请输入您要查询的英文单词：

　

单词 million
释义

millionadj.n.

Brit. /ˈmɪljən/, U.S. /ˈmɪlj(ə)n/
Forms: Middle English melion, Middle English melione, Middle English melioun, Middle English melyone, Middle English milioun, Middle English milyon, Middle English mylione, Middle English myllione, Middle English (1900s archaic) myllyon, Middle English–1500s millyon, Middle English–1500s mylion, Middle English–1500s mylioun, Middle English–1500s myllion, Middle English–1500s myllioun, Middle English–1600s milion, Middle English– million, 1500s millian, 1500s myllian, 1500s myllyant; also Scottish pre-1700 milȝeon, pre-1700 milȝeoun, pre-1700 milȝioun, pre-1700 milȝon, pre-1700 milȝoun, pre-1700 milleoun, pre-1700 milleoune, pre-1700 millȝeoun, pre-1700 millioin, pre-1700 millioun, pre-1700 millioune, pre-1700 mulȝeon, pre-1700 mulȝeoun, pre-1700 mylȝeon, pre-1700 mylȝeoun, pre-1700 mylȝeoune, pre-1700 mylȝon, pre-1700 mylȝone, pre-1700 myllioun, pre-1700 mylyon.
Origin: A borrowing from French. Etymon: French million.
Etymology: < Middle French million a million (1359; 1266 in Old French as millon ), a million coins or units of money (c1460), a large number (a1544) < Italian †millione (now written milione ) a million (a1348), a large number (1315) < mille thousand (1219; < classical Latin mīlle : see milli- comb. form) + -one -oon suffix. Compare post-classical Latin milio (from c1365 in British sources), millio (from c1430 in British sources), Spanish millón (1448), Portuguese milhão (1512; 15th cent. as mylhooẽs , plural). Compare German Million , Dutch miljoen , Swedish million , Danish million , all < French, and later billion n., trillion n., etc.In view of its etymology, it would seem likely that the word was first used as a noun in English, but the earliest known example is adjectival.
A. adj.
1. A thousand times a thousand; numbering a thousand thousands; (often indefinitely or hyperbolically) a very great many, countless. (rare in early use.)Followed immediately by a plural (or collective) noun; in prose use, always with an article or prefixed multiplier.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > [adjective]
mickleeOE
wideOE
largec1300
greata1325
muchc1330
mightyc1390
millionc1390
dreicha1400
rudea1450
massive1581
massy1588
heavy1728
magnitudinous1777
powerful1800
almighty1824
tall1842
hefty1930
honking1943
mondo1968
the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > hundred and over > [adjective] > million
millionc1390
millyum1940
c1390 Vision St. Paul (Vernon) in C. Horstmann Minor Poems Vernon MS (1892) i. 259 (MED) Þen kneled Poul and Mihel And a Milioun Angeles.
a1525 Contempl. Synnaris l. 1238, in W. A. Craigie Asloan MS (1925) II. 230 Of thousand milȝeoun ȝeris þe slyding.
1589 in D. Yaxley Researcher's Gloss. Hist. Documents E. Anglia (2003) 132 iij small boxes & jc million nedell nedells viijd.
1792 T. Paine Rights of Man: Pt. Second i. 10 The unceasing circulation of interest, which, passing through its million channels, invigorates the whole mass of civilized man.
1813 J. Austen Let. 24 Sept. (1995) 228 Louisa's best Love & a Hundred Thousand Million Kisses.
1846 W. S. Landor Imaginary Conversat. in Wks. II. 179/2 The crown-lands in Ireland,..are large enough to support half a million subjects.
1868 T. T. Lynch Rivulet (ed. 3) clxv. 201 From Thee million spirits have their name.
1885 W. Watson Poems (1892) 106 Her veins are million but her heart is one.
1908 J. Davidson Mammon & his Message ii. i. 34 The vapours radiant in a million stars.
1969 C. Allen Textbk. Psychosexual Disorders (ed. 2) xx. 400 If..abnormal habits are allowed to become fixed, the patient becomes a million times more difficult to treat.
1981 M. Angelou Heart of Woman (1986) viii. 105 A heckler had asked why sixteen million Africans allowed three million whites to control them.
2000 Independent 3 Jan. i. 1/1 For America's 75 million Christian fundamentalists..predicting the exact moment of the world's extinction has always proved tricky.
2. colloquial. a million miles.
a. Hyperbolically: a very great distance, many miles.
ΚΠ
1845 D. W. Jerrold Time works Wonders ii. i. 21 I hope they'll carry her a million miles up the country.
1871 Scribner's Monthly Oct. 651 Your eyes seem a million miles away. I think I am going—to sleep.
1895 K. Chopin Regret 147 Her husband was away in Texas—it seemed to her a million miles away.
1942 D. Thomas Let. May (1987) 497 I've got to write, because you're a million miles away, in the mild and bitter north.
1996 C. Bateman Of Wee Sweetie Mice & Men xv. 114 It [sc. a letter] might cause her to run a million miles.
b. figurative. Chiefly in a million miles (away, etc.) from: far from, very different from; not a million miles (away, etc.) from: remarkably similar to.
