英和和英

語源

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

発音

形容詞

point blank (not comparable)

1. The distance between a gun and a target such that it requires minimal effort in aiming it. In particular no allowance needs to be made for effects of gravity, target movement or wind in aiming the projectile.
2. Blunt, outright.
   • 1855, Frederick Douglass, chapter XXIV, in My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York; Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […], →OCLC:

     Here I was brought into point blank collison with Rev. Dr. Cox, who made me the subject not only of bitter remark in the convention, but also of a long denunciatory letter published in the New York Evangelist and other American papers.

   • 1887, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “A Study in Scarlet”, in Beeton’s Christmas Annual, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward, Lock & Co., part I (Being a reprint from the reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., […]), chapter II (The Science of Deduction), page 11:

     Again I had an opportunity of asking him a point blank question, and again my delicacy prevented me from forcing another man to confide in me.

副詞

point blank (not comparable)

1. Horizontally (as the angle at which a projectile is launched); directly or straight (at the target).
2. (idiomatic) Directly; bluntly; without pretense or caution.

   I asked him point blank whether he was cheating on his wife.

   • 1896, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter I, in Tom Sawyer, Detective:

     There’s a neighbor named Brace Dunlap that’s been wanting to marry their Benny for three months, and at last they told him point blank and once for all, he COULDN’T; so he has soured on them, and they’re worried about it.

別の表記

• point blank, pointblank

語源

From French point blanc (“white point”), originally referring to the white spot to be aimed at on a target (see blank's "bull's eye") or alternatively into empty space being fired horizontally.

発音

形容詞

point-blank (not comparable)

1. (forensics) Very close; not touching but not more than a few metres (yards).
2. (ballistics) The distance between a firearm and a target where a projectile in flight is expected to strike the centre of the target without adjusting the elevation of the firearm.
   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, “‘I was the Flail of the Lord’”, in The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     Now, here's a useful tool—.470, telescopic sight, double ejector, point-blank up to three-fifty. That's the rifle I used against the Peruvian slave-drivers three years ago.

   • 2014 December 24, “Assam rebels kill scores on night of brutal attacks in Indian state”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     Heavily armed militants launched a series of coordinated attacks in rural Assam on Tuesday, pulling villagers from their homes and shooting them at point-blank range, witnesses said.

     (Can we archive this URL?)

   • 2022 April 3, Carlotta Gall, Andrew E. Kramer, “In a Kyiv suburb,‘they shot everyone they saw’”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     Fifteen of those people had died of natural causes, the rest from gunshot wounds, including point-blank shots, or from shrapnel.

     (Can we archive this URL?)

3. Disconcertingly straightforward or blunt; outright.

   a point-blank assertion

   • 1872 September – 1873 July, Thomas Hardy, “‘VII’”, in A Pair of Blue Eyes. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Tinsley Brothers, […], published 1873, →OCLC:

     At this point-blank denial, Stephen turned his face away decisively, and preserved an ominous silence; […]

   • 1910 August-September, Joseph Conrad, chapter II, in The Secret Sharer‎, Harper's Magazine:

     Yes, but surliness might have provoked a point-blank question.

   • 1951 April, R. S. McNaught, “Railway Enthusiasts”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 269:

     In recent years, the attitude of the railway authorities towards large-scale visits to works and sheds on the whole, has, happily, veered round from suspicion, and even point-blank opposition, to one of co-operation and ready welcome.

副詞

point-blank (not comparable)

1. In a direct manner, without hesitation.
   • 1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XXXVIII, in Middlemarch […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book (please specify |book=I to VIII):

     One day, when he was doing some valuation for me, he told me point-blank that clergymen seldom understood anything about business, and did mischief when they meddled; […]

   • 1878 July–October, Henry James, Jr., chapter II, in The Europeans. A Sketch. […], volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1878, →OCLC, page 81:

     About a week afterwards she said to him, point-blank, "Are you seriously making love to your little cousin?"

   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter XXVII, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC:

     My father addressed himself to the gentleman point-blank, and there was quite a disturbance.

   • 1895, Marie Corelli, The Sorrows of Satan: or The Strange Experience of One Geoffrey Tempest, Millionaire […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, published 1896, →OCLC, page 12:

     He was getting on well, so I understood, and had secured a fairly substantial position, and I had therefore ventured to ask him point-blank for the loan of fifty pounds.

   • 1896, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau (Heinemann’s Colonial Library of Popular Fiction; 52), London: William Heinemann, →OCLC; republished as The Island of Doctor Moreau: A Possibility, New York, N.Y.: Stone & Kimball, 1896, →OCLC:

     Montgomery fired and missed, bowed his head, threw up his arm, and turned to run. I fired, and the Thing still came on; fired again, point-blank, into its ugly face.

   • 1913 January–May, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Gods of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as The Gods of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., September 1918, →OCLC:

     For answer the girl raised her revolver and fired point-blank at him. Without a sound he sank to the earth, dead.

   • 2020, Noreena Hertz, chapter 6, in The Lonely Century, Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN:

     In fact in 2017, former Facebook president Sean Parker told news media company Axios point-blank that the central question driving Facebook in its early days was ‘How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?’