| 释义 |
monstrosity|mɒnˈstrɒsɪtɪ|
[ad. late L. monstrōsitās, f. monstrōs-us monstrous: see -ity.]
1. An abnormality of growth, esp. in an animal or plant; concr. a part or organ that is abnormally developed; also occas. = monster n. 2.
1555Eden Decades To Rdr. (Arb.) 53 So that the monstrositie growth owt of the body. 1652–62Heylin Cosmogr. iv. (1682) 138 Amongst these there are some Rarities, if not monstrosities, in nature. 1793Clarke in Phil. Trans. LXXXIII. 161 The defect of heart (not an uncommon kind of monstrosity) proves, that [etc.]. 1797M. Baillie Morb. Anat. (1807) 38 The person to whom this monstrosity belonged, lived to near fourteen years of age. 1859Darwin Orig. Spec. ii. (1878) 33 By a monstrosity, I presume is meant some considerable deviation of structure, generally injurious, or not useful to the species. 1884J. Tait Mind in Matter (1892) 49 It is because nature refuses to propagate monstrosities that hybrids are sterile.
b. transf. and fig.
1639Fuller Holy War ii. xxxiv. (1647) 89 The body of their state being a very monstrosity, and a grievance of mankind. 1664Power Exp. Philos. Concl. 184 This numerous piece of Monstrosity (the Multitude). 1701Norris Ideal World i. ii. 48 Those few defects,..monstrositys or whatever you please to call them, which are to be found in the world, and seem to disfigure the face of nature. 1831[see moon-calf 1 b]. 1858Greener Gunnery 113 Such a monstrosity [sc. as the ‘Lancaster gun’] would have been buried soon after its birth. 1886C. A. Briggs Messianic Proph. Pref. 11 The word Jehovah..is a linguistic monstrosity.
2. = monster n. 3. Also fig.
1643Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. ii. §1 The Multitude..confused together, make but one great beast, and a monstrosity more prodigious then Hydra. 1646― Pseud. Ep. v. xix. 262 We shall tolerate flying Horses,..Harpies and Satyres; for these are monstrosities, rarities, or else Poeticall fancies. 1665Glanvil Scepsis Sci. xiv. 95 Education..can lick us into shapes beyond the monstrosities of Africa.
3. The condition or fact of being monstrous, or formed contrary to the ordinary course of nature.
1656Blount Glossogr., Monstrosity,..monstrousness. c1714Arbuthnot, etc. Mem. M. Scribl. i. xv. (1741) 56 ‘Monstrosity could not incapacitate from Marriage’, witness the Case of Hermaphrodites. 1766Compl. Farmer s.v. Smut, Wolfius was of opinion that the smut of corn proceeds from a monstrosity of the embryo. 1873Mivart Elem. Anat. ix. 389 The optic structure is never single and median except by monstrosity.
b. transf. and fig.
1651Binning Serm. (1847) 530 What a monstrosity is it for one member to seek its own things..as if it were a distinct body. 1662W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. verse 18. i. lv. §2 (1669) 425/1 Sin being a brat of hell, comes not to its full complexion and monstrositie, till it be sent back to the place it came from. a1697South Serm. II. v. 224 We sometimes read..of Monstrous Births, but we may often see a greater Monstrosity in Educations. 1826Southey Vind. Eccl. Angl. 246 The statement of his contemporary biographer confuted itself by its monstrosity. 1856Hort Coleridge in Cambr. Ess. 327 The moral monstrosity of supposing that God can have given us lying faculties. 1902A. B. Davidson Called of God xi. 282 To be lost..does not imply any uncommonness of vice, or monstrosity of wickedness. |