| 释义 |
insufficiency|ɪnsəˈfɪʃənsɪ|
[ad. late L. insufficientia (Tertullian), n. of quality f. insufficientem: see next and -ency.]
The quality or condition of being insufficient.
†1. Of a person: Inability to fulfil requirements; unfitness, incapacity, incompetence. Obs. or arch.
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 1 b, Ascrybe it..to my insuffycyency and ignoraunce. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. xxxi. §3 His aptnesse or insufficiency otherwise than by reading to instruct the flock. 1624Nottingham Rec. IV. 391 We present Maister Wylleam Borrowes, Vsher of the Free Scoole, for his insuficientie. 1742Richardson Pamela IV. 80 His Lady is always accusing herself to me of Awkwardness and Insufficiency; but not a Soul who sees her can find it out. 1751Earl of Orrery Remarks Swift (1752) 7 When he appeared as a candidate for the degree of Batchelor of Arts, he was set aside on account of insufficiency. 1767Wilkes Corr. (1805) III. 211 The office he bears with the utmost discredit to himself, and with equal disgrace and insufficiency to the public.
b. with pl. An example of this.
1756C. Lucas Ess. Waters I. Pref., It will enable the public to detect their insufficiencies. 1773Mrs. Chapone Improv. Mind (1774) II. 15 A due sense of his own faults and insufficiencies. 1850Tennyson In Mem. cxii, I, who gaze with temperate eyes On glorious insufficiencies, Set light by narrower perfectness.
2. Of a thing: Deficiency in effectiveness, force, quality, or amount; inadequacy.
1531Elyot Gov. i. i, The wordes, publike and commune, which be borowed of the latin tonge, for the insufficiencie of our owne langage. 1632Star Chamb. Cases (Camden) 135 For the insufficiencie of the plea Mr. Brome did taxe costes at 20s. 1769Robertson Chas. V (1796) III. x. 241 He now felt the insufficiency of his own resources. 1814Chalmers Evid. Chr. Revel. i. 12 There is an insufficiency of data. 1860Tyndall Glac. ii. xiii. 296 These experiments..prove the insufficiency of the theory.
3. Physical incapacity or impotence; inability of a bodily organ to do its work. Also attrib.
1714Steele Lover No. 40 (1723) 227 The Marriage afterwards being declared Null, by Reason of his Insufficiency. 1866A. Flint Princ. Med. (1880) 334 The existence of so-called relative insufficiency of the valves. 1886Syd. Soc. Lex., Insufficiency,..inability to perform normal work. Usually applied to imperfect action of the valves of the heart. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 555 According to this view the nervous and insufficiency theories are combined. |