| 释义 |
eminent, a.|ˈɛmɪnənt|
[f. L. ēminēnt-em, pr. pple. of ēminē-re to project.]
I. In physical (and obvious metaphorical) senses.
1. High, towering above surrounding objects. Also fig. Now poet. or arch.
1588Allen Admon. 22 Nero..deuised an eminent pillar. 1611Bible Ezek. xvii. 22 Upon an high mountain and eminent. 1667Milton P.L. i. 587 He above the rest In shape and gesture proudly eminent Stood like a Towr. 1674Brevint Saul at Endor 363 Images..seated on the Eminentest Places of the Church. 1772–84Cook Voy. (1790) IV. 1446 The eminent part..is the S.E. point. 1814Southey Roderick xiv, Upon a stately war-horse eminent.
fig.1830Tennyson Love & Death, In the light of great eternity Life eminent creates the shade of death. 1851Mrs. Browning Casa Guidi Windows 87 The patriot's oath..stands Among the oaths of perjurers, eminent.
b. In weaker sense: Projecting, prominent, protruding. Also fig.
1541R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg., A party of the orbytall, or emynent pomall. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 155 Females [elephants] carry..their Calves upon their snowts and long eminent teeth. 1644Bulwer Chiron. 67 The..Fingers..presented in an eminent posture. 1744Akenside Pleas. Imag. iii. 407 The fairer [parts], eminent in light, advance. 1843Carlyle Past & Pr. (1858) 124 A very eminent nose.
fig.1870Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. ii. (1873) 289 Some eminent verse lifts its long ridge above its tamer peers.
II. In non-material senses. (Formerly often with some notion of 1.)
2. Of persons:
a. Exalted, dignified in rank or station.
1603Shakes. Meas. for M. iv. iv. 25 A deflowred maid, And by an eminent body. 1691Hartcliffe Virtues 141 We may not lawfully be angry..with those in eminent Place. 1761Hume Hist. Eng. III. liv. 175 The king was too eminent a magistrate to be trusted with discretionary power. 1786Burke Art. W. Hastings Wks. 1842 II. 140 A certain native person of distinction or eminent rajah.
b. Distinguished in character or attainments, or by success in any walk of life. (The use in bad sense is now ironical.)
1611Bible Job xxii. 8 The honourable man [marg. eminent or accepted for countenance]. 1643Prynne Sov. Power Parl. iii. 66 These two eminentest Prophets..resist the Captaines, Souldiers, and unjust Executioners of their Princes. 1728Newton Chronol. Amended i. 60 Eminent Musicians and Poets flourished in Greece. 1805Med. Jrnl. XIV. 407 An eminent practitioner..entertains a different opinion. 1837H. Martineau Soc. Amer. III. 5 Eminent cooks are paid 1200l. a-year. 1847Grote Greece ii. xlvii. (1862) IV. 157 Thucydides..was eminent as a speaker.
c. Eminent Persons Group, a group of Commonwealth politicians who visited South Africa in 1986 in order to investigate ways of ending the country's political unrest. Abbrev. EPG s.v. E. III.
1986Guardian 5 Feb. 7/1 Sir Geoffrey won the support for the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group of the EEC–Frontline States meeting. 1986Financial Times 13 May 19/1 Pretoria sees the Eminent Persons Group as a useful channel of communication with the ANC and the international community. 1986Times 20 May 1/7 The Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group (EPG), which is trying to mediate between Pretoria and the ANC, had left Lusaka..for Cape Town. 1987Financial Times 10 June 10 The remark could equally have applied to..his contribution to the report of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons' Group on South Africa.
†3. Of things or places: Chief, principal, important; especially valuable. Obs.
1612T. Taylor Comm. Titus i. 15 Their cheife and eminent inward parts are defiled. 1650Fuller Pisgah ii. v. 128 An eminent country in Idumea. 1676Allen Addr. Nonconf. 176 Prayer..is an eminent part of Gods worship. 1677Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 130 If your Shop stands in an eminent Street. 1683Salmon Doron Med. iii. 644 It gives present ease, and is eminent against all..pains. 1748Hartley Observ. Man i. ii. 218 These Muscles..drawing the Eye out on eminent Ocasions.
4. Of qualities: Remarkable in degree; † conspicuously displayed. Of actions, facts, phenomena: Signal, noteworthy (now chiefly in good sense).
c1420Pallad. on Husb. i. 90 The cok confesseth emynent cupide. 1454in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 38 I. 120 The emynent myscheve and ffynall destruccionne of the said Counte. 1594Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. xi. (1611) 34 After an eminent sort. 1655–60Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 5/2 There is an eminent place in Eusebius to prove this. 1657G. Starkey Helmont's Vind. 267 An eminent fright will take away..Agues. 1677Feltham Resolves i. xlv. Wks. (ed. 10) 72 His valor..is..eminent in his killing of the Bear and Lion. 1691Ray Creation (1714) 159 A peculiar sort of voice..is..eminent in Quails. a1704T. Brown Praise Drunkenn. Poems (1730) I. 31 The god of wine..whose eminent perfection Drunkenness I intend to make the subject of..discourse. 1709Steele Tatler No. 34 ⁋1 Mountebanks..do their most eminent Operations in Sight of the People. 1826Disraeli Viv. Grey iii. i. 89 His success was eminent. 1862Ld. Brougham Brit. Const. App. 453 The reputation justly acquired by his eminent services. 1869Gladstone Juv. Mundi ii. 65 Their opponents..were..not Achaian in the same eminent sense.
b. Cryst. (See quot.)
1831Brewster Optics xxiii. 204 The plane of most eminent cleavage. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. §1. 3 One cleavage is much more perfect, or more eminent as it is sometimes called, than the rest.
5. Law. right of eminent domain: see quots.
1738Hist. Crt. Excheq. vi. 111 The King who had the eminent Dominion. 1853Wharton Pa. Digest 673 §3 The right of eminent domain, or inherent sovereign power gives the Legislature the control of private property for public use. 1880Brown Law Dict. s.v., Eminent domain is the ownership or dominium (domain) of an independent sovereign over the territories of his sovereignty, by virtue of which no other sovereign can exercise any jurisdiction therein. 1886Pall Mall G. 14 July 5/1 The State exercising its right of eminent domain.
¶6. Confused with imminent (so freq. eminens in med.L. for imminens). Obs.
1600Hakluyt Voy. (1810) III. 377 The eminent dangers which euery houre we saw before our Eyes. 1612Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 156 Let..your Patient be..informed of the eminent danger of death. 1616Brent tr. Sarpi's Hist. Council of Trent (1676) 269 The actual and eminent departure of many Fathers. 1722De Foe Plague (1884) 94 The eminent Danger I had been in. |