| 释义 |
rayless, a.|ˈreɪlɪs|
[f. ray n.1 + -less.]
1. Devoid of, not illumined by, any ray of light; dark, gloomy.
1742Young Nt. Th. i. 20 Night..In rayless majesty, now stretches forth Her leaden sceptre. 1820Shelley Orpheus 10 Hid by a rayless night. 1850Blackie æschylus II. 68 The rayless homes Of gloomy Hades. 1875L. Morris At Last v, Those dear souls, who sleep..In rayless caverns dim.
fig.1820Ellen Fitzarthur 52 Ah rayless, joyless, lifeless state! 1845James Smuggler III. 94 Rayless, dull despair.
2. a. That sends out no rays; dull.
1832Fraser's Mag. V. 123 The lamp of poesy was flickering and almost rayless. 1842Motley Corr. (1889) I. iv. 115 The sun..round and rayless in the centre of its low arch. 1878Browning Poets Croisic clii, Gold which comes up rude And rayless from the mine.
b. Of the eye (cf. ray n.1 3).
1834H. Ainsworth Rookwood iv. viii, Her eye gazed..with a dying glare—then grew glassy, rayless, fixed. 1871Macduff Mem. Patmos xviii. 241 That eye which once beamed affection now rayless.
c. Physics. Not accompanied by or emitting alpha, beta, or gamma rays. Obs.
1904Proc. R. Soc. LXXIII. 493 The first change is a ‘rayless’ one, i.e., the transformation is not accompanied by the appearance of α, β, or γ rays. 1906[see actinium 2]. 1907N. R. Campbell Mod. Electr. Theory ix. 210 It appears that many changes which are usually classed as ‘rayless’ are accompanied by the emission of β rays without α rays, but the liberation of energy in such changes is so small compared to those in which α rays are emitted that it seems desirable to make the distinction implied by the term.
3. Excluding, dispensing with, rays of light.
1896Cosmopolitan XX. 391/1 When they reached the tree, they sat down under the rayless boughs. 1898Daily News 6 May 5/3 Revelations of what may be called Rayless Photography.
4. Having no ray-like parts.
1769Pennant Zool. III. 316 That they are not the young of smelts is as clear, because they want the..rayless fin. 1837Penny Cycl. VII. 422/2 The rayless Corymbiferæ.
Hence ˈraylessness.
1843Poe Premat. Burial Wks. 1864 I. 336 The intense and utter raylessness of the Night that endureth for evermore. |