| 释义 |
insubstantial, a.|ɪnsʌbˈstænʃəl|
[ad. late and med.L. insubstāntiāl-is, f. in- (in-3) + substāntiālis substantial. Cf. F. insubstantiel (16th c. in Littré).]
1. Not existing in substance or reality; not real; imaginary, illusive; non-substantial.
1610Shakes. Temp. iv. i. 155 The great Globe it selfe, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolue, And like this insubstantiall Pageant faded Leaue not a racke behinde. 1820Lamb Elia Ser. i. South-Sea Ho., Peradventure the very names, which I have summoned up before thee, are fantastic, insubstantial. 1865Seeley Ecce Homo (1866) 136 It was no insubstantial city, such as we fancy in the clouds.
2. Void of substance; not of stout or solid substance; unsubstantial. Also fig.
1607Markham Caval. iv. (1617) 36 The errors and inconueniences which doe necessarily belong to such insubstantiall instructions. a1774W. Harte tr. à Kempis, Vision Note 36 (R.) Nothing in the event is more fragil and insubstantial [than a spider's web]. 1827Hare Guesses (1859) 460 The multitude of indistinct, insubstantial words, which have been driven across our language from foreign regions. a1861Mrs. Browning Lett. R. H. Horne (1877) II. lii. 83 A common cough striking on an insubstantial frame began my bodily troubles.
Add: Hence insubˈstantially adv., not substantially; impalpably.
1972P. H. Kocher Master of Middle-Earth i. 3 Tolkien has a constitutional aversion to leaving Middle-earth afloat too insubstantially in empty time and place. 1989Newsday (Nassau ed.) 27 Jan. 78/1 The United States attorney for the Southern District of New York has permitted the investment firm of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. to become whole again, although not insubstantially depleted of flesh. |