| 释义 |
▪ I. enervate, a.|ɪˈnɜːvət|
Also 8 ennervate.
[ad. L. ēnervāt-us, pa. pple. of ēnervāre: see next.]
1. Wanting in strength of character; spiritless, unmanly, effeminate.
1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 11 They waxe carelesse, dissolute, and enervate. 1675Dryden Aurungz. ii. i, The Dregs and Droppings of enervate Love. 1749J. Warton Ode West's Pindar (T.), Away enervate bards, away. 1774Goldsmith Grec. History I. 176 We are to behold an ennervate and factious populace. 1822Wordsw. Eccl. Sonn. i. ix, Poet. Wks. IV. 201 The Pictish cloud darkens the enervate land By Rome abandoned. 1830Fraser's Mag. I. 515 The enervate candidates for place and patronage.
b. of artistic style, etc.
a1704T. Brown Prol. to 1st Sat. Persius (1730) I. 51 Nor Virgil's great majestick lines Melted into enervate Rhimes. 1762J. Brown Poetry & Mus. xii. (1763) 209 Certain Greeks..brought a refined and enervate Species of Music to Rome. 1884Blackw. Mag. Apr. 432/2 Let it not be supposed that this art..was enervate, monotonous, or slow.
2. Wanting in bodily strength or physical power.
1703Rowe Ulyss. i. i. 335 My cold enervate hand. 1737Pope Hor. Epist. ii. i. 153 On each enervate string they taught the note, To pant. 1741Betterton in Oldys Eng. Stage vi. 110 Such a languid and ennervate Hoarsness. 1762Falconer Shipwr. i. 672 When eastern breezes, yet enervate, rise. 1849Lytton Caxtons ii. lvi, The enervate slightness of his frail form.
3. Bot. Having no rib or nerve; ribless.
▪ II. enervate, v.|ˈɛnəveɪt|
[f. L. ēnervāt- ppl. stem of ēnervāre to extract the sinews of, weaken, f. ē out + nervus sinew (see nerve n.). The later use is influenced by the mod. sense of nerve. Cf. enerve v.
(In 17–18th c. the accentuation was usually eˈnervate.)]
†1. trans. To cut the tendons of; chiefly spec. to hamstring, hough (a horse). Also (see quot. 1751.). Obs.
1638Featly Transubst. Exploded 183 You cut your selfe in the hammes, and enervate your maine argument. 1656Blount Glossogr., Enervate..to cut off sinews. 1702Bp. Patrick Comm. Josh. xi. 9 They were wont thus to enervate all the horses they found in the king's stables after his death. 1751Chambers Cycl. s.v., Cutting two tendons on the side of a horse's head..they thus enervate horses, to make their heads small and lean.
†2. To emasculate. Obs. rare—1.
1610J. H[ealey] tr. Augustine's City of God vii. xxiv. 285 If earth were held no goddesse, men would..not [lay their hands] upon themselves, to enervate themselues for her.
3. To weaken physically (a person or animal); now only of agencies that impair nervous ‘tone’, as luxury, indolence, hot or malarious climates.
a1668Denham Of Old Age ii. (R.), I feel no weakness, nor hath length Of winters quite enervated my strength. 1757Dyer Fleece i. (R.), No..myrtle bowers, The vigorous frame..of man Enervate. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. (1869) II. xlii. 559 The conquerors were enervated by luxury. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. II. 303, I, therefore, the King of Poland, enervated by age. 1805Nelson Let. 1 Oct. in A. Duncan Life (1806) 243, I have had..one of my..spasms, which has almost enervated me. 1855–60Maury Phys. Geog. Sea iii. §184 Their crews enervated in tropical climates.
†b. To impair the strength of (inanimate things). Obs.
1667Waterhouse Fire Lond. 69 Chapels, Churches, Monuments..it..flaked and enervated.
4. To weaken mentally or morally; to destroy the capacity of (a person, a community, etc.) for vigorous effort of intellect or will. Said esp. of the effects of luxury or sloth. Also, to destroy or impair the vigour of (sentiments, expressions, etc.).
1614Raleigh Hist. World iii. 64 Luxury, wherewith most Empires that ever were, have beene enervated. 1625Donne Serm. lxvi. 665 God shall..enfeeble and enervate..that Constancy. 1652Bp. Patrick Fun. Serm. in J. Smith's Sel. Disc. 555 Do not..enervate your souls by idleness. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 290 No Lust enervates their Heroick Mind. 1753Hanway Trav. (1762) I. iii. xxviii. 118 By imputing vice to nature..we enervate that detestation which arises..upon the mention of those things which we denominate unnatural. 1868M. Pattison Academ. Org. §5. 149 The tendency of abstract thought..to enervate the will is one of the real dangers of the highest education.
†5. To destroy the force of (arguments, testimony, etc.); to destroy the grounds of (a doctrine, an opinion); to render ineffectual (a law, an authority, an opponent's efforts, etc.). Obs. Sometimes expanded into to enervate the force of.
1610Donne Pseudo-Martyr 271 Because the Glosse is now by some thought to be of equal Authoritie with the Text it is not an inconvenient way to enervate both. 1634Acts Durham High Com. Crt. (1857) 99 To enervaite the testimony of the wittnesses. 1653Ashwell Fides Apost. 271, I..have enervated most of those Arguments, which I have found brought against either. 1672Newton in Rigaud Corr. Sci. Men (1841) II. 318 So acute an objector hath said nothing that can enervate any part of it [my discourse]. a1674Clarendon Surv. Leviath. (1676) 108 A..Prince, who hath not enervated those Machinations. 1702Echard Eccl. Hist. (1710) 538 He might..enervate the force and vigour of all divine injunctions. a1718Penn Wks. (1726) I. 452 Something that can resolve its Doubts, answer its Objections, enervate its Propositions. 1765Blackstone Comm. I. 417 In the next year..this wise provision was enervated, by only, etc. 1836J. Gilbert Chr. Atonem. iii. (1852) 82 Enervate the force of legislative sanctions.
†b. To disparage the power or value of (something). Obs.
a1619Donne βιαθανατος (1644) 207 To enervate and maime..that repentance which is admitted for sufficient in the Romane Church. 1655–60Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 216/1 Not that..he [Zeno] did enervate Vertue. |