ΚΠ
1904 H. James Golden Bowl II. iv. xxvii. 62 That rightness, a million miles removed from the queer actual, falling so short.
1913 F. H. Burnett T. Tembarom xxviii. 345 A gentleman visiting round among his friends and a million miles from wanting to butt in with business.
1973 Times 23 Apr. 5/6 A formula not a million miles removed from that of BBC 2's now defunct Late Night Line-up.
1993 Hot Air Oct. 54/2 An abrasive, blokish sort of comedian, whose quick-fire standup routines are a million miles away from the Cambridge-bred humour of the acceptable face of alternative comedy.
1999 Spark (Reading Univ. Students' Union) 1 Feb. 5/3 The number one question by a million miles.
3. a million and one n. (indefinitely and hyperbolically) a very large number, a great many.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > plurality > great number, numerousness > [noun] > a large number or multitude
sandc825
thousandc1000
un-i-rimeOE
legiona1325
fernc1325
multitudec1350
hundred1362
abundancec1384
quantityc1390
sight1390
felec1394
manyheada1400
lastc1405
sortc1475
infinityc1480
multiplie1488
numbers1488
power1489
many1525
flock1535
heapa1547
multitudine1547
sort1548
myriads1555
myriads1559
infinite1563
tot-quot1565
dickera1586
multiplea1595
troop1596
multitudes1598
myriad1611
sea-sands1656
plurality1657
a vast many1695
dozen1734
a good few1756
nation1762
vast1793
a wheen (of)1814
swad1828
lot1833
tribe1833
slew1839
such a many1841
right smart1842
a million and one1856
horde1860
a good several1865
sheaf1865
a (bad, good, etc.) sortc1869
immense1872
dunnamuch1875
telephone number1880
umpty1905
dunnamany1906
skit1913
umpteen1919
zillion1922
gang1928
scrillion1935
jillion1942
900 number1977
gazillion1978
fuckload1984
1856 Biblical Repertory Apr. 264 To predict that a law which has held good for a million and one instances, will change at the million and second.
1871 Harper's Mag. Aug. 424/2 I think I am equal to it now, at least up to a million and one stairs; beyond that I can't promise.
1986 Sc. Daily Express 23 July 8/2 (heading) With a million and one things to do.
1999 J. Lloyd & E. Rees Come Together iii. 84 We'll get to this party and Amy will know a million and one people and I won't know squat.
4. Used as an ordinal when followed by other numbers, the last of which has the ordinal form.
ΚΠ
1865 J. H. Newman Dream of Gerontius §3, in Catholic World July 524 Divide a moment, as men measure time, Into its million-million-millionth part.
1927 Jrnl. Royal Statist. Soc. 90 2 In the autumn of 1923..German exchange had fallen to one billionth (i.e. a million-millionth) of its original value.
1991 New Scientist 2 Nov. 24/3 A laser, which can produce pulses of light lasting about 100 femtoseconds, or one ten million millionth of a second.
5. colloquial (chiefly North American). (like) a million dollars (also bucks): extremely good or attractive; wonderful, splendid, excellent. Usually preceded by to feel (or look).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > excellence > [adjective] > and splendid
wlonkOE
clear1362
wlonkfulc1400
royalc1425
imperial?1435
magnificousa1474
splendidious?a1475
triumphant1494
glorious1622
aureate1625
candid1648
splendid1653
magnifico1654
magnificent1664
dazzling1749
splendiferous1827
angeliferous1837
million-dollar1854
purple1894
colossal1895
(like) a million dollars (also bucks)1911
swell1926
1911 C. G. Roe Prodigal Daughter 58 A good dinner looked like a million dollars to me then.
1925 P. G. Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves iii. 55 It was one of those topping mornings, and I had just climbed out from under the cold shower feeling like a million dollars.
1933 E. E. Cummings eimi 109 Something which might be port..‘Looks like a million dollars’—and which tastes like awfully watered vino rosso à l'américain.
1944 Princeton Alumni Weekly 24 Mar. 16/1 Waddy Ingersoll seen at the Racquet Club bar (on quick leave) looking like a million bucks.
1947 Time 17 Mar. 43 You'll go home feeling like a million dollars, rested and refreshed as never before!
1956 D. Gascoyne Night Thoughts 35 You'd look a million dollars at your worst.
1973 E. Boyd & R. Parkes Dark Number xiii. 150 Dorothy looked, as they say, a million dollars: brushed, scrubbed, wholesome and sane.
2006 T. McEwen in Granta Summer 122 His suit was temporarily stuffed into her luggage... Has it suffered? Has it hell. It looks like a million bucks.
6. colloquial. not (also never) in a million years: absolutely never, under no circumstances.
ΚΠ
1913 M. Dana Within Law xxi. 294 I wouldn't tell—not in a million years.
1964 Listener 31 Dec. 1053/2 They won't get me in the Kate—not in a million years they won't.
1995 P. McCabe Dead School (1996) 234 He was especially sorry because he was thinking of the days when he would never in a million years have done such a thing.
