| 释义 |
swiftness|ˈswɪftnɪs|
[f. swift a. + -ness.]
1. The quality of being swift; rapidity.
a. of something moving, or of movement or physical action; in early use sometimes nearly = ‘rapid movement’.
c888ælfred Boeth. xxxix. §3 Hwa unlæredra ne wundrað þæs roderes færeldes & his swiftnesse? c1000Ags. Ps. (Th.) xxxii. 15 [xxxiii. 17] Þi byð dysiᵹ, se þe ᵹetruwað on his horses swiftnesse. a1300Cursor M. 23381 (Cott.) In suiftenes þou sal be sa suift, Þat als suith som þou mai lift Þine eie up þe lift to se, Als suith þar þan sal þou be. 1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 7933 Þe secunde blys after es swyftnes, Þat ilk body salle have þat ryghtwise es. 1484Caxton Fables of æsop v. x, For the swyftnesse of the water he must nedes passe vnder the whele of the mylle. 1559W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 12 To cary the heauens of the Planetes, by his swiftnes about th' earth with him. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 20 The secund kynde of hunting dog is..a beist of a meruellous audacitie and suiftnes. 1613Shakes. Hen. VIII, i. i. 142 We may out⁓runne By violent swiftnesse that which we run at; And lose by ouer-running. a1700Evelyn Diary 2 June 1662, The rich gondola..was not comparable for swiftnesse to our common wherries. 1781Cowper Anti-Thelyphth. 194 The barb sprang forward, and his lord, whose force Was equal to the swiftness of his horse, Rushed with a whirlwind's fury on the foe. 1811Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life (1870) I. v. 120 The creature [sc. a snake] got away with incredible swiftness. 1816J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art I. 560 The swiftness of Saturn's motion on his axis produces an oblate figure. 1841Borrow Zincali I. iv. ii. 301 With the swiftness of lightning.
b. of something figured as moving or as movement (e.g. thought, time, etc.).
a1340Hampole Psalter ciii. 4 [civ. 3] Þou passis all swyftnes of our thouȝtis. c1400Destr. Troy 12 Sothe stories ben..swolowet into swym by swiftenes of yeres. 1605Bacon Adv. Learn. i. To the King §2, I have been..possessed with an extreme woonder at..the swiftnesse of your Apprehension. 1662Dryden To Ld. Chancellor 109 Such is the mighty Swiftness of your Mind That, like the Earth's, it leaves our Sense behind. 1891Meredith One of our Conq. x, If you would like a further definition of Genius, think of it as a form of swiftness.
2. The fact of happening, or acting, without delay; promptitude; † haste, rashness.
a1400–50Wars Alex. 1017 My couatyng is elder Þe sadnes of slike men, þan swyftnes of childir. 1535Coverdale 2 Esdras viii. 18, I haue herde the swiftnes of the iudge, which is to come. 1599Shakes. Hen. V, i. ii. 306 Let..all things [be] thought vpon, That may with reasonable swiftnesse adde More Feathers to our Wings. 1607― Cor. iii. i. 313 This Tiger-footed-rage, when it shall find The harme of vnskan'd swiftnesse, will (too late) Tye Leaden pounds too 's heeles. 1706Prior Ode to Queen xx, He wept the Swiftness of the Champion's Fall. 1820Shelley Prometh. Unb. iv. 379 With earthquake shock and swiftness making shiver Thought's stagnant chaos. |