| 释义 |
mystification|ˌmɪstɪfɪˈkeɪʃən|
[ad. F. mystification, n. of action of mystifier mystify v.2]
1. The action of mystifying a person, playing upon his credulity, or throwing dust in his eyes.
1815Paris Chit-chat (1816) III. 163 Old recollections..made me an excellent subject for mystification. 1826J. Gilchrist Lect. 52 Special pleading of advocates, whose main talent is quibbling and mystification. 1874L. Stephen Hours in Library (1892) I. i. 10 He was punished for assuming a character for purposes of mystification. 1885Manch. Exam. 10 Apr. 5/2 The whole manifesto..was regarded by the public as a piece of grandiloquent mystification.
b. An instance of this.
1817Edin. Rev. XXVIII. 382 Having amused himself with a mystification (or what is in England vulgarly called a hoax). 1823New Monthly Mag. VIII. 122 Of all the mystifications with which man is acquainted, Voltaire thought life itself the greatest. 1876Black Madcap Violet xv. 138 The sweetheart is impatient of these mystifications, and wishes her to promise to marry him.
2. The condition or fact of being mystified.
1817Scott 1 Jan. in Fam. Lett. (1894) I. xiii. 399 The mystification of those who would see very far into the mill⁓stone is sufficiently diverting. 1836–7Dickens Sk. by Boz, Tuggs's at Ramsgate, The Tuggs's went to bed..in a state of considerable mystification and perplexity. 1884F. M. Crawford Rom. Singer II. i. 4 They never left Italy at all, it seems. I am rather mystified, and I hate mystification. |