| 释义 |
mordacious, a. Now rare.|mɔːˈdeɪʃəs|
Also 9 erron. mordaceous.
[f. L. mordāc-, mordax (f. mord-ēre to bite) + -ious.]
1. Biting; given to biting.
1777G. Forster Voy. round World I. 450 They likewise assured us the bats were very mordacious. 1801J. Jones tr. Bygge's Trav. Fr. Rep. xiv. 335 Serpents in general, and mordaceous ones in particular. 1829Landor Imag. Conv., Galileo, Milton, etc. Wks. 1853 II. 234/1 To begin with the horses:..all are noisy and windy, skittish and mordacious. 1875E. J. Payne Burke's Sel. Wks. II. Introd. 59 The mordacious snarl of the cur.
†2. Of material substances: ‘Biting’, pungent, caustic. Obs.
1675Evelyn Terra (1676) 29 All Earths abounding more or less in their peculiar Salts..; some sweet and more grateful; others bitter, mordacious or astringent. 1684tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. vi. 232 So mordacious a matter must never be carried off by vomit.
3. Of or with reference to sarcasm or invective: Biting, keen.
1650T. B. tr. Estienne's Art Making Devises Catal. 71 The Earle of Carnarvan was thus mordacious in his Devise, wherein he had a Lyon depainted, and 6 Dogs bayting or baying at him. 1654Cokaine Dianea iv. 315 Then..shall I neither have power nor punishment to bridle thy mordacious insolency. 1823D'Israeli Cur. Lit. Ser. ii. II. 270 Grand-duke and taxes were synonimes, according to this mordacious lexicographer! 1841― Amen. Lit. (1867) 465 A repose freed from..mordacious malignity.
Hence morˈdaciously adv.
1663Waterhouse Comm. Fortescue's De Laud. Legum Angliæ 201 Buchanan, a learned though violent Scot, has mordaciously taunted this tradition. |