| 释义 |
fabulous, a.|ˈfæbjʊləs|
[ad. L. fābulōs-us, f. fābula: see fable n. and -ous. Cf. F. fabuleux.]
1. a. Of a person (or anything personified): Fond of relating fables or legends, given to fabling.
Now only with ns. like historian, chronicler; cf. sense 3.
1546Bale Eng. Votaries ii. (1551) 10 Wherof.. the fabulouse poetes reporteth [Venus] to be engendered. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, ii. iii. 18, I see Report is fabulous and false. 1637R. Humfrey tr. St. Ambrose i. 26 Aristotle..holdeth God to bee..no otherwise then the fabulous Poets have feigned. c1650Cowley Death Crashaw 28 Wanton as Girls, as old Wives, Fabulous! 1805N. Nicholls in Corr. with Gray (1843) 43 An author..never fabulous except when he gave the relations of others. 1864Burton Scot Abr. I. i. 2 Boece and our other fabulous chroniclers.
†b. Fond of listening to fables or stories. Obs.
1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. vii. (Arb.) 30 The Clergy of that fabulous age. 1669Gale Crt. Gentiles i. i. ii. 12 It was Plato's Custome to hide his choicest opinions, under the figure of some Fable..lest he should..displease the fabulous people.
2. Spoken of or celebrated in fable or myth; fabled, mythical. [So L. fabulosus.]
1601Holland Pliny I. 91 Atlas, the most fabulous mountaine of all Africke. 1887Swinburne Locrine Ded. viii, Milton's..lips have made august the fabulous air.
3. Of a narrative: Of the nature of a fable or myth, full of fables, unhistorical, legendary. fabulous age, fabulous period, etc.: one of which the accounts are chiefly or entirely mythical.
1555Eden Decades 215 Such thynges as haue byn wrytten..of the places where they growe are all fabulous and false. 1656Manasseh ben Israel Vind. Judæorum in Phenix (1708) II. 401, I have seen a fabulous Narrative of the Proceedings of a great Council of the Jews. 1712Philips Distrest Mother Pref., A Matter of Fact..far removed into the dark and fabulous Ages. 1776Adam Smith W.N. i. xi. I. 214 The story..is in a great measure fabulous. 1855H. Reed Lect. Eng. Hist. iii. 78 The fabulous chronicles of those ages. 1872Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 60 The Chinese possess..their fabulous and semi-historical periods.
4. a. Of alleged existences or facts: Belonging to fable, mythical, legendary.
1577–87Holinshed Chron. I. 121/1 Which because in the iudgement of the most it may seeme meere fabulous, we will omit and passe ouer. 1644Milton Areop. 4 Those fabulous Dragon's teeth. 1737Chesterfield Wks. (1777) I. 70 The fabulous birth of Minerva. 1833Lyell Princ. Geol. III. 330 The former existence of the Atlantis of Plato..may be true in geology, although fabulous as an historical event. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 69 Winged dragons and other fabulous monsters.
†b. Of a doctrine, error, or notion: Based on or originating in fable or fiction. Obs.
1602Warner Alb. Eng. Epit. (1612) 351 Our Historie auoideth not the suspition of some fabulous errours. 1651Hobbes Leviath. iv. xliv. 334 Their fabulous Doctrine concerning Dæmons. 1794Paine (title), The Age of Reason, being an investigation of true and of fabulous Theology.
5. a. Resembling a fable, absurd, ridiculous. rare. b. Such as is met with only in fable; beyond the usual range of fact; astonishing, incredible. Now freq. in trivial use, esp. = ‘marvellous’, ‘terrific’; cf. fab.
a.1561T. Norton Calvin's Inst. iv. 50 How vayne and fabulous is it, to iudge the Chirch alredy in euery part holy and spottlesse, wherof all the members are spotty and very vncleane. 1611Tourneur Ath. Trag. ii. vi, Tush! these idle dreames Are fabulous. 1853G. Brimley Ess. 278 The pretence is fabulous.
b.1609Holland Amm. Marcell. 228 With a fabulous and incredible multitude [L. cum multitudine fabulosa]. 1822–56De Quincey Confess. Wks. I. 234 foot-n., According to the modern slang phrase, I had..used ‘fabulous’ quantities [of opium]. 1852Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life III. xiii. 237 His [Daniel Webster's] passion for fish..is something fabulous. 1857Ld. Houghton in Life (1891) II. xii. 18 Houses..let at fabulous rents. 1859Macaulay W. Pitt, Misc. Writings (1889) 431 He found that the waste of the servants' hall was almost fabulous.
1959Cambr. Rev. 30 May 571/2 Miss Mitchell, looking, one must admit, fabulous, played down her frenzy. 1962Radio Times 4 Jan. 23/2, I think it's [sc. Salford] a fabulous place. 1963A. Ross Australia 63 vii. 129 Trueman puffed at a cigarette and said he felt fabulous. |