| 释义 |
irregularity|ɪrɛgjuːˈlærɪtɪ|
[a. F. irregularité (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. med.L. irrēgulāritās (Aquinas Summa Theol. 1–2 . 20 . 5 . 4), f. irrēgulāri-s: see -ity.]
The quality or state of being irregular; something that is irregular. (First used in the ecclesiastical sense 1 c.)
1. Want of conformity to rule; deviation from or violation of a rule, law, or principle; disorderliness in action; deviation from what is usual or normal; abnormality, anomalousness.
1598Florio, Irregolarita, irregularitie. 1616Bullokar, Irregularitie, a going out of right rule, etc. 1651Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxix. 172 To what Disease..I may exactly compare this irregularity of a Common-wealth. 1654Whitlock Zootomia 267 Such is the irregularity of Custome, it doth not extoll things because worthy, but thinks them worthy, because they are extolled. 1734tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist. (1827) I. Pref. 8 A holiness that will not allow of the least irregularity. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xxii. (1869) I. 622 He acknowledges the irregularity of his own election. 1829Bentham Justice & Codif. Petit., Petit. Justice 91 With the word irregularity sentiments of disapprobation have, from the earliest time of life, stood associated. 1870M. Bridgman R. Lynne I. vii. 98 Selwyn was regular only in irregularity. 1882Med. Temp. Jrnl. No. 52. 168 Great irregularity of living, during which he drank constantly large quantities of whisky.
b. (with an and pl.) An instance of this; a breach of rule or principle; an irregular, lawless, or disorderly act.
1483Cath. Angl. 198/2 An irregularite, irregularitas. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 28 A deformitie, irregularitie, and unlawfulnesse in our naturall condition. 1688Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) I. 487 Some of them committed some irregularities at Gravesend. 1755Johnson Pref. Dict. ⁋6, I found it necessary to distinguish those irregularities that are inherent in our tongue, and perhaps coeval with it, from others which the ignorance or negligence of later writers has produced. 1804W. Tennant Ind. Recreat. (ed. 2) I. 150 In a rude age..crimes and irregularities are more frequent. 1840Macaulay Ess., Ranke (1865) II. 137/2 An easy well-bred man of the world, who knew how to make allowance for the little irregularities of people of fashion. a1862Buckle Civiliz. (1869) III. v. 444 To generalize such irregularities, or in other words to show that they are not irregularities at all.
c. Eccl. (chiefly R.C. Ch.) Infraction of the rules as to entrance into or exercise of holy orders; an impediment or disqualification by which a person is debarred from ordination, discharge of clerical functions, or ecclesiastical advancement. (The earliest sense in Eng.)
a1300Cursor M. 27253 Enentes clergis seculers..if he in hali order be, In scrift þe preist agh spere of irregularite. c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 87 Ofte tymes ben priistis irreguler, for þe multitude of soulis þat þei sleen þus; and þis irregularite is moore for to drede þan irregularite chargid of þe worlde. 1502Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W. 1506) iv. vi. 181 Of symony, of irregularyte, of sacrylege, of the euyll dyspendynge of the patrymony of Ihesu cryst. 1590Swinburne Testaments 56 Apostasie of irregularity is, when he that hath entred into the ministery and taken holy orders, forsaketh his spirituall profession. 1608Willet Hexapla Exod. 773 The Romanists obseruation..of irregularitie..that allow none to be admitted to orders which haue bin shedders of blood. 1658Phillips, Irregularity,..also an incapacity of taking holy orders, as being maimed, or very deformed, base-born, or guilty of any hainous crime, a Term in Canon-law. 1885Catholic Dict. (ed. 3) 885 Irregularity is defined as a ‘canonical impediment, which prevents a person from entering the ranks of the clergy, from rising to a higher order, or from exercising the order which he has received’ (Gury)... The division of irregularities which still prevails among canonists and theologians, viz. into such as proceed from defect (ex defectu), and from crime (ex delicto)..is a convenient one, but it is not strictly scientific. In reality irregularity is always ‘ex defectu’.
2. Want of regularity, symmetry, evenness, or uniformity, in shape, arrangement, succession, etc.; inequality of form, position, rate, etc.; occurring without any order; spec. in Bot. (see irregular A. 8 b).
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. vii. xiii. 365 Sometimes it observed not that certaine course. And this irregularity..together with its unruly and tumultuous motion might afford a beginning unto the common opinion. 1665Hooke Microgr. 3 The irregularity of the Type or Ingraving. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) I. 273 The waves roll against land with great weight and irregularity. 1853Ruskin Stones Ven. II. vi, The tendency to the adoption of Gothic types being always first shown by greater irregularity and richer variation in the forms of the architecture it is about to supersede. 1853Sir H. Douglas Milit. Bridges (ed. 3) 141 The irregularity of the ground on the left bank would have occasioned many delays. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. vii. 34/2 The irregularity in the thickness of some seams. 1880Gray Struct. Bot. vi. §4. 219 Irregularity is one of the commonest modifications of the flower: it is never conspicuous except in blossoms visited by insects and generally fertilized by their aid.
b. (with an and pl.) An instance of this; esp. a part not uniform or symmetrical with the rest, as an unevenness of surface, etc.
1665Hooke Microgr. 91 The bigger they were magnify'd, the more irregularities appear'd in them. 1703Moxon Mech. Exerc. 21 File down all the Irregularities the Cold-Chissel made on the Edges of your Work. 1861Geo. Eliot Silas M. i, Marner, pausing to adjust an irregularity in his thread. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 95/1 The physical irregularities of the terrain. |