| 释义 |
incontinence|ɪnˈkɒntɪnəns|
Also 4–6 incontynence.
[a. F. incontinence (12th c.) or ad. L. incontinēntia, n. of quality f. incontinēnt-em: see in-3 and continent a.]
1. Want of continence or self-restraint; inability to contain or retain:
a. With reference to the bodily appetites, esp. the sexual passion: Unchastity.
1382Wyclif 1 Cor. vii. 5 Eft turne ȝe aȝen in to the same thing, lest Sathanas tempte ȝou for ȝoure incontynence. c1400Mandeville (1839) xiv. 161 Often tyme..the gode Dyamande lesethe his vertue, be synne and for Incontynence of him that berethe it. 1533More Apol. ix. Wks. 866/1, I doe not allowe, but obhorre incontinence in sacred professed persones. 1624Massinger Renegado iv. ii, Any virgin..convicted of corporal looseness and incontinence. 1784Cowper Task i. 699 Such London is, by taste and wealth proclaim'd The fairest capital of all the world, By riot and incontinence the worst. 1873Symonds Grk. Poets vi. 169 Handsome youths are admonished by Pindar to beware of lawlessness and shun incontinence.
b. In general sense. (Const. of.)
1836Hor. Smith Tin Trump. (1876) 342 He who labours under an incontinence of speech, seldom gets the better of his complaint. 1850L. Hunt Autobiog. I. v. 202 His laughter would follow his tears with a happy incontinence. 1858–65Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xi. iii, [They] do not waste themselves by incontinence of tongue. 1881Sir T. Martin Horace, Odes i. xviii, Transparent as crystal, that shows In its babbling incontinence all that it knows.
2. Path. Inability to retain a natural evacuation, esp. incontinence of urine (= L. incontinentia urinæ, in Pliny.)
1754–64Smellie Midwif. I. 162 The woman commonly labours under an incontinence of urine. 1874Van Buren Dis. Genit. Org. 229 Incontinence, like retention, is a symptom, and not a disease. |