| 释义 |
tolerable, a. (adv.)|ˈtɒlərəb(ə)l|
Also 5–7 toller-.
[a. F. tolérable (14th c. in Godef. Compl.), ad. L. tolerābilis that may be borne, that can bear or endure, f. tolerāre to bear, endure: see -able.]
1. a. Capable of being borne or endured; supportable (physically or mentally); bearable, endurable.
1422tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. 132 Suche a kynge is tollerabill, as many men thynkyn, for the more myschefe to Enchu. 1515Barclay Egloges iii. (1570) B vj b/2 It were thing tollerable To becke and to bowe to persons honorable. 1582N. T. (Rhem.) Matt. x. 15 It shall be more tolerable for the land of the Sodomites and Gomorrheans in the day of iudgement, then for that city. 1604E. Grimstone Hist. Siege Ostend 157 Nakednesse, by reason of the..colde..is not very tollerable. 1653Baxter Worc. Petit. Def. 39, I abhor as much as most do..not bearing with each other in tolerable differences. a1704T. Brown Two Oxf. Scholars Wks. 1730 I. 9 He did not know how to maintain himself and his Family in any tolerable sort. 1834Southey Doctor lxx. (1862) 149/2 The temperature of a glass-house is not only tolerable but agreeable to those who have their fiery occupation there. 1909Westm. Gaz. 27 Aug. 2/2 Ideas..of making the motor less anti-social and more tolerable by the general public.
b. Of drugs: That may be endured, or of which the action may be resisted, by the human system: cf. tolerance n. 1 b, tolerant a. c.
2. Such as to be tolerated, allowed, or countenanced; sufferable, allowable. Now rare.
1531Elyot Gov. ii. ii, That langage that in the chambre is tollerable, in place of iugement or great assembly is nothing commendable. 1597–1602W. Riding Sessions Rolls (Yorks. Rec. Ser.) 27 Misdemeanours not tollerable by the lawes of the Realme. 1598J. Manwood Lawes Forest xii. §4 (1615) 91 When there is no mast in the woods, then hogges nor swine are not tollerable there. 1619T. Campion Art of Descant (1674) 41 If the Bass be sharp in F fa ut, it is not tolerable to rise from a sixth to an eight. 1625Bacon Ess., Revenge (Arb.) 502 The most Tolerable Sort of Reuenge is for those wrongs which there is no Law to remedy. 1690Locke Govt. ii. xiii. §151 Where..the Executive is vested in a single Person,..that single Person in a very tolerable Sense may also be called Supream.
†3. actively. Capable of bearing or enduring; tolerant. Const. of. Obs. rare.
1555Eden Decades 99 The owlde souldiours..were..exceadynge tollerable of labour, heate, hunger, and watchynge.
4. Moderate in degree, quality, or character; of middling quality, mediocre, passable; now esp. moderately good, fairly good or agreeable, not bad.
1548Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Matt. v. 38 To the intent ye shoulde be of the meane and tollerable sorte. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxxxi. §5 Wee are to descend to a lower step, receiving knowledge in that degree, which is but tolerable. 1658Evelyn Diary 9 June, The new front towards y⊇ gardens is tollerable, were it not drown'd by a too massie and clomsie pair of stayres of stone. 1693Dryden Disc. Orig. & Progr. Satire Ess. (Ker) II. 110 We have yet no English prosodia, not so much as a tolerable dictionary, or a grammar. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Tolerable,..also indifferent, passable. 1790Cook's Voy. V. 1729 Some of it, which had adhered in lumps, was of a tolerable [ed. 1784 II. 235 sufficient] whiteness. 1833L. Ritchie Wand. by Loire 53 The staircase is all that now exists even in tolerable preservation. 1835Sir J. Ross Narr. 2nd Voy. xl. 538 Found a tolerable road. 1866Mrs. Gaskell Wives & Dau. xv, He had eaten a very tolerable lunch. 1868M. Pattison Academ. Org. v. 209 Leisure and tolerable freedom from the anxieties of straitened means.
5. As adv.
a. = tolerably 2. As adv.
(After 1750 chiefly in inferior writers and dial.)
1673Remarques Humours Town 40 If you can but discourse tollerable of good Wine. 1711Steele Spect. No. 114 ⁋1, I observed a Person of a tolerable good Aspect. 1796E. Parsons Myst. Warning III. 142 They halted at a tolerable large hamlet. 1823F. Cooper Pioneers xxxviii, They..emerged at once into a tolerable clear atmosphere. 1884‘Mark Twain’ Huck. Finn i. 3 Her sister, Miss Watson, a tolerable slim old maid, with goggles on.
b. pred. In fair health; moderately or passably well: = tolerably 2 b. colloq.
1812J. Constable Let. 16 Feb. (1962) I. 77 Your Father looks well & is very tolerable as to his cough & breathing. 1847C. Brontë J. Eyre xxvi, We're tolerable, sir, I thank you. |