| 释义 |
irregular, a. and n.|ɪˈrɛgjʊlə(r)|
Forms: 4–5 irregulere, (4 -eer, inreguler), 4–7 irreguler, (6 irriguler, 7 irregualler), 6– irregular.
[ME. a. OF. irreguler (13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. med.L. irrēgulār-is, f. ir- (ir-2) + L. rēgulāris: see regular.]
A. adj. Not regular.
I. General senses.
1. a. Of things: Not in conformity with rule or principle; contrary to rule; disorderly in action or conduct; not in accordance with what is usual or normal; anomalous, abnormal.
1483Cath. Angl. 198/2 Irregulere, irregularis. 1623Cockeram, Irregular, contrary to rule. 1674Playford Skill Mus. iii. 22 If the Bass and Treble do rise together in thirds, then the first Note of the Treble is regular with the other Part, but the second of it is irregular. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xix. II. 148 He..repelled with skill and firmness the efforts of their irregular valour. 1800Med. Jrnl. V. 27 What proportion the irregular cases may bear to the regular is not yet known. 1850Baynes Analytic 12 Unnatural, indirect, or irregular predication [with the old logicians] was..that..in which the species was predicated of the genus, the subject of its attribute, and, in general, the extensive part of its whole. 1894Law Times Rep. LXXI. 9/2 The order is altogether irregular, and should be discharged.
b. Not in accordance with, or not subjected to, moral law or principle; unregulated; morally disorderly. ? Obs. (or merged in general sense).
1608D. T. Ess. Pol. & Mor. 44 Subject to the commaunde of such irregular and confused Passions. 1617Moryson Itin. ii. 63 He hoped shortly to give law to their irregular humours. 1746–7Hervey Medit. (1818) 263 May every sordid desire wear away, and every irregular appetite be gradually lost. 1794S. Williams Vermont 159 His appetite the more inflamed by irregular enjoyment. 1804W. Tennant Ind. Recreat. (ed. 2) I. 97 With irreligious principles, irregular conduct is intimately connected.
2. Of persons: Not conforming or obedient to rule, law, or moral principle; lawless, disorderly.
1395Purvey Remonstr. (1851) 92 Thei [monks] moun not lawfulli werre..for thanne thei shulden been irreguler bi Goddis lawe and mannis. 1508Kennedie Flyting w. Dunbar 36 Ignorant elf, aip, owll irregular. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, i. i. 40 The irregular and wilde Glendower. 1606Warner Alb. Eng. xiv. lxxxv. (1612) 352 So much the more, though lesse secure, men liue irreguler. 1649Petit. City Oxford in Def. Rights Univ. Oxf. (1690) 5 In case the City punisheth any irregular freeman for misdemeanour. 1752Young Brothers i. i, O, that's the jealous elder brother; Irregular in manners, as in form.
3. Not of regular or symmetrical form; unevenly shaped or placed; disorderly in form or arrangement.
1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xiii. xix. (1886) 258 Diverse sorts of glasses;..the round, the cornerd,..the regular, the irregular, the coloured and cleare glasses. 1607Dekker Knt.'s Conjur. (1842) 15 The most perfect circles of it drawne so irregualler awrye. 1665Phil. Trans. I. 105 If curve, whether regular or irregular. 1718Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to C'tess Bristol 10 Apr., It is a..palace of prodigious extent, but very irregular. 1806Gazetteer Scotl. (ed. 2) 57 A parish..of an irregular form. 1839Dickens Nich. Nick. xiv, Two irregular rows of tall meagre houses. 1843James Forest Days i, The surface was irregular.
4. In reference to time or motion: Unequal or uneven in continuance, occurrence, or succession; occurring at variously unequal rates or intervals. Hence of an agent: Doing something at irregular intervals or times; as an irregular attendant, etc.
