| 释义 |
beneficence|bɪˈnɛfɪsəns|
Also 6 -fycence.
[a. F. bénéficence, ad. L. beneficentia, f. benefic-us: perh. directly f. the L.]
1. Doing good, the manifestation of benevolence or kindly feeling, active kindness.
1531Elyot Gov. ii. x. (1883) II. 112 Beneficence can by no menes be vicious and retaine still his name. 1548Udall Erasm. Par. Mark v. 24 (R.) Like as the lodestone draweth vnto it yron, so dothe benefycence and well doing allure all men vnto her. 1651Hobbes Govt. & Soc. iii. §8. 42 By this meanes all beneficence..would be taken from among men. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. 87 It is an institution of beneficence; and law itself is only beneficence acting by a rule. 1853Lytton My Novel viii. viii, What does intellectual power..stripped of beneficence, most resemble?
2. concr. A benefaction, a beneficent gift, deed, or work.
1654Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 320 The market-place is..remarkable for old Hobson the pleasant carrier's beneficence of a fountain. 1851Carlyle Sterling ii. i. (1872) 87 Sterling now..zealously forwarded schools and beneficences. 1858Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. II. 197 Distributed their beneficence in the shape of some handfuls of copper. |