| 释义 |
▪ I. murky, n. Mus.|ˈmɜːkɪ|
(See quots.)
1876Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms, Murky, a piece of harpsichord music, having a bass consisting of broken octaves. 1897Riemann's Dict. Mus., Murkys (Murky Bass), a term applied to broken octaves in accompaniment... Also pieces with such basses.
▪ II. murky, a. rare before 17th c.|ˈmɜːkɪ|
Also 4, 8–9 mirky, 6–7 murkie.
[f. murk n. + -y.]
1. Of places: Excessively dark or gloomy.
a1340Hampole Psalter lxxxvii. 6 Þai set me in þe nether lake: in mirky stedes & in shado of dede. 1605Shakes. Macb. v. i. 41 Hell is murky. 1610― Temp. iv. i. 25 With such loue, as 'tis now the murkiest den..shall neuer melt Mine honor into lust. 1791Cowper Odyss. x. 626 Haste to Pluto's murky abode. 1816Keats ‘O Solitude!’ 3 O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell, Let it not be among the jumbled heap Of murky buildings. 1871R. Ellis tr. Catullus iii. 11 Now he wendeth along the mirky pathway, Whence, they tell us, is hopeless all returning. 1888Burgon Lives 12 Gd. Men II. ix. 183 The ante-chapel..that afternoon happened to be exceptionally murky.
fig.1840Dickens Barn. Rudge lxxiii, As through the narrow crevice of one good deed in a murky life of guilt.
2. Of air, mist, clouds, etc.: Thick, dark. Of gloom, darkness: Intense.
1667Milton P.L. x. 280 So sented the grim Feature, and upturn'd His Nostril wide into the murkie Air. 1718Rowe tr. Lucan vi. 965 Black Clouds and murky Fogs involve her Head. 1725Pope Odyss. xii. 475 When lo! a murky cloud the Thund'rer forms. 1814Scott Wav. xvi, The path was altogether indiscernible in the murky darkness which surrounded them. 1818Byron Ch. Har. iv. xxxiv, Making the sun like blood, the earth a tomb, The tomb a hell, and hell itself a murkier gloom. 1859Jephson Brittany i. 2 A county notorious even in England for its murky atmosphere.
3. Very dark in colour.
1791W. Gilpin Forest Scenery I. 86 Its dark, murky hue is unpleasing. 1881Cable Mme. Delphine ii, The gens de couleur.., with ‘Ichabod’ legible on their murky foreheads.
4. Dirty, grimy.
1798Bloomfield Farmer's Boy, Summer 199 To ride in murky state the panting Steed.
5. Of looks: Sullen, cheerless, gloomy.
1841Miss Sedgwick Lett. Abr. I. 172 They would advance with downcast eyes and murky looks. 1856R. S. Hawker in Life & Lett. ix. (1905) 152 They left, looking very murky.
6. Phr. the murky past: confused or ‘dubious’ happenings at a previous time; an obscure episode or period. Cf. past n. 2.
1917‘Contact’ Airman's Outings 141 At times the R.F.C. pilot, like the man with the murky past, is constrained to have clouds for a covering against attack. 1963J. Cleugh Love locked Out 11 St. Augustine, tormented by the murky past which had preceded his appointment as bishop of Hippo in North Africa. 1966Oxf. Univ. Gaz. 23 Dec. 432/2 If I may go back into the murky past,..these sort of powers..would..have been used at least to influence planning..described..as precipitate and ill-considered.
Hence ˈmurkily adv., ˈmurkiness.
1813Byron Corsair i. ix, As if within that murkiness of mind Work'd feelings fearful, and yet undefined. 1835Fraser's Mag. XII. 572 Look adown that sullen stream, flowing murkily and more murkily between its resplendent quays. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. iv. iv, Is it not rather the very murkiness, and atmospheric suffocation, that brings the lightning and the light? |