单词 | means to an end |
释义 | > as lemmasmeans to an end a. An instrument, agency, method, or course of action employed to attain some object or bring about some result. Often used predicatively (of persons as well as things), in to be the means (occasionally also mean) of. Frequently in phrases with end (see end n. 14a); means to an end: any action, behaviour, or object considered in terms of its results rather than in terms of its value, ethicality, etc., in and of itself; (also) the method by which any specific object is attained. extracted from meann.3 (a) In plural, with plural or indeterminate agreement and sense.See also fair means n. at fair adj. and n.1 Compounds 1b, ways and means n. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > instrumentality > [noun] > (a) means keyOE toolc1000 wherewithc1230 ministerc1380 meanc1390 instrumenta1425 organ?a1425 mesne1447 moyen1449 handlec1450 hackneya1500 receipta1500 operative1526 ingine1531 appliance1555 agent1579 matter1580 mids1581 wedge1581 wherewithal1583 shoeing-horn1587 engine1589 instrumental1598 Roaring Meg1598 procurement1601 organy1605 vehicle1615 vehiculuma1617 executioner1646 facility1652 operatory1660 instrumentality1663 expedient1665 agency1684 bladea1713 mechanic1924 mechanism1924 c1390 G. Chaucer Man of Law's Tale 480 Crist..By certein menes ofte..Dooth thyng for certein ende that ful derk is. c1395 G. Chaucer Friar's Tale 1484 We been goddes instrumentz And meenes to doon his comandementz. 1420 R. Waterton Let. 12 Apr. in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1824) 1st Ser. I. 6 Lettres..chargyng me to assaye by all the menesse that I kan to exyte and stirre sych as bene able gentilmen. ?c1430 (c1400) J. Wyclif Eng. Wks. (1880) 121 Þei comen bi false menys as ypocrisie & lesyngis to þes grete lordischipes. 1549 M. Coverdale et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. II. Rom. x. f. xxviiiv The eares, throughe whom as meanes the gospell of Christ is powred into the obedient soule. 1600 J. Pory tr. J. Leo Africanus Geogr. Hist. Afr. iii. 180 [He] left no meanes unattempted for the recouerie of this citie. a1640 J. Fletcher & P. Massinger Custome of Countrey v. iv, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Cc3v/1 Wonders are ceas'd Sir, we must worke by meanes. 1651 T. Hobbes Philos. Rudim. xiv. 223 Every man by reasoning seeks out the meanes to the end which he propounds to himselfe. 1733 A. Pope Ess. Man iii. 86 And find the Means proportion'd to their End. 1740 D. Hume Treat. Human Nature III. iii. 277 Virtue is consider'd as means to an end. Means to an end are only valued so far as the end is valued. 1842 T. De Quincey in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Dec. 730/2 Teleologically, that is, considered as means to an end—diamonds have as undeniably a value in use as any other article. 1888 J. Bryce Amer. Commonw. III. xcvi. 341 Vehement declaimers hounded on Congress to take arbitrary means for the suppression of the practice. 1905 J. Q. Dealey & L. F. Ward Text-bk. Sociol. iv. xvi. §280. 237 If we regard all the forces of nature..as so many means to the ends of man and society, telesis becomes the adjustment of means to ends, and all human effort is expended upon the means. 1917 E. R. Burroughs Princess of Mars v. 50 The green men of Mars, being a nomadic race without high intellectual development, have but crude means for artificial lighting. 1950 D. Cusack Morning Sacrifice in 3 Austral. Three-act Plays iii. ii. 249 One of our sweetest children..has been taken from us by terrible and violent means. 1986 M. Foot Loyalists & Loners 58 Moreover, the means by which this end is achieved are themselves remarkable. (b) In singular. Now rare (chiefly archaic). ΚΠ a1398 [see Phrases 1a]. a1425 (c1385) G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (1987) v. 1551 The fate wolde his soule sholde unbodye, And shapen hadde a mene it out to dryve. 1444 Rolls of Parl. V. 104/2 Be which subtile meene ye lose gret part of your custumes. a1450 (?c1421) J. Lydgate Siege Thebes (Arun.) (1911) 1345 Tydeus, seyng no bettre mene..With-out abood facte gan hym spede. 1539 T. Cromwell in R. B. Merriman Life & Lett. T. Cromwell (1902) II. 226 This..sheweth a meane howe..you may make them yet better. 1582 R. Mulcaster 1st Pt. Elementarie 248 A most blessed mean to a most blessed end, a learned maintenance of an heauenlie happinesse. 1611 W. Sclater Key (1629) 243 Vncharitable is that sentence of Papists; that Baptisme is necessarie as a meane to saluation. a1616 W. Shakespeare Winter's Tale (1623) iv. iv. 90 Yet Nature is made better by no meane, But Nature makes that Meane. View more context for this quotation 1635 J. Hayward tr. G. F. Biondi Donzella Desterrada 114 Dariacan himselfe had beene the instrumentall meane of my flight. 1785 T. Balguy Disc. Various Subj. 31 Let us consider it as a mean, not as an end. 1814 W. Brown Hist. Propagation Christianity II. 402 The Mission to the South Sea Islands..has..been a powerful mean of promoting the interests of Christianity. 1881 A. C. Swinburne Mary Stuart ii. i God..procure Some mean whereby mine enemies craft and his May take no feet but theirs in their own toils. 1921 in F. W. Taussig Sel. Readings in Internat. Trade & Tariff Probl. This is a much more powerful mean of augmenting the fund of national industry. 1994 K. Kelly Out of Control xix. 386 Evolution pressed into artificial evolution within computers has passed the first neodarwinist test. It demonstrates spontaneous self-selection as a mean of adaptation, and as a mean of generating some initial novelty. (c) In plural, with singular agreement and sense. ΚΠ 1512 W. Knight Let. 5 Aug. in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1827) 2nd Ser. I. 192 A good meanys to know the trowthe..were to gyve in commandement to John Style secretli to write the trowthe. 1550 R. Sherry tr. Erasmus Declam. Chyldren in Treat. Schemes & Tropes sig. Ni Let vs vse thys whyp continuallye in our chyldren, yt beyng wel brought vp, they maye haue at home a meanes to lyue well. 1606 G. W. tr. Justinus Hist. xxxviii. 120 Being..a means to train them vp in a secure experience to make themselues waye. 1652 H. L'Estrange Americans No Iewes 6 To be dashed and defeated by so weak a seeming means. 1672 H. More Brief Reply 262 As being a means to this end, and, therefore, Causal thereto. 1750 W. Beawes Lex Mercatoria (1752) 2 Commerce..is now become an universal means..for the improvement of..fortune. 1843 A. Bethune Sc. Peasant's Fire-side 28 You were indirectly the means of getting me introduced. 1863 C. Redding Yesterday & To-day III. 142 (note) I was the means of this being done. 1915 C. P. Gilman Herland in Forerunner Dec. 321/2 Your view seems to us rather—shall I say, practical? Prosaic? Merely a means to an end! 1955 L. P. Hartley Perfect Woman (1959) 78 Conversation should either be a means to an end, a business deal, or taking soundings for one. 1960 C. Day Lewis Buried Day i. 20 How deeply the loss impoverished my growing years or affected my disposition, there is no means of telling. 1993 Independent on Sunday 4 Apr. (Review Suppl.) 38/3 Reading is viewed, at best, as a means to an end. < as lemmas |
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