| 释义 |
ˈvoidness
[f. void a. + -ness.]
†1. Freedom from work; leisure. Obs.—1
1382Wyclif Ecclus. xxxviii. 25 Wisdom wrijt in tyme of voydenesse [1388 marg., That is, in the tyme, in which thou art voide of other werkis of nede].
†2. The quality of being devoid or destitute of value or worth; inanity, vanity, futility.
1388Wyclif Wisd. xiv. 14 For whi the voidnesse of men [L. supervacuitas] foond these idols in to the world. 1552Huloet, Voydenes, inanitas, uanitudo. 1603Florio Montaigne i. I. 165 We are not so full of evill, as of voydnesse and inanitie.
3. The state or condition of being void, empty, or unoccupied; emptiness, vacancy, vacuity.
c1400Lanfranc's Cirurg. 116 Þe brayn haþ sum substaunce of marie þe which fulfilliþ þe voidenes [c 1430 voydenesses] of þe forseid panniclis. c1430Pilgr. Lyf Manhode iv. xviii. (1869) 185 If þou be void þou shalt breke, oþer sowne hye; In voydnesse is but murmure whan men smyte it with an hard thing. 1561Hollybush Hom. Apoth. 20 b, But if the voydnesse or emptinesse is in the nethermost membres, then tye hys vpper membres. 1595Spenser Col. Clout 850 Through him..began..the hungry t' eat, And voydnesse to seeke full satietie. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 839 The Stoicks say, that the aire..admitteth no voidnesse at all. a1693Urquhart's Rabelais iii. xiii. 105 There is nothing in the Body but a kind of Voidness and Inanity. 1727Bailey (vol. II), Voidness, emptiness. 1801Lusignan I. 74 They seemed robbed of attraction, and to her preoccupied mind presented only the voidness of a desert. 1840Blackw. Mag. XLVII. 775 The state of mind we have slightly depicted—so auspicious, one should think, from its troubled voidness, to the reception of religious convictions. 1888Harper's Mag. July 210 The perfect transparency and voidness about us make the immense power of this invisible medium seem something ghostly.
b. A void or vacant space, esp. = vacuity 8 b.
c1430[see c1400above]. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 820 The schoole of Pythagoras holdeth that there is a voidnesse without the world,..out of which the world doth draw breath. Ibid. 1336 It is not likely that this world floteth..in a vast and infinit voidnesse. 1642H. More Song of Soul ii. Infin. Worlds l, This precious sweet Ethereall dew..God..did distill..thorough all that hollow Voidnesse.
†4. The state or condition of being without something; freedom from, absence or lack of, something. Obs.
1534Whitinton Tullyes Offices i. (1540) 33 The valyaunce of stomake is to be gyue to them and voydeness from angre and grefe. a1569A. Kingsmill Confl. Satan (1578) 25 This is our Crimosin, no less then voidnesse of all goodnesse. 1579Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 286/2 He hardeneth himselfe in his impudencie, and voidnes of shame. a1586Sidney Arcadia iv. (1605) 406 In whom a man might perceiue what small difference in the working there is, betwixt a simple voidnesse of euill, and a iudiciall habite of vertue.
5. The state or condition of being legally void; nullity.
1883Sat. Rev. 16 June 755 The existing system of prohibition (which, despite the quibble about voidness and voidableness, has notoriously been recognized in England from time immemorial). |