| 释义 |
smoothen, v.|ˈsmuːð(ə)n|
[f. smooth a. + -en5.
In frequent use c 1820–30, esp. by Landor.]
1. trans. To reduce the force, harshness, or violence of (something); to assuage, mollify, tone down (a passion, etc.).
1635R. N. tr. Camden's Hist. Eliz. i. 55 The heate of warre..was rather smoothened than any firm peace knit. 1724Welton Chr. Faith & Pract. 403 The government of our appetites..must needs smoothen and civilize any temper. c1816Fuseli Lect. on Art (1848) 515 The general tone..smoothens the whirlwind that fluctuates on the foreground, and gives an air of temperance to the whole. 1829Landor Imag. Conv. Wks. 1853 I. 559/1 For the foundation of civility it is requisite that all malignity be smoothened.
2. To make easy or plain; to clear (a way), to free from difficulty, obstruction, etc.; to lighten or lessen (a difficulty).
1648Howell Twelve Treat. (1661) 375 To smoothen and faciliate things, thereby to open a passage, and pave the way to a happy peace. 1795Ann. Reg., Hist. 108 [It] would have smoothened the road to a general pacification. 1829Landor Imag. Conv. Wks. 1853 I. 443/1 That I may smoothen the path to arrangements of great advantage to thee. 1857T. Flanagan Hist. Ch. in Eng. II. 42 To smoothen matters to the uttermost Dr. Milner made an ample apology.
3. a. To make (a surface, substance, etc.) smooth, level, even, calm, etc.; to free from roughness or inequality.
1678Moxon Mech. Exerc. iv. 73 [The paring-chisel's] office is..to pare off and smoothen the irregularities the Former [plane] made. 1683Ibid., Printing xiii. ⁋3 He goes about to Flat and Smoothen the Face. 1772J. R. Forster tr. Kalm's Trav. I. 341 They..scraped off the burnt part of the wood, and smoothened the boat within. 1798Landor Gebir Wks. 1853 II. 490/1 There spreads a marble squared And smoothen'd. 1820W. Scoresby Acc. Arctic Reg. II. 354 The remarkable property of oil in smoothening the surface of the sea. 1890W. J. Gordon Foundry 142 Then we see the furrows smoothened on a stone wheel.
transf.1864Burton Scot Abroad I. ii. 91 In France..the sharp contour of their name [sc. Kennedy] was smoothened into Cenedy. 1868Browning Ring & Bk. I. i. 1181 Language that goes as easy as a glove O'er good and evil smoothens both to one.
b. Const. away, back, down, off, out, over.
1680Moxon Mech. Exer. xiii. 221 They cut down and smoothen away the Extuberances left by the Sharp-pointed Grooving Tool. 1821Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 111 Some may..cut-hedge and lawn adore, Which his shears have smoothen'd o'er. Ibid. II. 66 Oft I've seen thy little leg..Smoothen down thy silken sides. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. I. 57 This [pile] is called the ‘cast-shadow’, and must not have its lower edge smoothened off. 1913R. Kane Good Friday to Easter Sunday iii. 126 She may smoothen back His hair, thick and heavy with crimson moisture. 1945N. Collins London belongs to Me ii. xx. 189 The sound which it made as he smoothened it out flat.
4. intr. To become smooth.
1888McCarthy & Praed Ladies' Gallery I. i. 15 His chest expanded, his skin smoothened.
Hence smoothened |ˈsmuːð(ə)nd|, ppl. a.; smoothening |ˈsmuːð(ə)nɪŋ|, vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1818Blackw. Mag. IV. 45 Every bit of the smoothened, polished..body, thanks a different artist for its ornament. 1841Browning Pippa Passes Poems (1905) 176 The soft⁓rinded smoothening facile chalk That yields your outline to the air's embrace. 1846Landor Imag. Conv. Wks. 1853 II. 61/2, I should be sorry to destroy..or even to remove the smoothened plank. 1887Amer. Naturalist XXI. 435 The first step in improvement gained from the chard beets was a smoothening of the root. |