| 释义 |
▪ I. dwindle, v.|ˈdwɪnd(ə)l|
[A dimin. derivative of dwine v.: cf. kindle v.2 Prob. of dialect origin: in Shakes., but little used before 1650.]
1. intr. To become smaller and smaller; to shrink, waste away, decline.
1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. iii. 3 Bardolph, am I not falne away vilely..doe I not bate? doe I not dwindle? 1605― Macb. i. iii. 23 Wearie Seu' nights, nine times nine, Shall he dwindle, peake, and pine. 1649W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1652) 107 Corne will fall flat and dwindle or rot. a1661Fuller Worthies, Middlesex (R.), It grindeth the grain beforehand, making it to dwindle away almost to nothing. 1711Budgell Spect. No 150 ⁋1 Little Insults and Contempts, which..seem to dwindle into nothing when a Man offers to describe them. 1764Goldsm. Trav. 126 Man seems the only growth that dwindles here. 1831Earl of Elgin in Croker Papers 15 July, [The] Opposition..dwindling down to thirty or forty. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 285 The party which on the first day of the session had rallied round Athol had dwindled away to nothing. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 163 Polygamist peoples..dwindle in numbers.
In pa. pple. (constructed with be), denoting the resulting condition. (See also 2.)
a1674Clarendon Hist. Reb. viii. §145 The rest were dwindled away. 1700T. Brown tr. Fresny's Amusem. Ser. & Com. 130 Honour and Arms..is now almost dwindled into an Airy nothing. 1863Kingsley Water-Bab. iii. (1878) 134 Whether the fall be dwindled to a single thread.
b. fig. To decline in quality, value, or estimation; to degenerate, ‘sink’.
1678Butler Hud. iii. ii. 644 For Saints in Peace degenerate And dwindle down to reprobate. a1704T. Brown Sat. Fr. King Wks. 1730 I. 59 Thou that hast look'd so fierce, and talk'd so big, In thy old age to dwindle to a Whig. 1757Burke Abridgm. Eng. Hist. Wks. 1842 II. 517 The ancient prætors dwindled into his legates. 1874Green Short Hist. 142 The writers dwindle into mere annalists whose view is bounded by the abbey precincts.
†c. To shrink (with fear). Obs. rare. (Prob. a misuse owing to two senses of shrink.)
1610B Jonson Alch. v. iv, Fac. Did you not heare the coyle, About the dore? Sub. Yes, and I dwindled with it.
2. trans. To reduce gradually in size, cause to shrink into small dimensions.
a1661Fuller Worthies iii. (1662) 56 Divine Justice, insensibly dwingling their Estates. 1679Prot. Conformist 4 These Monsters..have dwindled the Wolf into a Fox. 1710Pict. of Malice 12 Dwindling the Prince below the Pigmy Size. 1867G. Gilfillan Night i. 13 Like a star..When dwindled by the moon to small sharp point.
Hence ˈdwindling vbl. n. and ppl. a.; ˈdwindler, one who dwindles; ˈdwindlement (nonce-wd.), dwindling, shrinking.
1654Gayton Pleas. Notes ii. ii. 38 The Monks were..not dwindlers, but of ample size. 1664H. More Antid. Idol. 73 Illuminatrix cordium..would be but a dwindling Title. 1857H. Reed Lect. Brit. Poets II. xv. 200 A dwarfish and dwindling race. 1863Mrs. Oliphant Salem Ch. i. 22 With a sensation of dreadful dwindlement. 1884Spectator 12 July 902/1 The dwindling of their majority.
▪ II. ˈdwindle, n. rare.
[f. prec. vb.]
The process of dwindling; gradual diminution or decline. b. concr. A dwindled or shrunken object.
1779–81Johnson L.P., Milton Wks. II. 128 The hope of every day growing greater in the dwindle of posterity. 1782J. Elphinston Martial iii. xciii. 173 Three hairs, and four teeth, are the dwindle Fell Chronus allows thy command. 1847–78Halliwell, Dwindle, a poor sickly child. Kent. |