B. n.
1. The cardinal numeral equal to a thousand thousands (1,000,000 or 106). Often indefinitely or hyperbolically: an enormous number, an immeasurably large amount. Chiefly with of and with plural noun or pronoun. Abbreviated m. (also M.).
a. In singular. Usually a (emphatically one) million; in phrases expressing rate, the million.thanks a million: see thank n. Phrases 1b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > hundred and over > [noun] > million
a milliona1393
millionc1400
muskmelon1662
a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) v. 2613 (MED) Sche..that richest is And hath of gold a Milion.
c1395 G. Chaucer Summoner's Tale 1685 ‘Yis,’ quod this aungel, ‘many a milioun.’
c1440 (a1400) Awntyrs Arthure (Thornton) 236 (MED) With a melyone [v.r. myllione] of messes.
1480 W. Caxton Chron. Eng. ccxxx. 243 Ye shal vnderstonde that a myllyon is /M/M/.
1576 A. Fleming tr. C. Hegendorphinus in Panoplie Epist. 391 What is he among a myllian that is not surprised with sorrowe, when [etc.].
a1616 W. Shakespeare Two Gentlemen of Verona (1623) ii. i. 92 Oh, 'giue ye-good-ev'n: heer's a million of manners.
1629 J. Wadsworth Eng. Spanish Pilgrime i. 5 Through a Million of dangers we arriued the Spanish coasts.
1710 S. Palmer Moral Ess. Prov. 334 'Tis a million to one but they wish it had never been done.
1726 J. Swift Gulliver II. iv. v. 26 A million of Yahoos might have been killed.
1778 F. Burney Evelina III. xi. 123 He had a million of things to say to me.
1800 E. Hervey Mourtray Family II. 6 We charged him with a million of thanks.
1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art I. 524 The sun is a million of times larger than the earth.
1885 Manch. Examiner 24 July 5/1 He could count his soldiers by the million.
1926 V. Lindsay Geol. in Going-to-stars 84 A million of years.
1934 J. B. Priestley Eng. Journey ix. 316 This [ship-]yard..had been a spectacular failure in which over a million of money had been lost.
1989 San Diego Oct. 176/2 Leningrad lost one million of its population from starvation alone.
b. In plural †Formerly also modified by a numeral (obsolete).
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > specific numbers > hundred and over > [noun] > million
a milliona1393
millionc1400
muskmelon1662
c1400 (a1376) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Trin. Cambr. R.3.14) (1960) A. x. 152 Manye mylions [v.rr. milyonys, mylionos] mo of men & of wommen.
?a1425 (a1400) Brut (Corpus Cambr.) 308/28 Þe Kingez raunsoun..was..set to iij Milions of Scutes.
a1513 R. Fabyan New Cronycles Eng. & Fraunce (1516) II. f. cxiiv Thre Millyons of Scutes of Golde.
1576 A. Fleming tr. Hippocrates in Panoplie Epist. 277 His head being fraught wt myllians of imaginations.
1597 Bp. J. King Lect. Ionas i. 18 Tenne and tenne millions of men.
1611 Bible (King James) Gen. xxiv. 60 Bee thou the mother of thousands of millions . View more context for this quotation
a1657 W. Mure Misc. Poems in Wks. (1898) 32 Till contrarie fortoun..Metamorphos'd his thowsands in milleounes of lyce.
1708 J. Philips Cyder i. 345 The polish'd Glass, whose small Convex Enlarges to ten Millions of Degrees The Mite.
1834 Penny Cycl. II. 339/1 Hundreds of thousands of millions of millions.
1893 R. T. Jeffrey Visits to Calvary 366 After millions of millenniums.
1950 J. A. Mason in J. H. Steward Handbk. S. Amer. Indians VI. 197 Today probably several millions of Indians in Peru..speak Quechua.
1987 S. Bellow More die of Heartbreak 27 A huge tree, a maple, say—old, arthritic..but still capable of putting forth millions of leaves.
c. Modified by a numeral adjective or (frequently) a quantifier, in unmarked plural form. Cf. dozen n., hundred n. and adj.
ΚΠ
1488 (c1478) Hary Actis & Deidis Schir William Wallace (Adv.) (1968–9) xi. l. 464 Worth fer mair meid..Na v mylȝon off fynest gold so round.
c1530 Court of Love 589 Yet eft again, a thousand milion, Rejoysing, love, leding their life in blis.
a1592 R. Greene Frier Bacon (1594) sig. B A thousand thousand million of fine bels.
1692 R. Bentley Boyle Lect. v. 31 It is so many Million of millions of odds to one against any single throw, that the assigned Order will not be cast.
1761 S. Foote Liar (1786) i. ii 14 Do you know now, that..I honour the Park? Forty thousand million of times preferable to the play house!
1780 J. T. Dillon Trav. Spain i. v. 47 The Merino sheep, of which it is computed there are between four and five million in the kingdom.
1856 R. W. Emerson Eng. Traits x. 163 A thousand million of pounds sterling are said to compose the floating money of commerce.
1874 A. Trollope Lady Anna I. iv. 43 Thwaite was considering the injustice of the difference between ten thousand aristocrats and thirty million of people, who were for the most part ignorant and hungry.
1900 Jrnl. School Geogr. (U.S.) Apr. 135 New York, with its three million of people.
1915 G. W. Crile Mechanistic View War & Peace iv. 69 Suppose that Mexico were a rich, cultured, and brave nation of forty million with a deep-rooted grievance.
