| 释义 |
furtive, a.|ˈfɜːtɪv|
[a. F. furtif, furtive, ad. L. furtīvus, f. fūr thief; cf. furtum theft, furtim adv., by stealth.]
1. Done by stealth or with the hope of escaping observation; clandestine, surreptitious, secret, unperceived.
1490[implied in furtively]. 1612Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 301 In wounds, where no Gangrena may be suspected..nor furtive hemorrhage, &c. 1635J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Banish'd Virg. Stolen embraces and furtive births prov'd to be ever the best. 1656Artif. Handsom. 96 By a furtive simulation. 1787–9Wordsw. Evening Walk 423 Tender cares and mild domestic loves With furtive watch pursue her as she moves. 1824W. Irving T. Trav. I. 106, I noticed the same singular, and, as it were, furtive glance, over the shoulder. 1855Thackeray Newcomes II. 128 The proprietor of the house cowered over a bed-candle, and a furtive tea-pot in the back drawing-room. 1877Gladstone Glean. IV. xx. 354 It does not at once appear how the Canal could be secured against the furtive scuttling of ships.
b. Hebrew Gram. (See quot.)
1852tr. Gesenius' Hebr. Gram. 42 [Between a strong and unchangeable vowel and a final guttural] there is involuntarily uttered a hasty ă (Pathach furtive)..Analogous to this is our use of a furtive e before r after long [vowels]; e.g. here (sounded hē⊇r), fire (fi⊇r).
2. Of a person, etc.: Stealthy, sly.
1858Lytton What will he do ii. xiv, There was something furtive and sinister about the man. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. iii. i, Eyeing him with furtive eyes. 1867M. Arnold St. Brandan, That furtive mien, that scowling eye.
3. Obtained by theft, stolen; also in milder sense, taken by stealth or secretly.
1718Prior Solomon i. 500 Do they [planets]..Dart furtive beams, and glory not their own? 1729Savage Wanderer i. 293 He clear'd, manur'd, enlarg'd the furtive ground. 1864Kirk Chas. Bold I. i. 25 The patches from which a furtive harvest was thus gathered. 1894J. T. Fowler Adamnan Introd. 53 Columba's furtive copy from St. Finnian's psalter.
4. Thievish, pilfering.
1816Kirby & Sp. Entomol. (1843) II. 30 Ants whose employment is to mine for gold and from whose vengeance the furtive Indian is constrained to fly on the swift camel's back. 1873Burton Hist. Scot. VI. lxx. 208 The High⁓lander could not be absolutely trusted to withhold his furtive hand from the flocks of his chief's friend. 1885That Very Mab viii. 129 The farmers were so much plagued by the furtive bird.
Hence ˈfurtively adv., ˈfurtiveness.
1490Caxton Eneydos xix. 69, I wold not haue departed furtyuely out of thy land. 1765Sterne Tr. Shandy VIII. xxiv, One lambent delicious fire, furtively shooting out from every part of it. 1838Dickens Nich. Nick. xxvi, Sir Mulberry..had been furtively trying to discover whence Kate had so suddenly appeared. 1862M. E. Braddon Lady Audley viii. 55 My lady's pale-faced maid, who looked furtively under her white eye-lashes at the two young men. 1884tr. Lotze's Metaph. 211 The implied idea by which, whether furtively or explicitly, we console ourselves. 1896Westm. Gaz. 4 Aug. 1/3 Strolling, as we do..through the press and bustle, we can sometimes capture a small hasty furtiveness. |