| 释义 |
definite, a. (n.)|ˈdɛfɪnɪt|
Also 6 diffynite, 7 definit.
[ad. L. dēfīnīt-us defined, bounded, limited, distinct, precise, pa. pple. of dēfīnīre: see define. Cf. obs. F. définit, -ite (1504 in Godef.).]
1. Having fixed or exact limits; clearly defined, determinate, fixed, certain; exact, precise. (Of material, or, more commonly, immaterial things.)
1553T. Wilson Rhet. 1 Either it is an infinite question and without ende, or els it is definite and comprehended within some ende..Those questions are called definite, which set forthe a matter, with the..namyng of place, tyme, and persone. a1586Sidney (J.), The goddess, who in a definite compass can set forth infinite beauty. 1644Milton Educ. Wks. (1847) 98/1 Either by the definite will of God so ruling, or the peculiar sway of nature, which also is God's working. 1691T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. 122 The clear and definite understanding of the several parts of the Ship. 1726Ayliffe Parergon 50 In a charge of Adultery, the Accuser ought to set forth..some certain and definite time. 1823Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Confess. Drunkard, Those uneasy sensations..worse to bear than any definite pains or aches. 1859Dickens Lett. (1880) II. 85, I must give some decided and definite answer. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. xxiv. 174 A definite structure was in many places to be traced. 1874Green Short Hist. v. §4. 238 Even this class [serfs] had now acquired definite rights.
b. transf. Said of persons, in reference to their actions (opinions, statements, etc.).
1611Shakes. Cymb. i. vi. 43 Idiots in this case of fauour, would Be wisely definit. a1619M. Fotherby Atheom. ii. vii. §7 (1622) 277 As definite as hee was in appointing the set time of the dissolution of Babilon. Mod. Be more definite in your statements.
c. definite description (Philos.): in the theory of descriptions proposed by Bertrand Russell, a denoting phrase that is introduced by the definite article or its equivalent.
1911B. Russell in Proc. Aristotelian Soc. 1910–11 XI. v. 112 A phrase of the form ‘a so-and-so’ I shall call an ‘ambiguous’ description; a phrase of the form ‘the so-and-so’ (in the singular) I shall call a ‘definite’ description. 1944[see contextual a. 1 b]. 1974Encycl. Brit. Macropædia XI. 49/2 The correct analysis of propositions containing definite descriptions has been the subject of considerable philosophical controversy. 1977Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics 1976 XXI. 143 We are..obliged to accept that in some sense ‘Smith's murderer’ is not even a definite description, if used referentially.
2. Gram.
a. Applied, in German and Early English grammar, to those inflexions of the adjective which are used when preceded by the definite article or some equivalent.
b. Of verbs: = Finite. rare.
c. definite article: a name for the demonstrative adjective the, and its equivalents in other languages, as indicating a defined or particularized individual of the species denoted by the noun.
d. past definite or preterite definite: the name in French Grammar of the tense which coincides historically with the Latin preterite or perfect, and corresponds in sense to the Greek aorist and English simple past: e.g. il vint, he came.
1727–51in Chambers Cycl. 1765W. Ward Grammar i. xxii. 103 ‘The’ is called the definite article. Ibid. iv. ii. 158 The verb in this character [i.e. infinitive] may be..used as a nominative case, on which a definite verb depends. 1824L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 5) I. 68 The is called the definite article; because it ascertains what particular thing or things are meant: as, ‘Give me the book’. 1855Forbes Hindústání Gram. (1868) 18 Arabic nouns have frequently the definite article..of the language prefixed to them. 1874R. Morris Chaucer's Prol., etc. (Clar. Press Ser.) Introd. 33 Adjectives, like the modern German, have two forms—Definite and Indefinite. The definite form preceded by the definite article, a demonstrative adjective, or a possessive pronoun, terminates in -ë in all cases of the singular.
3. Bot.
a. Said of inflorescence having the central axis terminated in a flower-bud which opens first, those on the lateral branches following in succession: also called centrifugal or determinate.
b. Of stamens or other parts of the flower: Of a constant number not exceeding twenty.
1845Lindley Sch. Bot. iv. (1858) 25 Stamens definite; that is to say, obviously corresponding in number with the sepals and petals. 1876J. D. Hooker Bot. Primer 45 Definite, because the axis is terminated by a flower and does not elongate. 1880Gray Struct. Bot. v. 144 The kinds of Inflorescence..are all reducible to two types..Indefinite and Definite, or..Indeterminate and Determinate.
B. n.
1. Something that is definite; spec. in Gram.:
†a. A definite tense;
b. A noun denoting a definite thing or object.
1530Palsgr. Introd. 31 The fyrst [conjugation] is chefly ruled by E, saufe that in his diffynites he torneth into A. 1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. 144 Fancy..has no other counters to play with, but fixities and definites. 1845Stoddart Gram. in Encycl. Metrop. I. 55 The Latin nouns in io [as actio] seem properly to have been definites; that is to say, that they originally signified only a certain number of acts, and not action in general.
†2. ‘Thing explained or defined’ (J.). Obs.
1726Ayliffe Parergon 110 Special Bastardy is nothing else but the Definition of the general, and the general again, is nothing else but a Definite of the Special. |