| 释义 |
lifeless, a.|ˈlaɪflɪs|
Also 5–6 lyveles, 6–8 liveles, -less(e.
[OE. lífléas, f. líf life n. + -léas -less.]
Having no life.
1. That has ceased to live; deprived of life; dead.
c1000ælfric Gen. xx. 7 Þu bist dead for-raðe, and þa þe þe to lociað beoð liflease eac. a1225Leg. Kath. 1045 He..mid his worde awahte þe liflese liches to lif. c1400Destr. Troy 8668 The Myrmaidons..Bere hym..to his big tent, There left hym as lyueles. c1586C'tess Pembroke Ps. lxxix. ii, The livelesse carcasses of those That liv'd thy servants, serve the crowes. 1650W. Saunderson Aul. Coquin. 19 He fear'd, that within few daies the Laird would be landlesse and livelesse. 1791Cowper Iliad xvii. 286 He many a lifeless Trojan heap'd On slain Patroclus. 1841Longfellow Excelsior ix, There in the twilight cold and grey, Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay. 1851Ruskin Stones Ven. (1874) I. App. 351 A blank level of lifeless grass.
Proverb.1546J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 29 He is liueles, that is fautles. 1629Gaule Holy Madn. 309.
b. hyperbolically. Said, e.g., of a person in a swoon; insensible, senseless.
1651Charleton Ephes. & Cimm. Matrons ii. (1668) 67 Consuming themselves in greedy looks, leave their bodies faint and liveless. 1671H. M. tr. Erasm. Colloq. 517 If the Scorpion by chance creep by the herb Wolfsbane, it grows pale and liveless. 1795E. Parsons Myst. Warning I. iii. 51 His senses fled, and he fell extended on the floor. Happily a servant was passing..and beheld the lifeless body... He was soon restored to his senses. 1826Disraeli Viv. Grey iii. vi, Mrs. Felix Lorraine sank lifeless into his arms.
2. Not endowed with or possessing life; inanimate.
c1000ælfric Hom. II. 574 Fela templa arærdon and mid..lifleasum anlicnyssum afyldon. 1553N. Grimalde Cicero's Offices ii. (1558) 79 What so in things liueless and what so in the use..of beastes is done profitablie to man's life. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. i. ii. 263 That which here stands vp Is but a quintine, a mere liuelesse blocke. 1612Heywood Apol. Actors i. 29 To..stande in his place like a livelesse image. 1686J. Scott Chr. Life (1747) III. 624 They conjur'd their Demons into their consecrated Images, and made the liveless Stocks to move and speak. 1851Robertson Serm. Ser. iv. x. (1876) 124 A collection of lifeless forces. 1887Bowen Virg. æneid i. 464 Then on the lifeless painting he feeds his heart to the fill.
3. Wanting vital quality; destitute of animation, vigour, or activity. Also of food: containing no ‘life’ or nourishment.
a1225Leg. Kath. 896 Þe wrenchfule feont..weorp ham ut sone of paraises selhðen into þis liflese lif. a1420Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 3894 Aftir moot he rowne with a pilwe His lyfles resouns þere to despende. 1561J. Daus tr. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 170 b, For Vespasian..did soone releeve the worlde that had long beene liuelesse and forlorne. 1586Marlowe 1st Pt. Tamburl. iii. ii, Ceaseless and disconsolate conceits Which dye my looks so liveless as they are. 1633Bp. Hall Hard Texts, N.T. 194 Feeding on hearbs and rootes, and such other liveless nourishment. 1642View Print. Bk. int. Observat. 20 They are livelesse conventions without all vertue and power. 1849Ruskin Sev. Lamps v. xxi. (1880) 310 The effect of the whole, as compared with the same design cut by a machine or a lifeless hand. 1890Daily News 6 Dec. 2/5 This market is lagging again... Flax lifeless.
4. Devoid of life or living beings.
1728–46Thomson Summer 748 A wild expanse of lifeless sand and sky. 1762–71H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. IV. vii. 124 Statues furnished the lifeless spot with mimic representations of the excluded sons of men. 1879Browning Pheidippides 53 Treeless, herbless, lifeless mountain.
Hence ˈlifelessly adv., ˈlifelessness.
1727Bailey vol. II, Lifelesness [sic]. 1814Byron Corsair iii. xx, Each extended tress Long—fair—but spread in utter lifelessness. 1833L. Ritchie Wand. by Loire 7 Antique-looking vessels, whose white sails hang in utter lifelessness from the mast. 1856Olmsted Slave States 59 A few negro children..posed as lifelessly as if they were really figures ‘carved in ebony’. 1896Academy 5 Dec. 485/2 [His] style is lifelessly correct and drab with Latinisms. |