| 释义 |
‖ limbus|ˈlɪmbəs|
[L. = edge, border; in med.L., a region on the border of Hell.]
1. a. Occas. used (as the normal form for English adoption) = limbo 1. limbus patrum = ‘the limbo of the fathers’, i.e. of the just who died before Christ's coming. limbus infantum = ‘the limbo of infants’: see limbo 1. Also transf.
c1440York Myst. xxxvii. 198 What þanne, is lymbus lorne, allas! 1532More Confut. Tindale Wks. 514/1 The state of soules, both in heauen, hell, purgatory, paradyse, & Limbus patrum. 1581J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 418 b, There be sayd to be 4. Mansions in hell... The second Lymbus, a place for such as are not Baptised. a1623Pemble On Zach. (1629) 148 He..had ransomed the Fathers out of their Purgatory, or infernall Limbus. 1626Bacon Sylva §1000 As if all Spirits and Soules of Men, came forth out of one Divine Limbus. 1651Biggs New Disp. §264. 194 The Limbus or Physitians purgatory. a1679T. Goodwin Expos. Ephes. Wks. 1681 I. ii. 121 The Papists..put Children..into a state call'd Limbus Infantum, wherein they do as it were eternally sleep. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. (C.P.S.) 224 By the new French constitution, the best and the wisest representatives go equally with the worst into this Limbus Patrum.
†b. A prison; = limbo 2 a. Obs.
1583Leg. Bp. St. Androis 349 Laich in a lymbus, whair they lay, Then Lowrie lowsit them long or day.
2. Used techn. in lit. sense of ‘border’ or ‘edge’; e.g. the ridge which borders the crater of a volcano; in Antiq. the rim of a crater or wine-bowl; in Bot. = limb n.2 3 d; in Conch. ‘the circumference of the valves of a bivalve shell from the disc to the border or margin’ (Syd. Soc. Lex. 1888); also in Anat.
1671Willoughby in Phil. Trans. VI. 2126 Having tipp'd the ends, inverted them, and fasten'd a Limbus or ring of soft wax to the great ends. 1697T. Smith Voy. Constantinople, Misc. Cur. (1708) III. 23 Now we see plainly the Smoke briskly issuing out of the Crater, the Limbus of which was all black. 1699M. Lister Journey to Paris 71 The Membrane or Valve on the Left side of the Foramen Ovale..extended almost over the hole, without any Limbus round its edges. 1727–52Chambers Cycl., Limb, Limbus, the outermost border, or graduated edge, of an astrolabe, quadrant, or the like mathematical instrument. 1793Martyn Lang. Bot., Limbus, the border or upper dilated part of a monopetalous corolla. 1806J. Galpine Brit. Bot. 62 Primula. 1...limbus of the cor. flat...3...limbus of the cor. concave. 1857Birch Anc. Pottery (1858) II. 272 Round the crater is the limbus, which is a decorated border of floral or other ornaments. 1877W. Turner Introd. Human Anat. vi. 368 Another membrane..arises from a denticulated spiral crest, the limbus or crista spiralis. 1954S. Duke-Elder Parsons' Dis. Eye (ed. 12) i. 3 The cornea is set into the sclera like a watch glass so that the latter overlaps the cornea all round the periphery; the junction of the two tissues is known as the limbus. 1961Lancet 22 July 166/2 The blade of the knife emerges 0·5–1·0 mm. on the corneal side of the limbus when the section is complete. |