| 释义 |
savagery|ˈsævɪdʒrɪ, ˈsævɪdʒə rɪ|
[f. savage a. + -ry, after F. sauvagerie.]
1. The quality of being fierce or cruel; savage disposition, conduct, or actions; also with a and pl. a cruel action or deed.
1595Shakes. John iv. iii. 48 This is the bloodiest shame, The wildest Sauagery, the vildest stroke That euer wall⁓ey'd wrath..Presented to the teares of soft remorse. 1794Coleridge Relig. Musings 182 In savagery of holy zeal. 1840Carlyle Heroes iv. (1841) 227 They err greatly who imagine that this man's courage was ferocity, mere coarse disobedient obstinacy and savagery, as many do. 1877Tennyson Harold ii. ii. 210 Hast thou never heard His savagery at Alençon? 1883Burton & Cameron Gold Coast I. iii. 75 We shall seldom see these savageries on the eastern coast of the island.
2. The condition of being wild or uncivilized; the characteristics of savages; the savage state of human society.
1825Coleridge in Lit. Rem. (1836) II. 327 The progress from savagery to civilization is evidently first from the hunting to a pastoral state. 1864R. F. Burton Dahome I. 19 At certain hours the bugle-call from Santa Cecilia intimates that all about me is not savagery. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. i. iii, There was a curious mixture in the boy, of uncompleted savagery, and uncompleted civilisation. 1870Lubbock Orig. Civiliz. i. (1875) 3 A tribe which had sunk from civilisation into barbarism would by no means exhibit the same features, as one which had risen into barbarism from savagery. 1904Sir R. Rodd Sir W. Raleigh ii. 23 Ireland..remained abandoned to the savagery of the primeval Celt.
3. Wildness, as of nature or scenery, etc.
1872B. Harte Mrs. Skaggs's Husbands 1, Except for the rudest purposes of shelter from rain and cold, the cabin possessed but little advantage over the simple savagery of surrounding nature. 1884Sala Journ. due South i. vii. (1887) 97 The appearance of the rock-bound coast is one of unrelieved savagery.
4. collect. in occasional uses: † Wild vegetation (obs.); savage beasts or savages collectively.
1599Shakes. Hen. V, v. ii. 47 Her fallow Leas, The Darnell, Hemlock, and ranke Femetary, Doth root vpon; while that the Culter rusts, That should deracinate such Sauagery. 1867J. Ingelow Story of Doom vi. 10 And had made A fire, to scare away the savagery That roamed in that great forest. 1896R. S. S. Baden-Powell Matabele Campaign xviii. (1897) 464 That the white settlers were not entirely overwhelmed in the first mad, blood-thirsting rush of relentless savagery is a matter for marvel. |