| 释义 |
sensual, a. and n.|ˈsɛnsjuːəl, -ʃuːəl|
Also 5–7 sensuall, 5 sensuel.
[ad. late L. sensuālis, f. L. sensu-s sense n.: see -al1. Cf. F. sensuel, Sp., Pg. sensual, It. sensuale.]
A. adj.
1. a. Of or pertaining to the senses or physical sensation; sensory. Now rare.
c1450Mirour Saluacioun 3346 So kept he the seints in helle with out payne sensuel felyng. c1450Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.) 240 Thryes I tempte hym be ryth sotylle instawnce, Aftyr he fast fourty days ageyns sensual myth or reson. 1509Watson Ship of Fools i. (1517) A ij b, Where through I myghte lese my sensuall intellygence, for he that procureth too knowe ouermoche..is in daunger for to be extraught from hymself [etc.]. Ibid. xviii. E iij b, It is impossyble yt his sensuall wyt may comprehende, and haue so many dyuers cogytacyons in an instaunte. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 151 The beestes..be made tame..: that is to say, the sensuall powers of man or woman, whiche by synne euer rebelled..be made obedyent to y⊇ spiryte. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. xi. §4 Man doth seeke a triple perfection, first, a sensuall,..then an intellectuall..lastly a spirituall & diuine. 1604T. Wright Passions 229 Raging Mastives who, if they were loosed, one at another, they would fight till death, whereas in presence of the Bull..they..both, eyther by sensuall consent or naturall instinct, unite themselves in one to assault their common adversary. 1652Benlowes Theoph. iv. lxxiii, Let not dust blinde my sensual Eyes When as my spirits Energie transcends the skies. 1732Pope Ess. Man i. 208 Far as Creation's ample range extends, The scale of sensual, mental pow'rs ascends. 1742Young Nt. Th. vii. 739 The wide stretcht realm of intellectual woe, Surpassing sensual far, is all our own. 1794E. Darwin Zoon. I. 11 Synonymous with the word idea, we shall sometimes use the words sensual motion in contradistinction to muscular motion. 1820Keats Ode Grec. Urn 13 Ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but more endear'd, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone. 1846I. Williams Bapt., Voices of Dead, But still the wall impassable Bars us around with sensual bond. 1881Williamson in Nature 1 Sept. 414/1 The process of scientific investigation includes a great variety of operations, which may be considered under three headings, mental, sensual, and physical.
b. Perceptible by the senses. rare.
1529More Dyaloge iii. Wks. 243/2 Sometime as God, sometime as man,..sometime as in y⊇ persone of his sensuall parties of his own body, otherwhile in y⊇ person of some particular part of his body mystical. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1824) I. 245 A man born deaf must necessarily be dumb; and his whole sphere of knowledge must be bounded only by sensual objects. 1836Mrs. Browning Poet's Vow i. x, But, weights and shows of sensual things Too closely crossing him, On his soul's eyelid the pressure slid, And made its vision dim.
†2. Of living things: Endowed with the faculty of sensation (but not with reason). Obs.
1530Rastell Bk. Purgat. iii. vii. 2 A soule sensytive whiche is in every brute sensuall best. 1696Tate & Brady Ps. xlix. 20 As like a sensual Beast he lives, So like a Beast he dies.
3. Of appetites and pleasures: Connected with the gratification of the senses.
a. In neutral use: Sensuous, physical. Now rare.
1542Boorde Dyetary xii. (1870) 267 Clowtyd crayme..is eaten more for a sensuall appetyde than for any good nowrysshement. 1618Wither Motto, Nec curo (1621) D 8 b, I care not for his loue. My dogge doth so; He loues, as farre as sensuall loue can go. 1650Bulwer Anthropomet. 239 Some unassayed sensual sweetnesse. 1740Cibber Apol. (1756) I. 303 This kind of entertainment [opera] being so entirely sensual, it had no possibility of getting the better of our reason but by its novelty. 1752Hume Polit. Disc. ii. 37 No gratification, however sensual, can, of itself, be esteemed vicious. 1797D. Simpson Plea Relig (1808) 190 The Gospel..allows every sensual enjoyment that is consistent with the real good..of man. 1834Marryat P. Simple i, My father walked up and down the room with impatience, because he was kept from his dinner, and, like all orthodox divines, he was tenacious of the only sensual enjoyment permitted to his cloth.
b. In pejorative use, implying the notion of something base or vicious. Now often, Lewd, unchaste.
1477Rolls of Parlt. VI. 191/1 Persones not dredyng God,..but enclyned of sensuall appetite. a1513Fabyan Chron. v. cxxxii. (1811) 114 He was gyuen to all sensuall luste of his body. a1541Wyatt in Tottel's Misc. (Arb.) 224 See thou kepe thee free From the foule yoke of sensuall bondage. 1634Milton Comus 77 They..all their friends, and native home forget To roule with pleasure in a sensual stie. 1645Hammond Sins Weakn. etc. §23. 13 From whence..sinne is brought forth, that very consent of the will to the sensuall faculty, being formally sinne without, or before the acting of it. 1732Berkeley Alciphr. ii. §17 Intervals of spleen; for relief of which he is driven into sensual excesses. 1850Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. ix. (1853) 114 The sensual pleasure of the glutton.
