| 释义 |
▪ I. bright, a. and n.|braɪt|
(Compar. brighter, -est.) Forms: 1 beorht, berht, byrht, bryht, 1–3 breht, 2–4 briht, 3–4 briȝt, 4–5 bryȝt, bryght, 4– bright. Also 2–3 brict, 2–4 bricht, 3–5 brith, 4 brit, brith(e, brigth, 5 bryth, bryȝth; Sc. 4–6 brycht, 4– bricht.
[Common Teut., though now lost in all the langs. exc. English: OE. beorht (:—berht) = OS. berht, beraht, OHG. beraht, bereht (MHG. berht), ON. bjartr, Goth. bairhts:—OTeut. *berhto-z, from a stem *berh:—Aryan bhrag-, whence also Skr. bhrāj- to shine, and L. flagrā-re to blaze, flamma flame. The metathesis of breht for berht occurs already in Lindisf. Gloss.]
A. adj. (In general, the opposite of dull.)
1. Shining; emitting, reflecting, or pervaded by much light.
a. said of luminaries.
a1000Metr. Boeth. xxii. 22 Berhtre þonne se leoma sie sunnan on sumera. a1000Guthlac 1258 (Gr.) Þa cwom leohta mæst..scinan beorht ofer burᵹsalu. c1175Lamb. Homilies 39 Seofesiðe brihtre þene þa sunne. c1391Chaucer Astrol. ii. §2 The altitude of the Mone, or of brihte sterres. 1513Douglas æneis iii. Prol. 1 Hornyt Lady, paill Cynthia, nocht brycht. 1526Tindale Rev. xxii. 16 The bright mornynge starre. 1601Shakes. All's Well i. i. 97 That I should loue a bright particuler starre. 1747Hervey Medit. & Contempl. (1818) 17 They will shine with brighter beams..in their Lord's everlasting kingdom. 1879Lockyer Elem. Astron. ii. ix. 51 One of the brightest lights that we know of—the lime-light.
b. of polished metals, precious stones, and other objects whose surfaces naturally reflect light.
a1000Rood 66 (Gr.) On beorhtan stane. c1220Bestiary 71 in O.E. Misc. 3 It makeð his eȝen briȝt. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. Prol. 168 A belle of brasse Or of briȝte syluer. c1440Promp. Parv. 52 Bryghte swerde, splendona. 1552Lyndesay Monarche Prol. 152 In habyte gaye and glorious, Brychtar nor gold or stonis precious. 1597Gerard Herbal i. xl. §5. 58 Bright Wheate..this kinde is fower square, somwhat bright and shining. 1652Proc. Parliament No. 170 A great box of bright new cast bullets. 1723Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.) Wks. (1753) I. 40 Teeth so bright, and breath so sweet. 1802Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) I. 34 The eyes of the amphibia are in general large and bright. 1842Macaulay Horatius xxi, The long array of helmets bright.
c. of illuminated surfaces, of the day in sunshine, etc.
a1000Elene 822 (Gr.) In þære beorhtan byriᵹ, þær is broðor min. c1340Cursor M. 13541 (Fairf.) Wirk..quen þe day lastis brit. c1470Henry Wallace i. 288 Apon ye morn, quhen yat ye day was brycht. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 129 Our soule irradiate or made bryght with the lyght of the aungell. 1737Pope Hor. Epist. i. i. 138 The evening bright and still. 1832Macaulay Armada xxxvi, That time of slumber was as bright and busy as the day. 1871R. Ellis Catullus viii. 3 Bright once the days and sunny shone the light on thee.
d. of transparent substances: Clear, translucent.
1709Steele Tatler No. 100 ⁋1 Which had purified the whole Body of Air into such a bright transparent æther, as made every Constellation visible. a1730Fenton (J.) While the bright Seine t' exalt the soul With sparkling plenty crowns the bowl. a1748Thomson (J.) From the brightest wines He'd turn abhorrent.
e. fig. Lit up with happiness, gladness, or hope. Also, hopeful, encouraging, cheering.
