| 释义 |
▪ I. sombre, a. and n.|ˈsɒmbə(r)|
[a. F. sombre, of uncertain origin: cf. Sp. and Pg. sombrio, f. sombra shade. See also sombrous a.]
A. adj.
1. Of inanimate natural objects and their attributes: Characterized by the presence of gloom or shadow; depressingly dark, dusky, or obscure.
1760H. Walpole Lett. (1845) IV. 85 Painted ceilings, inlaid floors, and unpainted wainscots make every room sombre. 1777W. Dalrymple Trav. Sp. & Port. cxxxii, This city..had a sombre and poor appearance. 1792A. Young Trav. France 184 This coast..dark, gloomy, and silent;—a savage sombre air spread over the whole. 1816Scott Old Mort. xliii, The first shoot..of the yet unbroken stream, and the deep and sombre abyss into which it was emptied. 1860Maury Phys. Geog. xv. §674 The sombre skies and changeable weather of our latitudes. 1882M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal vi, The dining-room was sombre and substantial.
2. Of persons, their appearance, etc.: Gloomy, lowering, dark and sullen or dejected.
a1767Grainger Ode Solitude 52 Late in Hagley you were seen, With blood-shed eyes, and sombre mien. 1823Byron Island iii. vi, Till lifting up again his sombre eye, It glanced on Torquil. 1865Baring-Gould Werewolves vi. 75 The man..was a sombre ill-looking fellow.
b. Of thoughts, feelings, etc.: Melancholy, dismal, darksome.
1821J. Baillie Met. Leg., Ghost Fadon xxii, All Remain'd in sombre mood. 1832Downes Lett. Contin. Countr. I. 390 The entire shore is lined with dilapidated edifices, which would, under other circumstances, have awakened sombre reflections. 1877Mrs. Oliphant Makers Florence xii. (1877) 297 No doubt it cast a gleam of sombre hope upon his confinement.
3. Conveying gloomy ideas or suggestions.
1768Sterne Sent. Journ., Hotel at Paris, Beshrew the sombre pencil! said I vauntingly. a1854H. Reed Lect. Eng. Lit. x. (1878) 334 Sombre as the poem at first appears, it works its way on to happy hopes. 1874L. Stephen Hours Libr. (1892) II. ii. 56 Such sketches are a pleasant relief to his more sombre portraiture.
4. Of colours or colouring: Of a dark shade or tinge; dark, dull.
1805Wilkes Mem. II. 175 The olive-tree..is a sombre brown, when one expects a green. 1835J. Duncan Beetles (Nat. Lib.) 186 Those [insects] that derive their nourishment from decomposed vegetables are usually of a sombre hue. 1866Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xxii. 577 Ecclesiastics and persons of gravity affected sombre colours.
b. Of things in respect of colour. (Cf. 1.)
1829Griffith tr. Cuvier VIII. 315 Sombre Plover, Charadrius Fuscus. 1839G. Bird Nat. Philos. 333 The chloride of silver..becomes of a deep slate colour in the violet, and in the sombre space beyond it. 1851G. Brimley Ess. 158 He had originally a fine sombre complexion. 1872Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 152 A sombre garb was worn by the nuns, and coarse cowls by the friars.
5. Comb., as sombre-clad, sombre-coloured, sombre-minded, sombre-looking adjs.
1850Lynch Theoph. Trinal v. 85 Dissatisfied, querulous, sombre-minded persons. 1872Jenkinson Guide English Lakes (1879) 337 A wild and sombre-looking mass of rocks and precipices. 1889S. J. Hickson Naturalist in N. Celebes 214 The pious and sombre-clad Christian natives. 1899Mackail W. Morris II. 191 The vast sombre-coloured crowd.
B. n. Sombre character; sombreness. rare.
1795H. M. Williams Lett. France I. 164 Fonfrede and Ducos relieved the sombre of the piece by the habitual liveliness of their characters. 1811Henry & Isabella I. 285 A deep sombre spread itself over every thing.
▪ II. sombre, v.|ˈsɒmbə(r)|
[f. sombre a.]
1. trans. To make sombre.
1787A. Hilditch Rosa II. 52 Life, like..the iris bow, is beheld glowing in vivid charms, or sombred by gloom. 1807Sir R. Wilson in Life (1862) II. vii. 208 Our entertainment was somewhat sombred by the intelligence. 1825Blackw. Mag. XVII. 44 The midnight moon Looks sombred o'er the forests. 1873Morley Rousseau I. 315 One..whose imagination, already sombred by the triumphant cruelty and superstition which raged around him, was suddenly struck with horror.
2. intr. To become or grow sombre.
1848Tait's Mag. XV. 422 The picture sombred. 1893Temple Bar XCIX. 43 Day again had sombred into night.
Hence ˈsombred, ˈsombring ppl. adjs.
1849Whittier Lakeside 28 This lake..Walled round with sombering pines. 1873Masson Drumm. of Hawth. xx. 453 The russet and the yellow coming in patches amid the doubly sombred green. |