| 释义 |
ˈtime-ˌserver
[agent-n. from the phrase ‘to serve the time’ (cited 1560): see serve v.1 11.]
1. One who adapts his conduct to the time or season; usually, one who on grounds of self-interest shapes his conduct in conformity to the views that are in favour at the time; a temporizer, a ‘trimmer’.
(By Fuller used in a neutral or good sense.)
1584G. Babington Frailty & Faith (1596) 49 Will then a dissembling time-seruer not be vncased? 1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 136 This brave man is a Georgian by discent, a Mussulman by profession, a Time-server for preferment. a1680Butler Rem. (1759) II. 219 A Time-server wears his Religion, Reason, and Understanding always in the Mode. 1770Langhorne Plutarch (1879) II. 904/2 He was never a timeserver either in word or action. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. ii. I. 188 The Puritan..deserted by all the timeservers who, in his prosperity, had claimed brother⁓hood with him. 1898L. Stephen Stud. Biog. I. v. 148 Every autobiography is interesting, even when it unveils a mere time-server and hypocrite.
1642Fuller Holy & Prof. State iii. xix. 202 He is a good time-server, that complys his manners to the several ages of this life; pleasant in youth, without wantonness; grave in old age, without frowardness... He is a good time-server, that finds out the fittest opportunity for every action.
†2. One who serves only for a time, and afterwards deserts or ‘falls away’. Obs. rare.
Apparently with reference to the parable of the sower, Matt. xiii. 21, Mark iv. 17, Luke viii. 13.
a1575Bp. Pilkington Expos. Neh. iv. 15 (1585) 65 Such be those time-seruers which the Gospel speaketh of, that for a time make a shew in seruing the Lord, but in the tyme of triall they fall away. |