| 释义 |
dire, a. and n.|daɪə(r)|
Also 6–7 dyre.
[ad. L. dīr-us fearful, awful, portentous, ill-boding.]
A. adj. ‘Dreadful, dismal, mournful, horrible, terrible, evil in a great degree’ (J.).
1567Drant Horace's Epist. xvi. F j, With gyues, and fetters Ile tame the under a galow dyre. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. xi. 40 All was covered with darknesse dire. 1605Shakes. Macb. ii. iii. 63 Strange Schreemes of Death, And Prophecying, with Accents terrible, Of dyre Combustion. 1667Milton P.L. ii. 628 All monstrous, all prodigious things..Gorgons and Hydra's and Chimera's dire. 1681Lond. Gaz. No. 1649/3 And His Majesty, with advice foresaid, recommends to His Privy Council to see this Act put to dire and vigorous Execution. 1768Beattie Minstr. ii. ii, To learn the dire effects of time and change. a1774Goldsm. Double Transform. 75 That dire disease, whose ruthless power Withers the beauty's transient flower. 1784Cowper Task ii. 270 Gives his direst foe a friend's embrace. 1853C. Brontë Villette xxv, Forced by dire necessity. 1868Helps Realmah xvii. (1876) 462 Ostentation, the direst enemy of comfort.
b. dire sisters (L. dīræ sorōres, Diræ): the Furies.
1743J. Davidson æneid vii. 195 From the Mansion of the dire Sisters.
c. In weakened (now trivial) use, apparent first in dire necessity: terrible, dreadful; awful, ‘frightful’; unpleasant, objectionable. colloq.
1836E. B. Browning Lett. to M. R. Mitford (1983) I. 7 The dire necessity of having every window in the house open to the ceaseless rolling of carriages. 1928E. O'Neill Strange Interlude viii. 180, I didn't say anything so dire, did I—merely that Gordon resembles you in character. 1933G. Heyer Why Shoot Butler? ii. 32 ‘I practically had to accept,’ she explained. ‘Apparently things are pretty dire since the murder. Basil's got nerves, or something.’ 1969N. Cohn AWopBopaLooBop (1970) xix. 179 They were small ravers, loud and brash and really a bit dire. 1985Times Lit. Suppl. 16 Aug. 902/1 She finds herself courted..by the defector from The Purple Rose, a dire social comedy.
†B. n. Obs.
1. Dire quality or matter, direness.
1660Wood Life (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) I. 367 Their sermons..before were verie practicall and commonly full of dire.
2. pl. = L. Diræ, Furies, dire sisters.
1610G. Fletcher Christ's Tri. over Death xxi, Arme, arme your selues, sad Dires of my pow'r.
C. Comb. (chiefly adverbial or parasynthetic), as dire-clinging, dire-gifted, dire-lamenting, dire-looking, dire-visaged.
1591Shakes. Two Gent. iii. ii. 82 After your dire-lamenting Elegies, Visit..your Ladies chamber-window With some sweet Consort. 1633Milton Arcades 52 The cross dire-looking planet. 1730–46Thomson Autumn 875 Here the plain harmless native..to the rocks Dire-clinging, gathers his ovarious food. a1881Rossetti Rose Mary, 2nd Beryl-Song 2 Dire-gifted spirits of fire. |