| 释义 |
fewness|ˈfjuːnɪs|
[f. few + -ness.]
The quality or fact of being few.
1. Scantiness in number; paucity, small number.
c900Bæda's Hist. iii. xv. [xxi.] (1891) 222 Seo feanis nedde þara sacerda þætte aan biscop sceolde beon ofer tuu folc. c1000Ags. Ps. ci[i]. 24 Feanisse deᵹa minra seᵹe me. a1300E.E. Psalter, ibid., Feunesse of mi daies. 1382Wyclif ibid., Fewenesse of my daȝis. 1482Monk of Evesham (Arb.) 89 The fewnes of spyrytuall men. 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. I. 387 For feuenes thai did fle. 1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. vii. xxxvi. (1632) 385 Seeing the fewnes of their pursuers. 1709Hearne Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) II. 282 Spoke in vain because of the fewness of Auditors. 1859Jephson Brittany ii. 9, I congratulated myself..on the fewness of the things which I possessed.
†b. fewness and truth: in few words and truly. Obs.
1603Shakes. Meas. for M. i. iv. 39 Fewnes, and truth; tis thus, Your brother, and his louer haue embrac'd.
2. Scantiness in amount; small quantity. rare.
1861Darwin in Life & Lett. (1887) III. 265 The pollen, so important from its fewness. 1884Tennyson Becket iii. iii, Doth not the fewness of anything make the fulness of it in estimation? |