| 释义 |
luscious, a.|ˈlʌʃəs|
Forms: 5 lucius, 6 lousious, looshiouse, 6–7 lussious, (6 -youse, 7 loushous), 6–8 lushious, (7 -yous), 6– luscious.
[Of obscure origin.
The form lucius, occurring in a MS. which elsewhere has licius in the same sense (see licious) suggests (as Prof. Skeat has remarked) that the word may be an aphetic form of delicious, with altered vowel. But phonetically this is unsatisfactory, and no better suggestion has been made.]
1. Of food, perfumes, etc.: Sweet and highly pleasant to the taste or smell.
c1420Anturs of Arth. 458 (Irel. MS.) With lucius drinkes, and metis of the best. 1566Drant Horace's Sat. ii. iv. H, The stronge may eate good looshiouse meate. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. ii. i. 251, I know a banke..Quite ouer-cannoped with luscious woodbine. 1604― Oth. i. iii. 344 The Food that to him now is as lushious as Locusts, shalbe to him shortly, as bitter as Coloquintida. 1630Drayton Muses Elizium (1892) 29 The lushyous smell of euery flower. 1655Fuller Waltham Abb. 5 The grass..is so sweet and lushious to Cattle, that they diet them. a1700Dryden Daphnis & Chloris Poems 1743 II. 40 Blown Roses hold their Sweetness to the last, And Raisins keep their luscious native taste. 1733Cheyne Eng. Malady ii. v. §5 (1734) 159 The Means us'd commonly in making it [food] more luscious and palatable. 1758Johnson Idler No. 96 ⁋4 The most luscious fruits had been allowed to ripen and decay. 1840Browning Sordello 634 Like the great palmer⁓worm that..Eats the life out of every luscious plant. 1869Browning Ring & Bk. ix. 401 The luscious Lenten creature [sc. the eel]. 1870H. Macmillan Bible Teach. ix. 187 Its luscious clusters of golden or purple fruit.
quasi-adv.1588T. Harriot Rep. Virginia B 2 b, There are two kinds of grapes..: the one is small and sowre..: the other farre greater & of himselfe lushious sweet.
fig.1665Boyle Occas. Refl. v. iii. (1848) 305 The luscious sweets of sin. a1716South Serm. (1823) IV. 309 May there not be..something more glistering than a crown? and more luscious than revenge? 1848Kingsley Saint's Trag. iii. ii. 250 Sinking down In luscious rest again.
†b. transf. of a young person. Obs.
1742Fielding J. Andrews i. vii, He..really is..a strong, healthy, luscious boy enough.
2. In bad sense: Sweet to excess, cloying, sickly.
1530Palsgr. 313/1 Fresshe or lussyouse as meate that is nat well seasoned, or that hath an unplesante swetnesse in it, fade. 1616Surfl. & Markh. Country Farm 239 The smell of them [sc. other Lillies] is lussious, grosse, and vnwholesome. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Lushious, over⁓sweet, cloying. 1816Scott Old Mort. Conclus., The last cup..is by no means improved by the luscious lump of half-dissolved sugar usually found at the bottom of it. 1830M. Donovan Dom. Econ. I. 275 Without the addition of water..the resulting wine will be luscious and heavy. 1877‘Rita’ Vivienne iii. vi, And the luscious dreary odours of..fading flowers and trodden fruits, were heavy in the air.
3. Of immaterial things, esp. of language or literary style: Sweet and highly pleasing to the eye, ear, or mind. Chiefly in unfavourable use, implying a kind of ‘sweetness’ not strictly in accordance with good taste.
1651Fuller Abel Rediv., Berengarius (1867) I. 4 He often..addulced his discourse with all luscious expressions unto him. 1653A. Wilson Jas. I, Pref. 8 Lushious words, that give no good rellish to the sense. 1708Burnet Lett. (ed. 3) 304 All those luscious Panegyricks of Mercenary Pens. 1738Birch App. Life Milton I. 78 A luscious Style stuffed with gawdy Metaphors and Fancy. 1822Hazlitt Table-t. Ser. ii. iii. (1869) 66 A stream of luscious panegyrics. 1840Kingsley Lett. (1878) I. 50, I have shed strange tears at the sight of the most luscious and sunny prospects. 1902Longm. Mag. Mar. 479 The Lotus Eaters..is what may be called a luscious expansion of four or five lines of the Odyssey.
b. Of colouring, design, etc.
1849Ruskin Sev. Lamps ii. §15. 42 The groups of children,..luscious in colour and faint in light. Ibid. iv. §13. 105 This extraordinary piece of luscious ugliness [a festoon].
†4. Of tales, conversation, writing, etc.: Gratifying to lascivious tastes, voluptuous, wanton. Rarely of a person: Lascivious. Obs.
a1613Overbury A Wife (1638) 63 She leaves the neat youth, telling his lushious tales. a1694Tillotson Serm. (1744) XI. ccviii. 4717 Those luscious doctrines of the Antinomians. 1702Pope Jan. & May 379 Cantharides,..Whose use old Bards describe in luscious rhymes. 1748Richardson Clarissa (1768) VII. xliv. 123 Calista [in ‘The Fair Penitent’] is a desiring luscious wench. 1766Fordyce Serm. Yng. Wom. (1767) I. iv. 149 Their descriptions are often loose and luscious in a high degree. 1815W. H. Ireland Scribbleomania 143 Descriptions so luscious—such pictures of passion That prudes, ta'en with furor, to ruin might dash on.
5. absol. (with the).
1708Brit. Apollo No. 78. 3/1 There's a Great deal of Wit, But the Devil a Bit Of the lushious, can I find In't. 1790A. Wilson Ep. to Mr. T― B― Poet. Wks. (1846) 87 A poet, Whose mem'ry will live while the luscious can charm. |