| 释义 |
▪ I. diˈminishing, vbl. n.
[f. as prec. + -ing1.]
1. The action of the verb diminish; lessening, diminution.
1513More in Grafton Chron. (1568) II. 782 Thinges..redoundyng to the diminishyng of his honor. 1582R. Wimbledon (title), A Sermon no less fruitful than famous..set foorth by the olde copy, without addings or diminishings. 1649Milton Eikon. x, That their liberties and rights were the impairing and diminishing of his regal power. 1863Geo. Eliot Romola iii. xii, The one end of her life seemed to her to be the diminishing of sorrow.
2. Arch. Tapering; = diminution 9. ? Obs.
1563Shute Archit. C iij a, How to close and finish the diminishing of the pillors. 1613–39I. Jones in Leoni Palladio's Archit. (1742) II. 46 The diminishing of the Pilasters. 1776G. Semple Building in Water 142 In every Course to make a two Inch set off..will preserve the diminishing of the Pier.
▪ II. diˈminishing, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
1. That diminishes or lessens:
a. That makes less. Spec. diminishing glass, an instrument which causes objects to appear smaller than they appear to the naked eye; diminishing mirror, a convex mirror in which the image is reduced in scale; diminishing rod, that part of the mechanism of a cotton-roving machine which gives the bobbins of roving their conical ends.
1665Hooke Microgr. 3 [It] may by..some convenient Diminishing-Glasses, be made vanish into a scarce visible Speck. 1816Keatinge Trav. (1817) II. 210 If they could read through a diminishing glass. 1861Dickens Gt. Expect. II. xiv. 225 A private sitting-room..fitted up with a diminishing mirror. 1868C. M. Yonge Chaplet of Pearls I. i. 2 They [sc. children] looked like a full-grown couple seen through a diminishing-glass. 1890J. Nasmith Mod. Cotton Spinning x. 168 The slide in its reciprocal vertical movement causes, by means of the ‘diminishing rod’ or ‘hangar bar’, the upper cradle to oscillate in its centre. 1896Daily News 28 May 2/2 Diminishing and magnifying glasses such as are used by artists.
b. That grows less. Esp. in the law of diminishing return(s), in Economics, the principle that the expenditure of labour or capital beyond a certain point does not produce a proportionately corresponding return (see quot. 1938); also transf.
1793Smeaton Edystone L. Introd. 4 The building is carried up..by diminishing stories, to the height of 115 feet. 1815E. West Ess. Application of Capital to Land 12 In the progress of improvement an equal quantity of work extracts from the soil a gradually diminishing return. 1848Mill Pol. Econ. I. xii. §2. 216 The general law of diminishing return from land would have undergone..a temporary supersession. 1883F. A. Walker Pol. Econ. ii. 23 The great comprehensive principle to which we give the name, ‘the law of diminishing returns in agriculture’. 1894Nature 26 July 291 The diminishing speed of the earth's rotation. 1930J. S. Huxley Bird-Watching iv. 61 From the point of view of..the collector of birds seen and recorded, the law of diminishing returns has set in; only very seldom is he rewarded by the sight or sound of a species new or little known to him. 1938F. Benham Economics ix. 130 We may now state the Law of Diminishing Returns. As the proportion of one factor in a combination of factors is increased, after a point, the marginal and average product of that factor will diminish. 1965Listener 24 June 926/1, I, for one, am not prepared to accept that the law of diminishing returns applies to television. I do not believe that what is trivial and bad will drive out what is serious and good. 1970Times 7 Jan. 9/8 The law of diminishing returns has begun to set in: we can't go on forever extending our hearts to shapely matrons.
†2. Disparaging, depreciative. Obs.
1675Evelyn Mem. (1857) II. 105 The Lords accused the Commons for their..provoking, and diminishing expressions. 1705Stanhope Paraphr. III. 501 St. Paul, who..disdains all false and diminishing Reflections.
3. Arch., Ship-building, etc. Thinning or tapering off gradually.
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Diminishing stuff, in ship-building, the planking wrought under the wales, where it is thinned progressively to the thickness of the bottom plank. 1869R. W. Meade Naval Archit. 354. 1876 Gwilt Archit., Gloss., Diminishing Rule, a board cut with a concave edge, so as to ascertain the swell of a column, and to try its curvature. Diminishing Scale, a scale of gradation used in finding the different points for drawing the spiral curve of the Ionic volute. 1882Worc. Exhib. Catal. iii. 5 Four diminishing joints. |
