| 释义 |
exhaustive, a.|ɛgˈzɔːstɪv|
[f. L. exhaust- ppl. stem of exhaurīre (see exhaust v.) + -ive.]
1. Tending to exhaust or drain of strength, resources, etc.
1818Jas. Mill Brit. India II. iv. viii. 278 The fierce and exhaustive contentions which the rival strangers in Carnatic were waging against one another. 1868J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. I. 98 In what imminent peril the revenues..were from the exhaustive squandering..of the Court. 1874Motley Barneveld II. xii. 70 The parasites who fed on the Queen Regent were exhaustive of the French exchequer.
2. Characterized by exhausting a subject, etc.; leaving no part unexamined or unconsidered; complete, comprehensive.
1786–9Bentham Wks. (1843) II. 540 Proceeding..upon the exhaustive plan. 1798W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. XXV. 585 His transcendental deduction of the categories of criticism [is] neither discretive nor exhaustive. 1813Edin. Rev. XXII. 23 His method of handling the subject..has been termed exhaustive. 1853Trench Proverbs 125 The things of friends are in common. Where does this find its exhaustive fulfilment, but in the Communion of Saints? 1878Gladstone Prim. Homer 127, I shall attempt in this limited work no exhaustive survey.
b. (Cf. exhaustion 5 a.)
1879Farrar St. Paul I. 405 note, By the exhaustive method, therefore, we see that the visit dwelt on in Gal. ii. must have been the third. |