释义 |
fugacious, a.|fjuːˈgeɪʃəs| Also 7 -atious. [f. L. fugāci-, fugax (f. fugĕre to flee) + -ous.] 1. Apt to flee away or flit. a. Of immaterial things: Tending to disappear, of short duration; evanescent, fleeting, transient, fugitive.
1634Rainbow Labour (1635) A ij, Fugatious words, which escape the eares pursuit. a1677Barrow Serm. Wks. 1716 III. 53 A thing most fugacious and slippery. 1722Wollaston Relig. Nat. ix. 206 With at best only a few deceitful, little, fugacious pleasures interspersed. 1774Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry xli. III. 433, I owe this information to the manuscript papers of these fugacious anecdotes. 1817W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. XLIV. 234 There is in the affection of poetic readers a something very fugacious. 1855H. Martineau Autobiog. (1877) II. 226 The fugacious nature of life and time. 1865Mill Exam. Hamilton 203 Colours, tastes, smells..being, in comparison, fugacious. b. Of persons: † Ready to run away. Also humorously (of persons), fleeing; (of things) slippery. rare.
1651J. F[reake] Agrippa's Occ. Philos. 557 The most fugatious of all the Gods. 1872Howells Wedd. Journ. 81 The oily slices of fugacious potatoes slipping about in the dish. 1885Harper's Mag. Feb. 367/1 Aunt..chuckled away to herself at the retrospect of her own fugacious figure. c. Of a material substance: Volatile.
1671J. Webster Metallogr. viii. 126 This primum ens..is a fugacious spirit. 1684tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. vi. 198 The fugacious poison departs as the Serum breaks out. 1794G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. I. xi. 433 No one..has analyzed the fugacious element of air with more success. 1823Mechanic's Mag. No. 10. 160 From the highly fugacious nature of that part of coffee on which its fine flavour depends. 2. Bot. and Zool. Falling or fading early; soon cast off. Cf. caducous 1.
1750G. Hughes Barbadoes 35 An immoderate use of crude fugacious fruits..will likewise occasion a Diarrhœa. 1796Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) IV. 288 Curtain white, delicate, fugacious, hanging in fragments at the edge of the pileus. 1796C. Marshall Garden. ii. (1813) 16 Seed..may be extreemly fugacious by its slight adhesion to the plant. 1874Cooke Fungi (1875) 18 In some Agarics the ring is very fugacious or absent altogether. 1877–84F. E. Hulme Wild Fl. Ser. i. p. xiv, Petals..very fugacious. Hence fuˈgaciously adv., fuˈgaciousness.
1664Evelyn Kal. Hort. Introd. 56 Well therefore did..Columella put his Gard'ner in mind of the fugaciousness of the Seasons. 1811A. T. Thomson Lond. Disp. (1830) 1011 Sulphuretted hydrogen is known to be contained in water..by its reddening the infusion of litmus fugaciously. 1821New Monthly Mag. I. 160 The utter inanity and fugaciousness of all mortal grandeur. 1875H. C. Wood Therap. (1879) 116 The volatility of ammonia and the extreme fugaciousness of its action. |