| 释义 |
immaculate, a.|ɪˈmækjʊlət|
Also 5 in-.
[ad. L. immaculātus, f. im- (im-2) + maculātūs spotted, maculate.]
1. Free from spot or stain; pure, spotless, unblemished, undefiled. In fig. senses.
c1430Lydg. Min. Poems 79 The kyng of hevene blis; That..Into a virgyns wombe immaculate Descendid. c1460in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems 81 Heyle towre of Dauid & vyrgyn immaculat! 1491Caxton Vitas Patr. i. li. (W. de W. 1495) 107 b, To haue kepte my soule Inmaculate and undefoylled. 1548Hall Chron., Hen. VII 56 Their counsayll infected and corrupted the kynges clene and immaculate conscience. 1653H. More Conject. Cabbal. (1713) 235 This Life is pure and immaculate Love, and this Love is God. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xxiii. (1869) I. 653 The exercise of their sacred functions requires an immaculate purity. 1850A. Jameson Leg. Monast. Ord. (1863) 180 Convinced of his wife's immaculate purity.
†b. Constr. from. Obs.
1579Fulke Heskin's Parl. 373 As they were imaculate from faults of their bodies, so he..was immaculate from sins. 1790Gibbon Misc. Wks. (1814) III. 507 His chastity was immaculate from sin or scandal.
c. Immaculate Conception, the conception of the Virgin Mary, as held to have been free from the taint of original sin: in 1854 declared to be an article of faith of the Roman Church.
1687Burnet Trav. i. (1750) 31 The Dominicans..were..obliged to assert, that she was born in Original Sin..By this the Dominicans began to lose Ground extremely in the Minds of the People, who were strongly prepossess'd in favour of the immaculate Conception. 1782Priestley Corrupt. Chr. I. iv. 380 The university..declared for the immaculate conception. 1861Stanley East. Ch. viii. (1869) 264. 1871 Freeman Norm. Conq. IV. xviii. 137 The feast of the Conception—not yet declared to be immaculate—of our Lady.
d. immaculate lamb, applied to Christ, after L. agnus immaculatus (Gr. ἀµνὸς ἄµωµος), 1 Pet. i. 19.
c1450Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.) 272 This immaculat lombe that I xal ȝow ȝeve Is..bothe God and man. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 10 The immaculate lambe Jesu Chryst, the sone of God. 1772Fletcher Logica Genev. 209 The personal righteousness of the immaculate Lamb of God. 1858Neale tr. Bernard de M. 388 He, Lamb Immaculate.
2. Free from fault of flaw. (Chiefly in negative or ironical use.)
1832W. Irving Alhambra II. 147 The words of the immaculate Fredegonda. 1856Dove Logic Chr. Faith i. i. §2. 48 The Sceptical philosophy is by no means so immaculate. 1863Bright Sp. Amer. 26 Mar., You are not immaculate and..your wisdom..is not absolutely perfect.
b. Of manuscripts or printed books: Absolutely free from textual errors.
1841Myers Cath. Th. iii. xiii. 49 They [the Jews] believed..that all the manuscripts of their Law were immaculate, and the same to a letter. 1862Burton Bk. Hunter (1863) 65 Editions which claim a sort of canonization as immaculate, as for instance the Virgil of Didot and the Horace of Foulis.
3. In literal senses:
a. Spotlessly clean or neat.
1735Pope Donne Sat. iv. 253 A white-glov'd Chaplain..in immac'late trim, Neatness itself impertinent in him. 1853J. Brown Horæ Subs. Ser. 1. (1882) 169 Then out to parade..in proper trim, pipe-clay immaculate. 1856Mrs. Stowe Dred I. iv. 52 Every plait of her immaculate cap.
b. Nat. Hist. Without coloured spots or marks; unspotted.
1797T. Bewick Brit. Birds (1847) I. 54 He describes the male bird to be of an immaculate white. 1828Starke Elem. Nat. Hist. II. 198 Abdomen..with spots and angulated bands of brown and white; legs immaculate. 1847Hardy in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club II. No. 5. 236 Thorax narrowed towards the base, immaculate.
Hence iˈmmaculately adv., spotlessly, stainlessly, faultlessly.
a1711Ken Hymnarium Poet. Wks. 1721 II. 4 Thou art God alone, Thy Nature is immaculately pure. 1870Disraeli Lothair lvii, Those cheeks usually so immaculately fair. |