| 释义 |
lambent, a.|ˈlæmbənt|
[ad. L. lambent-em, pr. pple. of lambĕre to lick.]
1. Of a flame (fire, light): Playing lightly upon or gliding over a surface without burning it, like a ‘tongue of fire’; shining with a soft clear light and without fierce heat.
1647Cowley Mistress, Answ. Platonicks, As useless to despairing Lovers grown, As Lambent flames, to men i' th' Frigid Zone. 1656― Pindar. Odes, Destinie iv, The Star that did my Being frame, Was but a Lambent Flame, And some small Light it did dispence, But neither Heat nor Influence. 1697Dryden æneid vii. 114 Lambent Glories danc'd about her Head. 1781Cavallo in Phil. Trans. LXXI. 330 Because its light..was stationary and not lambent. 1834M. Somerville Connex. Phys. Sci. xxviii. (1849) 323 Those lambent, diffuse flashes of lightning without thunder, so frequent in warm summer evenings. 1854Thackeray Newcomes I. 284 The lambent lights of the starry host of heaven. 1871Roscoe Elem. Chem. 13 Sulphur, which in the air burns with a pale lambent flame.
b. transf. and fig.
1682Dryden Mac Flecknoe 111 His brows thick fogs instead of glories grace, And lambent dulness played around his face. 1748Richardson Clarissa (1811) III. xxxi. 187 My next point will be to make her acknowledge a lambent flame, a preference of me to all other men at least. 1841Myers Cath. Th. iv. xxxiii. 340 A mild and lambent light of Prophecy may be considered as encircling their [the Jews'] whole constitution. 1866G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. xii. (1878) 235 His intellect was rather a lambent flame than a genial warmth.
c. By extension, of eyes, the sky, etc.: Emitting, or suffused with, a soft clear light; softly radiant.
1717Pope Eloisa 64 Those smiling eyes, attemp'ring ev'ry ray, Shone sweetly lambent with celestial day. 1808J. Barlow Columb. v. 304 A general jubilee, o'er earth and heaven, Leads the gay morn and lights the lambent even. 1867L. M. Child Rom. Repub. i. 3 Her large brown eyes were..lambent with interior light. 1873Black Pr. Thule vi. 94 The strange lambent darkness..of those northern twilights. 1877― Green Past. iv. (1878) 29 The great acacia spread its feathery branches into a cloudless and lambent sky. 1887Ruskin Præterita II. 159 The Rhone flows like one lambent jewel.
d. fig. Of wit, style, etc.: Playing lightly and brilliantly over its subjects; gracefully sportive.
1871Morley J. de Maistre in Crit. Misc. i. (1878) 112 A humour now and then a little sardonic, but more often genial and lambent. 1879O. W. Holmes Motley viii. 59 Lambent phrases in stately articles. 1880Disraeli Endym. lxxvii, The style so picturesque and lambent!
2. In etymological sense: Licking, that licks. † Also = lambitive a. rare.
1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Lambent, licking with the Tongue; as, Lambent Medicines, i.e. such as are taken by licking off from the end of a Stick of Licorish, &c. 1784Cowper Task vi. 782 To dally with the crested worm..or to receive The lambent homage of his arrowy tongue. 1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. (1828) IV. 492 The Hymenoptera generally lap their food with their tongue and may be called lambent insects. |