| 释义 |
stultify, v.|ˈstʌltɪfaɪ|
[ad. late L. stultificāre, f. stult-us foolish, fool: see -fy.]
1. trans. Law. To allege or prove to be of unsound mind: esp. refl., to allege one's own insanity in order to evade some responsibility.
1766Blackstone Comm. II. xix. 291 It hath been said, that a non compos himself, though he be afterwards brought to a right mind, shall not be permitted to allege his own insanity in order to avoid such grant: for that no man shall be allowed to stultify himself, or plead his own disability. 1861Kent Comm. Amer. Law (1873) II. xxxix. 451 The principle..that a man shall not be heard to stultify himself has been properly exploded.
2. To cause to be or appear foolish, ridiculous, or absurdly inconsistent; to reduce to foolishness or absurdity.
1809Europ. Mag. LV. 19 This able senator..did not..hesitate to tell his majesty's ministers, that..they had become completely stultified. 1810Wellington in Croker Papers 20 Dec., The licentiousness of the press..[has] gone near to stultify the people of England. 1850Kingsley A. Locke xviii, I, to squash my convictions, to stultify my book for the sake of popularity, money, patronage! 1871Daily News 24 Aug., This witness, however, stultified himself by admitting that he was too far off to hear what Clement said.
b. To render nugatory, worthless, or useless.
1865Daily Tel. 27 Oct. 4/6 The Bermondsey guardians took upon themselves utterly to ignore and stultify this law. 1888M. E. Braddon Fatal Three i. vi, The blind folly of his servants had stultified his efforts.
3. To regard as a fool or as foolish. rare.
1820Hazlitt Lect. Lit. Age Eliz. i. (1884) 4 The modern sciolist stultifies all understanding but his own, and that which he conceives like his own.
Hence ˈstultifying ppl. a. Also ˈstultifier rare—0, one who stultifies.
1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. III. xxx. 173 Affirming most absurdly, and under the most stultifying blindness of mind, that [etc.]. 1855H. Clarke Dict., Stultifier. 1879Geo. Eliot Theo. Such xviii. 324 A stultifying inconsistency in historical interpretation.
[2.] [b.] Substitute for def: To render useless, inoperative, ineffective, or futile; to deprive of freedom of action or originality; to frustrate, to stifle, to neutralize. (Further examples.)
1958A. D. Booth in Aspects of Translation 90 It was possible to obtain the services of young professional linguists whose ideas had not, through channelization, been so stultified as to make them incapable of appreciating the new techniques. 1975Economist 24 May 107/1 Curiosity and originality are stultified. Problems are assumed to have simple answers. 1979Washington Post Mag. 6 May 39/1 Absolutely everyone is drinking a peculiar looking brown punch that turns out to be muscat wine and Coke... It stultifies the taste buds. 1985V. S. Pritchett Man of Letters 165 Novelists who have attacked the conventions because they stultify the spirit.
ˈstultifyingly adv.
1966Times 28 Mar. (Austral. Suppl.) p. xii/6 It..conforms stultifyingly to a university revue format. 1984National Rev. (U.S.) 27 Jan. 56/3 On top of all this comes a score that's stultifyingly ponderous enough to knock out a herd of oxen. |