| 释义 |
foulness|ˈfaʊlnɪs|
[f. foul a. + -ness.]
1. A foul or dirty condition; dirtiness, impurity, pollution, uncleanness. Rarely pl.
1552Huloet, Fowlenes or fylthines, sorditudo. 1582N.T. (Rhem.) John xiii. Annot., The fovlnes of the fute..signifieth the earthie affections. 1667Pepys Diary (1877) V. 429 My wife and I fell out a little about the foulness of the linen of the table. 1725Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Fish, It is the Foulness of the Ponds..that stenches the Water. 1744Berkeley Siris §4 A medicine..useful in..foulnesses of the blood. 1809–10Coleridge Friend (1865) 214 With such..eagerness as to neglect the foulness of the road. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xxxi. (1856) 271 The..foulness of air in the between-deck..cannot be amended.
fig.1755Young Centaur iv. Wks. 1757 IV. 194 Few know the foulness of their own hearts.
b. Of the weather: Storminess. Of a sea-bottom: Rockiness, roughness.
1603Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 1028 Such was the foulenesse of the winter weather. a1718Penn Wks. (1726) I. Life 64 Being..wearied with the Foulness of the Ways and Weather. 1748Anson's Voy. ii. i. 115 To secure them [the cables] from being rubbed by the foulness of the ground.
c. concr. Foul matter; something that is or makes foul; a foul crust or deposit; filth; † a purulent affection (of the skin). Also pl.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. lii. (1495) 570 It..clensyth the eyen of fowlenes and fylthe. 1583Hollyband Campo di Fior 25 Washe well the fowlenesse which is about the jointes of the fingers. 1648Wilkins Math. Magick ii. xii. (1680) 246 The spots or foulness of other cloaths are washed out. 1740Stack in Phil. Trans. XLI. 424 If a glass Globe filled with Water be rapidly turned on its Axis, one sees little Foulnesses. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 396 The dust and smoke of earth will continually throw a foulness upon our glass. 1782W. Heberden Comm. xxiii. (1806) 122 Efficacious in cleansing the skin from many foulnesses. 1889R. B. Anderson tr. Rydberg's Teut. Myth. 214 The floors were made of serpents encased in foulness.
fig.a1654Selden Table-T. (Arb.) 18 They had a Foulness about them, viz. Original Sin, that could not be washed away but by Baptism. a1716South Serm. (1737) II. 199 The wickedness of a whole life, discharging all its filth and foulness into this one quality. 1790G. Walker Serm. II. xxx. 331 What debasing shame must sink the wretched soul, when foulnesses without number shall be revealed.
2. Moral impurity; disgusting wickedness.
c1532G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 905 The foulenesse, la turpitude. 1578T. N. tr. Conq. W. India 135 Grievous sinnes..for the foulnesse whereof I name them not. 1599Shakes. Much Ado iv. i. 155 Claudio..lou'd her so, that speaking of her foulnesse, Wash'd it with teares. 1624Bacon New Atlantis Wks. 1857 III. 152 There is not..a nation..so free from all pollution or foulness. 1719Young Busiris v. i, The foulness of thy guilt secures thee From my reproach. 1879Farrar St. Paul (1883) 208 Those umbrageous groves were the dark haunts of every foulness.
†3. Ugliness, hideousness, repulsiveness. Obs.
1382Wyclif Bible, Pref. Ep. St. Jerome vii. (1850) I. 73, I wole not, that thou be offendid in holi scripturis..thurȝ foulness of words. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xii. xxxii. (1495) 432 The pecok arereth his fethers..and thenne he..seeth the fowlenesse of his fete. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. v. 66 Hees falne in loue with your foulnesse. 1697Dryden æneid vii. 582 The Fury..with new methods try'd The foulness of th' infernal Form to hide.
†4. Unfairness, dishonesty. Also, roughness, violence. Cf. foul a. 14, 17. Obs.
1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cccxxi. 202 a, Outher with fayrnesse or foulnesse. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. ii. 150 Be fairnes ather be foulnes. 1654Hammond Fundamentals 99 Piety is opposed to..all falsness or foulness of intentions. |