1972 F. Forsyth Odessa File 306 The mausoleum of Yad Vashem,..the shrine to six million of his fellow Jews who died in the holocaust.
1975 K. Katzner Langs. of World ii. 288 Hausa is spoken by close to 20 million people in northern Nigeria,..and by several million more in a number of other countries.
1991 N.Y. Times 3 Jan. c6/1 They dubbed it [sc. a miniature TV set] the Watchman and have since sold three million of them.
2. Elliptical uses.
a. A million coins or units of money of account of some understood value.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > sum of money > [noun] > specific sums of money
millionc1400
tun of gold1603
mill1821
monkey1827
lakh1859
thou1867
c1400 (a1376) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Trin. Cambr. R.3.14) (1960) A. iii. 249 Coueite nouȝt hise godis; For any mylionis [v.rr. meliounis, multitude] of mone murdre hem ichone.
?c1422 T. Hoccleve Ars Sciendi Mori l. 397 in Minor Poems (1970) i. 193 Many a milioun Of gold and siluer.
1488 (c1478) Hary Actis & Deidis Schir William Wallace (Adv.) (1968–9) iv. l. 142 Of cler gold a fyne mylȝone and mor.
1570 (c1478) Hary Actis & Deidis Schir William Wallace (Lekprevik) vii. 1280 Thocht he him gaif ane mulȝeon of gold.
c1595 Countess of Pembroke Psalme cxix. 23 in Coll. Wks. (1998) II. 200 Millions then, and Mines adue, Gold and siluer drosse you be.
1633 P. Massinger New Way to pay Old Debts i. iii. sig. C3v We must be strangers, Nor would I haue you seene here for a million.
a1704 T. Brown Satyr upon French King in Wks. (1707) I. i. 90 I'de not be for a Million in thy Jerkin.
1790 R. Beatson Naval & Mil. Mem. I. 391 Increasing the national debt to near eighty millions Sterling.
1841 R. P. Ward De Clifford III. vii. 111 By loans,..and other speculations, he achieved his million, and now acts the grandee.
1869 L. M. Alcott Little Women II. xxi. 313 She looked as glad and grateful as if I'd given her a check for a million, to be spent in charity.
1902 Westm. Gaz. 10 June 2/2 This four millions was taken account of in the Budget statement.
1936 C. Sandburg People, Yes 165 Then get your first million. The second million is always easier than the first.
1985 B. Zephaniah Dread Affair 73 And they have many millions and they give us a share.
1997 Sunday Times 26 Oct. (Sport section) 17/6 Good bloke who loved this soccer thingammy, said a suit from the insurance world in which Harding made all his millions.
b. the millions (also the million): the bulk of the population; the multitude, the masses.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > the common people > [noun]
folkc888
peoplea1325
frapec1330
commona1350
common peoplea1382
commonsa1382
commontya1387
communityc1400
meiniec1400
commonaltya1425
commonsa1500
vulgarsa1513
many1526
meinie1532
multitude1535
the many-headed beast (also monster)1537
number1542
ignobility1546
commonitya1550
popular1554
populace1572
popularya1578
vulgarity?1577
populacya1583
rout1589
the vulgar1590
plebs1591
mobile vulgusc1599
popularity1599
ignoble1603
the million1604
plebe1612
plebeity1614
the common filea1616
the herda1616
civils1644
commonality1649
democracy1656
menu1658
mobile1676
crowd1683
vulgusa1687
mob1691
Pimlico parliament?1774
citizenry1795
polloi1803
demos1831
many-headed1836
hoi polloi1837
the masses1837
citizenhood1843
John Q.1922
wimble-wamble1937
the world > relative properties > number > plurality > great number, numerousness > [noun] > greater number, majority
moeOE
unfewc1175
most?a1400
most forcea1400
substancea1413
overmatch1542
flush1592
the (great, vast) mass of1604
the millions1604
stream1614
numbers1638
the multiplicity of1639
majority1650
1604 W. Shakespeare Hamlet ii. ii. 439 The play I remember pleasd not the million . View more context for this quotation
1764 S. Foote Lyar i. i. 9 If you would descend a little to the grovelling comprehension of the million, I think it would be as well.
1822 Cobbett's Weekly Polit. Reg. 13 Apr. 69 The immense sums, thus pinched from the millions, and put into the hands of thousands.
1837 H. Martineau Society in Amer. II. App. E. 283 The democratic spirit is triumphing. The millions awake. The masses appear.
1850 R. W. Emerson Shakspeare in Representative Men v. 194 There was no literature for the million. The universal reading, the cheap press, were unknown.
1894 K. Grahame Pagan Papers 29 The two-and-sixpenny edition for the million.
1944 L. MacNeice Christopher Columbus 14 To assert..that all art should have mass-appeal is like asserting that all mathematics should be ‘for the million’.
