| 释义 |
entertainment|ɛntəˈteɪnmənt|
Forms: see entertain v.
[f. entertain v. + -ment.]
†1. The action of upholding or maintaining. Obs.
1610Death Rauil. in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) III. 114 Letters patent..for the intertainement of the edict made in Nantes.
†2.
a. The action of maintaining persons in one's service, or of taking persons into service. Also, the state or fact of being maintained in or taken into service; service, employment. Obs.
1577–87Holinshed Chron. I. 78/1 The Saxons..desirous of intertainment to serue in warres. 1601Shakes. All's Well iv. i. 17 He must thinke vs some band of strangers, i'th aduersaries entertainment. 1604― Oth. iii. iii. 250 Note if your Lady straine his [Cassio's] Entertainment With any strong, or vehement importunitie. 1647Sprigge Anglia Rediv. iv. vii. (1854) 269 All officers and soldiers that shall desire to take entertainment from any foreign kingdom. a1662Heylin Laud ii. 259 To undertake some Stipendary Lecture, wheresoever they could find entertainment.
b. Provision for the support of persons in service (esp. soldiers); concr. pay, wages. Obs.
1535Act 27 Hen. VIII, c. 11 §1 The kings clerks..haue for their enterteinements and their clerkes, no fees nor wages certaine for those offices. 1596Spenser State Irel. 89 The which eighteene thousand pounds will defray the entertainment of 1500 Souldiers. 1612Davies Why Ireland, etc. (1787) 24 The Earl of Stafford's entertainment was, for himself six shillings and eight pence per diem. 1682Evelyn Mem. (1857) II. 172 And other officers, with their several salaries and entertainments. 1709Strype Ann. Ref. Introd. ii. 16 Granting him 20s. a day..towards the entertainment of an hundred horsemen serving there under him.
†3. Maintenance; support; sustenance. Obs.
1603Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 1391 Lands for the intertainement of them and their horses. 1692Ray Dissol. World iii. (1732) 36 Most convenient for the Entertainment of the various Sorts of Animals. 1705Stanhope Paraphr. III. 468 Creatures..designed for the Service and Entertainment of Mankind. 1754Erskine Princ. Sc. Law (1809) 89 The expence laid out upon the minor's entertainment. 1761Hume Hist. Eng. III. 71 James..erected a college at Chelsea for the entertainment of twenty persons.
†4. Manner of social behaviour. Obs.
1531Elyot Gov. ii. xii, With hir good maners and swete enterteinements. 1572J. Jones Bathes Buckstone Pref. 3 The maners that to Phisicions belonged, are that thei be of gentle entertaynment. 1598Barret Theor. Warres iv. i. 118 Gouerne them with convenient speeches, and good entertainment and curtesie.
†5. Treatment (of persons). Obs.
1568Grafton Chron. II. 669 He was of the Nobilitie receyved, and with all honorable entertainement conveyed to the Kinges presence. 1645E. Pagitt Heresiogr. (1662) 45 This [viz. burning] was the entertainment that these sectaries had in times past. 1660Boyle Seraphic Love 74 The savage entertainment He met with in it [the World].
†6. Discussion of a subject. Obs.
1675R. Burthogge Causa Dei 329 To conclude this tedious Entertainment of the Gentile Divinity, I will add, etc.
7. Occupation; spending (of time). Now rare.
1551Robinson tr. More's Utop. I. iiij b, What familiar occupieng and enterteynement there is amonge y⊇ people. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. v. i. 126 Sir Holofernes, as concerning some entertainment of time. 1860Motley Netherl. (1868) I. iii. 91 A dallying entertainment of the time.
8. a. The action of occupying (a person's) attention agreeably; interesting employment; amusement.
1612Brinsley Lud. Lit. xxviii. (1627) 282 An Oration by the highest, to giue the visitours intertainment. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) III. 123 A person who is fond of seeing natural curiosities cannot but meet here with the highest entertainment. 1824Coleridge Aids Refl. (1850) Introd. 47 He who seeks to find instruction in the following pages, will not fail to find entertainment likewise. 1857Willmott Pleas. Lit. xxi. 123 Biography..furnishes entertainments to the reader.
b. That which affords interest or amusement.
1659Gentl. Call. (1696) 83 Other Mens [Affairs]..are the usual entertainment of those that neglect their own. 1683Dryden Life Plutarch 80 It [history] has alwayes been the most delightful entertainment of my life. 1713Steele Spect. No. 423 ⁋1 Gloriana shall be the name of the Heroine in to Day's Entertainment. 1756Burke Subl. & B. iii. iv, These fine descriptive pieces..have been the entertainment of ages. 1788Reid Aristotle's Logic iv. §3. 81 His appetite for this kind of entertainment.
c. esp. A public performance or exhibition intended to interest or amuse.
Johnson (1755) assigns to the word a specific application to ‘the lower comedy’; in recent use it often denotes an assemblage of performances of varied character, as when music is intermixed with recitations, feats of skill, etc.
1727J. Thurmond (title), The Miser; or Wagner and Abericock. A Grotesque Entertainment. 1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) v. xiii, The entertainments at Astley's or the Circus. 1847Emerson Repr. Men, Shaks. Wks. (Bohn) I. 353 Importunate for dramatic entertainments. 1881Saintsbury Dryden 18 Davenant succeeded in procuring permission from the Protector..to give what would now be called entertainments.
