| 释义 |
bottomless, a.|ˈbɒtəmlɪs|
[see -less.]
1. That has no bottom.
c1325E.E. Allit. P. B. 1022 For hit [the Dead Sea] is brod & boþemlez, & bitter as þe galle. 1535Coverdale Job xxxvi. 16 So shall he kepe the..from the bottomlesse pytte that is beneth. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 325 Let his neck be yoked in an old bottomless pail. 1641Milton Ch. Govt. ii. Wks. (1851) 180 Unlesse her bottomlesse gorge may be satisfi'd with the blood of the Kings daughter the Church. 1710Palmer Proverbs 172 Jupiter puts the discourses and promises of lovers into a bottomless bag. 1860Dickens Uncomm. Trav. xi, How knowingly (with a sheaf and a bottomless chair at our back) we should lounge on bridges.
b. fig. Without foundation, baseless.
1563Davidson Confut. Kennedy in Misc. Wodrow Soc. (1844) 241 The rest of his lessone..is on ane boddomles ground. 1642Prince Rupert Declar. 6 Strange, false and bottomlesse untruths. 1866Crump Banking viii. 175 Speculators..are often encouraged in their bottomless enterprises by obtaining credits with certain companies.
2. fig. Inexhaustible, unfathomable.
1526Tindale Doctr. Treat. (1848) 400 The judgments of God are bottomless. 1545Brinklow Lament. (1874) 86 Oh ye dispisers of the bottomlesse mercy of God. 1640–4Sir J. Culpepper in Rushw. Hist. Coll. iii. (1692) I. 31 Besides the bottomless Perjury of an Et cætera. 1743Tindal tr. Rapin's Hist. Eng. II. xvii. 129 Bottomless graces and immeasurable benefits. 1826Scott Woodst. (1832) 190 He must be bottomless if I cannot sound him before the night's out.
Hence ˈbottomlessly adv., unfathomably; ˈbottomlessness, bottomless state or quality.
1627–8Feltham Resolves xix. (1636) 65 Who..is so bottomlessly ill, as to love vice, because it is vice? 1642Rogers Naaman 180 That wearisomenesse of Selfe, never settled, that bottomelessenesse, never grounded. 1854Thoreau Walden xvi. 306 Men will believe in the bottomlessness of a pond without taking the trouble to sound it.
▸ orig. and chiefly U.S. In a café, restaurant, etc.: designating a drink (or occas. a food item) with which unlimited refills are included in the price.
1934Chicago Daily Tribune 16 Nov. 5/8 (advt.) We've a 10 cent breakfast for you 'til 11:00 in the morning: a gorgeous sugar roll; a bottomless cup of coffee. 1967Nevada State Jrnl. 5 May 9 (advt.) Bottomless glass of champagne for the ladies; all you can drink for only 50¢. 2003N.Y. Times 4 June d2/2 Bottomless salad bowls and breadstick baskets, free refills on drinks, not to mention large portions, play into the idea that these restaurants are a bargain. |