| 释义 |
thowless, a. Sc.|ˈθaʊlɪs, ˈθoulɪs|
Forms: 4–5 thowles, 5 -lace, -las, -lys, thoulass, 8– thowless.
[app. a collateral Sc. form of thewless, with which it agrees in sense; but the phonology is unexplained.]
†1. Without morality or virtue; wanton, dissolute, profligate; also, thoughtless. Obs.
1375[implied in thowlessness]. c1425Wyntoun Cron. viii. xxii. 3292 (MS. Cott.) He was thowlace [v.r. wantoun], and had in won,..oftsyis to ly Oþir syndry women by. Ibid. xxxiii. 5933 Weil waxyn vp..And thowles þan, for his ȝoutheide To þat natur walde hym leide. 14..How the Good wife, etc. 260 in Barbour's Bruce 534 And chasty thame quhen thai do myss, Or [MS. our] rekles thoulass wantoun is. a1500Ratis Raving i. 1264 This eild is thowles & wnswere, And ȝarnis play, and al blytht chere. a1500Thewis Gd. Women 145 in Ratis Raving, etc. 107 Women that has a thowlas hart.
2. Devoid of energy or spirit; inert, inactive; spiritless, listless.
1721Ramsay Prospect of Plenty 128 A poor and haughty drone, Wha thowless stands a lazy looker-on. 1728― Tea-t. Misc., Widow vi, Fortune..ruins the woer that's thowless and cauld. 1801Macneill Poems (1844) 111 Thowless, he tint his gate deep 'mang the snaw. 1818Scott Br. Lamm. xii[i], You, ye thowless jade, to sit still and see my substance disponed upon to an idle, drunken, reprobate, worm-eaten serving man. a1875J. Murray in Mod. Scot. Poets (1881) III. 150 The kye stand thowless on the croft.
Hence ˈthowlessness, † evil or immoral conduct, bad behaviour; wantonness, vice (obs.); also, want of energy, ineffectiveness.
1375Barbour Bruce i. 333 And till swylk thowlesnes he ȝeid, As the courss askis off ȝowtheid. c1425Wyntoun Cron. vi. iii. 268 That thai suld noucht for ydilnes Fall intill iwill thowlysnes. 1885‘J. Strathesk’ More Bits xi. (ed. 2) 206 She did not quite like some of Bell's remarks about ‘wasterfu'ness’ and ‘thowlessness’, possibly because they were only too true. |