释义 |
indulgent, a. (n.)|ɪnˈdʌldʒənt| [ad. L. indulgēnt-em, pres. pple. of indulgēre to indulge. Cf. F. indulgent (16th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).] 1. That indulges or tends to indulge; disposed to gratify by compliance with desire or humour, or to overlook faults or failings; showing or ready to show favour or leniency; disinclined to exercise strictness, severity, or restraint: a quality of superiors or such as have the power to refuse compliance. Often in dyslogistic sense, Not exercising (as parent or superior) due restraint, too forbearing, weakly lenient. Const. to, † unto.
1509Fisher Fun. Serm. C'tess Richmond Wks. (1876) 298 Oftentymes in scrypture the..faders maketh lamentable exclamacyons, agaynste almyghtye god, for that he semeth, to be more indulgent and fauourable vnto the wycked persone then vnto the good lyuer. 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. i. iv. 16 You are too indulgent. a1680Waller (J.), Hereafter such in thy behalf shall be Th' indulgent censure of posterity. 1683Brit. Spec. 12 Nature, like an indulgent Mother has furnished it [Britain] with so great abundance of all things, necessary for the Life of Man. 1710Steele Tatler No. 271 ⁋7 The indulgent Readers Most Obliged, Most Obedient, Humble Servant, Richard Steele. 1732Berkeley Alciphr. iii. §15 The present age is very indulgent to everything that aims at profane raillery. 1839Keightley Hist. Eng. II. 84 The best and most indulgent of landlords. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. ii. I. 170 His favourite vices were precisely those to which the Puritans were least indulgent. b. fig. of things.
1697Dryden Virg. Past. x. 94 Not tho' beneath the Thracian Clime we freeze; Or Italy's indulgent Heav'n forego. 1762–72Sir W. Jones Poems, Arcadia (1777) 106 Kind Vanity their want of art supplies, And gives indulgent what the Muse denies. c1860W. Allingham in Sonn. of Century ii, Tenderer in its moods Than any joy indulgent summer dealt. †2. Indulging or disposed to indulge oneself or one's own inclinations; self-indulgent. Obs.
1572[implied in indulgently 2]. 1697Dryden æneid v. 936 The feeble old, indulgent of their ease. 1705Stanhope Paraphr. II. 192 A Satisfaction, to which all the Pleasures of the most indulgent Epicure are as nothing. †B. as n. An easy chair. Obs.
1825R. P. Ward Tremaine II. i. 1 His chair, which was what the upholsterers call an Indulgent (a great deal too indulgent for study). Hence inˈdulgentness (Bailey vol. II, 1727). |