1751Johnson Rambl. No. 165 ⁋3 The brightest hours of prosperity have their clouds. 1815Moore Lalla R., Fire-worshippers, Bright hours atone for dark ones past. 1839J. Romilly Cambridge Diary 14 Jan. (1967) 162 She is..very talkative & disposed to look on the bright side of every thing. 1871Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xviii. 193 Chances of deliverance brighter than any that had offered themselves. 1917C. Mathewson Sec. Base Sloan xiii. 174 Toonalta's chance to pull the game up high and dry looked bright.
†2. Clear or luminous to the mental perception.
a1000Guthlac 815 (Gr.) Gif hy halᵹes word healdan woldun beorht in breostum. c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 119 Þe holi gost..alihte hem of brihtere and of festere bileue. 1741Watts Improv. Mind (J.) He must not proceed too swiftly, that he may with more ease, with brighter evidence, and with surer success, draw the learner on.
3. Of persons: ‘Resplendent with charms’ (J.); beautiful, fair. arch.
c1250Hymn Virg. 14 in Trin. Coll. Hom. 255 Nis non maide..swo fair, so sschene, so rudi, swo bricht. a1300Havelok 2131 In his armes his brithe bride. c1420Sir Amadace lviii, That ladi gente That was so bryȝte of ble. c1460in Babees Bk. (1868) 15 In chambur among ladyes bryȝth. 1593Shakes. Lucr. 490 By thy bright beauty was it newly bred. 1605― Macb. iv. iii. 22 Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell. c1600Bessie of Bednal Grene ii. ii, He had a faire daughter of bewty most bright. 1704Pope Windsor F. 232 Like the bright beauties on thy banks below. 1817Coleridge Sibyl. Leaves (1862) 279 A bright lady, surpassingly fair.
4. a. Of vivid or brilliant colour: used also with names of colour, as bright red.
1375Barbour Bruce v. 10 The treis begouth to ma Burgeonys and brycht blwmys alsua. 1655–60Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 406/2 The kinds of colour are..Ten, Black, White, and the rest between them, Yellow, Tawney, Pale, Red, Blew, Green, Bright, Grey. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 128 His Colour Gray; For Beauty dappled, or the brightest Bay. 1704Pope Past., Spring 31 Here the bright crocus and blue violet grew. a1835Mrs. Hemans Better Land, Strange bright birds, on their starry wings. 1836Hawthorne Amer. Note-bks. (1871) I. 20 Wild rose-bushes..with their deep, bright-red seed-vessels.
b. spec. Denoting tobacco of a light shade or colour. Also bright-leaf. orig. U.S.
1765in Amer. Hist. Rev. (1921) XXVII. 71 Saw some of the bright couloured tobaco which sels So Dear in foreign markets. It is of a light yelow Coulour... The Inhabitants call it bright tobacco. 1933Discovery Aug. 250/2 The [Cacao] moths have a preference for bright-leaf kiln-cured tobacco. Ibid., Enormous stocks of Rhodesian bright tobacco.
5. Of sounds:
†a. Clear, shrill, ringing.
b. Said of the mental effect of a note.
a1000Cod. Exon. 79 b (Bosw.), Sum hafaþ beorhte stefne. a1250Owl & Night. 1681 For boþe we habbeþ stefne brihte. c1250Gen. & Ex. 2780 God sente a steune briȝt and heȝ. 1872J. Curwen Standard Course 4/2 They are the bold..tones of the scale..but they differ in the manner of their boldness, one being brighter, another stronger, etc.
