| 释义 |
▪ I. weet, v.1 arch.|wiːt|
Also 6 wete, 6–7 weete.
[repr. ME. wēte(n, var. ff. wite(n inf. and pl. pres. ind. and subj., and wite imperative and sing. pres. subj., of wit v. (for the other parts of the verb see wot v., wist v.). From the middle of the 16th c., if not earlier, the form weet seems to be obsolete in ordinary speech, but down to the second decade of the 17th c. it was frequent as a literary archaism (chiefly poet.), as attributed in the drama to rustic speakers, and as a variant of wit in the phrases to do or give (a person) to wit, (that is) to wit. The archaistic use in the 16th and early 17th c. was confined to the inf., the plural present, and the present participle; but the poets of the 18th c. and later, who have used the word in imitation of Spenser, have often treated it as a regular verb, with 1 sing. pres. I weet, and inflexions weets, weeted.
For the examples of wete before 1550, and of the phrases above-mentioned in which to weet = ‘to wit’, see wit v.]
a. trans. To know (a fact, the answer to a question); also with clause as obj.b. intr. To know of something.
In Shakes. only once: see quot. 1606.
a1547Surrey æneis ii. 144 Then we in dout to Phebus temple sent Euripilus, to wete the prophesye. 1560Pilkington Aggeus D j, Thy money..shal waste away, thou not weetynge how nor when. 1561T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer iii. (1577) O vj b, The innocent children, that could not only be in no fault, but not so much as weetting of their fathers yll dooings. 1575Gamm. Gurton ii. iii, Tush, man, is Gammers neele found? That chould gladly weete! 1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xv. xxvi. (1886) 443 Then would I wéet of our witchmongers the reason why. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. v. 3 Forth he comes into the commune hall, Where..waite him many a gazing eye, To weet what end to straunger knights may fall. Ibid. i. xii. 3 That aged Sire..looked forth, to weet, if true indeede Those tydings were. 1594Carew Huarte's Exam. Wits Author's Pref., Curious parents may haue an art and maner to discouer the wit of their children, and may weet how to set each of them in hand with that science wherein he shall principally profit. 1599T. M[oufet] Silkwormes 53 Others diuine that they themselues did weete No other tree could yeelde their silken threede. 1603G. Owen Pembrokesh. (1891) 103 When Percellye weareth a hatte All Pembrokeshire shall weete of that. 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. i. i. 39 In which I binde One paine of punishment, the world to weete We stand vp Peerelesse.
1706Prior Ode to Queen iv, Me all too mean for such a Task I weet. 1717― Alma ii. 289 Well I weet, thy cruel Wrong Adorns a nobler Poet's Song. a1721― Wandering Pilgr. 5 The gracious Knight full well does weet, Ten farthings ne'er will do, To keep a man each day in meat. 1742Shenstone Schoolm. 251 Nor weeting how the Muse should soar on high Wisheth, poor starvling elf! his paper kite may fly. 1747[G. Ridley] Psyche x. in Museum III. 83 Thou weetest not what Med'cines in them are. 1751M. Mendez Seasons xi. in Pearch Collect. Poems (1768) II. 238 And while the lambs in fainter voices bleat, Their mothers hang their head, in doleful plight I weet. 1817Shelley Rev. Islam iv. xiv, But, when one meets Another at the shrine, he inly weets, Though he says nothing, that the truth is known. a1846Lundie Mission. Life Samoa iii. 17 Ah! little weet those who dwell at ease among their own people, what the missionary endures! 1861Patmore Angel in Ho. ii. ii. xv, Nature's infinite ostent Of lovely flowers..That weet not whether any heed. 1865Swinburne Poems & Ballads, St. Dorothy 302 That is a noble scripture, well I weet, That likens women to an empty can. 1886R. F. Burton Arab. Nts. (abr. ed.) I. 111 Well weeting that Fortune is fair and constant to no man.
▪ II. weet, int. and v.2|wiːt|
[Echoic. Cf. weet-weet and tweet.]
a. int. An imitation of the cry of certain small birds.
b. v. intr. Of a bird: To chirp or twitter. Hence ˈweeting ppl. a. Also ˈweet-bird, the wryneck.
1852Zoologist X. 3649, I was completely surrounded by curious, restless weeting little willow-wrens. 1863Wise New Forest 186 The wry-neck..is in the Forest known as the ‘weet-bird’, from its peculiar cry of ‘weet’, which it will repeat at short intervals for an hour together. a1897Lady C. Gurdon Suffolk Tales etc. 160 A robin weeting or chirping at the window foretells a death in the house.
▪ III. weet(e
obs. and Sc. forms of wet. |