| 释义 |
▪ I. abyss|əˈbɪs|
Also 4–7 abyssus, abissus.
[ad. L. abyss-us, a. Gr. ἄβυσσος bottomless, n. the deep.]
The older forms in Eng. were abime, abysm from the Fr. The L. abyssus was adopted as a more learned word in 4, and in course of 6, englished as abyss. Thus the word has had five variants, abime, abysm, abysmus, abyssus, abyss; of which abyss remains as the ordinary form, and abysm as archaic or poetic.
1. The great deep, the primal chaos; the bowels of the earth, the supposed cavity of the lower world; the infernal pit. (See abysm.)
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. (1495) xiii. xx. 449 The primordiall and fyrste matere in the begynnynge of the worlde not dystinguyd by certayn fourme is callyd Abyssus..Abyssus is depnesse of water vnseen and therof come and springe welles and ryuers. 1413Lydgate Pylgr. Sowle (1483) iii. x. 56 This pytte is the chyef and the manoyr of helle that is clepid Abissus. 1534Polyd. Verg., Eng. Hist. ii. xii. 56 a, For the desire hereof [gold] they have dygged in the depe bottomlesse abisse of the yerth. 1649Lovelace Poems (1659) 155 Ye blew flam'd daughters oth' Abysse, Bring all your Snakes, here let them hisse. 1704Ray Creation i. 93 Bring up Springs & Rivers from the great Abyss. 1753Chambers Cycl. Suppl. s.v. The existence of an Abyss, or receptacle of subterraneous waters is..defended by Dr. Woodward. 1835Thirlwall Greece I. vi. 198 The abyss of Tartarus, fast secured with iron gates, and a brazen floor.
2. A bottomless gulf; any unfathomable or apparently unfathomable cavity or void space; a profound gulf, chasm, or void extending beneath.
1639Massinger Unnat. Combat ii. i. Were I condemned..to fill up..A bottomless abyss, or charge thro' fire, It could not so much shake me. 1667Milton P.L. vii. 212 They viewed the vast immeasurable abyss Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild. 1794Sullivan View of Nat. I. 30 How striking the profundity of the abysses! the frightful elevation of the rocks! 1831Scott Anne of G. ii. 25 I can see the part of the path lying down in the abyss. 1873Sir J. Herschel Pop. Lect. ii. §4. 50 That awful abyss which separates us from the stars.
3. fig.
1619H. Hutton Follie's Anat. (1842) 18 And in th' abysse of vintners chalked score, Shipwrack good fortune. 1620Shelton Don Quixote IV. xxi. 167 You have flung it into the Abissus of Silence. 1621Bacon in Four Cents. Eng. Lett. (1881) 43 Your majesty's heart, which is an abyssus of goodness, as I am an abyssus of misery. 1632Sanderson 21 Serm. Ad. Mag. (1673) 280 There is an abyssus, a depth in thy heart which thou canst not fathom with all the line thou hast. 1686Dryden Hind & Panther 66 Thy throne is darkness in the abyss of light, A blaze of glory that forbids the sight. 1796Burke Reg. Peace i. Wks. VIII. 80 Some of them seemed plunged in unfathomable abysses of disgrace. 1871F. T. Palgrave Lyr. Poems 101 Into the dismal abysses Where outworn centuries lie.
4. ‘Abyss is also used in heraldry, to denote the centre of an escutcheon.’ Chambers Cycl. Suppl. 1753. (Fr. une fleur de lis en abîme, Littré.)
▪ II. abyss, v.|əˈbɪs|
[f. abyss n.]
To swallow up in an abyss, to engulf.
c1860Lowell Poet. Wks. 1879, 381 The drooping sea-weed hears, in night abyssed..the wave's receding shock. |