释义 |
unˈneedful, a. [un-1 7.] 1. Unnecessary; not required.
c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. II. 58 So shal cloþis be more un⁓nedeful þan þei weren in staat of innocence. c1450Myrr. our Ladye 227 Her eyne..were neuer lyfte vp to beholde eny vnnedeful thinge. 1543Recorde Arithm. 119 b, I iudge that good reason, for many are vnnedefull, where one wyll serue. 1597J. King On Jonas (1618) 281 The matter of all their vowes vnneedefull, in some vnlawfull, in some vnpossible. 1624Capt. Smith Virginia i. 2 Which vnneedfull Southerly course..occasioned them..much sicknesse. 1677Lond. Gaz. No. 1170/3 Since your Majesty will see what I write..it is unneedful that I should repeat it. 1768[W. Donaldson] Life Sir B. Sapskull I. iii. 29 Mere negative qualifications totally unneedful in the education of a polite gentleman. 1905Athenæum 30 Sept. 431/1 The editor has..also (a rarer thing in editors) refrained from doing what was unneedful. 2. Not standing in need of something.
1876Mrs. H. Wood Parkwater (1879) 258 The heart has a language of its own, unneedful of common syllables. So unˈneedfully adv., unnecessarily.
1642Milton Apol. Smect. 2 Yet those I intreat who have found the leasure to reade that name,..unworthily defam'd, would be so good..as to heare the same person not unneedfully defended. |