| 释义 |
▪ I. impregnate, ppl. a.|ɪmˈprɛgnət|
[ad. late or med.L. imprægnāt-us, pa. pple. of imprægnāre: see impregn, of which this was also used as the pa. pple.]
= impregnated (as pa. pple. or adj.).
1. Caused to conceive; pregnant; rendered fruitful or prolific. Also fig.
1545T. Raynalde Byrth Mankynde ii. vii. (1643) 133 All such women which be impregnate or conceiued. 1651Sir E. Sherburn Salmacis 7 The tumid Earth (As if impregnate with a fruitfull Birth) Swels gently up into an easie Hill. 1663Flagellum, or O. Cromwell (ed. 2) 2 Nor were there any presagious dreams or fearful divinations of his Mother when she was impregnate with him. 1664Evelyn Sylva (1679) 4 Being more impregnate with the Sun, Dews and heavenly Influences. 1849Fraser's Mag. XL. 539 The leading impregnate thoughts, the ideas, or laws laid down for a poetical composition. 1855Singleton Virgil I. 161 And oft without embraces any, by the wind Impregnate.
2. Imbued, saturated, filled, permeated with (some active principle). † In quot. 1661, Magnetized: cf. impregnate v. 4, quot. 1664.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xxi. 161 If the ambient aire be impregnate with subtile inflamabilities. 1661Glanvill Van. Dogm. xxi. 203 Let one move his impregnate needle to any letter in the alphabet, and its affected fellow will precisely respect the same. 1688Burnet Lett. Pres. St. Italy 144 The Meadow..is impregnate with Salt, Iron, Nitre and Sulphur. 1715–20Pope Iliad v. 968 Impregnate with celestial dew. 1818Byron Ch. Har. iv. lv, Thy decay Is still impregnate with divinity, Which gilds it with revivifying ray. 1851Whittier Chapel of Hermits vi, O light and air of Palestine, Impregnate with His life divine!
¶ Erroneously for impregnable.
1632Lithgow Trav. x. 506 Impregnate Forts, devalling Floods, and more Earth-gazing heights. 1721D'Urfey 2 Queens Brentford ii. i, Bring me the Caitiff here before my Face, Tho' made Impregnate, as Achilles was.
▪ II. impregnate, v.|ˈɪm-, ɪmˈprɛgneɪt|
[f. prec. or its source: see -ate3 3–5.]
1. trans. To make (a female) pregnant; to cause to conceive; to get with young; in Biol., also, to fecundate the female reproductive cell or ovum.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xii. 134 Hermophrodites although they include the parts of both sexes..cannot impregnate themselves. 1707Norris Treat. Humility viii. 352 She was to be impregnated by the overshadowings of the Holy Ghost. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VII. 31 Mr. Adanson has seen vast numbers of sea snails, united together in a chain, impregnating each other. 1841–71T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4) 363 By these the ova are developed, impregnated, and oviposited; and thus provision is made for..continuing the existence of the species.
b. Bot. Of the pollen or male reproductive cell in plants: To fertilize. † In quot. 1671, To cause to grow or develop (in the embryo plant).
1671Grew Anat. Plants i. §44 The Lobes did at first feed and impregnate the Radicle into a perfect Root. 1769E. Bancroft Guiana 28 Their pistils are covered..with farina fæcundans,..which when mature falls into and impregnates the subjacent matrix. 1776Withering Brit. Plants (1796) II. 401 Produced by the Pollen of the P. secunda, impregnating the germen of the P. rotundifolia.
c. intr. for pass. To become pregnant, to conceive. rare.
1711Addison Spect. No. 127 ⁋2 Were they, like Spanish Jennets, to impregnate by the Wind, they could not have thought on a more proper Invention.
2. fig. (trans.) To render fruitful or productive; to fertilize. (Also absol.)
1667Decay Chr. Piety i. 1 Christianity is..so apt to impregnate the hearts and lives of its proselytes, that it is hard to imagine that any branch should want a due fertility. 1720Welton Suffer, Son of God II. xviii. 490 He left His Holy Spirit there..to Impregnate the Divine Seed that He had sown. 1860Symonds in Life (1895) I. 345 Joy impregnates: sorrows bring forth.
3. To fill (a substance or portion of matter) with some active principle, element, or ingredient, diffused through it or mixed intimately with it; to imbue, saturate. In earlier use sometimes simply (with more direct allusion to 1) = to fill. (Most commonly in pass.)
1605Timme Quersit. i. iv. 15 The elements returne to their parents full and impregnated with celestiall forms. 1671J. Webster Metallogr. iv. 74 Sulpher, with which Argent vive is impregnated. 1732Arbuthnot Rules of Diet 299 Water impregnated with some penetrating Salt. 1789Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France I. 40 Savoy is impregnated with many minerals. 1808Med. Jrnl. XIX. 110, I determined to impregnate his system with mercury by external inunction. 1847Smeaton Builder's Man. 62 Attempts..to prevent the destruction of wood, by impregnating it with some substance capable of restraining its ravages.
b. fig. To imbue or fill with (active thoughts, feelings, principles, influences, moral qualities, etc.).
1652J. Hall Height Eloq. p. xiv, We ought to nurture our souls to greatnesse, and impregnate them..to thoughts high and extraordinary. 1784Johnson in Boswell 15 May, She has a constant stream of conversation, and it is always impregnated; it has always meaning. 1835Lytton Rienzi i. iv, He had sought to impregnate his colleagues with the same loftiness of principle. 1878H. Irving The Stage 24 Producing plays, the whole structure of which is impregnated with moral unhealthiness.
4. Said of the active principle or influence: To be diffused through (something); to permeate, interpenetrate, fill, saturate.
1664Power Exp. Philos. iii. 158 The Magnetical Effluviums..proceed ab extrinseco &c. therefore do impregnate the Stone again, upon their re-admission. 1744Berkeley Siris §45 Light impregnates air, air impregnates vapour. 1746–7Hervey Medit. (1818) 89 This magnificent luminary..beautifies and impregnates universal nature. 1816J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art II. 822 He suspended the birds by the feet..for the salts to impregnate the body.
Hence impregnating vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1705Stanhope Paraphr. II. 73 The impregnating warmth of the Sun. 1846J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 119 Then insects..become, in their journeyings of pleasure from flower to flower, the porters who bear the impregnating principle. |