| 释义 |
improbability|ɪmprɒbəˈbɪlɪtɪ|
[f. improbable: see -ity. Cf. F. improbabilité (1776).]
The quality of being improbable; unlikelihood.
1598Florio, Improb[ab]ilita, improbabilitie. 1617Moryson Itin. ii. 245 The improbabilitie of their comming. 1690Locke Hum. Und. iv. xv. 332 But there [are] degrees..from the very neighbourhood of Certainty and Evidence, quite down to Improbability and Unlikeliness, even to the Confines of Impossibility. 1749F. Smith Voy. Disc. II. 332 The sending a Person over Land, carries not the least Air of Improbability with it. 1862Heurtley in Repl. to Ess. & Rev. 144 There is no longer any antecedent improbability to be overcome.
b. with an and pl. An instance of this; an improbable circumstance; something unlikely.
1611Coryat Crudities 97 It is a meere improbability, yea and an impossibility, that this should be the true Serpent. 1612–15Bp. Hall Contempl., O.T. v. i, It is the praise of omnipotencie to worke by improbabilities. 1699Bentley Phal. 76 Which is to add another Improbability to all that have gone before. 1876Mozley Univ. Serm. v. 111 A universal empire..is..a physical improbability. |