| 释义 |
dependant, -dent, n.|dɪˈpɛndənt|
[a. F. dépendant adj. and n., properly pr. pple. of dépendre to depend. From the 18th c. often (like the adj.) spelt dependent, after L. (both forms being entered by Johnson); but the spelling -ant still predominates in the n.: cf. defendant, assistant.
1755Johnson Pref. to Dict., Some words, such as dependant, dependent; dependance, dependence, vary their final syllable, as one or another language is present to the writer.]
†1. Something subordinately attached or belonging to something else; a subordinate part, appurtenance, dependency. Obs.
1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. clxxvii. (R.), The Frenchemen..demaunded..to haue the sygnorie of Guysnes..and all the landes of Froyten, and the dependantes of Guysnes vnto the lymyttes of the water of Grauelyng. 1548Hall Chron. 98 With all incidentes, circumstaunces, dependentes, or connexes. 1643Prynne Treachery of Papists i. 32 (R.) The parliament..repealed this parliament of 21 R. II. with all its circumstances and dependents. 1716Lond. Gaz. No. 5425/9 The Lease for the..Copper-Works..with its Dependants. 1721Bradley Wks. Nature 32 Monsieur de Reaumur..discover'd certain Parts which might reasonably be esteem'd Dependants of Flowers. 1837F. Cooper Recoll. Europe I. 174 [Versailles] was a mere dependant of the crown.
2. A person who depends on another for support, position, etc.; a retainer, attendant, subordinate, servant.
1588Shakes. L.L.L. iii. i. 134 The best ward of mine honours is rewarding my dependants. 1632Lithgow Trav. i. 38, I demanded our dependant, what was to pay? 1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. (1843) 5/1 Almost all of his own numerous family and dependants. 1750Johnson Rambler No. 28 ⁋8 An error almost universal among those that converse much with dependents. 1752Ibid. No. 190 ⁋7 Convinced that a dependant could not easily be made a friend. 1786Burke W. Hastings Wks. 1842 II. 105 Her female dependants, friends, and servants. 1830D'Israeli Chas. I, III. v. 76 Such a personage as Laud is doomed to have dependents, and not friends. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 55 Other people could provide for their dependants. 1858Froude Hist. Eng. III. xiii. 118 The gentry were surrounded by dependents. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 309 A poor dependant of the family. |