(一般作make inroads in/into/on)an instance of something beingaffected, encroached on, or destroyed by something else 侵袭;侵占;破坏 the firm is beginning to make inroads into the UK market. 公司开始进军英国市场。 serious inroads had now been made into my pitiful cash reserves. 现在我可怜的存款已所剩无几。
a hostile attack; a raid 敌对攻击;突袭 the inroads and cross-border raiding of the Grahams. 对格雷厄姆斯的敌对攻击和跨国界突袭。
语源
mid 16th cent. (in sense 2): from in + road (from an early use in the sense 'riding')