| 释义 |
superficially, adv.|s(j)uːpəˈfɪʃəlɪ|
[f. superficial + -ly2.]
1. On or at the surface; Anat. just beneath the surface. Const. to: On or at the surface of.
1570Foxe A. & M. (ed. 2) 2121/1 They..began to refricate and rippe vp the old sore, the skarre wherof, had bene but superficially cured. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 229 This change and transmutation of the said polype or pour⁓cuttle fish, entreth not deeply in, but appeareth superficially in the skin. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. i. 52 Ice..will..neither float above like lighter bodies, but being neare, or in equality of weight, lye superficially or almost horizontally unto it. 1737Bracken Farriery Impr. (1757) II. 215, I could easily see the Vein pass superficially upon the Out-side of the Tumour. 1767Gooch Treat. Wounds I. 361 The tent is to be left out, and the wound dressed superficially. 1853Lyell Princ. Geol. xvii. (ed. 9) 257 Beds of turf..precisely similar to those now formed superficially on the extreme borders of the Adriatic. 1870Rolleston Anim. Life 3 Another vein, which, from its being placed superficially to the sterno mastoid muscle, we know to be the homologue of the external jugular of anthropotomy.
b. in fig. context.
1638Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. II. 196 Things that wounded me heretofore at the very heart, doe not now so much as superficially touch me. 1647H. More Poems 195 Our soul's not superficially colourd by phantasms. 1735Bolingbroke On Parties iv. 36 When the same Opinions revived at the Restoration, They did not sink deep even then into the Minds of Men; but floated so superficially there, that [etc.].
2. Without depth or thoroughness of knowledge, observation, treatment, etc.; not profoundly or thoroughly.
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 61 Dayly to thynke on these v thynges folowynge, not superficially, that is lyghtly passyng ouer them, but with grauite, inwardly. 1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 155 Your grace..will take a viewe of the cause, & wey the same, not superficially, but with due consideration. 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. ii. ii. 165 You haue both said well: And on the cause and question now in hand, Haue gloz'd, but superficially. 1667Milton P.L. vi. 476 Whose Eye so superficially surveyes These things, as not to mind from whence they grow. 1712Steele Spect. No. 432 ⁋8 By such early Corrections of Vanity, while Boys are growing into Men, they will gradually learn not to censure superficially. 1821Lamb Elia Ser. i. Old & New Schoolm., The modern schoolmaster..must be superficially, if I may so say, omniscient. 1867Freeman Norm. Conq. I. iv. 273 Looked at superficially, there is a certain likeness between the two. 1875M. E. Braddon Strange World I. i. 18, I have studied the subject but superficially in the pages of our friend Cicero.
3. As to outward appearance or form; externally, on the surface.
1570R. Hichcock Quintess. Wit (1590) 20 Nobilitie and gravitie, wherof men superficially make such estimation. 1571Golding Calvin on Ps. lxxi. 22 He will not give thanks unto God feynedly, nor superficially, but..with an earnest zelousnes. 1878H. S. Wilson Alpine Ascents iii. 103 Melchior..looks superficially like an Italian. 1890Spectator 31 May 753/1 The old story over again,..always superficially true, and always substantially false. 1893Bookman June 86/1 Her ambitions superficially so different at different times, and yet substantially the same. |