1608D. T. Ess. Pol. & Mor. 125 Every thing is presently brought to a most irregular, and confused motion. 1609Chapman Descr. Fever in Farr S.P. Jas. I (1848) 252 Languor-chill trembling, fits irregulare. 1694F. Bragge Disc. Parables ix. 311 When a child would catch a grass⁓hopper, its motions are so irregular, that he finds it very difficult at all to come near it. 1791Mrs. Radcliffe Rom. Forest i, Her breathing was short and irregular. 1867M. E. Herbert Cradle L. iii. 93 The most curious thing about this fountain is the irregular flow of the water. 1869Phillips Vesuv. v. 145 At irregular intervals a different kind of cloud rises.
II. Technical senses.
5. Eccl. (chiefly R.C. Ch.) Not in conformity with the rule of the Church or of some ecclesiastical order; disqualified for ordination, or for exercise of clerical functions. (The earliest sense in Eng., repr. eccl. L. irregularis, Thomas Aquinas.)
c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 242 Þouȝ he be..a fals suerere, a man-quellere & inreguler. c1386Chaucer Pars. T. ⁋708 Yet is it to hym a deedly synne, and if he be ordred, he is irreguleer [v.rr. -ler(e]. 1529Rastell Pastyme, Hist. Pap. (1811) 50 That who so ever were a morderar shuld be irriguler, and unable to receyve holy orders. 1655Sir E. Nicholas in N. Papers (Camden) II. 164 The Cardinall of Rets..has gotten a declaration from the Pope, to make all those Priests irregular who have bene lately ordained here in his diocese without his consent. 1885Catholic Dict. (ed. 3) 885 Lunatics, etc. are irregular, so are persons without sufficient knowledge.
6. Gram. Of a word or part of speech: Inflected not according to the normal or usual method. Also said of an inflexion so formed.
1611Cotgr. Fr. Dict. Brief Direct. 5 The Anomala or irregular Verbes of the first Coniugation. Ibid., Martin Caucius..doth further obserue, that the word doint is an irregular third person from the Verbe Donner. 1669Milton Accedence Wks. (1847) 463 Verbs of the third conjugation irregular in some Tenses of the Active Voice. 1762Lowth Introd. Eng. Gram. (1838) 77 The Irregular Verbs in English are all Monosyllables, unless compounded. 1874Grece tr. Mätzner's Eng. Gram. I. 226 A few irregular plural forms are remnants of the strong declension of the Anglosaxon. 1899Morfill Gram. Bohem. Lang. 19 The following comparatives are altogether irregular.
7. Math. (see quots.).
1700Moxon Math. Dict. s.v. Regular, Those [figures are] called Irregular, which have not the Equality of Sides and Angles, as are Prisms and Trapezia's. 1734J. Ward Introd. Math. iii. i. §4 (ed. 6) 290 An Irregular Polygon is that figure which hath many unequal Sides standing at unequal Angles.
8. Bot. and Zool.
a. Varying from the form usual in the genus or other group; abnormal.
b. Not having a definite, symmetrical, or uniform shape or arrangement; spec. of a flower, Having the members of the same cycle (esp. the petals) unlike in form or size.
1794Martyn Rousseau's Bot. iii. 34 One general division of flowers is into regular and irregular. 1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. 322 Antennæ..Figure and Size..Irregular. 1828Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. II. 87 Shell irregular, always inequivalve. 1857Henfrey Elem. Bot. ii. §435 Order XXXIX. Polygalaceæ..Herbs or shrubs with irregular hypogynous flowers.
9. Mil. Of troops: Not belonging to the regular or established army organization; not in regular service; not forming an organized military body.
1856J. W. Kaye Life Sir J. Malcolm I. xiii. 362 The great work of reducing the irregular troops was to be accomplished. 1859Sir G. Wetherall in Daily News (1869) 12 June, In a country like England..there is no sort of irregular troops so formidable as mounted riflemen. 1867Freeman Norm. Conq. I. v. 340 The Danes..put the irregular English levies to flight. 1896T. F. Tout Edw. I, iv. 74 His early defeats by the light-armed and nimble Welsh footmen taught him the value of a dexterous and daring irregular infantry.
10. Astr.
a. Of a galaxy: having an irregular shape and lacking any axis of symmetry or central nucleus. Also ellipt. as n.
