| 释义 |
sagacious, a.|səˈgeɪʃəs|
[f. L. sagāc-em (whence F. sagace), sagax, f. the root *sā̆g- (= OTeut. *sōk-, seek v.) in sāgīre to discern acutely.]
†1. Acute in perception, esp. by the sense of smell. Const. of. Obs.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts Ep. Ded. A 5, The Bees seeke out their King if he loose himselfe, and by a most sagacious smelling-sence, neuer cease till he be found out. 1656Blount Glossogr., Sagacious,..quick of scent, taste or sight. 1667Milton P.L. x. 281 So sented the grim Feature, and upturn'd His Nostril wide into the murkie Air, Sagacious of his Quarry from so farr. 1700Dryden Cock & Fox 751 With Might and Main they chas'd the murd'rous Fox,..Nor wanted Horns t' inspire sagacious Hounds. 1732Pope Ess. Man i. 214 And hound sagacious on the tainted green.
2. Gifted with acuteness of mental discernment; having special aptitude for the discovery of truth; penetrating and judicious in the estimation of character and motives, and in the devising of means for the accomplishment of ends; shrewd.
1650Bulwer Anthropomet. 145 It would seem a wonder if sagacious Nature should faulter only in the forming of that part. 1682Sir T. Browne Chr. Mor. i. §6 True Charity is sagacious, and will find out hints for beneficence. 1704Ray Creation i. (ed. 4) 95 The Study and Endeavours of the most sagacious Naturalists. 1756C. Lucas Ess. Waters III. 125 Our very sagacious author found them in this condition. 1781Cowper Conversat. 742 The world grown old, her deep discernment shows, Claps spectacles on her sagacious nose. 1794S. Williams Vermont 136 He appeared to the greatest advantage, sagacious in distinguishing and observing. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vii. II. 194 He had been urged by an adviser less sagacious and more impetuous than himself, to try a bolder course. 1863Geo. Eliot Romola xix, Bardi was entirely under the ascendency of his sagacious and practical friend.
b. Of observations, sayings, actions, etc.: Resulting from or exhibiting acuteness of mental discernment; characterized by sagacity.
1831Brewster Newton ix. 108 Hence he concluded that diamond ‘is an unctuous substance coagulated’,—a sagacious prediction, which has been verified in the discoveries of modern chemistry. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. II. xv. 161 The Esquimaux examines the track with sagacious care. 1857Miller Elem. Chem. (1862) III. 438 This sagacious conjecture has since been fully verified by the discoveries of Wurtz and Hofmann. 1876Blackie Lang. & Lit. Sc. Highl. ii. 87 In Homer himself,..we find not a few of those sagacious, curt sentences, into which men unacquainted with books are fond of compressing their experience of human life.
3. Of animals: Intelligent.
1759Goldsm. Bee No. 4 Of all the solitary insects I have ever remarked, the spider is the most sagacious. 1819Keats Eve St. Agnes xli, The wakeful bloodhound rose, and shook his hide, But his sagacious eye an inmate owns.
Hence saˈgaciously adv., saˈgaciousness.
1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. i. §28. 33 Wherefore they sagaciously apprehended, that there must needs be [etc.]. Ibid. iv. §14. 250 Where this Love is not only called πολυµητις, of much-counsel or sagaciousness,..but also πρεσβυτατος. a1711Ken Edmund Poet. Wks. 1721 II. 102 But Edmund..Sagaciously the Pageantry suspects. 1818Hallam Mid. Ages (1872) I. 64 But his measures had been so sagaciously taken, that except through that perverseness of fortune,..he could hardly fail of success. 1884J. Hawthorne A. Malmaison iii, It is always a delicate matter to fathom the depth of a medical man's sagaciousness. |