| 释义 |
wifeless, a.|ˈwaɪflɪs|
Forms: see wife n.; also 5–6 wyue-, 5–7 wiue-, wiveles, -less(e.
[OE. wífléas, f. wíf wife n. + léas -less.]
Having no wife; unmarried, celibate; rarely, deprived or bereaved of, or not accompanied by, one's wife. a. of a man.
a1000in Thorpe Laws II. 190 Wuniᵹe he a syððan wifleas. a1300Cursor M. 26281 He þat slas his aun wijf, He agh be wijfeles al his lijf. c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. I. 364 Þei ben dowid and wyflees aȝens Goddis autorite. c1386Chaucer Merch. T. 4 Sixty yeer a wyflees man was hee. c1400Beryn 1090 Agea was enterid, And ffawnus lyvid wyfles. 1480Robt. Devyll 25 in Hazl. E.P.P. I. 219 Wyueles longe..haue I taryed, And lyued sole, withoute any mate. 1574T. Newton Health Mag. V iij b, Wiuelesse Bachelers and husbandlesse maydens. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage v. vii. 410 They liue on almes,..They are wiuelesse. a1623H. Swinburne Spousals (1686) 169 He was then Wifeless. 1842C. Whitehead R. Savage xviii, Many of the married fellows do not appear to be a whit happier than your wifeless men. a1849J. C. Mangan Poems (1859) 459 Wifeless, friendless, flaggonless,..Not quite bookless, though. 1859Tennyson Elaine 1362 A lonely man Wifeless and heirless.
b. of life, state, etc.
1546Bale Engl. Votaries Pref. 4 Their vowed wyuelesse and husbandelesse chastyte. 1548Crowley Confut. Shaxton H vj b, The gyft of wyueles lyfe. 1563Homilies ii. Matrimonie Tttt ij, They in theyr wiuelesse state run into open abhominations. 1840Hood Our Lady's Chapel 13 Whose mouldy, wifeless husbandry but yields Beans, peas, potatoes, mangel-wurzel, rye.
¶ Catachrestically used of a woman: That is not a wife; unmarried.
1824Scott St. Ronan's xxxii, A wifeless mother.
Hence ˈwifelessness, wifeless condition.
1886‘M. Gray’ Silence of Dean Maitland iii. ii, His six years' wifelessness had weighed sorely upon him. |