6. Illustrious, glorious, splendid. (Lat. clarus.)
a1000Ags. Psalter cxxi[i]. 6 Biddað eow bealde beorhtere sibbe. a1340Hampole Psalter Metr. Pref. 60 To buske vs to the blysse ful brigth. 1548Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Matt. ii. 13 Bryght and notable with miracles. 1593Shakes. Lucr. 1491 Troy had been bright with fame and not with fire. 1660Barrow Euclid (1714) Pref. 1 Some of a brighter Genius. a1687Cotton (J.) This is the worst, if not the only stain, I' th' brightest annals of a female reign. 1734Pope Ess. Man iv. 282 The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind. 1783Watson Philip III (1793) I. ii. 232 Exhibited a bright example of the most heroic valour.
7. a. Lively, cheerful, brilliant or animated in conversation, vivacious; the opposite of dull.
1605Shakes. Macb. iii. ii. 28 Be bright and Iouiall among your Guests. 1710Steele Tatler No. 208 ⁋4, I would rather be in his Company than that of the brightest Man I know. 1885Manch. Exam. 15 May 6/1 He turned up today as jaunty and bright as a young buck of twenty-five.
b. bright young thing (etc.), a member of the younger generation in fashionable society (esp. in the 1920s and 1930s), noted for exuberant and outrageous behaviour (cf. thing n.1 10 a).
1927Punch's Almanack 7 Nov. [8] Since a section of the ‘Bright Young People’ literally ‘set the Thames on fire’, things have been a little quiet. 1928D. H. Lawrence Phoenix II (1968) 526 Show me somebody, then! And she shows me some guy, or some bright young thing. 1929G. K. Chesterton The Thing iv. 38 If the bright young thing cannot be asked to tolerate her grandmother..why should the grandmother..have tolerated the bright young thing? 1931R. Aldington Colonel's Daughter iii. 142 The Bright Young Idiots, who seem determined to queer the whole pitch to the puritans, by being as vicious as they can. 1936Morning Post 15 July 14/5 There is a section of the community..whose life seems to consist of cocktail and sherry parties, cabarets and midnight revelries... These are decadent ‘bright young things’. 1953S. Spender Creative Element 159 Dreams of the Old England and the Bright Young Things.
8. Of thought, conversation, writings, etc.: Animated with wit or imagination, lively, clever, brilliant, sparkling.
1709Steele Tatler No. 31 ⁋10 You'll certainly print this bright Conversation. 1779Johnson L.P., Pope Wks. 1787 IV. 109 If he has brighter paragraphs, he has not better poems. 1858O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf. T. ii. 10, I really believe some people save their bright thoughts as being too precious for conversation. 1884R. W. Church Bacon ix. 220 Some bright touch of his incorrigible imaginativeness.
9. a. Displaying great intelligence; quick-witted, clever. (In standard English used chiefly in speaking of children or one's inferiors.)
1741Watts Improv. Mind (1801) 24 Before we proceed in finishing a bright character by conversation. 1824W. Irving T. Trav. I. 203, I began life unluckily by being the wag and bright fellow at school. 1883Gilmour Mongols xxxii. 367 A few soldiers not of the brightest or bravest type. 1885Harper's Mag. Feb. 385/1 The child will be extra bright. Mod. (Ironical) He is a bright specimen!
b. Sharp, keen, watchful.
1840R. Dana Bef. Mast xxxi. 117 We kept a bright lookout—one man at each bow. 1860Merc. Mar. Mag. VII. 41 The look out..is not a very ‘bright’ one.
10. a. Comb.: chiefly parasynthetic, as bright-bloomed, bright-cheeked, bright-costumed, bright-eyed (also transf.), bright-faced, bright-featured, bright-haired, bright-harnessed, bright-headed, bright-studded, bright-witted, etc.