9. The accommodation of anything in a receptacle. Obs.
1697Potter Antiq. Greece iii. xx. (1715) 152 Harbours were Places render'd..commodious for the Entertainment of Ships. 1721Perry Daggenh. Breach 122 Sufficient room for the Entertainment of Ships in this Harbour.
†10. Reception (of persons); manner of reception.
1589Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 66 Hath your hot intertainment cooled your courage? 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. iii. xiii. 140 Get thee backe to Cæsar, Tell him thy entertainment. 1690Locke Hum. Und. ii. ix. (1695) 67 According to the divers circumstances of Childrens first entertainment in the World. 1692Bp. of Ely Answ. Touchstone A iv, In the very Prisons, where the Romish-Priests could meet with any entertainment.
11. a. The action of receiving a guest. Also, the action of treating as a guest, of providing for the wants of a guest.
1594Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. x. (1611) 32 The courteous entertainment of forreiners and strangers. 1649Roberts Clavis Bibl. 421 Hezekiah's entertainment of them with gladnesse. 1698–9Ludlow Mem. I. 19 (R.) Where [at Whitehall] a constant table was provided for their entertainment. 1702J. Logan in Pa. Hist. Soc. Mem. IX. 110 The entertainment has been some charge, his retinue and company being great. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 245 Not the custom of the Spaniards to let their wives appear in any public entertainment of friends. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 385 The improvement of our houses of public entertainment. 1883E. T. Payne in Law Times 27 Oct. 432/2 The proprietor of [an inn]..undertakes to provide for the entertainment of all comers.
b. concr. Hospitable provision for the wants of a guest; esp. provision for the table. Somewhat arch.
1540in Ellis Orig. Lett. i. 146. II. 126 The most bountiful gifts, the chere and most gratiouse enterteignment. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. x. 37 His office was to giue entertainement And lodging unto all that came. 1661Pepys Diary 22 Aug., To my uncle Fenner's, where there was..great deal of company, but poor entertainment. 1728Morgan Algiers II. iv. 260 Provided of all requisite Entertainment for at least a Twelvemonth. 1849James Woodman xii, Take order that lodging and entertainment be prepared at York.
c. A meal; esp. a formal or elegant meal; a banquet. Somewhat rare in recent use.
1607Shakes. Timon i. ii. 153 You have done our pleasures Much grace (faire Ladies) Set a faire fashion on our entertainment. 1669Marvell Corr. Wks. 1872–5 II 285 A Bill..against giving of interteinments of meat or drink. 1681R. Knox Hist. Ceylon 89 The Entertainment is, green Leaves..which they eat raw, with Lime and Betel-nut. 1766Goldsm. Vic. W. xxxii, A very genteel entertainment..dressed by Mr. Thornhill's cook. c1775Burke Sp. Durat. Parl. Wks. X. 81 Entertainments, drinkings, open houses. 1841Lane Arab. Nts. I. 90 When the man returned from an entertainment.
12.
†a. The action of accepting (a present or proposal); the receiving in a certain manner (news, events, etc.); the ‘reception’ (esp. favourable reception, welcome), e.g. of a newly published book, of a new idea or doctrine, etc. Obs.
1586A. Day Eng. Secretary i. (1625) 124 By patient sufferance, and entertainment of our harmes. 1612Rowlands More Knaues Yet 31 If a bribe doe entertainement finde. 1612Brinsley Pos. Parts (1669) Introd. 4 By the welcome and kind entertainment of my first labours, etc. 1648Bp. Hall Select Th. xxiv, Evils, which we look for, fall so much the less heavily, by how much we are foreprepared for their entertainment. 1672Tillotson in Wilkins Nat. Relig. Pref., The ensuing treatise..needs nothing else to make way for its entertainment. 1699Bentley Phal. 343 His Forgery met with good Entertainment. 1727S. Switzer Pract. Gardiner xxxvii. 196 The Scorzonera has of late met with great entertainment at the tables of the curious.
b. The taking into consideration; entering upon the discussion (of a question).
1841Myers Cath. Th. iv. §13. 253 Men will grow more and more averse to the entertainment of questions which, etc.
c. The cherishing (an idea) in the mind.
1841Miall Nonconf. I. 17 The deliberate entertainment of this selfish design.
13. attrib. and Comb.
1904Westm. Gaz. 29 Aug. 3/1 A prince among provincial entertainment-mongers of the humbler order. 1922Punch 25 Oct. 385 No entertainment tax. 1937Burlington Mag. Feb. 96/2 Gives the book a high entertainment-value. 1946G. B. Shaw Shaw on Theatre (1958) 268 The critics reported that my plays were not plays, whatever other entertainment value they might possess. 1951McLuhan Mech. Bride 75/1 The reciprocal connections between chic and the entertainment industries. 1958Listener 6 Nov. 742/2 She was wonderful entertainment value and a rare spirit. 1959Halas & Manvell Technique Film Animation 10 Potentialities [of animation] which..extend much more widely than the entertainment film. |