a solid material which is typically hard, shiny, malleable, fusible, and ductile, with good electrical and thermal conductivity (e.g. iron, gold, silver, copper, and aluminium, and alloys such as brass and steel) 金属 vessels made of ceramics or metal. 用瓷器或金属做的容器。 [count noun]being a metal, aluminium readily conducts heat. 铝是金属,所以导热性能好。 ■(metals)the steel tracks of a railway (铁路的)钢轨 ■(Heraldry)gold and silver (as tinctures in blazoning) (纹章)金属色(装饰纹章时用作色彩的金和银色)
About three quarters of the hundred or so known chemical elements are metals, of which only seven were known to the ancients—gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin, and mercury. Metallic character arises from a distinctive kind of chemical bonding, in which each atom contributes one or more of its electrons to a so-called ‘sea’ of electrons able to move freely throughout the mass
(亦作 road metal)broken stone for use in road-making 筑路碎石