| 释义 |
unˈevenness
[f. uneven a.]
1. Inequality, discrepancy, difference.
1398Trevisa Barth. de P.R. ix. iii. (Tollem. MS.), Solstitium is moste uneuennesse of day and nyȝte. 1622Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 487 Hee findeth twentie two..peeces or thereabouts, because of the vneuennesse of the sheyre. 1659Gentl. Calling (1660) 18 The great unevenness that is..between Gentlemen and their Inferiors. 1884Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 44 The subsequent various unevenness of height..arises through the growth of the cells.
2. The quality or fact of being uneven in form.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. iv. iii. (1495) e vj b/1 Roughnesse is not elles but an vneuynnesse in an harde thynge. Ibid. iv. e viij/2 Contrary humours werke contraryousnes and vneuynnesse with roughnes in the vtter parte of the body. 1560Whitehorne Arte Warre (1588) 49 b, Also the vneuennesse of the ground saueth them, for that euery litle hillocke, or high place,..letteth the shotte thereof. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 115 His cheekebones would be euen and small, for..the vneuennes of the Cheekes will make him headstrong. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 51 Hils of stupendious height and vneuennesse to ascend. a1688Cudworth Immut. Mor. (1731) 200 We plainly observe much..Unevenness and Inequality in the Lines, and Bluntness in the Angles. 1772Ann. Reg., Nat. Hist. 82/2 Which extreme agitation and whirling, I presume, must be owing to the unevenness of the rocky bottom. 1853Markham Skoda's Auscult. 3 The finger must be always used whenever, through unevenness of the surface, the pleximeter cannot be well applied. 1880Blackw. Mag. Feb. 243/1 The painful unevenness of the principal roadways.
b. An instance of this; an inequality; a rough or rugged part, place, or feature.
1597A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 12 b/2 If there remayne anye small splinter thereone, or other vnevennes. 1664H. More Myst. Iniq. 297 To phansy one and the same Hill for some little unevennesses in it to be more then one. 1680Tides (MS. Bodl. Add. A. 202) fol. 3 In deep Rivers the surface conceales these unevenesses. 1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. Filing, The..File..serves to take off the Unevennesses of the Work, left by the Hammer, in Forging. 1753Phil. Trans. XLVIII. 88 An horizontal thin edge, which scooped up and carried off the little unevennesses of the turfy ground. 1849E. B. Eastwick Dry Leaves 140 There was not the slightest jag or unevenness—a tolerable proof of the sharpness of the sword.
c. In various figurative uses.
1636B. Jonson Discoveries Wks. (1641) 98 They would not have it run without rubs, as if that stile were more strong and manly, that stroke the eare with a kind of unevenesse. 1652Gaule Magastrom. 255 Saturne was pressed with unevennesse or roughnesse, either in leaping or speaking. 1707Reflex. upon Ridicule 319 The whimsical Unevenness of some People ruins the pleasure of Conversation. 1779Johnson L.P., Dryden Wks. II. 427 Such is the unevenness of his compositions, that [etc.]. 1805Med. Jrnl. XIV. 395 The unevenness of disposition, the convulsive sobs and strong paroxysms of weeping. 1882L. Keith Alasnam's Lady III. 105 Di hardly noticed the unevenness of her mood.
†3. Unfairness, injustice. Obs.
a1470H. Parker Dives & Pauper (W. de W. 1496) 293/1 Goodes of this worlde ben called rychesses of uneuenesse and of wyckednesse. |