| 释义 |
deadness|ˈdɛdnɪs|
The condition or quality of being dead, in various senses:
1. lit.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 481 To Pluto and to the Earth, they sacrificed black Sheep or Lambs, in token of deadnesse. a1716South Serm. VII. i. (R.), Cursing it [the barren fig-tree] to deadness with a word. 1764Woolcomb in Phil. Trans. LX. 97 A numbness and deadness of his little..finger. 1881C. M. Yonge Lads & Lasses Langley ii. 95 The man that..gets the creeping deadness in his bones.
2. fig.
1611Bible Rom. iv. 19 The deadnesse of Saraes wombe. c1620Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) 121 They Have bloodlesse cheekes, and deadnesse in their eyes. a1628Preston Saints Daily Exerc. (1629) 74 What is a man to doe when hee findes a great indisposition to prayer..a dulnesse, and deadnesse in him. 1642Petition in Clarendon Hist. Reb. iv. (1843) 165/2 By the deadness of trade. 1738Wesley Wks. (1872) I. 162 Hence my deadness and wanderings in public prayer. 1749G. Lavington Enthus. Methodists (1754) II. 55 Spiritual Desertions, inward Deadnesses. 1883H. Drummond Nat. Law in Spir. W. v. (1884) 160 The spiritual deadnèss of humanity.
b. The state of being dead to something.
1745Wesley Answ. Ch. 7 Your Deadness to the World. 1786F. Burney Diary 17 Sept., The deadness of the whole Court to talents and genius. 1858Bushnell Nat. & Supernat. xiv, Deadness to God and all holy things.
3. Want of some characteristic physical quality; absence of lustre or colour, dullness; want of taste; flatness, insipidity, etc.
1707–16J. Mortimer (J.), Deadness or flatness in cyder. 1785S. Fielding Ophelia I. xix, I had perceived..deadness in the best complexions. |