| 释义 |
ˈthankless, a.
[f. thank n. + -less.]
1. Not moved by or expressing gratitude; unthankful, ungrateful. Also fig. of things: Making no return, unresponsive.
1536Lyndesay Answ. Kingis Flyting 33 Full sair I rew That euer I did Mouth thankles so persew. c1560A. Scott Poems (S.T.S.) v. 65. 1598 Marston Sco. Villanie iii. ix, All as thanklesse as ungratefull Thames He slinks away, leauing but reeking steames Of dungy slime behinde. 1637Milton Lycidas 66 And strictly meditate the thankles Muse. 1792Cowper Stanzas Bill Mortality 1 Thankless for favours from on high. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. i. i, How can you be so thankless to your best friend?
2. Of a task, or the like: Which brings no thanks; receiving or deserving no thanks.
a1547Surrey æneid ii. 125 But whereunto these thanklesse tales in vaine Do I reherse? 1591Savile Tacitus' Hist. ii. lix. 88 A thancklesse office and displeasing. 1690Norris Beatitudes (1694) I. 178 Not only a thankless, but an odious, difficult and hazardous Undertaking. 1868M. E. Braddon Dead Sea Fr. i, It is but a thankless task to catalogue such a face.
3. Without thanks; unthanked. rare.
1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 168 The Ambassador had no patience to digest it, save by equall contempt to..send him thanklesse back againe. 1897Westm. Gaz. 22 Feb. 2/1 Prince Max comes to the Court of Ferdinand to return, thankless, a picture painted by Ferdinand. |