| 释义 |
ˈsilentness
[f. silent a. + -ness.]
1. Maintenance of silence; avoidance of speech or utterance; reticence; speechlessness.
a1623Ainsworth Annot. Ps. xl. 3 [= xxxix. 2] With stillnesse, or, silentnesse. 1727Bailey (vol. II.), Silentness, silence. 1817Byron Lament Tasso v, And if my eyes reveal'd it, they, alas! Were punish'd by the silentness of thine. 1836Mrs. Browning Poet's Vow v. iv, I charge thee, by the living's prayer, And the dead's silentness. 1882Mrs. Craik Little Mother ii. 39 Dorcas with her silentness and careworn face.
transf.1860Faber Bethlehem iii. (1865) 153 There was something in the silentness of His look, which compelled worship.
2. The condition of being silent or still; absence of sound or noise; silence, stillness, noiselessness, quietness. Chiefly poet.
1795Coleridge Anc. Mar. vi. xvii, The moonlight steeped in silentness The steady weathercock. 1813Shelley Q. Mab viii. 74 Where the shrill chirp of the green lizard's love Broke on the sultry silentness alone. 1849Tait's Mag. XVI. 105 The tingling silentness of solemn midnight..lulled the spirit. 1886Ruskin Præterita I. vi. 201 The smooth pavement under the wheels adding with its silentness to the sense of dream wonder in it all.
b. With a.
1819J. H. Wiffen Aonian Hours 88 A sound beneath—a silentness above. 1865Cornh. Mag. XI. 360 In the keen cold air There was a hush, a sleepless silentness. |