释义 |
‖ Dives|ˈdaɪviːz| [L. dīves rich, a rich man.] 1. The Latin word for ‘rich (man)’, occurring in the Vulgate, Luke xvi; whence commonly taken as the proper name of the rich man in that parable; and used generically for ‘rich man’. Hence ˈDivesdom, the condition of being a ‘Dives’.
c1386Chaucer Sompn. T. 169 Lazar and diues lyueden diuersly. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. ix. 279 Diues for hus delicat lyf to þe deuel wente. 1493H. Parker (title) Diues and Pauper. 1588Lupton (title) A Dreame of the Deuill and Diues. 1614T. Adams Devil's Banquet 281 Euery one had rather be a Diues, then a Diuus: a rich sinner, then a poore Saint. 1640Bastwick Lord Bps. vi. F b, Doe not our Diveses, our rich Lord Prelates..goe in their Purple, Satten, Velvet? 1848Thackeray Van. Fair lvii, There must be rich and poor, Dives says, smacking his claret. 1891Pall Mall G. 6 Oct. 7/2 Pleading and entreating with the Christian Diveses, of which the land is so full, for the tiny Lazarus lying hard by their gate.
1822Besant All Sorts xxviii, Pauperdom, Divesdom, taxes, and all kinds of things. 2. Law. dives costs: costs on the higher scale. Under an old practice of the Court of Chancery, a plaintiff who sued in forma pauperis (and who therefore if he failed in his action could not be condemned to pay the defendant's costs) was sometimes, in case the action was successful, allowed to recover from the defendant only ‘pauper costs’, which were costs taxed on a low scale; while in other cases he was allowed to recover what by way of contrast were called ‘dives costs’, taxed on the ordinary scale.
1849Consol. Orders in Chancery xl. 5 Such costs shall be taxed as dives costs unless the Court shall otherwise direct. 1885Sir C. S. C. Bowen in Law Rep. 14 Q. Bench Div. 870 In 1701 Lord Somers allowed a pauper ‘dives costs’, that is, costs like other suitors. Ibid. 871. |