| 释义 |
proverbially, adv.|prəʊˈvɜːbɪəlɪ|
[See -ly2.]
1. In a proverbial manner; by way of, by means of, or as a proverb; according to the proverb.
1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) V. 55 Of whom hit was seide proverbially that his lyfe was lyke to his doctryne, slepenge not in bedde, and tastenge neither wyne ne flesche. 1571Golding Calvin on Ps. lxxiii. 9 As we say proverbyally in English, to looke uppon one as the divile looketh over Lincoln. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 621 A coward braggart is prouerbially called a Lion of Agla. a1754Fielding 1st Olynthiac Demosth. Wks. 1766 IX. 240 It is proverbially said, that if a man preserves the wealth he attains, he is greatly thankful to fortune. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xii. III. 204 His ancestors.., though originally English, were among those early colonists who were proverbially said to have become more Irish than Irishmen.
2. To a degree that has become proverbial, or matter of common talk; notoriously.
1665Glanvill Def. Vanity Dogm. 15 So uncertain and proverbially inconstant a cause as the Winds are. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. I. 313 The name of Benedict Arnold has become proverbially contemptible. 1892Montefiore Hibbert Lect. ii. 96 The argument from silence is proverbially dangerous. |