| 释义 |
▪ I. apt, a.|æpt|
[ad. L. apt-us fitted, suited, appropriate, pa. pple. of *ap-ĕre to fasten, attach.]
Const. to, for, or inf.
1. Fitted (materially), fitting. rare.
1791Cowper Iliad iii. 393 His brother's corslet..apt to his own shape and size.
2. Suited, fitted, adapted (to (obs.) or for a purpose); having the requisite qualifications; fit.
a. of things. arch.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. clvii. (1495) 707 Stoble is apt to many dyuerse vses. 1432–50tr. Higden Rolls Ser. I. 163 Thei toke places apte to make cites. 1526Tindale N.T. Addr., To make it more apte for the weake stomakes. 1625Bacon Ess. (Arb.) 471 States..apt to be the Foundations of Great Monarchies. 1677Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 181 The Workman chuses such sizes as are aptest for his Work. 1858Carlyle Fredk. Gt. I. ii. ii. 54 Tracts of Preussen are..frugiferous, apt for the plough.
b. of persons: Fit, prepared, ready. arch.
1474Caxton Chesse 27 Whiche of hem..was most apte for to sende to gouerne and juge the contre of spayn. 1526Tindale Luke ix. 62 No man that..loketh backe is apte to the kyngdom of God. 1601Shakes. Jul. C. iii. i. 160 Liue a thousand yeeres, I shall not finde my selfe so apt to dye. a1700Mrs. Hutchinson Mem. Hutchinson 22 He was apt for any bodily exercise. 1870Morris Earthly Par. I. i. 20 Tall was he, slim, made apt for feats of war.
3. a. ellipt. Suited to its purpose; suitable, becoming, appropriate.
1563Myrr. Mag., Blacksmith xix, The Plowman fyrst his land doth dresse and torne And makes it apte. 1597Morley Introd. Mus. Annot., [Musicke is] a disposition of proportionable soundes deuided by apt distances. 1630Dekker Honest Wh. ii. Wks. 1873 II. 99 Pray the good woman take some apter time. 1710Steele Tatler No. 8 ⁋1 Recommending the apt Use of a Theatre as the most agreeable..Method of making a..moral Gentry. 1807Wordsw. Resol. & Indep. xvi, To give me human strength, by apt admonishment.
b. esp. of language: Suitable or appropriate to express ideas; apposite, expressive.
1590Shakes. Mids. N. v. i. 65 In all the play There is not one word apt. 1688Ld. Delamere Wks. 20 Apt words and quaint Phrases are very good adornments of Speech. 1865Mill Liberty v. 57/1 What in the apt language of Bentham is called pre-appointed evidence.
c. of thoughts, remarks, etc. Appropriate to the occasion, apposite.
1844Disraeli Coningsby v. vii. 216 The prompt reply or the apt retort. 1849W. Irving Mahom. & Succ. xiv. (1853) 63 The smoke was an apt thought, and saved his camp from being sacked. 1877Sparrow Serm. xxi. 284 The apt reply of the little Sunday-school scholar, who, when asked what eternity was, replied, ‘The life-time of God.’
4. Having a habitual tendency or predisposition (to do something).
1570Levins Manip. (1867) 28 Apte, aptus, idoneus..is also the signe of verballes in -bilis, and participials in -dus: Apt to be taught, docilis; Apt to be red, legibilis.
a. of things: Calculated, likely; habitually liable, ready.
1528More Heresyes iv. Wks. 248/2 Yet be such workes..apte to corrupt and infect the reder. 1678Butler Hud. iii. i. 1048 For fat is wondrous apt to burn. 1784Cowper Lett. Feb. 29 Wks. 1876, 161 Nothing is so apt to betray us into absurdity as too great a dread of it. 1868Freeman Norm. Conq. II. vii. 12 Any kind of taxation is apt to be looked on as a grievance.
b. of persons: Customarily disposed, given, inclined, prone.
c1550Lusty Juv. in Hazl. Dodsley II. 53 That I may be apt thy holy precepts to fulfil. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. i. 34 So apt to quarell. 1718Pope Iliad xxiv. 530 For apt is youth to err. 1771Franklin Autobiog. Wks. 1840 I. 85, I perceive I am apt to speak in the singular number. 1857Ruskin Pol. Econ. Art 26 We are apt to act too immediately on our impulses.
c. Inclined, disposed (in a single instance).
1677R. Cary Palæol. Chron. ii. ii. i. iv. 195, I am apt to think, that..Vashti is meant. 1706Hearne Rem. & Collect. (1885) I. 297, I am apt to think he has not consulted Books enough upon this occasion. 1899E. E. Hale Lowell 126, I am apt to think that this modest man was the first person..to recognize [etc.].
5. Susceptible to impressions; ready to learn; intelligent, quick-witted, prompt. Mod. const. at.
1535Coverdale Ecclus. xxxvii. 22 Some man is apte and well instructe in many thinges. 1601Shakes. Jul. C. v. iii. 68 O hatefull error..Why do'st thou shew to the apt thoughts of men The things that are not. 1660Pepys Diary 28 Aug., Beginning to teach my wife some scale in musique, and found her apt beyond imagination. 1719De Foe Crusoe (1858) 220 He was the aptest scholar that ever was. 1832H. Martineau Life in Wilds vi. 77 Men..are..apt at devising ways of easing their toils.
¶ quasi-adv., as in apt-deceiving, apt-divided.
1597Daniel Civ. Wars i. lxx, Intestine strife..The apt-divided state entangle would. Ibid. (1717) 213 Such apt-deceiving Clemency And seeming Order.
▪ II. † apt, n. Obs. rare.
[f. prec.]
Natural tendency.
c1400Test. Love iii. (1560) 301 b/1 They have as well divers aptes, and divers manner usings, and thilke aptes mowen in will been cleaped affections.
▪ III. † apt, v. Obs.
[f. prec. adj.: cf. fit, to fit.]
1. To make fit, adapt (to), prepare suitably (for).
1575Laneham Lett. (1871) 35 A song wel apted too a melodious noiz. 1582Stanyhurst æneid (Arb.) 38 In mydst of chaumber thee roume for bancket is apted. 1601B. Jonson Poetaster i. i, He shall follow and observe what I will apt him to. 1672Dk. Buckhm. Rehearsal ii. v, Composing this Air, and apting it for the business.
b. refl.
1540T. Raynalde Birth Man. i. x. (1634) 37 The matter..inclining and apting it selfe..to the..nature of the vessels. 1633Massinger New Way, etc. iii. ii, Apt thyself To the noble state I labour to advance thee.
2. intr. (for refl.) To suit, be suitable or fitting.
1602Warner Alb. Eng. ix. xliv. (1612) 212 Here occasion apteth that we catalogue a while. Ibid. Epit., Out of which I..have gleaned not a little apting to this our abridged Historie.
3. trans. To incline, dispose to.
a1625Fletcher Love's Pilgr. ii. iii. (T.) They are things ignorant, And therefore apted to that disposition Of doting fondness. 1641Denham Sophy ii. (1667) 19 The king is melancholy, Apted for any ill impressions. |