1811W. Herschel in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. CI. 296 By calling the figure of a nebula irregular, it must be understood that I saw no particular dimension of it sufficiently marked to deserve the name of length. 1875Encycl. Brit. II. 821/1 Among the varieties of form may be noted spiral, elliptic, and ring nebulæ, double nebulæ, and irregular nebulæ. 1928J. H. Jeans Astron. & Cosmogony i. 28 The irregular nebulae shew the bright line spectrum which is characteristic of a transparent gas. 1936E. Hubble Realm of Nebulæ ii. 47 About half of the irregulars form a homogeneous group, in which the Magellanic Clouds are typical examples. 1959Listener 31 Dec. 1152/1 There are a few galaxies that do not fit conveniently into this classification of spirals, ellipticals, and irregulars. 1965J. Muirden Handbk. Astron. xxiv. 239 Irregular galaxies seem to be the adolescents; spirals are in the prime of life, while elliptical galaxies are bankrupt.
b. Of a variable star: fluctuating in brightness in a way that lacks any definite rhythm.
1903A. M. Clerke Probl. Astrophysics xxiii. 363 (heading) Peculiar and irregular variables. 1955F. Hoyle Frontiers Astron. xi. 190 Certain irregular variables are among the brightest of all stars. 1970D. H. Menzel et al. Survey Universe xxvi. 551 Truly irregular variables, like R Coronae Borealis, suffer brightness changes in abrupt and unpredictable fashion.
11. Comb., as irregular-shaped.
1762R. Guy Pract. Obs. Cancers 159 The Tumour was..a perfect, irregular-shaped Schirrus. 1877Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 424 The separation of irregular-shaped grains.
B. n.
1. Gram. A word having irregular inflexion; an irregular noun, verb, etc. (see A. 6). rare.
1611Cotgr. Fr. Dict. Brief Direct. 3 Words ending in l, change l into ux;..except these irregulars..œil, yeux [etc.]. Ibid. 5 The irregulars of the second Coniugation.
2. a. One not belonging to the regular body; an agent of any kind who does something irregularly; one not of the ‘regular’ clergy; an irregular practitioner, attendant, etc.
1619W. Sclater Exp. 2 Thess. (1630) 545 The bare opinion of some Ministers, to whom our irregulars haue inclosed sincerity. 1620Bp. Hall Hon. Mar. Clergy xi. 314 The secular Prebendaries of Waltham, were first turned out, to give way to their Irregulars. 1809Med. Jrnl. XXI. 99 The multitude of practitioners scattered over this country, are comprehended in two classes:—regulars and irregulars. 1893Chicago Advance 13 Apr., To ask them [regular hearers] to abide at home that the irregulars may find sittings.
b. Mil. A soldier not of the regular army; almost always in pl. = irregular troops (see A. 9).
1747Gentl. Mag. 315 Before six their irregulars..were skirmishing with our advanced Hussars and Lycanians. 1756Washington Lett. Writ. 1889 I. 374 With this small company of irregulars..we set out. 1867Baker Nile Tribut. xi. (1872) 189 Large bodies of Egyptian irregulars threatened Mek Nimmur's country.
Add:[B.] 3. Usu. in pl. An imperfect piece of merchandise (esp. clothing or cloth) sold at a reduced price. Cf. second n.2 5. orig. and chiefly U.S.
[1936Jrnl. Home Econ. XXVIII. 152/2 All textile merchandise is inspected in the mill and classed as first, second, third, etc., according to its degree of perfection... The meaning of irregular varies with the mill.] 1940Washington Post 1 Jan. 24/5 (Advt.), Irregulars... Porcelain-top tables... Only slightly imperfect. 1958News & Observer (Raleigh, N. Carolina) 7 July 59/4 (Advt.), Irish linen... Crease resistant, slight irregulars. 1973News & Courier (Charleston, S. Carolina) 4 Nov. 11-a/1 A clothing factory gave us a bunch of irregulars and we're busy sewing them up and fixing them so we can give them to people who need them. 1985Fortune 27 May 48/2 Dollar General has 1,333 stores, also mostly in the Southeast. Half its clothing is either closeouts or irregulars. |