| 释义 |
non-eˈxistent, a. and n.
[non- 3.]
A. adj. Not existent or having existence.
1682Sir T. Browne Chr. Mor. (1716) 75 What is and will be latent is little better than non-existent. 1787Hawkins Life Johnson 160 He sometimes raised subscriptions for non-existent poems. 1818–60Whately Comm.-pl. Bk. (1864) 82 The bread which I ate a year ago and the ambrosia of Homer's Gods are both equally non-existent at this moment. 1891Hardy Tess l, This sound of a non-existent coach can only be heard by one of D'Urberville blood.
absol.1836–7Sir W. Hamilton Metaph. xvi. (1859) I. 294 Concerning Nature or the Non-Existent. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 230, I and all the world are in a difficulty about the non-existent.
B. n. A person or thing that does not exist.
1658Baxter Saving Faith §7. 53 This is no more their fault, then it is that they see not non-existents. 1734Watts Reliq. Juv. (1789) 133 Confus'd ideas Of non-existents and impossibles. 1824Coleridge Aids Refl. (1848) I. 186 The champion's challenge to all the non-existents, that..dispute his [sc. a prince's] rights and royalty. 1885Martineau Types Eth. The. I. i. i. (1886) 27 That of which there should be no idea would be ipso facto a non-existent. |