| 释义 |
pungent, a. (n.)|ˈpʌndʒənt|
[ad. L. pungent-em, pr. pple. of pung-ĕre to pierce, prick; substituted for the earlier poignant in many of its senses; cf. the intermediate pugnaunt2.]
1. Pricking, piercing, sharp-pointed. Now only in Nat. Hist., e.g. of leaves having stiff sharp points or prickles, or of a part or organ having a sharp point or serving for puncture.
1601B. Jonson Poetaster ii. i, Beneath it a blouddie Toe, betweene three Thornes pungent. 1606Chapman Gentleman Usher ii. i, A Rush which now your heeles doe lie on here..Was whilome vsed for a pungent speare. 1750tr. Mem. R. Acad. Surg. Paris I. 75 Cutting or pungent instruments. 1787Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 2) I. 359 Terminating in a very sharp-pointed pungent leaf. 1880Günther Fishes 563 The pectoral [fin] has a pungent spine.
2. fig. (of pain or grief). Sharp, keen, acute, poignant; causing or inflicting sharp pain; keenly painful or distressing.
1597A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 48/2 The dolour not so pungent and sharp. 1684T. Hockin God's Decrees 325 Intolerably pungent grief and sorrow. 1708J. Philips Cyder i. 5 With pungent Colic Pangs distress'd he'll roar. 1736T. Lediard Life Marlborough I. 216 A very pungent Domestick Affliction. 1842Dunglison Med. Lex. s.v., Pain is said to be pungent, when it seems as if a pointed instrument were being forced into the..part.
b. Of appetite or desire: Keen, eager; piercing. Now rare or Obs.
a1710G. Bull Serm. ix. Wks. 1827 I. 226 To gratify a present pungent, languishing appetite. 1735Somerville Chase iii. 240 Hunger keen, and pungent Thirst of Blood. 1850Mrs. Browning Vis. Poets cxxxv, Burns, with pungent passionings Set in his eyes.
3. Keenly or strongly affecting the mind or feelings: with various shades of meaning (now usually with allusion to sense 4).
†a. Pointed, telling, convincing. Obs.
1637–50Row Hist. Kirk (Wodrow Soc.) 194 Throw unwillingness to heare so pungent arguments, they were not insisted upon. 1661Pepys Diary 25 Aug., A very good and pungent sermon..discoursing the necessity of restitution. 1726De Foe Hist. Devil ii. vii. (1840) 260 That which is still more pungent in the case.
b. Sharp in reproof, trenchant, severe; biting, caustic, incisive, acrimonious, sarcastic, satirical.
a1661Fuller Worthies, Wilts. (1840) III. 324 No author..hath so pungent passages against the pride and covetousness of the court of Rome. 1693Dryden Disc. Satire Ess. (ed. Ker) II. 100 Satire..consisting..chiefly in a sharp and pungent manner of speech. 1828D'Israeli Chas. I, I. viii. 266 His conversations and his letters..seem to have been occasionally free and pungent. 1874L. Stephen Hours in Library (1892) I. x. 363 A few pungent epigrams.
c. Exciting keen interest or curiosity; mentally stimulating; piquant.
1850Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. ix. 118 Every amusement and all literature become more pungent. 1854Mrs. Gaskell North & S. xxiii, She was pungent, and had taste, and spirit, and flavour in her.
d. Exciting or stimulating to the senses. rare.
1879G. Allen Col. Sense xii. 232 Red is the pungent and stimulative colour,..green is the restful and reparative colour.
4. Affecting the organs of smell or taste (or the skin, etc.) with a sensation resembling that produced by pricking; of the nature of such smell, taste, or sensation: penetrating and irritant.
1668Wilkins Real Char. 92 Ground-pine..a small creeping plant..of a pungent sent. 1675Grew Disc. Tasts iii. §11 Cortex Winteranus..is very Pungent upon the Tongue. 1742Shenstone Schoolmistr. 102 Pungent radish, biting infant's tongue. 1800tr. Lagrange's Chem. I. 103 A white vapour, exceedingly acrid and pungent. 1871Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (1879) I. ii. 36 Chlorine and sodium are elements, the former a pungent gas.
b. (Path.) Said of the fevered skin.
1822–34Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 722 If..the skin be still hotter..and more pungent to the touch. 1898Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 93 The skin [in pneumonia] is dry and pungent.
5. as n. (or absol.) A pungent substance; an irritant, esp. of the nerves of taste.
1822–34Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) III. 447 External and internal pungents. 1863Bates Nat. Amazon iv. (1864) 85 Capsicum-pepper bushes..and lemon-trees; the one supplying the pungent, the other the acid, for sauce to..fish.
Hence ˈpungently adv., in a pungent manner; with pungency; ˈpungentness, pungency (Bailey vol. II, 1727).
1842S. Lover Handy Andy ii, As you very properly and pungently remark, poor Egan is a spoon. a1864Hawthorne Mother Rigby's Pipe i, The pungently aromatic smoke. 1883L. Villari Machiavelli IV. x. 207 His verses are..often satirical and pungently vivacious. |