| 释义 |
stumbling-block
[f. stumbling vbl. n.
Introduced by Tindale as a rendering of Gr. πρόσκοµµα; later translators have preferred to use it to render σκάνδαλον. The phrase ‘to stumble at a block’ (i.e. a tree stump) is of earlier date: see quot. c 1450 under stumble v. 1 b. Cf. stumbling-stock, stone (stumbling vbl. n. b).]
Something to stumble at or over; a cause of stumbling. Chiefly fig. a. An occasion of moral stumbling; a ‘scandal’, ‘offence’.
1526Tindale Rom. xiv. 13 That no man putt a stomblinge blocke or an occasion to faule [Gr. πρόσκοµµα ἢ σκάνδαλον] in his brothers waye. 1532More Confut. Tindale Pref. Ee iij b, It wyll none otherwyse be, but that some stumblyng blokkys wyll allway be by malycyouse folke layed in good peoples way. 1651Hobbes Leviath. i. xii. 58 All which doings, or sayings..be stumbling blocks, that make men to fall in the way of Religion. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiv. III. 489 To unite a scattered flock in one fold under one shepherd, to remove stumbling blocks from the path of the weak,..these were objects which might well justify some modification..of national or provincial usages. 1884J. Hall Chr. Home xi. 166 If meat be a stumbling-block to a brother, then will he forego it (1 Cor. viii. 13).
b. An occasion of falling into calamity or ruin.
1535Coverdale Ezek. iii. 20 Yf a rightuous man go from his rightuousnesse,..I will laye a stomblinge blocke before him, and he shall dye. 1732T. Lediard Sethos II. viii. 247 Be upon your guard against this stumbling-block of heroes. 1829Scott Anne of G. xvi, We are not men to be trodden on..; those who have attempted it have found us stumbling⁓blocks.
c. An obstacle to belief or understanding; something repugnant to one's prejudices.
a1593Marlowe & Nashe Dido iv. i. (Brooke) 1093, I see æneas sticketh in your minde, But I will soone put by that stumbling-blocke. 1653W. Ramesey Astrol. Restored 271 Unless I here remove a seeming obstruction or stumbling block, perhaps some mistakes or errours might arise. 1714Addison Spect. No. 592 ⁋7 A Stumbling-Block to the whole Tribe of these rigid Criticks. 1721Waterland Case Arian-Subscr. 32 The old Arians would have detested such Practises: The Ὁµούσιον alone was such a Stumbling-Block to Them, that They could never get over it. 1857Keble Euchar. Ador. 20 A most effectual stumbling block to those who were unwilling to believe. 1864Bowen Logic vii. 204 Baroko and Bokardo have been stumbling-blocks to the logicians. 1884F. Temple Relat. Relig. & Sci. viii. (1885) 244 Believers have thus prepared a stumblingblock for themselves.
d. An obstacle in the way of progress, or of the execution of a plan.
1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, i. ii. 64 Were I a Man, a Duke, and next of blood, I would remoue these tedious stumbling blockes. 1658–9Burton's Diary (1828) III. 398, I have heard that there are the greatest endeavours to put some obstruction in this business. Dutch and Dane are not wanting to lay stumbling-blocks. 1736Butler Anal. ii. vii. 354 Such a discovery might have been a stumblingblock in the way of Christianity. 1838James Louis XIV, I. 194 Nor did he ever quit his religion, though as a Hugonot it might have proved a great stumbling-block in his way. 1865Trollope Belton Est. xiii. 143 She..had come to fear that she might be an embargo on his prosperity, and a stumbling⁓block in the way of his success. 1912Nature 21 Nov. 346/1 The cost of electrical power is the chief stumbling-block to the introduction of the manufacture on a large scale in this country.
e. In literal sense. rare. Also attrib.
1663Gerbier Counsel 21 A good Surveyour shuns also the ordering of Doores with Stumbling-Block-Thresholds. 1893Law Times XCV. 204/2 The cover projected about 1½ in. above the level of the road, and so formed a stumbling⁓block.
transf.1859Herschel Fam. Lect. Sci. Subj. iii. §31 (1866) 119 Jupiter, in fact, is a regular stumbling-block in the way of comets. |