| 释义 |
unuseful, a.|ʌnˈjuːsfʊl|
[un-1 7.]
a. Unprofitable, useless. (Very common in 17th c.)
In 18th and 19th-c. use chiefly with negatives.
1598Dallington Meth. Trav. V j, Bowling, carding, dicing, and other vnlawful and vnvseful games. 1624Heywood Gunaik. v. 219 Gold and silver they despise,..esteeming it rather an unusefull burden than a profitable merchandize. 1675Grew Nature of Mixture 6 Which Definition..is both Vnintelligible, and Vnuseful. 1726Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 57 b, A new, and not unuseful Invention. 1788Priestley Lect. Hist. i. iii. 32 It is no unuseful sentiment that we collect from reading [etc.]. 1817–8Cobbett Resid. U.S. (1822) 216 This may be no unuseful hint for the English Boroughmongers. 1827J. Montgomery Pelican Isl. ii. 160 Still-life was theirs, well pleasing to themselves, Nor yet unuseful. 1977Western Morning News 1 Sept. 8/1 A correspondent in Derriford, Plymouth, says he finds it is the unnecessary or ‘unuseful’ noises which annoy him most. 1982N. & Q. Aug. 357/2 The transference of the term to English literature is unuseful. 1984Ibid. June 259/1 The concatenation of Rolle, Langland and Wycliffe is decidedly unuseful.
b. Const. to; also for, towards.
1625K. Long tr. Barclay's Argenis ii. xx. 133 The streamers unusefull to the sailes, and onely hanging for bravery. 1653H. More Antid. Ath. ii. x. §3 Birds that will flutter with their wings when..as yet [they are] utterly unuseful for flying. 1733W. Crawford Infidelity xvi, The Law of Nature..became unuseful to the End it was made for. 1756Burke Subl. & B. iv. i, Something not unuseful towards a distinct knowledge of our passions. 1793Residence in France (1797) II. 10 My ideas..may not be unuseful to..my countrymen. |