| 单词 | plain |
| 释义 | plain I. intransitive verb 1. archaic 2. archaic < wind went … plaining over the barren moor — Mary Linskill > transitive verb archaic II. archaic III. 1. a. < from the ecological viewpoint there is no essential distinction between … prairie and plains — F.E.Clements & V.E.Shelford > b. < the plain of the ocean floor may be broken by long deep troughs — C.M.Nevin > c. < looking far over the mystic plain of the waves — William Black > < a flat featureless snow plain — G. de Q. Robin > 2. archaic a. < lead forth my soldiers to the plain — Shakespeare > b. 3. < nature and art, the plain and the precious — J.H.Hagstrum > specifically — a usually wool or cotton fabric of plain weave and solid color < fine plains … usually are finer yarn, higher thread-count cloths than print cloths — John Hoye > IV. 1. obsolete a. < his back is plain to his tail — Edward Topsell > b. 2. a. archaic < make the rougher places plain — Catherine Winkworth > b. of a merino sheep < a plain-bodied ewe > 3. a. < a New England country church is traditionally a rather plain building with a thin spire — Robert Holland > b. heraldry 4. < takes his whiskey with plain water > < the plain colors … give such freshness to her work — Yankee > specifically 5. a. archaic < give … battle in the plain sea — John Speed > b. < pastured out on the moors in plain sight of us — Martha Kean > 6. a. (1) < stared at him coldly, hatred and contempt very plain in her face — Irwin Shaw > < the facts are undoubted; they are plain matters of history — E.A.Freeman > < she's wild about him — it's as plain as the nose on your face > (2) < makes it … plain that events develop quite independently of the people they affect — C.H.Rickword > < what, in plain words, is the morality of culture — J.C.Powys > b. < to be plain with you, I will sing none — Izaak Walton > < an impressive honesty and a good deal of plain speaking — Alan Bullock > c. < made no attempt to harangue his listeners but stuck to the plain facts > < plain anger seized me — Arthur Grimble > 7. a. < the plain people everywhere … wish to live in peace with one another — F.D.Roosevelt > b. (1) < writes not for musical specialists … but for the plain operagoer — Ernest Newman > < plain common sense tells us that … gold and silver are practically useless except for what they will procure — W.P.Webb > (2) < lost only one trick in each of the plain suits — C.H.Goren > c. < just plain folks — homespun, guileless and democratic — Thomas Pyles > < as plain as an old shoe in dress, mannerisms, and the way he runs his business — Time > d. < every cent of tax money had to be put to some good plain use — Dorothy C. Fisher > e. < the use of thee and thy is characteristic of the plain language > 8. a. of musical harmony < the harmonic underpinning is a little plain — Virgil Thomson > b. < plain home cooking > c. of cloth (1) (2) d. of paper or board (1) (2) 9. a. < a plain woman with a face as hardy and simple and serviceable as the house — Rebecca West > b. of livestock < a boar with a plain head > Synonyms: < had no eccentricity even to take him out of the common run; he was just a good, dull, honest, plain man — W.S.Maugham > < a plain two-story frame house > — and may suggest elegance < his brown stockings … were of a fine texture; his shoes and buckles, too, though plain, were trim — Charles Dickens > or frugality < a plain skirt of serviceable gray flannel > With reference to personal appearance it suggests lack of positive characteristics, contrasting with beautiful but implying no positive ugliness < was not a plain woman, and she might have been very pretty still — Ellen Glasgow > In reference to houses, furniture, food, and other elements of domesticity, homely sometimes suggests homey and may indicate comfortable informality without ostentation < his secluded wife ever smiling and cheerful, his little comfortable lodgings, snug meals, and homely evenings, had all the charms of novelty and secrecy — W.M.Thackeray > It may connote warmth and simplicity < a book-learned language, wholly remote from anything personal, native, or homely — Willa Cather > With reference to appearance homely in American but not usually in British usage often falls between plain and ugly < she was certainly not bad-looking now and she could never have been so homely as she imagined — Edmund Wilson > simple may occasionally differ slightly from plain in implying choice rather than compulsive circumstance < what was then called the simple life … is recognizable as the austere luxury of a very cultivated poet — Agnes Repplier > < a monk of Lindisfarne, so simple and lowly in temper that he traveled on foot on his long mission journeys — J.R.Green > unpretentious, stressing lack of vanity or affectation, may praise a person but depreciate a possession < an unpretentious family doctor without the specialist's curt loftiness > < an unpretentious and battered old car > Synonym: see in addition evident, frank, level. V. 1. obsolete < the pavement thus laid is to be plained and polished — Philemon Holland > 2. of glass VI. < preached that it was just plain wrong for some people, by tricks and wiles, to get a stranglehold on business — F.L.Allen > < the tiny snap as he closed the book came plain to the colonel's ears — A.B.Mayse > VII. chiefly dialect < the house was plumb plain deserted, as anybody could see — Helen Eustis > |
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