| 释义 |
detrimental, a. and n.|dɛtrɪˈmɛntəl|
[f. detriment n. + -al1.]
A. adj. Causing loss or damage; harmful, injurious, hurtful.
1656Blount Glossogr., Detrimental, hurtful, dangerous, full of loss. a1661Fuller Worthies (1840) I. 281 A gift indeed..loaded with no detrimental conditions. 1719W. Wood Surv. Trade 84 That the Trade..is most detrimental to the Nation. 1801Med. Jrnl. V. 1 Particularly detrimental to the constitution. 1872Yeats Growth Comm. 271 Their admission was detrimental to French industry. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 53 Paradoxes..which [are]..detrimental to the true course of thought.
B. n. A person or thing that is prejudicial; in Society slang, a younger brother of the heir of an estate; an ineligible suitor.
1831Westm. Rev. XIV. 424 The eldest son is pursued by..damsels, while the younger are termed ‘detrimentals’..and avoided by ‘mothers and daughters’ as more dangerous company than the plague. 1832Marryat N. Forster xxv, These detrimentals (as they have named themselves) may be provided for. 1854Lady Lytton Behind the Scenes I. ii. iii. 188 There were also plenty of detrimentals, such as younger brothers, unpaid red tapeists, heiress-seekers, and political connection-hunters. 1870C. F. Gordon-Cumming in Gd. Words 137/1 The sisters of the wife being considered detrimentals, are placed in Buddhist convents. 1886Househ. Words 13 Mar. 400 (Farmer) A detrimental, in genteel slang, is a lover, who, owing to his poverty is ineligible as a husband; or one who professes to pay attentions to a lady without serious intention of marriage, and thereby discourages the intentions of others. 1893Mrs. C. Praed Outlaw & Lawmaker II. 80 Mrs. Valliant..thought that the detrimentals kept off desirable suitors.
Hence detrimenˈtality, detriˈmentalness.
1727Bailey vol. II, Detrimentalness, prejudicialness. 1873Daily News 5 Aug., When you are hinting to your fair daughter the detrimentality of Charlie Fraser..who has his subaltern's pay and about 50l. a year thrown in. |