| 释义 |
narrowness|ˈnærəʊnɪs|
Also 6 narownes(se.
[f. narrow a. Cf. OE. nearo-, nearunes, narrowness, constraint, distress, etc.]
The fact or quality of being narrow, in various senses.
1. Smallness from side to side; lack of breadth.
1530Palsgr. 247/2 Narownesse, estreissevr. 1553Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 7 There is none other passage oute of the narownesse of the readde sea. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. Prol. 32 Farther beyonde lorne, the lande..is driuen to a strait and gret narownes. 1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ii. 4 According there to her breadth or narrownesse, we say she hath a narrow or broad buttocke. 1652Needham tr. Seiden's Mare Cl. 132 There may som difference bee alleged onely from the largeness of the one and the narrowness of the other. 1722De Foe Plague Wks. (Bohn) V. 20 As many people as the narrowness of the place would permit to stop. 1803Med. Jrnl. IX. 76 Cases..in which the narrowness or distortion of the pelvis was..considerable. 1883Wace Gospel & Witn. iv. 86 There would be something terrible..in the narrowness and straitness of the path which it marks out.
b. Small size or capacity of a place, etc.
1571Golding Calvin on Ps. lxv. 5 Our narownesse is a let untoo us, that God cannot replenish us [etc.]. 1624T. Godwin Moses & Aaron i. (1641) 22 All Israel could not stand by, for the narrownesse of the place. a1676Hale Prim. Orig. Man. ii. ix. (1677) 212 Which was considerable then, considering the narrowness of the City in those days. 1795in Ld. Auckland's Corr. (1862) III. 296 The narrowness of my library alone..would hinder me from placing a collection of the ‘Moniteur’ in it.
2. Scantiness, limited amount of a thing.
1647–8Sir C. Cotterell Davila's Hist. Fr. (1678) 11 Finding the narrowness of his fortune could not maintain the greatness of his birth. 1699Wanley in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 293 The narrowness of my time and paper will not permit me to trouble you much further. 1751Earl of Orrery Remarks Swift (1752) 73 The narrowness of her income. 1824W. Irving T. Trav. I. 328 My father made me a tolerable allowance, notwithstanding the narrowness of his income.
b. Restricted range of an immaterial thing.
1641Milton Ch. Govt. i. i, To come within the narrownesse of household government, observation will shew us [etc.]. 1697Dryden æneid Ded. a 2 Those more amply treated, than the narrowness of the Drama can admit. 1741Warburton Div. Legat. II. 146 The Pleonasm evidently arose from the Narrowness of a simple Language. 1818Macaulay in Trevelyan Life (1876) I. ii. 96 It was attributed to the narrowness of his reading. 1877Mrs. Oliphant Makers Flor. iii. 79 The narrowness of my opportunities..compels me to give up this.
3. Limited or small capacity of mind, understanding, etc.
1553Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 11 Suche as by the narownes of theyr vnderstandinge are not of capacitie to conceaue the causes and natures of thynges. 1626Bacon Sylva §290 To enlarge their Mindes to the Amplitude of the World; And not reduce the World to the Narrowness of their Mindes. 1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. ii. §85 Every man..by the narrowness of his understanding..contracted all his other affections to that one of Revenge. 1699Burnet 39 Art. i. 32 The only difficulty..in apprehending this, has arisen from the Narrowness of Mens Minds. 1786W. Thomson Watson's Philip III (1839) 281 Whose thirst of vengeance was in proportion to the narrowness of his capacity. 1851Gallenga Italy 357 Even men of..rigid morality were..scarcely less dangerous, from the narrowness of their understanding. 1882‘Ouida’ Maremma I. 200 It is this narrowness of the peasant mind which philosophers never fairly understand.
4. Deficiency in breadth or largeness of soul, mind, view, etc.
1645Howell Twelve Treat. (1661) 352 The sense of poverty..brings along with it a narrownesse of soul. a1665J. Goodwin Filled w. the Spirit (1867) 247 It will relieve you against the natural scantness and narrowness of your hearts. 1705Stanhope Paraphr. I. 12 The same Narrowness of Spirit, which tempts us not to satisfie all others. 1759Dilworth Pope 70 He hated a narrowness of soul in any party. 1793Smeaton Edystone L. §296 The amazing narrowness of mind of some persons. 1830D'Israeli Chas. I, III. iv. 57 If we are struck by the comprehension of his understanding, we may equally be so at the narrowness of his views. 1873Hamerton Intell. Life v. iii. 189 The narrowness of men's ideas in direct proportion to their parsimony in expenditure.
b. Without const., in same sense. Also pl.
1697Sir T. P. Blount Ess. 74 Which sort of narrowness I find many are subject to. 1734Berkeley Analyst Wks. 1871 III. 297 That prevailing narrowness and bigotry among many who pass for men of science. 1817Jas. Mill Brit. India II. v. vi. 565 The narrowness which the mind contracts by habitual application to the practice of English law. 1889Ruskin Præterita III. 96 Norton saw all my weaknesses, measured all my narrownesses.
5. In miscellaneous uses of the adj.
1651Fuller's Abel Rediv., Luther 52 Then complained he againe of the narrownesse of his breast. 1783Johnson in Boswell, I was occasionally troubled with a fit of narrowness. 1871Blackie Four Phases Mor. i. 98 The narrowness of the view which the inspection of a watch necessitates. 1884Truth 13 Mar. 369/2 Considering the narrowness of the defeat..the tie should certainly be replayed. |