| 释义 |
irresistibility|ɪrɪzɪstɪˈbɪlɪtɪ|
Also 7 -ability.
[f. next: see -ity, and cf. F. irrésistibilité (Fénélon a 1715 in Littré).]
1. The quality of being irresistible or incapable of being withstood.
In early use chiefly with reference to the doctrine of ‘irresistible grace’, irresistibleness being otherwise the more common word.
1617Donne Serm. cxxxii. V. 365 Resistibility and Irresistibility of Grace..was..a language that pure Antiquity spake not. 1652Benlowes Theoph. vii. xcviii, For Peace, what passeth understandings Eye, Power, Irresistabilitie. 1676R. Dixon Two Testam. 342 O Irresistibility, Irresistibility! thou takest away all Sin and all Goodness, because thou takest away all will to either. 1718Pope Iliad xiii. 191 note, The..leaping of the Stone,..the Irresistibility, and..Augmentation of Force in its Progress. 1865Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xv. xii, Ferdinand..had the charge of attacking; and he did it with his usual impetus and irresistibility.
b. The quality of being irresistibly fascinating.
1763F. Brooke Lady J. Mandeville (1782) I. 70 He descended, like Adonis from the carr of Venus,—full of the idea of his own irresistibility. 1826Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. (1863) 225, I was fairly coaxed into some articles by the irresistibility of the sellers.
†2. The quality or fact of not being lawfully resistible. Obs.
1643Prynne Sov. Power Parl. iii. 128 There is then no speciall Prerogative or irresistability given to kings by this Text in injurious violent Courses. Ibid. 131 The Argument..for the absolute Soveraigntie and irresistibility of Kings. 1775J. Boucher Causes Amer. Rev. xii. (1797) 547 The injudicious defenders of this doctrine, who..have argued for the exclusive irresistibility of kings. |