| 释义 |
vastness|ˈvɑːstnɛs, ˈvæs-|
[f. vast a.]
†1. Desolation; waste. Obs. rare.
1605Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. vii. §7 Because their excursions into the limits of physical causes hath bred a vastness and solitude in that tract. 1642Sir E. Dering Sp. on Relig. 87 This Bill doth seem to me an uncouth wildernesse, a dismall vastnesse.
2. The quality of being vast; immensity.
1607Beaum. & Fl. Woman Hater iii. iii, Could the Sea throw up his vastness, And offer free his best inhabitants. 1667Milton P.L. vii. 472 Scarse from his mould Behemoth biggest born of Earth upheav'd His vastness. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 12 The swelling Surges menace the lowering Skies, leaving a Hollow where they borrowed their Gigantine Vastness. 1794Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho vi, Emily gazed with enthusiasm on the vastness of the sea. 1838De Morgan Ess. Probab. 24 When we speak of the vastness, the regularity, and the permanency of the solar system. 1886Ruskin Præterita I. vi. 199 The vastness of scale in the Milanese palaces..impressed me..at once.
fig.1601B. Jonson Poetaster v. iii, The open vastnesse of a tyrannes eare. 1873Helps Anim. & Mast. i. 8 You will be able to appreciate the vastness of this area of cruelty.
b. Of immaterial things.
c1622Fletcher Prophetess ii. i, You have blown his swoln pride to that vastness, As he believes the Earth is in his fathom. 1658Verney Mem. (1907) II. 77 The vastnesse of my affection. 1850Tennyson In Mem. xcvii, I look'd on these and thought of thee In vastness and in mystery. 1889Ruskin Præterita III. 146 The vastness of Scott's true historical knowledge.
3. A vast or immense space.
1674N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 61 The excellent Dr. Hen. More, whose soul may have roamed as far into these scopes and vastnesses as most mens in the world. 1855Longfellow Hiaw. xii. 137 Then a voice was heard..Coming from the empty vastness. 1875― Masque Pandora vi, Thunder and tempest of wind Their trumpets blow in the vastness. |