| 释义 |
crabbedness|ˈkræbɪdnɪs|
[f. as prec. + -ness.]
The quality of being crabbed.
1. Crookedness, perversity or refractoriness of disposition, fractiousness (obs.); ill-nature; harshness; asperity or sourness of temper.
1413Lydg. Pilg..Sowle iv. xx. 66 O deth..bytter art thou and ful of crabbydnesse. 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 472 Throw crabitnes with gret crudelitie. 1598Florio, Peruersita, peruersenes, frowardnes, crabbednes. 1765T. Hutchinson Hist. Col. Mass. Bay I. 187 The natural crabbedness of his wife's temper. 1888J. K. Laughton in Dict. Nat. Biog. XVI. 96/1 The sweetness of temper which everybody loves, or the crabbedness of will which everybody fears.
2. Ruggedness, roughness, asperity; rugged or perverse intricacy of language, questions, etc.
1546Langley Pol. Verg. De Invent. i. ix. 19 a, Menander & Philemon..aswaged al the crabbetnesse of the olde wrytinges. 1563Golding Cæsar (1565) 213 b, The crabbednesse of the wayes were a let to hym. 1579Fenton Guicciard. ix. (1599) 391 The crabbednesse of the season may suffice to detaine vs. 1691Wood Ath. Oxon. I. 319 Leaving the crabbedness of Logick..he became..Herald. 1883F. M. Crawford Dr. Claudius i. 9 Like his uncle's sexagenarian crabbedness of hieroglyphic.
†3. Harshness or asperity of taste. Obs.
1715Pancirollus' Rerum Mem. II. v. 298 Sugar..mollifies the Acrimony, and makes meek the Crabbedness of tart and sour things. |