| 释义 |
unˈcheerful, a.
[un-1 7.]
1. Not enlivening or gladdening; cheerless.
c1449Pecock Repr. ii. xvi. 244 Forto cleue to a thing as to his Souereyn Lord..and ȝit for to haue noon homelynes with the same thing were an vnchereful thing. 1586Bright Melanch. xvii. 103 The body thus possessed with the vnchearefull darknes of melancholie. 1593Shakes. Lucr. 1024 In vaine I raile at oportunitie, At time, at Tarqvin, and vnchearfull night. 1648Milton Ps. lxxxviii. 11 My life at death's uncherful dore Unto the grave draws nigh. 1656Cowley Davideis iv. 536 'Twas the last Morning whose unchearful Rise, Sad Jabes was to view with both their Eyes. 1798Jane Austen Northang. Abb. xxi, The furniture..was handsome and comfortable, and the air of the room altogether far from uncheerful. 1853Ruskin Stones Ven. II. iv. §10. 63 The Cathedral square..laid out in rigid divisions of smooth grass and gravel walk, yet not uncheerful. 1856Hawthorne Eng. Note-bks. (1879) I. 256 It is an uncheerful old hotel.
2. Not exhibiting, or partaking of, cheerfulness.
c1550Dice Play (Percy Soc.) 6 Stalking up and down..with such heavy and uncheerful countenance, as if he had some hammers working in his head. 1596Spenser F.Q. v. vii. 18 But by the change of her vnchearefull looke, They might perceiue she was not well in plight. 1712Addison Spect. No. 483 ⁋1 People of gloomy unchearful Imaginations. 1753Richardson Grandison (1781) I. v. 24, I cannot bear an unchearful brow in a servant. 1882C. E. Norton Lett. (1913) II. x. 131 ‘Ah, Charles,’ he answered, with a not uncheerful smile, ‘there are no good days now’. 1892G. Hake Mem. 80 Yrs. lxviii. 293 A quiet, not uncheerful, but almost complaining way.
b. Not cheerfully performed.
a1684Leighton Comm. 1 Pet. iii. 1 (1849) II. 4 Now, if it be such obedience as ought to arise from a special kind of love, then the wife would remember this, that it must not be constrained, uncheerful obedience. 1858Faber Spir. Confer. 115 There is no vigour in uncheerful penance.
3. Of persons: Lacking in cheerfulness; melancholy, gloomy. Also transf.
1612Bp. Hall Contempl., O.T. iv. iv, Wheresoeuer meere Nature is, she is..niggardly in her grants, and vncheerfull. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. i. iii. i. i. 231 They be commonly leane, hirsute, vncheareful in countenance. 1680–1Penn in Wks. I. Pennington I. p. viii, When he did Speak, he was Serious, yet sweet and not uncheerful. 1740Cibber Apol. (1756) I. 17 Let them call me any fool but an unchearful one. 1860Bushnell New Life i. 7 There ought never to be a discouraged or uncheerful being in the world. 1862Lytton Str. Story xlviii, She said that Lilian was quiet, not uncheerful.
Hence unˈcheerfully adv.
a1628Preston New Covt. (1634) 104 Who comes not more uncheerfully before God, because of it? 1753Richardson Grandison (1781) VII. xvii. 98 We had hopes..she would be brought to give her hand, not unchearfully, to the Count of Belvedere. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 299 Save for the inevitable death-scene of the morrow, the evening would have passed not uncheerfully. |