| 释义 |
toothless, a.|ˈtuːθlɪs|
Forms: see tooth n.
[See -less.]
Having no teeth; destitute of teeth.
1. lit.
a. That is naturally without teeth; not developing teeth.
b. Having the teeth still undeveloped; that has not yet cut its teeth.
c. Having lost the teeth, as from age.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vi. ix. (Bodl. MS.), Þe norise..chewith mete in hire owne mowþe and makeþ it redie to þe toþeles child. Ibid. xviii. xviii. (ibid.), Bestes þat beþ toþeles in þe ouer iowe. c1440Promp. Parv. 498/1 Tootheles, for age, edentatus. Ibid., Tootheles, for ȝungthe. 1581J. Derricke Image of Irel. (1883) 19 Let the toothlesse crabbed queane boyle in her owne despight. 1673Hickeringill Greg. F. Greyb. 185 A toothless dog bites not much more than a dead dog. 1784Cowper Task iv. 81 Teeth for the toothless, ringlets for the bald. 1810Southey Kehama xiii. xii, The Tygress leaves her toothless cubs. 1880Günther Fishes 170 The toothless buccal cavity is surrounded by a semi-circular upper lip.
2. transf. Destitute of tooth-like formations or projections; not jagged or serrated.
1812New Bot. Gard. i. 8 Follicles oblong, acuminate, toothless. 1822J. Parkinson Outl. Oryctol. 153 The aperture [of the shell] long, narrow, toothless. 1883Gd. Words Aug. 505/2 There are grooves of the portcullis still, but it is toothless now.
3. fig.
a. Destitute of keenness or ‘edge’; not biting or corrosive; also fig.
1592Nashe Four Lett. Confut. Wks. (Grosart) II. 203 Poore secular Satirist..that with the toothlesse gums of his Poetry so betuggeth a dead man. 1597Bp. Hall (title) Virgidemiarum, Sixe Bookes. First three Bookes, Of Tooth-lesse Satyrs. 1650Baxter Saints' R. iii. ii. §14. 295 If a drunken..Preacher did..read the Common Prayer, or some toothless Homily, instead of a searching..Sermon. a1764Lloyd Epist. to C. Churchill Poet. Wks. 1774 I. 86 No toothless spleen, no venom'd critic's aim. 1882Mrs. Oliphant Lit. Hist. Eng. I. 312 The ‘Lyrical ballads’, at which every toothless critic sneered.
†b. loosely. Tasteless; not toothsome. Obs.
1679Jane Serm. at St. Margarets 11 Apr. 17 This..renders all his most exquisite pleasures toothless and insipid.
c. Lacking the means of compulsion or enforcement; ineffectual. Cf. tooth n. 2 b (b).
1961in Webster. 1966Federal Suppl. (U.S.) CCXLIV. 823/2 Congress might as well have legalized the closed shop as have enacted such a cynical and toothless provision. 1971Nature 23 Apr. 486/1 Reasons for the failure include unenforceable and toothless laws,..foot dragging by local and state authorities, [etc.]. 1973Guardian 16 Feb. 13 The EEC's social and economic committee..is a toothless organisation... Its views are not seriously taken into account. 1984N.Y. Times Mag. 22 Jan. 46/4 If we do not do what we propose to do, we shall be reviled as toothless and irrelevant.
Hence ˈtoothlessly adv.; ˈtoothlessness.
1631Celestina iv. 49 That toothlessnesse of the gummes. 1855H. Spencer Princ. Psychol. (1872) II. vi. vi. 62 In the infant, toothlessness coexists with the power of developing thirty-two teeth at maturity. 1891Harper's Mag. Sept. 537/1 Toothlessly smiling. |