| 释义 |
▪ I. bracket, n.|ˈbrækɪt|
Also 6–7 bragget, 7 braget(t, 8 brecate, brockett.
[The earliest form bragget appears to be (either directly or through F. braguette) ad. Sp. bragueta, dim. of braga:—L. brāca, sing. of brācæ breeches; the form bracket is a corruption, perh. influenced by It. bracheta, dim. of braca:—L. brāca.
The Eng. senses are difficult to account for, but may in part be based on unrecorded senses of the Sp., It., or Fr. words. Prof. Skeat suggests that the ‘bracket’ of architecture may have been so called from its resemblance to the ‘codpiece’ of a pair of breeches (Sp. bragueta meant both ‘codpiece’ and ‘bracket’). Further, a name suggested by ‘breeches’ may naturally have been applied to an apparatus consisting of two limbs set at an angle, like the ‘bracket’ of shipbuilding, or to appliances used in pairs, like the ‘brackets’ of a gun-carriage. Then, as a bracket of any kind was generally used for support, the erroneous etymology from L. brachium ‘arm’ or its Romance derivatives presented itself, and seems to have affected the development of senses. Cf. also OF. bracon and braquant ‘supporting beam’.]
1. a. In Building, a piece of stone, wood, or metal projecting from a wall, and having a flat upper surface which serves as a ledge to support a statue, the spring of an arch, a beam, shelf, etc.; usually carved or sculptured, and sometimes employed merely as a decoration; under the name of bracket are included the corbel and the console.
1580Baret Alv. B 1099 A Bragget or staie..in building to beare vp the sommer or other part. 1664Evelyn tr. Freart's Archit. 136 Modilions..are a kind of Bragets to the Corona. 1707J. Mortimer Art. Husb. 564 Let your Shelves be laid upon Brackets. 1845Parker Gloss. Archit. I. 60. 1859 Turner Dom. Archit. III. 213 The angel bracket of an oriel window.
b. A small (usually ornamental) shelf, or set of two or three shelves, for the wall of a room.
1635Althorp MS. in Simpkinson Washingtons Introd. 70 Bragetts for the drawinge room. 1714Lond. Gaz. No. 5214/3 Gilt Brocketts, Desks, and Book Cases. 1756M. Calderwood Jrnl. (1884) 75 Above the lintel..[are] brecates set out for china. 1810Jebb Corr. II. 5 You shall have..a bracket for your books. 1881Mechanic §735 Brackets which are short small shelves may also be fixed to the wall.
c. transf. (? with allusion to bract.)
1860Ruskin Mod. Paint. V. vi. iii. 14 The little brackets, which project beneath each bud and sustain it.
2. In Carpentry, Shipbuilding, etc.: A support consisting of two pieces of wood or metal joined at an angle, or of a single piece bent at an angle. Also attrib., as bracket plate.
1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ii. 11 The brackets are little carued knees to support the Galleries. c1850Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 100, Brackets, short crooked timbers, resembling knees, for support or ornament. The Hair Bracket is the boundary of the aft-part of the figure head. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 363/2 The principal transverse frames are made up of..bracket plates.
3. One of the two ‘cheeks’ or side-pieces of a gun-carriage, which support the trunnions of a piece of ordnance; also used of the entire carriage of a gun mounted on board ship or in a casement.
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., Cheeks of a mortar, or Brackets..are made of strong planks of wood..they rise on each side of the mortar, and serve to keep her at what elevation is given her. c1860H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 5 Brackets—transom—fore axletree. 1880Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9) XI. 311 The trail [of gun-carriage] consists of two side brackets.
4. A metal pipe, usually of ornamental shape, projecting from the wall of an apartment, at once to support and supply the gas lamps or burners.
1876Gwilt Archit. §2264 e, The outer arm of the bracket..should be protected on the top by a hanging shade.
5. a. One of two marks of the form [ ] or ( ), and in mathematical use also {ob}{cb}, used for enclosing a word or number of words, a portion of a mathematical formula, or the like, so as to separate it from the context; in typography, esp. applied to ‘square brackets’ (formerly called crotchets), the ‘round brackets’ being designated ‘parentheses’. Sometimes improperly applied to the ‘vinculum’ or horizontal line over the writing, serving in algebra the same purpose as brackets; also to the ‘brace’ {ob} used for coupling together two lines of writing or printing (cf. bracket v.); hence brackets is used fig. for ‘the position of being bracketed equal, equality’.
1750G. Fisher Instructor (ed. 10) 23 [ ] Brackets or Crochets, generally include a Word or Sentence, explanatory of what went before. 1824L. Murray Eng. Gram. I. 413 Crotchets or Brackets [ ] serve to enclose a word or sentence, which is to be explained in a note, or the explanation itself, or a word or sentence which is intended to supply some deficiency, or to rectify some mistake. 1859Barn. Smith Arith. & Algebra (ed. 6) 194 A Bracket ( ) or {ob}{cb}, or [ ]. 1883Standard 12 Feb. 2/6 On a shorter course Regnard is not unlikely to earn brackets.
b. transf. The (specified) distance between a pair of shots fired, one beyond the target and one short of it, in order to find the range for artillery; chiefly in the phrase to establish a bracket.
1899Daily News 6 Dec. 5/7 At first I fire at 3100 yards, and if I find that my shot is short I fire a second round, say at 3300, in order to go beyond the object. If I see that my shot does go over I am satisfied that I have established what is called ‘a long bracket’, that is to say, I have found two ranges, 200 yards apart, between which the object must lie... I..fire another shot to shorten the distance within which I can then know that the target must be. This we call, on the same principle as the other, ‘a short bracket’. 1916‘Boyd Cable’ Action Front 42 The German gun had got its bracket. 1927Blackw. Mag. Apr. 476/2 The shell passed over the ship, to be followed by a second one which fell short, establishing a ‘bracket’, which..is all that a gunner desires.
c. A group bracketed together as of equal standing in some graded system, as income bracket: a class of persons grouped according to income.
