| 释义 |
unˈearthly, a.
[un-1 7.]
1. Rising above what is characteristic of earth; exalted, sublime; celestial.
1611Shakes. Wint. T. iii. i. 7 O, the Sacrifice. How ceremonious, solemne, and vn-earthly It was i' th' Offring? 1795Coleridge Refl. Place of Retirem. 24 The inobtrusive song of Happiness, Unearthly minstrelsy! 1855G. Brimley Ess. (1858) 304 [An] almost unearthly intensity of faith, love, and resignation. 1876H. W. Pullen Mod. Christianity 73 Having made choice of an unearthly Guide, you should be content to follow Him along unearthly paths.
2. Not belonging to this earth; supernatural, mysterious, ghostly. (Cf. Sc. wanearthly.)
a1802Tamlane xxxv. in Scott Minstrelsy, How shall I thee knaw Amang so many unearthly knights? 1828Lytton Pelham II. x, A mysterious and unearthly communion of the soul with the beings of another world. 1871L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. ii. 82 There is something almost unearthly in the sight of enormous spaces of hill and plain.
b. Of sounds or voices.
1808Scott Marm. ii. Introd., In the bittern's distant shriek, I heard unearthly voices speak. 1846A. Marsh Father Darcy II. xi. 183 The unearthly sound..immediately ceased. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 150 The half-heard music is full of unearthly cadences.
c. colloq. Not appropriate to anything earthly; absurdly early or inconvenient.
1865Mrs. Carlyle Lett. (1883) III. 267 Your starting from the Gill at an unearthly hour. 1891Mrs. J. H. Riddell Mad Tour 63 In the streets of Cologne at that unearthly hour in the morning. |