1989 P. Stead Film & Working Class 10 The movies were ‘for the millions’ but they were given to the millions by showmen.
3. In plural = guppy n.1 Also millions fish.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > fish > superorder Acanthopterygii (spiny fins) > order Perciformes (perches) > order Atheriniformes > [noun] > member of family Poecilidae (guppy)
top minnow1884
millions1906
guppy1925
1906 Chambers's Jrnl. Apr. 345/2 A tiny fish known locally by the name of ‘millions’.
1908 Science 18 Dec. 885/2 ‘Millions’ are among the most active natural enemies of mosquitos.
1924 Glasgow Herald 2 June 11/2 In Barbadoes..the natives are accustomed to keep in their rain barrels the minute fish known as ‘millions’... Hence the absence of mosquitoes.
1966 D. W. Tucker tr. G. Sterba Freshwater Fishes of World (ed. 2) 568 Lebistes reticulatus... Guppy, Millions Fish. Venezuela, Barbados, Trinidad, parts of northern Brazil and Guiana.
1993 Aquarist & Pondkeeper Oct. 41/1 The Guppy, also occasionally referred to as the Millions Fish, is the smallest of the popular livebearers.

Phrases

P1. a million to one: a million chances to one; a very low probability; (occasionally in odds-on sense) a very high probability. Also millions to one. Frequently attributive.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > belief > uncertainty, doubt, hesitation > improbability, unlikeliness > [noun] > remote chance
a hundred to one1647
a million to one1678
long odds1764
long shot1796
off-chance1844
long chance1854
outside chance1867
a fat chance1892
to have a Chinaman's chance1915
1678 T. Shadwell Hist. Timon iii. 38 'Tis a million to one There was villany in the getting of that dirt.
1720 D. Defoe Life Capt. Singleton 158 It was a Million to one odds, that ever he could have been relieved.
1761 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy IV. ix. 94 Calculate it fairly..and it will turn out a million to one, that..the forceps should have the ill luck just to fall upon..that one part.
1775 R. B. Sheridan Let. 3 May–21 June (1966) III. 299 It is above a Million to one that this will be the event.
1856 Southern Q. Rev. Apr. 99 He..showed that the chances were millions to one, that these were not arbitrary accidental phenomena, but due to some particular cause.
1873 E. F. Burr Pater Mundi 185 All these inferences from the Law Scheme are of the million-to-one class.
1900 C. H. Chambers Tyranny of Tears i. 9 The article hasn't a million to one chance of being finished this afternoon.
1937 H. C. Bailey Clunk's Claimant xlvi. 315 A million to one some side-line of a next of kin would bob up and pinch their share.
1962 P. Brickhill Deadline v. 78 So I'm supposed to..roam Paris for weeks on the million-to-one chance of spotting someone.
1976 D. Francis In Frame xii. 172 The chances of anyone seeing its significance in ordinary circumstances were millions to one against.
1982 J. Wain Young Shoulders i. 18 We all know that human error does exist, and so do unpredictable weather conditions and million-to-one chances generally.
P2. (one) in a million: (one person, thing, etc.) out of a very great many; (a person or thing) that is very rare, unusual, or valuable.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > kind or sort > individual character or quality > quality of being special or extraordinary > [noun] > rareness > something very rare
rare1566
rariety1566
black swan?1570
rarity1592
hen's milk1601
white Negro1631
rara avis1651
(one) in a million1685
collector's or collectors' item1910
lightning in a bottle1941
rare bird1962
1685 J. Crowne Sir Courtly Nice iv. 38 Not one Lady in a Million, whose breath I can endure.
1805 ‘C. Caustic’ Democracy Unveiled i. 11 A full blooded Jacobin was sent to Congress, in retaliation of the aforesaid Federal forgery!! But this is only one in a million.
1849 Ladies' Repository June 183 This leaves us one in a million, who does all he can to reach a condition, where true spiritual experience would, if at all, be possible.
1865 C. Dickens Our Mutual Friend II. iii. ix. 74 O Mrs. Higden, Mrs. Higden, you was a woman and a mother and a mangler in a million million!]
1900 J. Conrad Lord Jim viii. 99 The occasion was obscure, insignificant—what you will: a lost youngster, one in a million—but then he was one of us.
1906 E. Nesbit Railway Children xiii. 288 Take care of your Mother... She's a woman in a million.
1925 P. G. Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves i. 30 You know, Jeeves, you're by way of being rather a topper... One in a million, by Jove!
1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 5 Feb. 96/3 Emily was, of course, a chimp..in a million.
1987 New Yorker 26 Jan. 24/3 She has sent me a catalogue that informs me, on its cover, ‘You're one in a million!’
1998 Daily Tel. 3 Nov. 3/3 Julie did indeed have a virus. Unluckily she was among the one in a million in whom it attacks the heart.
P3. a (also one) chance in a million: a very low probability, esp. of a favourable outcome; a highly improbable eventuality or occurrence.
ΚΠ
1874 Appletons' Jrnl. 24 Jan. 100/2 The only known way to get it [sc. the safe] open was by turning the dial to certain numbers in a definite order..and there was scarcely one chance in a million that anybody had guessed it.
1900 Overland Monthly Nov. 458/1 He must die in combat with a lion. On the next high feast day the combat should take place—a combat to the death, with one chance in a million for the man.
1958 I. Fleming Dr. No ii. 23 Luckily the doctor had worked in South America. Diagnosed curare and treated him accordingly. But it was a chance in a million.
1990 E. Blair Maggie Jordan (BNC) ii. 45 Our entire street was washed away, and my family with it. It was a chance in a million that I came through it all alive.
