 5 (heading) Atom Spy in U.S. Two Years. 1959 19 Mar. 514/2 The ideological atom spies. 2007 (Nexis) 19 July 34 The..British spy agencies..had engineered the arrest of the atom spy Klaus Fuchs only a year earlier. C2. Instrumental (in later use esp. in sense 6). 1820 P. B. Shelley Ode to Heaven in 184 The abyss is wreathed with scorn At your presumption, atom-born. 1940 18 Apr. 9/8 (headline) Science sees atom-driven rocket ships. 1989 28 Sept. 3/1 The atom-driven merchant ships now left are the Russian ice-breakers. the world > matter > physics > atomic nucleus > nuclear fission > nuclear fuel > [adjective] 1949 21 May 21 Atom-powered bombers! How soon? How big? What shape? 1999 31 Dec. 6/6 Coordinated Universal Time..is derived from the average of the time-transfer frequencies of nearly 200 atom-powered clocks around the world. C3. Objective. 1850 H. Ruffner I. iii. 74 The heathen Boodhist had anticipated the atom-splitting schoolman of Rome. 1910 25 Nov. 762/1 For him the cell is the ultimate unit and even in these days of atom-splitting deductions we find in his philosophy no consideration of any lower..units. 1939 Apr. 181 (caption) A new type of atom-splitting. 1946 4 Jan. 572 (caption) Japanese atom-splitting device. 2002 F. Close et al. ii. 32 The technology of ‘atom splitting’—the application of our knowledge about the atomic nucleus—has provided us with nuclear power and weaponry. C4. 1954 26 Oct. 9/4 Kew can show records of perfectly horrid Junes in far off atom-free years. 1958 18 Dec. 1026/2 The creation of an atom-free zone in central Europe. 1988 50 111 The Greens brought flowers, wreaths, and atom-free zone signs into plenary sessions. 1995 H. M. Wiseman & M. J. Collett in 202 246 We present a model for an atom laser. A thermal beam of atoms tunnels in through one end of a trap, in which the atoms are subject to dark-state cooling... The beam which tunnels out is approximately all-order coherent. 1999 12 Mar. 1613/1 Ketterle and his MIT group produced the first atom laser in 1997 by tricking part of the atom vapor into leaving the pack. 2004 B. Bunch & A. Hellemans 702/1 Wolfgang Ketterle demonstrates interference fringes in two overlapping Bose-Einstein condensates expanding from a trap; the matter waves are coherent and therefore the device producing these atom beams is called an atom laser. 1989 63 1691/2 The present work clearly demonstrates that the hydrogen atom could play a prominent role in ‘particle optics’ experiments.] 1990 L. Dick & W. Kubischta in Y. Mori (National Lab. High Energy Physics, Japan) 232 We discuss results on atom optics and some design aspects. 1997 K. D. Bonin & V. V. Kresin vi. 176 Chromium and aluminum atoms have been used to fabricate nanostructures using this atom-optics technique. 2005 28 Sept. 20/3 The result is important..for atom optics, where the goal is to use the wave nature of atoms to make more precise sensors. 1966 43 193/1 An ion-guarded neutral atom probe has been constructed to study this possibility. 1968 E. W. Müller et al. in 39 83/1 Such a device may be called an atom-probe FIM in analogy with the well known electron microprobe developed by Castaing. 2001 R. W. Cahn v. 194 It has at last become possible to see carbon atmospheres around dislocations in steel directly, by means of atom-probe imaging. the world > matter > physics > atomic physics > particle physics > particle accelerator > [noun] 1930 May 241/1 The snap of the electrical discharge as the Atom Smasher began to operate. 1958 A. Marshack viii. 148 To duplicate the cosmic rays, scientists have built atom-smashers, great magnetic accelerators that speed particles to enormous velocities. 2001 10 Aug. 1019/2 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory has unveiled a Web tool that lets anyone search 4 years' worth of data from the world's most powerful atom smasher. the world > matter > physics > atomic physics > particle physics > particle accelerator > [noun] > action of accelerating 1931 17 July 9/7 High voltage vacuum tubes that will stand up under ‘atom smashing’ voltages have been built. 1932 28 May 26/1 Atom-smashing has been accomplished before, and it seems to be still only a laboratory wonder. 1960 2 Jan. 8/1 With the aid of their big atom-smashing machines, other Americans manufactured fragments of anti-matter. 2006 19 Oct. 737/2 A different method honed by the ATHENA atom-smashing collaboration based at CERN in Geneva has produced protonium that lives for a millionth, rather than just a trillionth, of a second. the world > matter > chemistry > atomic chemistry > [noun] > theory of 1847 H. Bushnell 33 The whole constitution of the world..contradicts the unit or atom theory of religion. Humanity is not an aggregate. 1871 R. H. Hutton I. 40 Why do scientific men attach..less and less [credit] to the atom-theory of matter? 1933 17 Nov. 6/1 The work on atom theory for which the 1933 physics Nobel prize is divided between Professors Schrödinger and Dirac is built upon the foundations of Heisenberg's work. 1999 32 123/3 Atom theory had also been associated with the question of free will since the time of Lucretius and Epicurus. Derivatives 1613 W. Browne I. ii. i. 30 Who Atom-like, when their Sun shined cleare, Danc'd in his beame. 1727 J. Craig 144 Consider what a mass of guilt must rise Ev'n from thine atom-like iniquities. 1890 W. James I. x. 348 The enjoyment of the atom-like simplicity of their substance in sæcula sæculorum would not to most people seem a consummation devoutly to be wished. 1962 3 95 (note) In the phoneme and morpheme language has atom-like units that show no counterpart in culture. 2004 12 Feb. 591/1 The fundamental particles called quarks exist in atom-like bound states, such as protons and neutrons, that are held together by the strong force. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online December 2021). † atomv.Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: atom n. Etymology: < atom n. Compare earlier atomed adj. Obsolete. the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > grinding or pounding > grind or pound [verb (transitive)] 1648 Earl of Westmorland 76 How doe we not perceive the Clay we tread on, To be the substance whereof we were made: And by the Sun that Attom'd into Dust, Tells us but what we must dissolve into. 1661 O. Felltham (rev. ed.) St. Luke 14.20. 393 When he is atom'd into flying dust, he has prepar'd his Substitute. 1779 E. Clark 85 Crush'd, atom'd in the mire. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online September 2018). < n.OEv.1648 |