| 释义 |
grossness|ˈgrəʊsnɪs|
[f. gross a. + -ness.]
The quality or condition of being gross.
†1. Bigness, bulkiness, size. Obs.
1494Fabyan Chron. vii. ccxxx. 260 This Lewis..was surnamed Lewys the Greate, for grossenesse of his body. 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. iii. 325 The purpose is perspicuous euen as substance, Whose grossenesse little characters summe up. 1638F. Junius Paint. Ancients 213 One found fault with the grossenesse of the nose: another with the length of the face. 1652Urquhart Jewel Wks. (1834) 246 Garne..for the height and grosseness of his person..was elected King of Bucharia.
2. Exaggerated or flagrant character, enormity.
1575–85Sandys Serm. xiii. 220 Our Sauiour..doth..lay open the grosnesse of their fault. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. iii. ii. 80 Hiding the grosenesse with faire ornament. a1633Austin Medit. (1635) 166 The grossenesse of this Lie every Child may discover. 1807G. Chalmers Caledonia I. Pref. 5 Boece, and Buchanan..went beyond these useful chroniclers, in the grossness of their fables. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. iii. v, The very grossness of this flattery.
3. Thickness, density, materiality, solidity. Also concr. or semi-concr.
1527Andrew Brunswyke's Distyll. Waters A j, The waters that there ben devyded from the grossenes of the herbes eche in his substance. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. iii. i. 163, I will purge thy mortall grossenesse so, That thou shalt like an airie spirit go. 1627Drayton Batt. Aginc. etc., Moon-Calf 168 A black cloud..Whose foggy grosnesse so oppos'd the light, As it would turn the noone-sted into night. 1630Milton On Time 20 Then all this Earthy grosnes quit, Attir'd with Stars we shall for ever sit. 1644Digby Nat. Bodies xxvii. 245 The element immediately next the earth in grossenesse is water. 1709Pope Ess. Crit. 469 For envy'd Wit, like Sol eclips'd makes known Th' opposing body's grossness, not its own. 1807Knox & Jebb Corr. I. 358 An expert diver can see under water, but it must be cloudily, on account of the grossness of the medium.
fig.1766Johnson Let. to W. Drummond 13 Aug., This speculation may perhaps be thought more subtle than the grossness of real life will easily permit. 1842Tennyson Locksley Hall 48 The grossness of his nature will have weight to drag thee down.
†b. Thickness as a third dimension (obs.).
c. Magnitude, with the implication of materiality.
1570Billingsley Euclid i. def. xv. 3 A plaine figure, that is a figure without grossenes or thicknes. 1579Fulke Heskins' Parl. 167 That body being so subtile.., was voyde of all grossenesse or thicknesse. 1862F. Hall Hindu Philos. Syst. 121 Grossness is essential in order to perception.
4. Coarseness, want of fineness or refinement:
a. of food, feeding, or material substances;
b. of habits, ideas, speech, etc.
a.1681Dryden Abs. & Achit. 619 His Shrieval Board The Grossness of a City Feast abhorr'd. 1751Earl of Orrery Remarks Swift (1752) 175 The grossness of our food, and..our immoderate use of spirituous liquors. 1899J. Caird Fundamental Ideas of Christianity II. x. 51 The vital energy of the plant transmutes into flower and fruit the grossness and foulness of the soil from which it springs.
b.1563Homilies ii. Places H. Script. i. 160 Places that men are offended at for the homelynesse & grossenesse of speach. 1594Shakes. Rich. III, iii. i. 46 Weigh it but with the grossenesse of this Age. 1667(title) The most delectable History of Reynard the Fox..purged from all grossness in phrase and matter. 1738Warburton Div. Legat. iii. vi. Wks. 1788 II. 198 To be bleached and purified from the grossness and pollution of their ideas. 1763Johnson Let. to Miss Reynolds 27 Oct., I do not..think the grossness of a ship very suitable to a lady. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 150 That chastity of honour..under which vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness. 1816J. Scott Vis. Paris (ed. 5) 130 Grossness of conduct is the natural and becoming barrier that stands between virtue and vice. 1860Emerson Cond. Life, Worship Wks. (Bohn) II. 396 With these grossnesses, we complacently compare our own taste and decorum. 1885Manch. Exam. 4 May 5/1 The..desire to disguise the native grossness of their motives.
5. Want of instruction and enlightenment; dullness, stupidity.
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 228 b, Shall brynge with them theyr olde grosnes, heuynes & passibilite. 1552Latimer Serm. Lincolnsh. ix. (1562) 144 What a pacient man our sauior Christ was, which could so wel beare wt the grosenes of Iohns disciples. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. ii. §1 They..are..for grosnesse of wit such, as they..scarcely seeme to holde the place of humane being. 1626Bacon Sylva §137 It were extreame Grossenesse to thinke..that the Sound in Strings is made..between the Hand and the String. 1638F. Junius Paint. Ancients 350 This was his grosnesse. As for the other more refined..men, they knew well enough what difference there was. 1837H. Martineau Soc. Amer. II. 59 Their intellectual torpor, their mental grossness, are melancholy to witness. 1857Keble Euchar. Adoration 58 To bring men to that requires..extreme grossness of understanding. |