P4. Australian and New Zealand colloquial. gone (†in) a million: completely lost, defeated, or finished; in a hopeless state (spec., incapacitated by alcohol).
ΚΠ
1908 N.Z. Truth Nov. 8 He left him and remarked to another ‘screw’, ‘Paddy's gone in a million’, and in two days Paddy..was dead.
1913 Bulletin (Sydney) 25 Sept. 22/2 Inebriated, loaded..gone a million.
1916 C. J. Dennis Battle of Wazzir in A. H. Chisholm Making of Sentimental Bloke (1963) 131 Fer young Bill wus gone a million, an' 'e never guessed the game.
1922 A. Wright Colt from Country 142 What hope would you have when that came out? You'd be gone a million.
1930 K. S. Prichard Haxby's Circus xvi. 187 If it weren't for you, I'd be gone a million on the minx.
1941 Coast to Coast 209 No doubt about it, Sim was right. If they drop their bundles they're gone a million.
1958 N.Z. Listener 23 May 6/4 We scraped in in that game, only because Elvidge scored his usual try... Otherwise, we were gone a million.
1976 Australian 1 Mar. 1/2 ‘Gough's gone. Gone a million. He's had it.’

Compounds

C1.
a. General attributive or objective.
million maker n.
ΚΠ
1906 N.E.D. at Million Million maker.
million-making adj. and n.
ΚΠ
1875 ‘G. Eliot’ Let. 19 Aug. (1956) VI. 166 My gall rises at the rich brewers, in Parliament and out of it, who plant these poison-shops for the sake of their million-making trade.
1922 19th Cent. Feb. 204 The whole history of million-making is against this theory.
b. Parasynthetic and instrumental.
million-billowed adj.
ΚΠ
1893 R. Garnett Poems 132 Thy million-billowed surge Of life bewilders speech.
1895 W. Watson Apologia in Poems (1936) 182 He..beholds..In million-billowed consentaneousness, The flowing, flowing, flowing of the world.
million-eyed adj.
ΚΠ
1867 Harper's Mag. July 242 My lovely countrywomen,..already conscious of the million-eyed admiration of the world.
1893 C. Rossetti Verses 101 Wisdom that loveth thee grows million-eyed.
1999 D. Francis in T. White Britpulp! 304 We move on to hot million-eyed streets, follow the meander of Broadway on to Fifth Avenue.
million-fingered adj.
ΚΠ
1853 National Era (Electronic ed.) 7 Apr. 55 All Christendom, million-fingered, is pointing at us. The secret is out. The devil's mark on the forehead of American democracy is manifest.
1891 Overland Monthly July 109/2 The maple flames, a scarlet vine, Beside the ‘million-fingered pine’.
1988 Newsday (N.Y.) (Nexis) 29 Aug. (Nassau ed.) 7 In waters off the East End we pass a board the size of a door, underneath which Swanson uncovers a million-fingered system of sea plants and organisms, all cooperating nicely.
million-footed adj.
ΚΠ
1852 U.S. Democratic Rev. Jan. 72 Blown across the English channel, and let down in the bustling, million-footed and million-headed world of Paris.
1885 W. B. Yeats Island of Statues ii. iii, in Dublin Univ. Rev. July 137/1 Though I be Far fleeter than the million-footed sea.
1935 T. Wolfe Of Time & River ii. vii. 89 He saw the narrow, twisted age-browned streets of Boston..the sight of the man-swarm passing in its million-footed weft.
1947 Jrnl. Educ. Sociol. 20 546 It may be easily blighted..by the swiftness of the tempo of our million-footed society.
1987 B. A. Powe Ice Eaters iii. i. 180 Isolation in the city was worse. All around was Thomas Wolfe's million-footed manswarm, indifferent as the figures in a wax museum.
million-handed adj.
ΚΠ
1844 U.S. Mag. & Democratic Rev. May 512 Art..caught the sternness of her new abode, and now with million-handed toil she piled the colossal breastworks of the Capitol and the Palatium.
1917 F. W. Bourdillon Russia Re-born 9 Million-handed for the sickle or the sabre, Million-voiced, to claim the birthright due.
million-headed adj.
ΚΠ
1852 U.S. Democratic Rev. Jan. 72 Blown across the English channel, and let down in the bustling, million-footed and million-headed world of Paris.
1879 W. Whitman Daybks. & Notebks. (1978) I. 145 The leisure and idleness of this our million-headed city.
1964 Transition (Uganda) No. 15. 48/3 In order to decapitate this million-headed hydra medical science needs an accurate preventative weapon, a protective-vaccine matter.
2000 Observer (Nexis) 21 May (Review section) 7 Britain does not have carnivals. Street parades, maybe, but never the unbuttoned catharsis you see in..Ensor's drawings of the million-headed Brussels mob.
million-minded adj.
ΚΠ
a1853 F. W. Robertson Serm. (1855) 1st Ser. i. 10 The creative fancies of one like the million-minded Poet.
1932 Jrnl. Higher Educ. 3 229/1 It is now as if the Creator..would achieve His higher evolutionary designs through the million-minded society of man, whose nerve-centers are its cities.
million-peopled adj.
