| 释义 |
unˈmarried, ppl. a.
[un-1 8.]
1. a. Of persons: Not married; unwedded.
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 737 Þe gode cordeile vnmaried was so. c1400Mandeville (1839) xix. 209 Wommen that ben un⁓maryed, thei han Tokenes on hire Hedes. a1450Lovelich Grail lv. 50 Wedded weren..Alle his bretheryn except on..that tho was vn-maryed. 1491Act 7 Hen. VII, c. 20 §6 If..Elizabeth dye unmaryed. a1540Barnes Wks. (1573) 364/2 This thing dyd Paphnutius, though that hee hym selfe was vnmaryed. 1591Knaresb. Wills (Surtees) I. 187 All my children bothe maryed and unmaried. 1607–12Bacon Ess., Marriage & Single Life (Arb.) 266 Vnmarryed Men are best Frendes. 1653H. Cogan Diod. Sic. iv. xxii. 152 He lived all his life time unmarried. 1728Young Love Fame vi. 79 Unmarry'd Abra puts on formal airs. 1779Mirror No. 12, The two eldest of my unmarried daughters. 1834Rep. Poor Laws 196 in Parl. Papers XXVII. 200 An unmarried mother has voluntarily placed herself in the situation of a widow. 1834Wellington Let. to Miss J. 24 Oct., The Duke is not in the habit of visiting young unmarried ladies. 1875Ruskin Fors Clav. V. lvi. 235 Every unmarried woman should have enough left her by her father to keep herself, and a pet dog. 1933D. C. Peel Life's Enchanted Cup i. 9 People did not look upon unmarried mothers with so lenient an eye as they came to do during the war. 1965Hall & Howes Church in Social Work ii. 50 Unmarried fathers and ‘other men in moral difficulty’. 1972Guardian 15 Nov. 9/1 One [letter] suggests that if unmarried mums were only encouraged to keep their babies, this sort of thing couldn't happen. 1983J. Gardner Elephants in Attic iv. 29 In the thirties unmarried mums were not the ‘in’ thing.
transf.1611Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iv. 123 Pale Prime-roses, That dye vnmarried, ere they can behold Bright Phœbus in his strength. 1771Encycl. Brit. I. 651/2 [The insect] flies from flower to flower till it arrives at the unmarried female.
b. absol. and as n.
1557N.T. (Geneva) 1 Cor. vii. 8, I say vnto the vnmaried, and widowes, it is good [etc.]. 1619Fletcher Knt. Malta v. i, Husband, Wife, There is some holy mystery in those names That sure the unmarried cannot understand. 1728Eliza Heywood tr. Mme. de Gomez's Belle A. (1732) II. 147 Neither did the Night want its Charms both to the married and the unmarried. 1819Metropolis I. 71 We had a very bad turn out of British females, mostly dowagers and elderly unmarrieds. 1871A. Meadows Man. Midwifery (ed. 2) ii. 59 In the case of the unmarried, he may..cast a slur upon a spotless character.
2. Lived free from marriage.
1648Hexham ii, Een eeloosen Staet, an Unmarried State. 1747Francis tr. Horace, Epist. i. i. 125 How happy then is an unmarried Life! 1755Johnson, Celibacy, single life; unmarried state. 1930R. Lehmann Note in Music iv. 157 He carried on the splendid tradition of unmarried fatherhood. 1962Sunday Express 30 Dec. 19/5 The problems of unmarried motherhood. 1980C. Fremlin With No Crying i. 6 Friends..passionately defending her right to unmarried motherhood. |