| 释义 |
unˈmeaning, ppl. a.
[un-1 10.]
1. a. Of features, etc.: Expressionless, vacant, unintelligent.
1704Steele Lying Lover iii. i, Poor stupid insipid Lady Fad,..with that unmeaning Face of hers. 1760Dodd Hymn Good-Nat. Poems (1767) 3 Daughter of Folly; whose un⁓meaning front Wears the soft simper of perpetual smiles! 1815Scott Guy M. ix, Bertram turned a stupified and unmeaning eye on the messenger. 1836Kingsley Lett. (1878) I. 34 The old man spoke in his dreams and muttered with unmeaning visage and fixed eye.
b. Of persons: Having no serious aim or purpose.
1746Eliza Heywood Female Spect. No. 24 (1748) IV. 305 Being a fool, [she] was thoughtless, giddy, and unmeaning. 1812Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life (1870) I. 172 Peace be to them, sweet simpletons! as unmeaning..as their own dinner-bells. 1846Mrs. Gore Eng. Char. I. 40 The vapid, unmeaning, unconnected Lady P―.
2. Having no meaning or significance; meaningless:
a. Of actions, conduct, etc.
1728Eliza Heywood tr. Mme. de Gomez's Belle A. (1732) II. 228 Turning the Effect of his Admiration into the Appearance of an unmeaning Gallantry. 1776Mickle Camoen's Lusiad p. lxxvii, Unmeaning slaughter..comprise[s] the whole history of his regency. 1825T. Hook Sayings Ser. ii. III. 320 Full of grimace, affectation, and unmeaning levity. 1869J. Martineau Ess. II. 229 The tendency..is not an unmeaning accident.
b. Of words, utterances, etc.
1709Pope Essay on Criticism 355 At the..only couplet fraught With some unmeaning thing they call a thought. 1727Boyer Dict. Royal ii. s.v., Unmeaning Words. 1771T. Percival Ess. (1777) I. 6 [They] conceal their own ignorance..by unmeaning terms and pompous phrases. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xv. III. 559 That several neighbouring nations..thought this most unmeaning of all names worth borrowing. 1875Fortnum Maiolica xi. 109 The unmeaning designs of the oriental porcelain.
absol.1870Disraeli Lothair lxxvii, I do not believe in the unmeaning.
3. Uttering nothing significant.
1743W. Whitehead Ep. Ann Boleyn 90 Each distant Hint that hung On broken Sounds of an unmeaning Tongue. |