| 释义 |
tenuity|təˈnjuːɪtɪ|
[ad. L. tenuitās thinness, f. tenuis thin: see -ity. So F. ténuité (15th c.).]
1. Thinness of form or size; slenderness.
1578Banister Hist. Man iv. 47 The other [muscle]..sustayneth his sinewie tenuitie to the hard tunicle of the eye. a1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. 8 If we consider..the many parts thereof, that either in respect of their tenuity or distance escape the reach of our Senses. 1777Johnson 22 Sept. in Boswell, He is not well-shaped; for there is not the quick transition from the thickness of the forepart, to the tenuity—the thin part—behind, which a bull-dog ought to have. 1802Paley Nat. Theol. ix. (ed. 2) 150 The tenuity of these muscles [in the iris of the eye and the drum of the ear] is astonishing. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. i. 3 Mica..is sufficiently tough to furnish films of extreme tenuity. 1882Nature 12 Oct. 587/1 Platinum has been rolled into sheets which..reach the surprising tenuity of less than one twenty-five-thousandth of an English inch.
2. Thinness of consistence; dilute or rarified condition; rarity.
1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 740 By reason of this tenuitie and continuitie when oile doth froth or fome, it suffereth no winde or spirit to enter in. 1658R. White tr. Digby's Powd. Symp. (1660) 23 It becomes part of the aire, which in regard of its tenuity is invisible unto us. 1759Johnson Rasselas vi, Precipices..so high as to produce great tenuity of air. 1802Playfair Illustr. Hutton. Th. 415 The tenuity and fineness of the mud. 1860Maury Phys. Geog. Sea (Low) i. §27 Air may be expanded to an indefinite degree of tenuity.
b. Faintness (of light); thinness (of voice).
1794G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. IV. xliv. 206 The great distance of the planet Saturn, and the tenuity of its light. 1832L. Hunt Sir R. Esher 123 He ran into high tenuities of voice. 1858Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-Bks. II. 10 A shrill, yet sweet, tenuity of voice.
3. fig. Meagreness; slightness, slenderness, weakness, poverty.
1535–6Act 27 Hen. VIII, c. 42 §1 By reason of the tenuytie of lyvyng. 1648Eikon Bas. xvii. 178 The tenuity and contempt of Clergy-men will soon let them see, what a poore carcasse they are, when parted from the influence of that Head, to whose Supremacy they have been sworn. a1734North Lives (1826) I. Pref. 14 My tenuity of style and language. 1867Burton Hist. Scot. (1873) I. x. 343 The tenuity of the evidence. 1895Pop. Sci. Monthly July 386 Any cause which makes for intellectual tenuity.
¶4. ‘Simplicity, or plainness. (Obs.)’, Webster 1864: hence in later Dicts. App. an error. |