| 释义 |
flinty, a.|ˈflɪntɪ|
[f. flint n. + -y1.]
1. Of or consisting of flint; derived from flint.
1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, ii. i. 27 Let vs resolue to scale their flinty bulwarkes. 1714Gay Trivia i. 12 Earth from her Womb a flinty Tribute pays. 1799Kirwan Geol. Ess. 447 Pieces of fossil wood have been found penetrated with flinty matters. 1810Scott Lady of L. i. xi, Each purple peak, each flinty spire, Was bathed in floods of living fire. 1891T. Hardy Tess viii, Sometimes..flinty sparks from the horse's hoofs outshone the daylight.
b. Full of flint-stones.
1626Bacon Sylva §599 The gathering up of Flints in Flinty Ground..is no good Husbandry. 1802Playfair Illustr. Hutton. Th. 108 Such a body of flinty gravel as is found about Kensington.
2. Resembling flint;
a. in texture or in colour.
1641Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 99 Flinty wheate; that is, if yow bite a corne asunder with your teeth, yow shall see that the meale of it is of a darkish, bley, and flinty colour. 1779J. Moore View Soc. Fr. II. lv. 57 Black stones of a flinty texture. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xxx. (1856) 258 We had to quarry out the blocks [of ice] in flinty, glassy lumps. 1859[See flint-wheat s.v. flint n. 10].
b. Having the characteristic qualities of flint; hard, impenetrable, rugged.
1542R. Copland Galyen's Terap. A. iij, The cause..that before made the vlceres harde and flynty. 1602Marston Ant. & Mel. i. Wks. 1856 I. 17 The flintie rocks groand at his plaints. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 357 Rough upon the flinty Rock he lyes. 1847Emerson Poems, Monadnoc Wks. (Bohn) I. 435 The country's flinty face, Like wax, their fashioning skill betrays. 1871Baker Nile Tribut. xii. 202 The mare..scattering the rounded pebbles..from her flinty hoofs. 1884York Herald 19 Aug. 7/2 All the new grain comes to hand in a flinty condition.
3. fig. Of a person or his heart: Obdurate, unfeeling, hard-hearted. (Cf. stony.)
1536Latimer Let. to Cromwell in Serm. & Rem. (1845) 372 If his heart be so stony, so flinty. 1601Shakes. All's Well iv. iv. 7 Gratitude Through flintie Tartars bosome would peepe forth. 1795Burke Th. Scarcity Wks. 1842 II. 250 The flinty heart and griping hand of base self-interest. 1829Carlyle Misc. (1857) I. 272 We ourselves have known the flintiest men, who professed to have wept over them. 1878M. E. Braddon Open Verd. I. ii. 29 ‘Fathers have flinty hearts’, retorted Kenrick lightly.
quasi-adv.1580Lupton Sivqila 72 Their stonny hartes are so flintie harde.
b. Of immaterial things: Hard; harsh.
1613Uncasing of Machivils Instr. 14 This is the flinty course of this our age. 1643Milton Divorce ii. xvi. (1851) 103 The gracious..not ruthlesse and flinty ordinance of mariage. 1888Star 28 Nov. 2/5 Mr. George struck out sharp, strong, flinty sentences.
4. attrib. and Comb., as flinty-looking adj.; flinty-hearted a., (a) of a person: Hard-hearted; (b) Having a hard or flint-like core.
1626Massinger Rom. Actor iii. ii, If he were not A flinty⁓hearted slave, he could not use One of his form so harshly. 1845Ld. Campbell Chancellors (1857) V. cxi. 192 The flinty⁓hearted father asked what settlement was to be made upon his daughter. 1860All Year Round No. 48. 515 Three flinty-hearted potatoes. 1890Pall Mall G. 29 Aug. 7/2 A dark flinty-looking grain rebounds from your face.
Hence ˈflintily adv., in a flinty manner; ˈflintiness, the quality of being flinty.
1607Hieron Wks. I. 362 When there is an vniuersall flintinesse in mens hearts. 1840Dickens Old C. Shop xi, Some people would have been all flintiness and granite. 1871Proctor Light Sc. 290 The peculiar grittiness and flintiness of its structure. 1879Tinsley's Mag. XXIV. 35 Her aunt was a flintily just woman. |