| 释义 |
▪ I. muttering, vbl. n.|ˈmʌtərɪŋ|
[-ing1.]
The action of the verb mutter.
1513More Rich. III in Grafton Chron. (1568) II. 777 Yet then began there, here and there some maner of mutteryng amongest the people. 1538Bale Thre Lawes E vij b, The lorde doth not regarde Your mangy mutterynge. 1613W. Browne Brit. Past. i. ii. (ad fin.), The roaring voyce of winds,..Nor all the muttring of the sullen waues. 1667–68Pepys Diary 17 Feb., Some mutterings I did hear of dissolving the Parliament. 1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) III. 89, I heard secret treadings and mutterings. 1856Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. v. 468 The mutterings of discontent had developed into plain open treason. 1904A. R. Whitham Ep. Consolations i. 10 Already the mutterings of the distant storm might be heard. 1971Guardian 14 Jan. 1/3 There may be some feminine muttering that in promoting the ‘Woman's Guardian’ we are perpetuating the idea of the female ghetto.
▪ II. ˈmuttering, ppl. a.
[-ing2.]
That mutters.
1567J. Maplet Gr. Forest 112 Let muttring Mutius take heede least he be serued with the same sawce Virgil requited Bauius and Meuius. 1660N. Ingelo Bentiv. & Ur. ii. (1682) 143 The muttering Fiends obey'd. 1712Steele Spect. No. 266 ⁋2 In a muttering Voice, as if between Soliloquy and speaking out. 1842J. Wilson Chr. North (1857) II. 13 The muttering thunder seems to have changed its place. 1843R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. xiv. 147 A low muttering delirium. 1917T. S. Eliot Prufrock & other Observations 9 Certain half-deserted streets The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels. 1927Joyce She weeps over Rahoon in Pomes Penyeach, The moongrey nettles, the black mould And muttering rain.
Hence ˈmutteringly adv.
c1681Hickeringill Trimmer vi. Wks. 1716 I. 388 It was a business (than which) nothing is more discours'd of (mutteringly) at this day. 1741Richardson Pamela I. 69, I said something mutteringly, and he vow'd he would hear it. 1847De Quincey Sp. Mil. Nun Wks. 1854 III. 53 Mutteringly she put that question to herself. |