| 释义 |
▪ I. imposture, n.|ɪmˈpɒstjʊə(r)|
[a. F. imposture (earlier emposture), ad. late L. impostūra, abstract n. f. impost-, ppl. stem of impōnĕre to impose.]
1. The action or practice of imposing upon others; wilful and fraudulent deception.
1537tr. Latimer's 2nd Serm. bef. Convoc. C vij, Great imposture commeth, when they that the common people take for the lyght, go aboute to take the sonne and the lyght out of the worlde. 1626Bacon Sylva §241, I see no great vse of it, but for Imposture. 1750Johnson Rambler No. 79 ⁋13 He that suffers by imposture has too often his virtue more impaired than his fortune. 1819Byron Juan i. cxxviii, You'd best begin with truth, and when you've lost your Labour, there's a sure market for imposture. 1878Morley Crit. Misc. Ser. i. Carlyle 198 Imposture must come to an end.
†b. The deception of unreal or feigned appearances; illusion. Obs.
1643Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. ii. §5 The counterfeit griefes of those knowne and professed impostures [at a Play]. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. i. §38. 47 There is something in us superiour to Sense, which judges of it, detects its Phantastry, and condemns its Imposture. 1794Sullivan View Nat. II. 231 Nothing can secure the mind from error and imposture, but the precision arising from a candid philosophical spirit.
2. An act of fraudulent deception; a cheat, a fraud.
1548Hall Chron., Hen. VI 153 By this pratye cautele and slyghe imposture. 1603Florio Montaigne i. xxx. (1632) 103 A punishable imposture. 1759Robertson Hist. Scot. (1813) I. ii. 115 The vigilance of the reformers detected these impostures. 1838Lytton Calderon i, He had submitted to an imposture.
b. A thing (or person) which is pretended to be what it is not.
1699Burnet 39 Art. xxii. (1700) 245 Many of the Bones which were carried about by Monks, were none of their Bones but Impostures. 1781J. Moore View Soc. It. (1790) I. i. 18 We were a gang of impostures.
†3. An obs. form of impostor, q.v.
Hence imˈpostureship = impostorship.
1608T. Morton Preamb. Encounter 39 A sportfull or rather execrable Impostureship of P.R.
▪ II. † imˈposture, v. Obs.
[f. prec. n.]
a. intr. To practise imposture.
b. trans. To impose upon, deceive.
c. To declare or prove to be an imposture.
1622H. Sydenham Serm. Sol. Occ. (1637) 92 Labouring to nullifie his acts, blemish his descent, imposture all his miracles. 1624T. Scott Belg. Souldier 32 Spaine assembles armies, the Iesuites coniure, the Priests imposture. a1659Lady Alimony iv. vii, The Devil's a Witch, and has impostur'd them.
Hence imˈposturing vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1618T. Gainsford P. Warbeck in Select. Harl. Misc. (1793) 60 Where the imposturing of priests hath got the upper hand of all religion and piety. 1624Gag for Pope 71 Her abominable life and imposturing deceit. a1641Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 214 Imposturing lewd Libels, counterfaited under the names of the Apostles. |