| 释义 |
meagreness|ˈmiːgənɪs|
[+ -ness.]
1. Leanness, emaciation.
1599T. M[oufet] Silkwormes 55 Lest belly break, or meagernesse ensewe, By giuing more or lesse then was their due. a1656Hales Gold. Rem. (1688) 58 His ill Colour and Meagerness. 1756W. Dodd Fasting (ed. 2) 9 This paleness and meagerness of visage. 1830D'Israeli Chas. I, III. vi. 112 The reason which induces me to consider this portrait as an original, is the meagreness of the countenance.
transf.1875W. Maskell Ivories 44 The figures in Byzantine work..begin to be characterised by sharpness and meagreness of form, and lengthiness of proportion.
2. Scantiness, lack of fullness; poorness of quality.
1622Bacon Hen. VII 138 The Meagernesse of his Seruice in the Warres. 1798Ferriar Illustr. Sterne, Eng. Hist. 230 The most striking defect..is not meagreness, but inflation. 1831J. Jebb in C. Forster Life (1834) II. 593 An ante-script, which will indemnify you for the meagreness of this [letter]. 1876Smiles Sc. Natur. xiv. (ed. 4) 279 The meagreness of the list of Crustacea and Testacea. 1884Church Bacon ix. 215 [The Essays] are austere even to meagreness.
†b. Littleness (of heart). Obs.
1501Douglas Pal. Hon. i. xxi, Had not bene that, certes my hart had brokin For megirnes and pusillamitie. |