1880Bp. Goodwin in Macm Mag. No. 246. 477 Sedgwick was in the first bracket. 1932N.Y. Times 1 May iii. 1/3 The most striking fact in vital statistics is the increase in the upper-age brackets. 1940Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XLIV. 506 The general bracket of utilisation within which the aeroplanes will fall. 1940F. Scott Fitzgerald Let. 18 Mar. (1964) 66 Competent people with a little pull have no trouble finding places in the same income brackets. 1943Gen 2 Jan. 29/1 Once he got in the upper brackets, fistically speaking. 1952News Chron. 15 July 6/8 ‘At my age,’ he [sc. an athlete] added, ‘I have only two years left in the top bracket.’ 1956‘M. Innes’ Appleby plays Chicken v. 43 They were both from the same social bracket.
d. Skating. A series of turns resembling a bracket or ‘brace’ (see sense 5). Also attrib.
1892[see counter n.4 6]. 1901Encycl. Sport IV. 366/1 Three turns and bracket turns are accomplished upon two edges. Ibid. 370/1 Turn loops are turns worked into the form of a loop, and Bracket loops are brackets skated in a similar way. 1935Times 14 Nov. 6/7 The great stumbling block in this test for the average skater is the bracket figure. 1967Daily Tel. 3 Mar. 14/7 She coolly executed a smooth change-edge loop figure and an equally accurate bracket-change-bracket.
6. Comb. and attrib., as bracket-bolt, an iron bolt securing a mortar to its brackets; bracket-burner, -light, a gas-bracket; = sense 4; bracket clock, a clock designed to stand on a shelf or wall-bracket; bracket-crab, a crab or windlass designed for attachment to a wall or post; bracket fungus, mushroom, any fungus which grows on trunks of trees forming a bracket-like projection; bracket-shelf, a form of bracket used as a shelf; bracket-stair, -staircase (see quot.); bracket system (see quot.); bracket-trail, in Gunnery, a trail composed of two or more timbers or irons, opposed to block trail; bracket-wise adv., after the manner of, or so as to resemble, a bracket.
1753Chambers Cycl. Suppl. s.v. Cheeks, Bolts of iron which go through both cheeks, both under and behind the mortar..are called the *bracket-bolts.
1876Gwilt Archit. §2293 j, Fix..*bracket burners in passages.
1894F. J. Britten Former Clock & Watchmakers 185 *Bracket or pedestal clocks..were in favour before..the long-case variety. The earliest English wooden bracket clock cases were of the square pattern. 1958‘W. Haggard’ Slow Burner i. 13 The handsome bracket clock on the table.
1909Cent. Dict. Suppl., *Bracket fungus. 1910Encycl. Brit. IV. 366/2 Bracket-fungi. The term ‘bracket’ has been given to those hard, woody fungi that grow on trees or timber in the form of semicircular brackets.
1927Observer 28 Aug. 18/1 The so-called *bracket mushrooms that chiefly flourish in rotting trunks have been platforms rather than brackets.
1876Gwilt Archit. §2183 A *Bracket Staircase is one which has an opening or well..and is supported by landings and carriages.
Ibid. In *bracket stairs the internal angle of the steps is open to the end.
1874Thearle Naval Archit. 86 The *Bracket System is the development..of the transverse and longitudinal systems combined, by which iron-clad ships have been built since their introduction.
1865C. H. Owen Elem. Lect. Artillery (ed. 4) 62 The travelling carriages for siege guns had *bracket trails, but those now made..are similar in construction to the 40-pr. block trail carriage.
1884Pall Mall G. 5 Dec. 11/2 Timbers..are pushed out *bracketwise..layer above layer.
▪ II. ˈbracket, v.
[f. prec.]
1. trans. To provide with brackets; to enclose (words, expressions, formulæ, etc.) within brackets.
1870Jebb Sophocles' Elect. (ed. 2) 14/2 Dindorf..brackets the line as spurious.
2. To couple or connect (two or more lines of writing, etc.) by means of a brace; esp. so to connect two or more names of equal merit in a class-list; hence fig. to mention two persons or things together so as to imply that they are equal or have something in common.
1861Sat. Rev. 23 Nov. 557 We entirely approve of his..reluctance to be bracketed with a person of this sort. 1868Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. ix. 348 It is bracketted with the massacre of Saint Brice. 1869Daily News 30 Jan. Only four times beaten for both prizes, as often bracketed.
3. intr. To project like a bracket.
1855Fergusson Handbk. Archit. ix. iv. 428 A number of small imitations of arches, bracketing one beyond the other.
4. To find the range for artillery by means of a bracket or series of brackets (bracket n. 5 b). Also trans. Hence ˈbracketing vbl. n.
1909in Webster. 1914Times 12 Oct. 7/4 They [sc. the Germans] dispense to a great extent with the method of ranging known by us as ‘bracketing’, especially when acting on the defensive, and direct fire by means of squared maps and telephone. 1916J. Buchan Greenmantle xxi. 293 The shell dropped ten yards to our right. A second later another fell behind us... ‘They know their business. They're bracketing.’ 1926‘J. J. Connington’ Death at Swaythling Court xvi, I took the liberty of bracketing the Lethal Ray machine..on Swaythling Court. 1957M. K. Joseph I'll soldier no More (1958) 187 In the distance, a puff of smoke suddenly appeared... Almost looks as if we're being bracketed.
▪ III. bracket
variant of bragget. |
