| 释义 |
emptiness|ˈɛmptɪnɪs|
Also emptyness(e.
[f. empty a. + -ness.]
The condition of being empty.
1. gen. The condition of being void of contents, of not being filled, furnished, or inhabited.
1533Elyot Cast. Helthe ii. (1541) 45 The moderation of slepe must be measured..by emptynesse or fulnesse of the body. 1535Coverdale 2 Esdras vii. 25 Vnto the full, plenty: and to the emptye, emptynesse. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. iii. 75 His Coffers sound With hollow Pouerty, and Emptinesse. 1626Bacon Sylva §300 Appetite consisteth in the Emptiness of the Mouth of the Stomack. 1680–1Penn Wks. Isaac Pennington I. A iij b, In that emptiness they waited to be filled of him that filleth all things. 1719Watts Hymns i. cii, Blest are the humble souls that see Their emptiness and poverty. 1728Pope Dunc. i. 33 Keen hollow winds howl thro' the bleak recess, Emblem of music caus'd by emptiness. 1747Walpole Lett. H. Mann 178 (1834) II. 203 No idea of the emptiness of London. 1845–6Trench Huls. Lect. ii. vii. 261 This was the emptiness of which Christ's coming should be the answering fulness. 1885Manch. Exam. 15 Apr. 3/1 Emptiness of subject and monotony of treatment.
b. concr. Void space; a vacuum.
1570Dee Math. Pref. 35 Water..by descending to leaue Emptiness at his backe. 1625Donne Serm. iii. 22 a, A supplying of all Emptinesses in our Soules. 1691–8Norris Pract. Disc. IV. 327 An Emptyness which they can never fill. 1713J. Warder True Amazons 35 The occasion of this vast Emptiness in the Hive. 1877Bryant Lit. People Snow 346 Where once they made their haunt, was emptiness.
2. The state of being void of certain specified contents, or of a specified quality. Const. of.
1593Hooker Eccl. Pol. iii. i, Emptines of Christian loue and charity. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. iii. 157 Such boasting sounds proceed from emptinesse of desert. 1707Floyer Physic. Pulse-Watch 362 The Pulsus profundus..indicates..emptiness of Humours. 1875W. Maskell Ivories v. 45 To absence of composition..were added neglect and emptiness of form.
3. Want of solidity or substance; inability to satisfy desire; unsatisfactoriness; vacuity, hollowness.
a1695Dryden Dufresnoy Pref. xii, 'Tis this which causes the Graces..to subsist in the emptiness of Light and Shadows. 1710Steele Tatler No. 271. ⁋4 To lay before my Readers the Emptiness of Ambition. 1781Cowper Hope 156 Hope..has the wondrous virtue to educe From emptiness itself a real use. 1860W. Collins Wom. White 125 Objections that rose to my lips..died away in their own emptiness. 1871M. E. Braddon Fenton's Quest I. ii. 28 There was no more dulness or emptiness for Gilbert Fenton in his life at Lidford.
b. pl. Trifles, trivialities, ‘vanities’.
1843James Forest Days (1847) 14 The little emptinesses which occupy free hearts in the early morning. 1884A. Maclaren in Chr. Commw. 11 Dec. 111/2 Unsubstantial emptinesses and moonshiny illusions.
4. Want of knowledge; lack of sense; inanity. Also, of an author or a composition: Lack of vigorous thought or expression; meagreness or poverty of matter.
1658J. Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 1013, I wonder at Pennius's brevity and emptiness in this argument. 1699Garth Dispens. iv. (1730) 12 Bur[ge]ss deafens all the list'ning Press With Peals of most Seraphick Emptiness. 1728Pope Dunc. i. 185 Me emptiness and dulness could inspire, And were my elasticity, and fire. 1844Stanley Arnold (1858) I. iv. 168 The falsehood and emptiness of the Latin historians. |