| 释义 |
fragility|frəˈdʒɪlɪtɪ|
[a. F. fragilité (12th c.), ad. L. fragilitātem: see frailty.]
1. The quality of being fragile or easily broken; hence, liability to be damaged or destroyed, weakness, delicacy.
1474Caxton Chesse 147 Hit is not fittyng for a woman to goo to bataylle for the fragylite and feblenes of her. 1604R. Cawdrey Table Alph., Fragilitie, brittlenes, or weakenesse. c1620Bacon Wks. (1857) III. 807 Three things are chiefly to be observed: the colour: the fragility or pliantness: the volatility or fixation. 1707Curios. in Husb. & Gard. 25 Man ought not to regard.. Flowers without reflecting..on their Fragility and small Duration. 1756Burke Subl. & B. iii. xvi, An air of robustness and strength is very prejudicial to beauty. An appearance of delicacy, and even of fragility, is almost essential to it. 1866Tate Brit. Mollusks iv. 131 The shell of this species is..characterized by its extreme thinness and fragility.
b. fig.
1603Knolles Hist. Turks (1638) 54 That which was left of his body..lay, as..the miserable spectacle of mans fragilitie. 1750Johnson Rambler No. 71 ⁋9 General forgetfulness of the fragility of life. 1751Ibid. No. 143 ⁋3 They would..lament..the fragility of beauty. 1886Sir H. Maine Pop. Govt. in Fortn. Rev. N.S. XXXIX. 171 The controversy as to the relative fragility, or the relative difficulty, of popular government and other forms of government.
†2. Moral weakness, frailty. Obs.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. i. (1495) 8 In case that bi humayne fragilyte or freyltee thou trespas ayenst the commaundement of almyghty god. a1533Ld. Berners Huon I. 167 Adam & Eue..the whiche by theyr fragylyte brake goddes commaundement. 1579Fulke Heskins' Parl. 273 God condescending to our fragilities. 1600Holland Livy viii. 307 Beseeching the Dictatour to forgive this humane fragilitie and youthfull folly of Qu. Fabius. a1624Swinburne Spousals (1686) 156 The fragility and mutability of the fæminine Sex considered. |