| 释义 |
priceless, a.|ˈpraɪslɪs|
Also 6 prise-, 7 prizelesse, 8 -less.
[f. price n. + -less.]
1. a. ‘Without price’; having a value beyond all price or equivalent; invaluable, inestimable.
1593Shakes. Lucr. 17 What priselesse wealth the heauens had him lent In the possession of his beauteous mate. 1607T. Walkington Opt. Glass 13 Crasie barkes,..ballist with prizelesse marchandise. c1616Fletcher & Mass. Thierry & Theod. ii. i, His ignorance of the priceless jewel. 1735–6Thomson Liberty ii. 227 Tutor of Athens! he in ev'ry street Dealt priceless treasure. 1863Bright Sp., Amer. 3 Feb. (1876) 116 That priceless possession which we have perhaps more clearly established..that of personal freedom.
b. With mixture of literal sense ‘having no market price; that cannot be obtained for money’.
1884Fortn. Rev. Jan. 34 Those gifts that cannot be purchased with money, that are priceless. 1888Lady 25 Oct. 374/2 These [stencil-plates]..are priceless, not to be bought in common shops.
2. Having no value; valueless, worthless. rare.
1771Muse in Min. 60 Beauty that prizeless pageant of a day. 1847Webster, Priceless...2. Without value; worthless or unsalable. J. Barlow.
3. colloq. Amusing, absurd, ludicrous; delightful.
1907Punch 23 Jan. 59 Lady Bountiful: Oh, dear Miss Smith, do send me some of your priceless little sketches for my rummage sale on the 26th. 1914D. O. Barnett Let. 19 Nov. (1915) 11 There was a priceless ‘drunk’ here the other day when I was on guard... He made the most magnificent remarks en route and so did the chaps who were carrying him. 1921G. B. Shaw Back to Methuselah ii. 87 What a priceless humbug old Lubin is! 1924D. Moore Fen's First Term xii. 127 She had been a ‘priceless idiot’. 1925‘R. Crompton’ Still—William xi. 201 ‘I do hope I remember all this when I wake up,’ said the Toreador, ‘it's too priceless.’ 1978S. Naipaul North of South i. i. 29 The European..burst out laughing... ‘Can you imagine how they must have..rolled their eyes? Absolutely priceless.’
Hence ˈpricelessly adv.; ˈpricelessness, inestimable value.
1879Trollope Eye for Eye II. i. 13 There came a day in which the pricelessness of the girl he loved sank to nothing. 1883Century Mag. XXVI. 804 The pricelessness of water in a land where no rain falls during six months. 1910G. Murray tr. Euripides' Iphigenia in Tauris 62 Brother, and home, and sister pricelessly Beloved. 1934G. B. Shaw On Rocks i. 222 You see, what makes your diagnosis so pricelessly funny to me is that as a matter of fact my life has been a completely intellectual life, and my training the finest intellectual training in the world. 1977J. B. Hilton Dead-Nettle vi. 61 Frank, you are pricelessly sweet. |