| 释义 |
virile, a. (and n.)|ˈvɪraɪl, -ɪl, ˈvaɪəraɪl, -ɪl|
Also 5 viryle, 6 vyryll, 6–8 viril (7 -ill).
[a. OF. viril or ad. L. virīlis, f. vir man: see -ile. So F., Sp., Pg. viril, It. virile.]
1. Of, belonging to, or characteristic of a man; manly, masculine; marked by strength or force.
a. Of things, qualities, etc.
1490Caxton Eneydos ix. 36 O the fortytude viryle of wymmen, or loos & pryce of chastyte femynyne. 1604T. Wright Passions, Clymact. Years 3 The next clymactericall yeere in them of solide and virile constitution is an 100. 1651N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. ii. iii. (1739) 17 And yet the power of this grew as virile and Royal, as it would acknowledge no Peer but the Parliament. 1679J. Goodman Penit. Pard. iii. ii. (1713) 292 There is a virile state of vertue attainable when duty is turned into nature. 1728Chambers Cycl. s.v., The Virile Age..is the Strength and Vigour of a Man's Age, viz. from thirty to forty-five Years. 1822T. Taylor Apuleius viii. 175 Stammering words of an uncertain meaning, she breathed out her virile soul. 1858Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. Part. II. lxviii. 7 It was an act not reconcileable with virile sense, on the part of either the proposers or the accepters. 1875G. Macdonald Malcolm III. xv. 199 She punished her husband for the virile claim to greater freedom.
absol.1876Stedman Victorian Poets (1887) 407 Only the virile and heroic can fully satisfy her own nature and master it for good or evil.
b. Of dress: Denoting the attainment of man's estate; distinctively belonging to men in contrast to youths (or women).
1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 51 Having put on your virile robe and growen to mans estate. 1631R. Brathwait Eng. Gentlew. (1641) 340 One of this ranke..forbore not to unwoman herselfe, by assuming not onely a virile habit, but a virago's heart. 1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. Robe, At Rome, they gave the Name Virile Robe, Toga Virilis, to a plain kind of Gown which their Youth assumed when arrived at Puberty. 1761Acc. of Books in Ann. Reg. 298/2 Girls wore it [i.e. the prætexta] till they were married, and youths till they took the viril robe. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair xliv. The assumption of the virile jacket and pantaloons.
2. Of persons:
a. Full of masculine energy or strength; not weak or effeminate.
1512Helyas in Thoms Prose Rom. (1828) III. 51 He semed almost a man viril in his force. 1880Scribner's Mag. May 124/1 His instrument broke for want of a firm and even hand to use it—a virile, devoted master to prolong the strain. 1890Hosmer Anglo-Sax. Freedom 319 All had..been disciplined and made strongly virile by that priceless polity..which had been inherited from Anglo-Saxon ancestors. 1893J. Strong New Era 102 The more virile a man is the more positive are his defects.
†b. Of a woman: Nubile. Obs.—1
1648Hexham ii, Manbaer,..a maide that is Mariageable or ripe for a Husband, or Virill.
c. Of sex: Male.
1697Evelyn Numism. viii. 287 A Treatise of Illustrious Women showing how far they surpass the Virile Sex in all sorts even of Martial undertakings and Affairs.
d. absol. as n. A virile person.
1903Critic XLIII. 374/1 It is the fashion of the ‘viriles’—to coin a word—to stigmatize the poetry..as ‘decadent.’
3. virile member (or virile yard), the male organ of generation. Also virile part.
1541R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. K j, It is the yerde vyryll that is the cultyuer and labourer of the felde of mankynde. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 89 But it is good to leaue as many of the vaines and nerues of the virile member vntouched and whole as may be. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. i. 135 Frico, whose image they devise and pourtray with a great viril member. 1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. Penis, The Member, or virile Member,..one of the principal Organs of Generation in the Male Kind. 1856Mayne Expos. Lex. 672/1. 1967 W. Styron Confessions Nat Turner iii. 372, I felt my virile part stiffen again beneath my trousers.
Hence ˈvirileness, ‘manhood, manliness’.
1727Bailey (vol. II). |