4. Of persons, their dispositions, conduct, etc.
a. Absorbed in the life of the senses; indifferent to intellectual and moral interests. In religious use: Destitute of spiritual life, worldly, irreligious. Now only in phr. the average sensual man (see average a. 2 b).
1557Bible (Genev.) James iii. 15 This wisdome is earthy, sensual [so later versions; Tindale, etc. have natural] and dyuelyshe. 1582N. T. (Rhem.) 1 Cor. ii. 14 The sensual [1611 naturall] man perceiueth not those things that are of the spirit of God. Ibid., Jude 19 These are they which segregate themselues, sensual, hauing not the Spirit. 1599Davies Nosce Teipsum 95 As some sensuall spirits amongst vs..Which hold the world to come, a faigned stage. 1656Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. i. v. 12 [He trusts] the Senat willingly with the revenge of any injury he can receive, when sensual men are very loath to remit the like into the hands of God. a1676Hale Prim. Orig. Man. iv. v. (1677) 333 Sensual Men are not willing to believe any thing whereby they have not a sufficient Evidence, as they think, to their Sense. 1677Gale Crt. Gentiles iv. ii. ii. 216 The brutish sensual World began to cal in question the very existence and providence of God. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 178 ⁋11 The gratifications of the palate; an entertainment so far removed from intellectual happiness, that scarcely the most shameless of the sensual herd have dared to defend it. 1882M. Arnold Irish Ess. 230 But this whole drama..may be best described as the theatre of the homme sensuel moyen, the average sensual man,..whose city is Paris, and whose ideal is the free, gay, pleasurable life of Paris.
b. Excessively inclined to the gratification of the senses, voluptuous; often spec. with reference to sexual passion, lewd, unchaste. Of physiognomy or features: Indicative of a sensual disposition.
1530Palsgr. 323/2 Sensuall gyven to vyce, epicurien. 1637Raleigh Mahomet 65 Don Roderigo..began to repent him of his sensuall life. 1692R. L'Estrange Fables cxxvi. 118 These Wasps in a Hony-Pot are so many Sensual Men that are Plung'd in their Lusts and Pleasures. 1694Atterbury Serm. (1726) I. 190 The Sensual Man is, of all Men living, the most improper for Enquiries after Truth. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Sensual, Voluptuous, given to Pleasures, Carnal or Fleshly. 1712Steele Spect. No. 466 ⁋5 Were any one to see Mariamne dance, let him be never so sensual a Brute, I defie him to entertain any Thoughts but of the highest Respect and Esteem towards her. 1876Gladstone Homeric Synchr. 246 Homer has exhibited much repugnance to the sensual deity of Aphrodite. 1881H. Smart Race for Wife i, By nature coarse and sensual in his habits. 1905R. Bagot Passport xxv. 268 The full mouth, with the sensual lips.
¶c. Misused for: Obstinately self-willed. Obs.
1524Wolsey in St. Papers Hen. VIII, IV. 198 The realme of Scotland, by taking sensuall and wilfull waies, shal soner chose to lyve in warre trouble inquietnes and adversite, than to florishe in joye [etc.]. 1538Ibid. III. 36 His Lordshipp afterwarde despysid and maligned at the Kinges said Privaye Counsaile, following censuall and wilfull waies. 1539Earl Ormond Ibid. III. 150 My Lorde Deputie..hath broght the successes of his sensuall apetittis and wilfull procedinges now to such pass and effect, that [etc.]. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 31 If any lawe or reason could have removed you from your sensuall opinions, ye have ben many and often tymes sufficientely aunswered to the same. 1584Burghley in Strype Whitgift App. iii. (1718) 64, I favour no sensual & wilful Recusants.
5. a. Of opinions or ideas: Materialistic.
1656Jeanes Mixt. Schol. Div. 48 Austin told his friend Alipius, and Nebridius, that Epicurus his sensuall doctrine had with him carried away the garland from all Philosophers and Divines; unlesse [etc.]. 1830D'Israeli Chas. I, III. xv. 329 Moses..only accommodated such figurative expressions to the sensual comprehensions of his tribes. 1845S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. vi. ix. III. 569 Views, at once transcendent and sensual, of the mission of a Messiah. 1871Alabaster Wheel of Law 67 He gives his own views of the common sensual idea of heaven.
b. Philos. = sensational a. 2. rare.
1837–9Hallam Lit. Eur. iii. iii. §94 The sensual and ideal schools of psychology.
†B. n. pl. Obs.
1. a. The sensual faculties and appetites. b. The objects of sense.
a1661Fuller Worthies, Hants (1662) ii. 8 His Intellectuals had such predominancy of his Sensuals, or rather Grace so ruled in both, that the Man in him being subordinate to the Christian, he lived a pattern of Piety. a1676Hale Prim. Orig. Man. iv. viii. (1677) 375 The objects, means, and occasions of our fears in relation to sensuals, are ever more and greater than the objects of our hopes.
2. Beings capable only of sensation, brutes.
1605Timme Quersit. Ded. 2 The souls of men and angels are reasonable;..and the sensuals (as beasts and such like) not so. a1644Quarles Sol. Recant. iii. 18 (1645) 14 Heav'n suffers mortals to be exercis'd In their own miseries, that they may see They'r not more happy then the sensuals bee. |