| 释义 |
unˈseasonable, a.
[un-1 7 b.]
1. Not suited to, not in accordance with, the time or occasion; untimely, inopportune.
c1448Ten Commandments of Love in Stow's Chaucer (1561) 342 b, Take measure in langage,..For mesure..Thynges vnseasonable setteth in season. 1591Acts Privy Council (1900) XXI. 123 The unordinate and unseasonable taking of the same [spawn] by the common fishers. 1607–12Bacon Ess., Dispatch (Arb.) 248/1 To chuse tyme is to save tyme, and an vnseasonable mocion is but beating the ayre. 1667Milton P.L. viii. 201 Whence haply mention may arise Of somthing not unseasonable to ask. 1718Freethinker No. 7. 42 A Notion prevails..that Marriage in Lent, is at least unseasonable. 1752Johnson Rambler No. 207 ⁋9 Unseasonable importunity of discontent. 1817Jas. Mill Brit. India II. v. v. 522 The English fleet,..dispersed by the weather, incurred considerable danger of a very unseasonable rencounter. 1839W. C. Taylor Anc. Hist. xvii. §2 (ed. 2) 501 This rash conspiracy induced Galba to sully the commencement of his reign by unseasonable severities. 1844H. H. Wilson Brit. India II. 497 The omission to inspect the accounts was unseasonable and injudicious.
transf.1722Steele Consc. Lovers iii. i, The familiar, learned, unseasonable Puppy!
b. Of time: Not suitable for the action specified or implied.
Freq. (with hour) implying an unusual time of the night.
1595Shakes. John iv. ii. 20 This acte..Being vrged at a time vnseasonable. 1621in Foster Eng. Factories Ind. I. (1906) 261 The said ship..at last at unseasonable time made tryall to com for Petapolie. 1674Jackson's Recant. B i, To let them out at unseasonable hours, and stay up for them, till it be early. 1715De Foe Fam. Instruct. i. iii. (1841) I. 62 Who knows but God may bless instruction, though begun at an unseasonable time. 1759Franklin Ess. Wks. 1840 III. 218 Neither did they conceive the time to be unseasonable for an application to the crown. 1800E. Hervey Mourtray Fam. II. 176 If I presume to intrude upon you at an unseasonable hour. 1838Lytton Leila i. vi, The alarm it might occasion..if he endeavoured at so unseasonable an hour, to force an entrance.
c. As adv. Unseasonably; out of season.
a1634Chapman Bussy d'Ambois iii. (1641) 42 How most unseasonable thou playest the Cucko, In this thy fall of friendship. 1680R. L'Estrange tr. Erasmus' Colloquies 174 This came very Unseasonable; Or if there had been any Errour, it might have been dissembled.
2. Of fish, etc.: Not in season.
c1450Cal. Letter-bks. London, D. (1902) IV. 198 Ye shalle not suffre no fysshe corrupt ne unsesynable to be solde. 1477[see victual n. 1 γ]. 1488–9Act 4 Hen. VII, c. 21 Aswell grete fisshes unsesonable as the seid frie. 1533–4Act 25 Hen. VIII, c. 7 Kyllyng of salmons when they be unsesonable and not holsome for manns body. 1563in Liturg. Serv. Q. Eliz. (1847) 488 The same poor which either lack food, or else that which they have is unseasonable and cause of sickness. 1653Walton Angler vi. 133 The old Salmon..grow sick in fresh waters, and by degrees unseasonable. 1677Quarter Sess. Rec. (N. Riding Rec. Soc.) VII. 6 A Startforth yeoman for catching ten unseasonable fish called scurfes. 1842Act 5–6 Vict. c. 106 §74 If any Person shall..have in his Possession any..unclean or unseasonable Salmon or Trout.
†b. Not properly matured; unseasoned. Obs.—1
1515Nottingham Rec. III. 344 We present Ser John Bagula for makyng on seysnabulle tyle. 1548Act 2 & 3 Edw. VI, c. 10 §1 Sondrie persons..made myche Malte unpure and unseasonable.
3. Of weather: Not appropriate to the season of the year; esp. stormy, tempestuous. Also of days, seasons, etc., marked by such weather.
a1513Fabyan Chron. vii. 433 Great scarcete of corne and frute..by meane of vnsesonable wederynge. 1593Shakes. Rich. II, iii. ii. 106 An vnseasonable stormie day. 1602in Moryson Itin. (1617) ii. 261 Their Haruest was so vnseasonable, and their Corne was so destroied by the weather, as numbers of subiects will vndoubtedly die of famine. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. 466 By reason of vnseasonable weather the corne..was choked and blasted in the eare. 1645Boate Ireland's Nat. Hist. xxi. (1652) 166 The ripeness of the fruits..is greatly retarded by the abundance of unseasonable rain. 1696Ray in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 203 Heer hath been a very unseasonable Summer, for the most part very cold and wet. 1707Mortimer Husb. 212 A cold, dry, unseasonable Spring. 1820Shelley Prometh. Unb. ii. iv. 52 The unseasonable seasons drove With alternating shafts of frost and fire, Their..pale tribes to mountain caves. 1854Poultry Chron. I. 578/1 Notwithstanding the cold, dark, unseasonable day. 1879S. C. Bartlett Egypt to Pal. xx. 442 Plucking lilies of the field from beneath the unseasonable snow. |