| 释义 |
incidentally, adv.|ɪnsɪˈdɛntəlɪ|
[f. incidental a. + -ly2.]
1. In an incidental manner; as an incident, or a subordinate and casual circumstance.
1665Boyle Occas. Refl. (1848) 56 A Theme, that fell but incidentally under my consideration. 1736Butler Anal. ii. vii. Wks. 1874 I. 254 He mentions these gifts incidentally, in the most easy manner. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiv. III. 407 In the course of the debate a grave constitutional question was incidentally raised. 1879R. K. Douglas Confucianism iv. 94 The supreme object of learning should be truth, and incidentally self-improvement.
2. In point of fact: used to accompany a not immediately pertinent statement.
1925T. Dreiser Amer. Trag. (1926) I. i. ii. 15 Incidentally by that time the sex lure or appeal had begun to manifest itself. 1926Fowler Mod. Eng. Usage 264/2 Incidentally is now very common as a writer's apology for an irrelevance. 1961A. Huxley Let. 8 Jan. (1969) 902 Pure perceptual receptivity is the basis, incidentally, of many Tantrik exercises. 1972R. Quirk et al. Gram. Contemp. Eng. 667 Incidentally adds explicitly that what is being said is a digression, if only slight, and an afterthought: The airlines charge half-price for students. Incidentally, I have already bought my ticket to New York. |