| 释义 |
▪ I. rambling, vbl. n.|ˈræmblɪŋ|
[f. ramble v. + -ing1.]
The action of the vb., in its various senses. Also in pl.
1624Massinger Parl. Love v. i, For this gallant, sir, I do confess I cooled him—spoiled his rambling. 1640W. S[tyle] tr. De Antisco Span. Gallant 126 Hee..ought to provide, that hee doe not often repeate the same words,..(which is that which is called rambling). a1704T. Brown Imit. 1st Sat. Persius Wks. 1730 I. 54 When such wild ramblings got him some poor fame. 1745Pococke Descr. East II. ii. iii. 277 Rambling makes little alteration in the mind, unless proper care be taken to improve it. 1833Tennyson Miller's Dau. 105 Oft in ramblings on the wold,..I saw the village lights below. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 543 Rambling of the mind and delirium.
b. attrib. and Comb., as rambling age, rambling club, etc.
1673Wycherley Gent. Dancing-Master i. i, To confine a woman just in her rambling age! 1902Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 682/2 Sketching clubs and rambling clubs are formed among young people. 1974Country Life 7 Mar. 471/3 Many rambling clubs..[are] printing on their club programmes that dogs must be kept on a lead on farm land.
▪ II. rambling, ppl. a.|ˈræmblɪŋ|
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That rambles, in various senses of the vb.
1. a. Of persons or things: Wandering, moving about, straying from one place to another.
1623Massinger Bondman ii. i, Your rambling hunt-smock feels strange alteration. a1652J. Smith Sel. Disc. iii. 53 How these moveable and rambling atoms come to place themselves so orderly in the universe. 1711Addison Spect. No. 129 ⁋1 Hunting about the whole Town after a rambling Fellow. 1741Richardson Pamela I. xvi. (1824) 257 A kind of rambling rheumatism. 1819Shelley Cyclops 58 Get along, you horned thing, Wild, seditious, rambling.
b. Of life, etc.: Characterized by wandering.
1699W. Dampier Voy. II. Pref., My first Entrance upon this Rambling kind of Life. 1718Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Abbé Conti 19 May, I am on the point of removing. Such is my rambling destiny. 1787Cowper On Bill Mortality i, All these, life's rambling journey done, Have found their home, the grave.
2. a. Of the thoughts, mind, etc.: Straying from one subject to another; unsettled.
1635Quarles Embl. iv. xii, What unwonted way Has 'scap'd the ransack of my rambling thought. 1700J. A. Astry tr. Saavedra-Faxardo II. 194 Those Means which their rambling and unquiet Minds prompt 'em to. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. i, My Head began to be fill'd very early with rambling Thoughts. a1839Praed Poems (1864) II. 14 An opiate for a rambling head.
b. Similarly of speech, discourse, writings, etc.
c1645Howell Lett. (1650) I. 345 It may seem a rambling wild speech at first view. 1691Bentley Phal. Introd. (1699) 17 A Man of much rambling Learning. 1713Steele Guard. No. 34 ⁋1 The conversation..was so very rambling that it is hard to say what was talked of. 1837Disraeli Venetia i. x, A long rambling ghost story. 1872Black Adv. Phaeton viii. 120 Rambling reminiscences of theatres.
c. Of persons: Given to wandering in thought or discourse.
1693J. Edwards Author. O. & N. Test. 124 The usual mistake of the rambling poets. 1774J. Bryant Mythol. II. 365 Nonnus is a rambling writer and unacquainted with method. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 681 The patient became mildly demented, rambling in speech, and defective in memory.
3. Of plants: Straggling, spreading or climbing freely and irregularly.
1728–46Thomson Spring 795 O'er his ample sides the rambling sprays Luxuriant shoot. 1807Crabbe Sir Eustace Grey, I've hung upon the ridgy steep Of cliffs and held the rambling briar. 1882Garden 11 Feb. 93/1 One of the creeping or rambling species.
4. Having an irregular straggling form or plan.
c1702C. Fiennes Journeys (1947) 152 There are no good houses but what are old rambling ones [in Bury St. Edmunds]. 1790Loiterer 2 Jan. 10 C― Castle is a wretched, irregular, heavy, and rambling pile of building. 1816Jane Austen Emma III. vi. 93 The house was..rambling and irregular. 1836F. Witts Diary 12 July (1978) 115 A large rambling mansion first built in the close of the 17th century. 1849C. Brontë Shirley I. x. 288 [The house] was antique, rambling, and incommodious. 1858Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-bks. (1872) I. 16 This narrow, crowded, and rambling street. |