| 释义 |
stupefy, v.|ˈstjuːpɪfaɪ|
Also 7 stupefie, 7–8 stupifie, 6–9 stupify.
[a. F. stupéfi-er (16th c.), ad. L. stupefacĕre to make stupid or senseless, f. stupēre to be struck senseless, be amazed: see -fy.
The spelling with i (cf. liquify) was common until the latter half of the 19th c. ‘This word should..be spelled stupefy; but the authorities are against it’ (Johnson).]
1. trans. To make stupid or torpid; to deprive of apprehension, feeling, or sensibility; to benumb, deaden.
a1600in Lyly's Wks. (1902) III. 497 Twas not Tobacco stupifyed y⊇ braine. 1611Shakes. Cymb. i. v. 37 Those [drugs] she ha's, Will stupifie and dull the Sence a-while. 1652Hermeticall Banquet 69 This by the narcoticall Sulphur of the Opium, stupefied the Nerve. 1709T. Robinson Vindic. Mosaick Syst. 56 That any one..should be so stupified by the Prevalency of his Lusts, as to deny the Being of that God, whose [etc.]. 1732Arbuthnot Rules of Diet (1736) 365 Opiate and anodyne Substances which stupify and relax the Fibres. 1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) vi. xxx, Your fingers being..stupefied by the cold. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. v. I. 666 The prisoner, stupified by illness, was unable..to understand what passed. 1889Mrs. Oliphant Poor Gentl. xlv, His anxiety stupefied instead of quickening his senses.
fig.1874Spurgeon Treas. David lxxxi. IV. 26 No dulness should ever stupify our psalmody.
b. absol.
1691Hartcliffe Virtues 81 As nothing doth restore us more to our selves, when we faint and are weary, than Sleep soberly taken, so nothing doth more stupifie, than its Excess. 1707Floyer Physic. Pulse-Watch 81 If the Bath be so long continu'd as to stupifie. a1848W. A. Butler Serm. ix. (1849) 149 Satan,..who deceives that he may destroy, stupifies that he may deceive.
2. To stun with amazement, fear, or the like; to astound. [So L.]
1596Spenser F.Q. v. iii. 17 With great amazement they were stupefide. 1622Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 337 The apprehension of the continuance of intollerable Vsurie in England, is able to stupifie a mans senses. 1779Mirror No. 11. ⁋13 He sat, stupified with shame and remorse. 1796F. Burney Camilla vi. iii. III. 175 ‘If she is not in the rooms to-night,’ said Sir Sedley, ‘I shall be stupified to petrifaction.’ 1845Darwin Voy. Nat. viii. (1879) 171 The mind is stupified in thinking over the long, absolutely necessary, lapse of years. 1909Engl. Rev. Feb. 602 All these people seem stupefied by the immensity of the calamity which has befallen them.
†3. To deprive (a material substance) of mobility. Obs. rare—1.
a1626Bacon Physiol. Rem. Baconiana (1679) 100 This stupifieth the Quick-silver that it runneth no more. Ibid. 122 When it..is not fluent, but stupified.
4. intr. To become stupid or torpid; to grow dull or insensible. Now rare.
a1631Donne Let. to Sir H. G. v, Poems (1633) 365, I which live in the Country without stupifying, am not in darknesse, but in shadow. 1803M. Charlton Wife & Mistress III. 47 Do not go and stupify with such an old illuminée as the Dowager Lady Melville. 1844Syd. Smith in Lady Holland Mem. (1855) II. 523, I always fatten and stupefy on such diet; I want to lose flesh and gain understanding.
Hence ˈstupefying vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1611Cotgr., Noix vomique..is of a poisonous, deadly, and stupifying qualitie. 1637B. Jonson Sad Sheph. ii. viii, The dead-numming Night-shade! The stupifying Hemlock! 1673Penn Chr. Quaker xx. 585 The Stupifyings of Sin. 1731Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Wine, The Effects they have upon the human Body are rather stupifying than inebriating. a1768Secker Serm. (1770) IV. 27 The benumbing and stupefying of so important a Principle of their Nature. 1863M. Howitt tr. F. Bremer's Greece II. xvi. 155 A cave, out of which..a stupefying exhalation ascended. 1916Blackw. Mag. May 607/1 The views obtained are almost stupefying in their majesty and grandeur.
Add: ˈstupefyingly adv.
1961in Webster. 1979P. Roth Ghost Writer (1980) i. 17 It became altogether clear just how stupefyingly unsuited he was to have and to hold anything other than his art. 1981M. Hatfield Spy Fever i. 46 He had got stupefyingly drunk. |