| 释义 |
despicable, a.|ˈdɛspɪkəb(ə)l|
[ad. L. dēspicābil-is, f. dēspicārī to look down upon, f. de- 1 + *specāri, from same root as specĕre to look.]
1. To be looked down upon or despised; vile, base, contemptible.
1553Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 14 The byldinge[s] are despicable. Ibid. 35 All thinges with them are despicable and vile. 1667Milton P.L. xi. 340 All th' Earth he gave thee to possess and rule, No despicable gift. 1699W. Dampier Voy. II. i. viii. 162 Their insolent masters the Portuguese: than whom there are not a more despicable people now in all the Eastern Nations. 1710Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Bp. Burnet 20 July, There is hardly a character in the world more despicable, or more liable to universal ridicule, than that of a learned woman. 1782? Vaughan Fashionable Follies II. 103 A little despicable looking house honoured with the name of an inn. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 164 The most despicable of fanatics. 1874Green Short Hist. viii. §2. 473 The immorality of James's Court was hardly more despicable than the imbecility of his government.
†b. Miserable, wretched. Obs.
1635E. Pagitt Christianogr. 217 These poore despicable wretches have hardly sustenance to keepe life and soule together. 1690Child Disc. Trade (1694) 13 The people are poor and despicable, their persons ill clothed. a1704T. Brown Praise of Wealth Wks. 1730 I. 85 Despicable in circumstance.
†2. Exhibiting or expressing contempt; contemptuous. Obs.
(Qualifying opinion, appellation, and the like: cf. contemptible 2.)
1662H. Stubbe Ind. Nectar Pref. 5, I have a very despicable opinion of the present age. 1727Fielding Love in Sev. Masques Wks. 1775 I. 34 To persuade us into so despicable an opinion of your reason. 1727Swift Gulliver ii. viii, The comparison gave me so despicable a conceit of myself. 1756Burke Subl. & B. ii. v, Though we caress dogs, we borrow from them an appellation of the most despicable kind. 1775Adair Amer. Ind. 7 Distinguished..by the despicable appellative, Tied Arse. |