| 释义 |
mephitic, a.|mɪˈfɪtɪk|
[ad. late L. mephīticus (whence F. méphitique, Sp. mefítico, Pg. mephitico, It. mefitico), f. L. mephītis: see mephitis and -ic.]
Pertaining to mephitis; offensive to the smell; (of a vapour or exhalation) pestilential, noxious, poisonous. † mephitic air, mephitic acid, mephitic gas: carbonic acid.
1623Cockeram, Mephiticke, stinking. 1656in Blount Glossogr. 1773T. Percival Ess. II. 57 This celebrated spring abounds with a mineral spirit, or mephitic air, in which its stimulus, and indeed its efficacy resides. 1773Brydone Sicily ii. (1809) 125 So mephitic a vapour that birds were suffocated in flying over it. 1775Bewly in Priestley Exper. and Observ. Air II. 339 The Mephitic Acid, as I shall already venture to call it. 1793Beddoes Calculus 250 The affinity which this mephitic gaz has for oxygene. 1832Veg. Subst. Food of Man 212 This mephitic gas. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 393 Hallucinations of smell are also offensive. Patients complain of mephitic fumes,..chloroform and other volatile poisons.
absol.1828H. Best Italy 399 Other spiracles of mephitic might probably be found here.
fig.1887Huxley in 19th Cent. Feb. 195 The schools kept the thinking faculty alive and active, when..the mephitic atmosphere engendered by the dominant ecclesiasticism..might well have stifled it.
b. mephitic weasel: the skunk, Mephitis mephitica.
1837Donovan Dom. Econ. II. 85 The Skunk, or mephitic weasel of North America.
Hence meˈphitical a. in the same sense.
1704J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, Mephitical Exhalations are poisonous or noxious ones, issuing out of the Earth. 1741Brownrigg in Phil. Trans. LV. 238 The mephitical air of oak, which extinguishes flame. 1842Sir A. De Vere Song of Faith 206 Our very chambers clogged with steams mephitical. 1930D. L. Sayers Strong Poison viii. 95 In one corner an anthracite stove, glowing red and mephitical, vied with a roaring gas-oven in another corner. 1933Punch 6 Dec. 641/3 In the sphere of things political An atmosphere malign, mephitical, Infects the universe. |