1558Phaër æneid ix. C c ij b, Brightheaded Phœbus..Beheld..bothe Latines hoasts and Troyan fort. 1592Greene Poems 85 Bright-eyed his Phillis was. 1598Chapman Iliad i. 294 Bright-cheek'd Briseis. 1632Milton Penseroso 23 Bright-haired Vesta. 1786Cowper Gratitude 13 This wheel-footed studying chair..Bright-studded to dazzle the eyes. 1827Keble Chr. Y., 25th Sund. aft. Trin. i, The bright-hair'd morn is glowing. 1850Mrs. Browning Poems II. 46 Thy little bright-faced son. 1881O. Wilde Burden of Itys in Wks. (1948) 724 Light-winged and bright-eyed miracle of the wood! 1920A. Huxley Leda 13 The bright-eyed bliss Perished. 1959Times 24 Nov. 3/6 Arthur Jacobs's bright-eyed, allusive libretto.
b. bright emitter (see quot. 1931); so bright-emitting adj.; bright lights, the city, as a place of entertainment; urban gaiety; bright-line, (a) Physics, applied to a discontinuous spectrum consisting of bright lines resulting from radiation from an incandescent vapour or gas; (b) Photogr., applied to a view-finder in which the area of the picture appears framed by a white line; bright work, polished metal-work on ships, etc.
1923Pop. Wireless Weekly 24 Nov. 463/3 A new low-consumption valve, of the *bright emitter type. 1931B.B.C. Year-Bk. 437/2 Bright Emitter, a thermionic valve in which the filament gives its normal emission only when heated to a high temperature so that it glows brightly.
1943Gloss. Terms Telecomm. (B.S.I.) 29 *Bright-emitting cathode, a cathode, usually of pure metal, designed to be used at a relatively high temperature (e.g., above red heat).
1922S. Lewis Babbitt v. 66 A nice expensive vacation in New York..with the *bright lights and the bootlegged cocktails. 1938F. D. Sharpe S. of Flying Squad iv. 43 She went back to live with her mother and promised not to come up again near the bright lights.
1890G. F. Chambers Handbk. Astron. (ed. 4) II. 371 The spectra of *bright-line stars. Ibid. 372 The meteorites in nebulæ giving a bright-line spectrum. 1954R. H. Bomback Basic Leica Technique iii. 39 The most compelling new feature of the Leica M.3 is..the Measuring Bright Line Viewfinder. Ibid. 40 Superimposed on the field of view is the ‘Bright Line’ contour which shows clearly the extent of the image covered by any one of the three standard lenses. 1959Which? Nov. 158/2 One camera had a ‘brightline’ viewfinder—the area of the picture was framed by a white line when seen through the viewfinder.
1841South. Lit. Mess. VII. 769/2 It was a part of my duty..to superintend the cleaning of the *‘bright work’. 1912‘Aurora’ Jock Scott, Midshipman i. 10 The bright-work on the quarter⁓deck..shone like silver. 1933Masefield Conway iii. 92 The lower deck was the show deck... There was..much brasswork and bright-work upon it. 1962Times 25 May 18/5 The external brightwork, including the bumpers [of a motor car].
c. In colloq. phr. bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, alert and enthusiastic; lively or active. [From conventional descriptions of the squirrel (cf. def. at squirrel n. 1 a).] orig. N. Amer.
1953B. Merrill Bright Eyed & Bushy Tailed (song) 2 If the fox in the bush and the squirr'l in the tree be, Why in the world can't you and me be Bright eyed and bushy tailed and sparkelly as we can be. 1968H. Harrison Technicolor Time Machine xiv. 139 You look very bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning. 1975Latin Amer. 5 Sept. 275/3 Arthur Schlesinger returns to his old hobby horse of defending the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed spirit in which he first proposed the Alliance for Progress. 1985Times 13 June 15/1 Britain's largest quoted [investment] trust..has amply demonstrated how successful the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed approach can be.
B. n.
1. Brightness, light. arch. (poet.)
c1250Gen. & Ex. 143 Ðe sunnes briȝt, Is more ðanne ðe mones liȝt. c1374Chaucer Troylus ii. 815 What is the sunne wors of kynd right, Thogh that a man, for feblenes of eyen, May not endure to se on it for bright? 1598Rowlands Betray. Christ 57 O Sunne whose shine is heav'ns eternall bright. 1636Ariana 17 Acknowledging here so much brights and beauties. 1667Milton P.L. iii. 380 Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appeer. 1839Bailey Festus (1848) 59/2 Others..whose forms for utter bright Are indefinable.