ΚΠ
1820 P. B. Shelley Prometheus Unbound i. i. 47 A million-peopled city.
1894 J. Davidson Ballads & Songs 87 The million-peopled lanes and alleys.
1902 Jrnl. Royal Statist. Soc. 65 586 At the present time it is believed that St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Constantinople are million-peopled cities.
million-pointed adj.
ΚΠ
1857 J. S. Blackie Lays & Legends Anc. Greece 147 The light Far-shimmering o'er the million-pointed wave Confounds the eye.
1923 H. Belloc Sonnets & Verse 149 To-night in million-voicèd London I Was lonely as the million-pointed sky.
million-tongued adj.
ΚΠ
a1849 E. Elliott Will it Rain? 6, in Poet. Wks. II The Million-Tongued is quiet.
1863 B. Taylor Poet's Jrnl. 74 Million-tongued, the woodland whisper crept..from tree to tree.
1934 W. S. Churchill Marlborough II. v. 116 Let us not pretend that modern achievements can be compared, except by million-tongued propaganda, with the personal feats which the very few great captains of the world performed.
million-voiced adj.
ΚΠ
1839 F. S. L. Osgood in Lady's Bk. (Electronic ed.) 18 133 I watched her white brow as benignly it bent, While the million-voiced welcome the air around rent.
1845 New Englander (New Haven, Connecticut) 3 54 And to pass by the million-voiced appeals which no record has preserved, there still live in the body of English literature productions of the ministry.
1894 ‘M. Twain’ Those Extraordinary Twins i, in Pudd'nhead Wilson (new ed.) 322 The two sat..unconscious of the million-voiced music of the mosquitoes.
1923 H. Belloc Sonnets & Verse 149 To-night in million-voicèd London I Was lonely as the million-pointed sky.
1991 M. E. Wertsch Military Brats p. xxiv We could come together on this parade ground at dusk, million voiced and articulating our secret anthems of hurt and joy.
C2.
† Million Act n. Obsolete rare an Act of Parliament of 1692 (4 Will. & Mary c. 3), which was partly concerned with raising a million pounds in exchange for annuities.An Act of 1694 (5 Will. & Mary c. 7) was also intended to raise a million pounds, in part by means of a lottery; this is more commonly known as the Lottery Act: see million lottery n.
ΚΠ
1694 J. Briscoe (title) A Discourse on the late Funds of the Million-Act, Lottery-Act, and Bank of England.
million city n. chiefly Geography a city with a million or more inhabitants; also (esp. in earlier, more general use) with prefixed multiplier.
ΚΠ
1855 tr. P. Schaff America Pref. p. xii The two-million city of the Anglo-Saxons.
1893 Littell's Living Age 11 Feb. 447/1 The only noble open-air work of native art in the four-million city.
1940 Jrnl. Royal Statist. Soc. 103 51 Outside London, probably the only ‘million city’ that has grown relatively has been Birmingham.
1997 S. Mayhew Oxf. Dict. Geogr. (ed. 2) 282 In the 1990s there were more than 250 million cities, more or less evenly divided between the more developed and less developed worlds.
million-dollar adj. (a) worth or costing a million dollars; (b) figurative expensive-looking; magnificent, splendid; very attractive or highly valued.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > monetary value > [adjective] > specific values
twopenny1532
sixpenny1592
fourpenny1597
threepenny1627
ninepenny1632
ten-pound1673
two-bit1802
four-figure1842
million-dollar1854
two-cent1859
thousand-guinea1894
thruppence1895
five-figure1971
six-figure1971
the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > excellence > [adjective] > and splendid
wlonkOE
clear1362
wlonkfulc1400
royalc1425
imperial?1435
magnificousa1474
splendidious?a1475
triumphant1494
glorious1622
aureate1625
candid1648
splendid1653
magnifico1654
magnificent1664
dazzling1749
splendiferous1827
angeliferous1837
million-dollar1854
purple1894
colossal1895
(like) a million dollars (also bucks)1911
swell1926
1854 Frederick Douglass' Paper (Rochester, N.Y.) (Electronic ed.) 10 Mar. The Life Boat announces that the million-dollar fund for the enforcement of the Liquor Law, has reached over $900,000, and that it will probably be completed this week.
1856 Ladies' Repository Mar. 187 He was the possessor, at the time of his death, of one of the five million dollar notes issued by the Bank of England.
1892 A. E. Lee Hist. Columbus II. 90 The General Assembly..passed this milliondollar bill.
1903 ‘O. Henry’ in Everybody's Mag. July 59/2 As proud and satisfied as a prince that's abjured a two-hundred-dollar crown for a million-dollar parvenuess.
1912 E. R. Goetz & I. Berlin in I. Berlin Compl. Lyrics (2001) 51/3 Come with me And hear that most appealing harmony, That million-dollar feeling comes to you.
1932 Amer. Speech 7 250 Bing Crosby plaintively croons that he has ‘Found a Million Dollar Baby in the Five and Ten Cent Store’.
1939 Fortune Oct. 11/1 (caption) It made possible cheaper, better air-conditioning... A million-dollar business was built.
