释义 |
▪ I. texture, n.|ˈtɛkstjʊə(r)| [ad. L. textūra a weaving: see text n.1 and -ure. So F. texture (16th c. in Godef. Compl.).] †1. a. The process or art of weaving. Obs.
1447O. Bokenham Seyntys (Roxb.) 145 Mynerve hyr self wych hath the sovereynte Of gay texture, as declayryth Ovyde. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 256 Coats of skinnes..a naturall habit.. before the invention of Texture. 1656Blount Glossogr., Texture,..a weaving. 1726Pope Odyss. xx. 87 Pallas taught the texture of the loom. †b. fig. The fabricating, machinating, or composing of schemes, conspiracies, writings, etc. Obs.
a1641Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. iv. (1642) 275 First they began their malicious texture with secret whisperings, and giving out in corners. 1656Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. ii. xciv. (1674) 247 The exquisite diligence used in the texture of those his Eternal Labours. 2. a. The produce of the weaver's art; a woven fabric; a web; cloth. arch.
a1656Bp. Hall Rem. Wks. (1660) 260 The invaluable sumptuousness of the Temple..;..the curious celatures, and artificial textures. 1728–46Thomson Spring 642 Others..far in the grassy dale..their humble texture weave. 1873Browning Red Cotton Night-Cap Country 407 When the dyer dyes A texture, can the red dye prime the white? b. transf. Any natural structure having an appearance or consistence as if woven; a tissue; a web, e.g. of a spider. Also fig.
1578Banister Hist. Man iv. 56 The notable texture of Mesenterium. 1615Crooke Body of Man 499 That phlegme..which distilleth out of that texture or web into the ventricles. Ibid. 525 That the spirits are attenuated in the textures of the small arteries, & in the strayghtes of those passages. a1774Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 43 Nor the spider entangle the heedless fly in his texture. 1877Tyndall in Daily News 2 Oct. 2/4 His physical and intellectual textures have been woven for him during his passage through phases of history and forms of existence which lead the mind back to an abysmal past. †c. A ‘woven’ or composed narrative or story.
1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. vii. xxxviii. §9. 341 A peece of ancient Saxon coine of Siluer, inscribed with his name, Anlaf Cynyng, which for the antiquity of the thing, and honor of the man we haue here imprinted, and placed, though in the texture of our English Saxon Kings. 3. The character of a textile fabric, as to its being fine, coarse, close, loose, plain, twilled, ribbed, diapered, etc., resulting from the way in which it is woven.
1685Boyle Salubr. Air 79 The texture that belongs to Linen. 1791Cowper Odyss. i. 556 Putting off his vest Of softest texture. 1842in Bischoff Woollen Manuf. II. 176 One piece of cloth of German wool, and another piece of South Down wool..made of the same colour and texture. 1866Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xxii. 573 The linen worn by the wealthier classes differed materially in its texture. 4. In extended use: The constitution, structure, or substance of anything with regard to its constituents or formative elements. a. Of organic bodies and their parts.
1665Boyle Occas. Medit. iv. iv, The Leaves..of a Tree..are of a more solid Texture, and a more durable Nature than the Blossoms. 1738Wesley Ps. cxxxix. ix, Thou know'st the Texture of my Heart, My Reins, and every vital Part. 1797M. Baillie Morb. Anat. (1807) 212 The cartilage is smooth and thin, and very soft in its texture. 1844Stephens Bk. Farm III. 905 Butter assumes a texture according as it has been treated. 1882Garden 18 Mar. 182/3 Flavour and texture should be our watchword in raising Apples. b. Of inorganic substances, as stones, soil, etc.: Physical (not chemical) constitution; the structure or minute moulding (of a surface).
1660Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. xxii. 165 Air is..endow'd with an Elastical power that probably proceeds from its Texture. 1663― Usef. Exp. Nat. Philos. ii. v. xiii. 242 Glass acquires a more or lesse brittle Texture, according as..it is baked. 1793Smeaton Edystone L. §106 The stone..in point of hardness and texture much like the Bath stone. 1811Pinkerton Petralogy p. xxii, Mr. Kirwan has justly observed the inaccuracy of Werner and his disciples, who have confounded the texture with the fracture. 1813Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. (1814) 5 Some lands of good apparent texture are yet sterile in a high degree. 1865Geikie Scen. & Geol. Scot. viii. 220 Gneiss is too various in its texture and the rate of its decomposition. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 63 The loose texture of snow. 5. fig. Of immaterial things: Constitution; nature or quality, as resulting from composition. Of the mind: Disposition, as ‘woven’ of various qualities; temperament, character. Also, in Literary Criticism: the constitution or quality of a piece of writing; esp. such perceptible qualities as the imagery, alliteration, assonance, rhythm, etc. (freq. opp. structure). In Music: the quality of sound formed by the combination of the different (orchestral, vocal, etc.) parts.