†2. A beautiful woman, a ‘fair’. Obs.
c1325E.E. Allit. P. A. 754 Breue me, bryȝt, quat-kyn of priys Berez þe perle so maskellez. c1470Henry Wallace v. 607 Throuch bewte off that brycht. c1505Dunbar Poem, ‘In secreit place this hyndir nycht,’ I hard ane beyrne say till ane bricht.
▪ II. bright, adv.|braɪt|
Forms: 1 beorhte, 2–4 brihte, briȝte.
[from the adj. with adverbial -e, through the loss of which it was, c 1400, levelled with the adj.]
1. a. = brightly.
a1000Beowulf 3039 Geseah blacne leoman beorhte scinan. a1000Metr. Boeth. xxxvii. §2 Ða godan scinað beorhtor þonne sunne. c1200Ormin 2138 Hit swiþe brihhte shineþþ. a1300Cursor M. 8295 Þis angel þat sa bright[e] scan. 1340Ayenb. 156 Grat nyed þet þe man yzy bryte ane his left half. c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 163, ffor sekyrly his face schon so bryhte. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. v. i. 1 The moone shines bright. 1827Keble Chr. Year All Saints vi, The spires that glow so bright. Ibid. S. Peter xiv, He dreams he sees a lamp flash bright.
†b. Clearly, ringingly. Obs.
a1250Owl & Night. 1656 Heo..song so schille and so brihte.
c. Phr. bright and early: very early in the morning. orig. U.S.
1837W. Irving Capt. Bonneville II. ii. 17 Captain Bonneville and his three companions set out, bright and early, to rejoin the main party. 1900Daily News 18 July, Persons desirous of being present at this gathering should be there bright and early. 1926‘J. J. Connington’ Death at Swaythling Court xvi. 286 Next morning I got up bright and early.
2. Comb., as bright-beaming, bright-burning, bright-shining, † bright-splendent. It blends with the adj. in such as bright-dyed, bright-tinted, which may be analysed as bright(ly) + tinted, or bright tint + -ed. See bright a. 10.
1588Shakes. Tit. A. iii. i. 69 What foole hath..brought a faggot to bright burning Troy? c1590Marlowe Faust. vii. 47 The..situation of bright-splendent Rome. 1593Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, v. iii. 3 This bright-shining day. 1795Burns Their groves o' sweet myrtle i, Where bright-beaming summers exalt the perfume.
▪ III. † bright, v. Obs.
[OE. beorhtian to shine bright (corresp. to Goth. *bairhtôn), f. beorht bright; the ME. bright-en (trans.) corresponds to an OE. bierhtan = Goth. bairhtjan; but it may be a transitive extension of the OE. intr. vb.]
1. intr. To be bright, shine.
c890K. ælfred Bæda iii. xix. (Bosw.) Ðær his ᵹeearnunge oft miclum mæᵹenum scinaþ and beorhtiᵹaþ. a1000Ags. Psalms cxliii. 7 Þine liᵹetta leohteð and beorhteð. c1425Seven Sag. (P.) 1997 The clerkys..made ham at ese that nyght, Til on morwen the day bryght.
b. Of sound: To be clear, to ring.
a1000Beowulf 2326 Beorhtode benc-sweᵹ.
2. trans. To make bright, illumine.
a800Vesp. Ps. xli. 9 In deᵹe onbead dryhten mildheortnisse his and on naeht ᵹebirhte. a1225Ancr. R. 384 Luue, þet schireð & brihteð þe heorte. c1400Destr. Troy 815 Ryses the sun, Brightis all the burghe and the brode valis. 1686Goad Celest. Bodies i. v. 14 He [the Sun] brighteth the Air into a chearful Saphir.
▪ IV. bright
bad form of brite v. Obs. |