| 释义 |
mendacity|mɛnˈdæsɪtɪ|
[ad. late L. mendācitās, f. mendāc-em: see mendacious a. and -ity.]
The quality of being mendacious; the tendency or disposition to lie or deceive; habitual lying or deceiving.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. vi. 22 If wee call to minde the mendacity of Greece. 1660State Trials, John Cook (1730) II. 344/2 In that Sense it must have the Operation of Mendacity;..there must be a Lie told in it. 1877A. B. Edwards Up Nile ix. 245 Notwithstanding his mendacity—(and it must be owned that he is the most brilliant liar under heaven). 1895Bookman Oct. 26/2 The fathers, whose rhetorical exaggeration amounts to innocent mendacity.
b. An instance of this; a lie or falsehood.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. i. 2 There were no lesse then two mistakes, or rather additionall mendacites [sic]. 1868Farrar Seekers iii. i. (1875) 270 The age of spiritual impotencies and mendacities.
c. attrib. and Comb.
1802–12Bentham Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827) I. 191 A motive..may be termed a mendacity-prompting..motive. a1845Syd. Smith Ballot Wks. 1859 II. 316/2 The period for lying arrives, and the mendacity machine is exhibited to the view of the Wigginses. |