1959 Listener 5 Mar. 432/1 A man in a million-dollar suit.
1991 Clothes Show June (BNC) The million dollar look usually costs £95 for a session.
million-dollared n. poetic (with the) a person who has a million dollars.
ΚΠ
1855 J. G. Whittier Little Pilgrim Jan. 1/2 Let the million-dollared ride—Barefoot, trudging at his side, Thou hast more than he can buy, In the reach of ear and eye.
million-dollar question n. a crucial or essential question; cf. sixty-four dollar question n. at sixty adj. and n. Compounds 3.
ΚΠ
1975 Chem. Week 16 July 40/1 What will the cost of toxic substances control be? That's the million-dollar question.
1981 B. Ashley Dodgem vi. 120 But will 'e? that's what I want to know. That's the million dollar question.
1992 TV Quick 19 Dec. (Central Region ed.) 47/3 Paul Gascoigne contemplates the state of play in the Italian league,..asking the million dollar question: will anyone ever beat AC Milan?
million-dollar weed n. U.S. colloquial water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, a serious weed of waterways in the southern United States.
ΚΠ
1921 Discovery Feb. 48/1 The water hyacinth..is a beautiful aquatic plant..but its spread in St. John's River and the enormous sums spent in attempting its suppression have earned it the name of the ‘million-dollar weed’.
1955 Southern Folklore Q. 19 235 The Water Hyacinth, much admired by nature lovers and much hated by those who must keep our rivers navigable, has been called by the latter group the Million-Dollar Weed.
1980 A. J. Healy & E. Edgar Flora N.Z. III. 62 In preventing the passage of ships on waterways in Florida, it gained the name ‘million dollar weed’.
million-dollar wound n. U.S. Military slang a wound severe enough to require a soldier's return home to convalesce (cf. Blighty n. 2).
ΚΠ
1905 A. Hunter Johnny Reb & Billy Yank ii. xx. 549 In the parlance of our camp, I had a ‘million-dollar wound,’ which meant a long furlough with no danger to life or limb.
1945 Yank 2 Feb. 4/1 Others, with what the boys enviously called ‘million-dollar wounds’, didn't come back from the hospital.
1999 Arizona Republic (Electronic ed.) 13 Nov. I got a shoulder wound, what we called a million-dollar wound.
million lottery n. now historical a lottery held under the terms of the Lottery Act of 1694.
ΚΠ
1694 N. Luttrell Diary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) III. 382 Yesterday the million lottery drew 66 benefit tickets.
1710 J. Swift Jrnl. to Stella 15 Sept. (1948) I. 19 Colonel Froud and I went to see the million lottery drawn at Guildhall.
1932 C. L. Ewen Lotteries & Sweepstakes v. 129 On March 29, 1695, by letters patent, Philip Bertie and others were appointed directors of the Million Lottery.
million-pound adj. (a) weighing a million pounds; (b) worth or costing a million pounds.
ΚΠ
1856 U.S. Democratic Rev. Apr. 326 There was a floating rumor that he had a million-pound bank note framed over his mantel-piece!
1888 Sci. Amer. 29 Dec. 404/1 The cables..constituted a totalizing apparatus that permitted of moving million-pound masses by means of..successive stresses never exceeding 15 tons.
1903 ‘A. McNeill’ Egregious Eng. (ed. 3) ix. 88 New churches continue to be built, million-pound funds are raised.
1992 Sun 16 Sept. 30/1 Million-pound Andrei will be banished to a touchline seat.
million-pounder n. a person who has a million pounds.
ΚΠ
1893 ‘M. Twain’ £1,000,000 Bank-note 23 You could not take up a newspaper,..,without finding in it one or more references to the ‘vest-pocket million-pounder’ and his latest doings and sayings.
2000 Leicester Mercury (Nexis) 8 July (Sport section) 8 £1m would now be lucky to fetch you a Second Division reject. Six more million-pounders have since been added to the list.
million seller n. a record, book, etc., of which a million copies have been sold.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > merchandise > [noun] > best-selling goods
bestseller1864
million seller1969
number one1989
1968 Amer. Q. 20 74 Many of the typical million-plus sellers in the 1950s and early 1960s were written, published and/or recorded in such new centers.]
1969 N. Cohn Pop from Beginning iii. 26 He [sc. Elvis Presley] has racked up twenty worldwide million sellers.
1992 New Musical Express 14 Nov. 53 In 1923 she recorded ‘Downhearted Blues’, one of the 14 releases Bessie had on Columbia that year, and it became a million seller.
million-selling adj. designating a record, book, etc., which has sold a million copies.
ΚΠ
1975 Newsweek 13 Jan. 67B/1 After you read ‘Billion Dollar Baby’—taken from the title of one of Cooper's million-selling albums—you'll know the horrible truth.
1999 T. White in Britpulp! Introd. p. xiii Your eyes would be drawn along the shelves and encounter the latest in Richard Allen's million-selling series of ‘youthsploitation’ ‘Skinhead’ novels.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
<
adj.n.c1390
随便看

　

英语词典包含1132095条英英释义在线翻译词条，基本涵盖了全部常用单词的英英翻译及用法，是英语学习的有利工具。

　

Copyright © 2004-2022 Newdu.com All Rights Reserved
更新时间：2025/2/28 20:38:09