| 释义 |
timeless, a. (adv.)|ˈtaɪmlɪs|
[-less.]
1. a. That is out of its proper time; untimely; unseasonable, ill-timed; esp. occurring or done prematurely. Chiefly poet., now arch. or Obs.
c1560Trag. Rich. II (1870) 96 Wert thou aliue to see How Ile reuenge thy tymless tragedye On all ther heads. 1590Marlowe 2nd Pt. Tamburl. v. iii. ad fin., Let earth and heaven his timeless death deplore. c1611Chapman Iliad vi. 349 Wretched man! So timeless is thy spite That 'tis not honest. 1621Lady M. Wroth Urania 40 A timelesse, and vnseasonable birth. 1751Falconer To Pr. of Wales 78 Well mayst thou mourn thy patriot's timeless end! 1850Dobell Roman iii, Cease these timeless babblings.
b. as adv. = timelessly a.
1586Kyd Answ. Tychborne's Lament. iii. Wks. (1901) 341 Thy glorie and thy glasse are timeles runne. 1631Chapman Cæsar & Pompcy ii. iv. 152 And 'tis their repaire That timelesse darken thus the gloomy ayre. 1876Swinburne Erechtheus 256 To slay thee timeless with my proper tongue.
2. a. Not subject to time; not affected by the lapse of time; existing or operating without reference to duration; eternal. Chiefly poet. and rhet., esp. in phr. timeless moment.
a1628F. Grevil Hum. Learn. xcvi, Curious mystery Of timelesse time. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. v. §21. 781 The reason why we cannot frame a Conception of such a timeless Eternity. 1742Young Nt. Th. ii. 222 When worlds..headlong rush To timeless night, and chaos, whence they rose. 1819Blackw. Mag. V. 323 There timeless, spaceless, dwells the Eternal One. 1871R. Ellis Catullus ci. 10 Yea, take, brother, a long Ave, a timeless adieu. 1942T. S. Eliot Little Gidding i. 9 Here, the intersection of the timeless moment Is England and nowhere. Never and always. Ibid. v. 15 History is a pattern Of timeless moments. 1957L. MacNeice Visitations 22 A timeless moment where the nether blue meets the upper blue. 1981J. Brabazon Dorothy L. Sayers xix. 238 The timeless moment after death, when choices made while living are seen in the light of eternal reality.
b. absol. Cf. eternal B.
1825Coleridge Aids Refl. (1848) I. 22 All the truths, acts, and duties, that have an especial reference to the timeless, the permanent, the eternal. 1892Tennyson Akbar's Dream, Hymn ii, Kneel adoring Him the Timeless in the flame that measures Time!
3.
†a. Of no duration; brief, short-lived. Obs. rare—1.
b. Destitute or ignorant of musical time.
c. Having reference to no particular time.
1657Cokaine Obstinate Lady Poems (1669) 339 Thy timeless inexperience doth deceive thee. 1821Byron Juan iv. lxxxvii, An ignorant, noteless, timeless, tuneless fellow. 1837G. Phillips Syriac Gram. 112 The participle is timeless; i.e. it has no time of its own; but partakes of every time with which it may be connected. |