1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. vi. xix. §9. 104 Albeit the very texture of this Epistle carrieth with it the true Character of Antiquity. a1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. 157 Hence it is that..the texture of Zeuxes or Apelles inclines him to the invention or improving of Painting. 1692Bentley Boyle Lect. iii. 80 An argument..of so frail and brittle a texture. 1751Smollett Per. Pic. (1779) III. lxxxi. 272 Had her thoughts been of a more tender texture. 1771Misc. in Ann. Reg. 161/1 The whole texture of the fable. 1812J. Mackintosh in Mem. Life Sir J. Mackintosh (1835) II. iii. 215 This is increased when a few bolder and higher words are happily wrought into the texture of this familiar eloquence. 1827Pollok Course T. ii. 538 Creeds of wondrous texture. 1895W. D. Howells My Literary Passions xxxi. 223 All that Mr. De Forest has written is of a texture and color distinctly his own. 1931Week-End Rev. 3 Jan. 24/2 The texture of the book is much more satisfactory than its theme. 1934M. Bodkin Archetypal Patterns in Poetry 320 This duality in unity, and harmonized clash, of cosmic and personal that Blake has woven into the texture of his verses. 1934C. Lambert Music Ho! iii. 165 The first symphony [of Borodin]..achieves an admirable symphonic texture. 1941J. C. Ransom New Criticism iv. 280 The texture, likewise, seems to be of any real content that may be come upon, provided it is so free, unrestricted, and large that it cannot properly get into the structure. One guesses that it is an order of content, rather than a kind of content, that distinguishes texture from structure, and poetry from prose. 1956M. Krieger New Apologists for Poetry v. 83 The indeterminacies of meaning, into which the poet is forced by his devotion to the determinate sound, constitute the poem's texture [according to J. C. Ransom]. 1956–7Modern Fiction Studies Winter 209 The birth of Lena's child means more in the texture of the story than a simple event. 1959Listener 10 Dec. 1034/1 For a long time now it has been fashionable to cry after new ‘textures’ in sound. 1963Ibid. 21 Feb. 354/1 In his last decade as an opera composer Handel..made less use of wind instruments and tended to favour sparser textures. 1980Dædalus Spring 194 The thinning of texture, and the descending succession of pitches in measures 100 to 103 of Berlioz's melody all seem to foster and presage closure. 6. In the fine arts: The representation of the structure and minute moulding of a surface (esp. of the skin), as distinct from its colour: cf. 4 b.
1845[see pearly a. 4]. 1859Gullick & Timbs Paint. 228 Impasting gives ‘texture’ and ‘surface’. 1877Morley Crit. Misc., Robespierre Ser. ii. 64 It is transparent and smooth, but there is none of that quality which the critics of painting call Texture. 7. attrib. and Comb., as texture brick, a roughened or rough-hewn brick; texture-counter, a thread-counter or waling-glass: see quot.
1909Cent. Dict. Suppl., Texture-counter, a small magnifying-glass of low power, used in counting the number of threads, within a given space, in the texture of a fabric. 1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 843/1 Texture brick, a rustic brick. 1961[see septic n. 2]. ▪ II. † ˈtexture, v. Obs. [f. prec.] trans. To construct by or as by weaving; to give a texture to (anything). Usually in pa. pple.
1694R. Burthogge Reason & Nat. Spirits 104 Now it is certain..that Matter is alter'd, figured, textur'd, and infinite ways wrought upon and moulded by means of motion. 1775Jephson Braganza iii. i. 31 This fine frame, Nerves exquisitely textur'd. 1778W. H. Marshall Minutes Agric. 13 Sept. an. 1774, The off-horse treads that which is textured, and destroys the effect. 1835Carlyle Corr. (1883) I. vii. 65 A bright faultless vision textured out of mere sunbeams. |