| 释义 |
faithless, a.|ˈfeɪθlɪs|
[f. faith n. + -less.]
Without faith.
1. a. Without belief, confidence, or trust; unbelieving. Const. † of, in.
a1300Cursor M. 6517 (Cott.) To þis fait-les lede Manna fel. 1611Bible John xx. 27 And bee not faithlesse, but beleeuing. 1681Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) I. 123 The more sober sort..are not altogether faithlesse as to his innocency. 1826E. Irving Babylon II. vi. 74 Men are not now more faithless of Armageddon, than [etc.]. 1842Lowell Sonnets xvi, An old man faithless in Humanity. 1850Tennyson In Mem. cvi, The faithless coldness of the times.
b. Without religious faith; unbelieving. Of a heathen or a Jew: Without Christian faith. Also absol. the faithless: unbelievers. Now rare.
1534More On the Passion Wks. 1320/1 That dede doone by y⊇ faythlesse is not meritorius at al. 1548Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Rom. Prol. sig. † † i, Else shalt thou remaine euermore faithlesse. 1590Spenser F.Q. iii. iii. 34 He..shall..holy Church with faithlesse handes deface. 1628Wither Brit. Rememb. vi. 252 As faithlesse as the Jewes, are we.
absol.1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 138 b, A great number of others imagined by the faithlesse. 1944A. Clarke Coll. Plays (1963) 217 The terrible assumption of that woman..is a warning to the faithless.
2. Destitute of good faith, unfaithful, insincere; false to vows, etc., perfidious, disloyal. Const. to.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. x. 135 Fals folk and Feiþles, þeoues and lyȝers. 1399Pol. Poems (1859) I. 377 The ffortune that ffallyn is to ffeitheles peple. 1613Shakes. Hen. VIII, ii. i. 123 A most vnnatural and faithlesse Seruice. 1678Wanley Wond. Lit. World v. ii. §81. 478/2 A man..of a..faithless disposition. 1725Pope Odyss. xiv. 322 Domestic in his faithless roof I staid. 1786Burke W. Hastings Wks. 1842 II. 214 The dangerous, faithless, and ill-concerted projects of the..council of Bombay. 1807Crabbe Par. Reg. ii. 142 The faithless flatterer. 1839Keightley Hist. Eng. II. 65 She had never been faithless to the royal bed.
3. That cannot be trusted or relied on; unstable, treacherous, shifting, delusive.
1603Shakes. Meas. for M. iii. i. 137 Oh faithlesse Coward, oh dishonest wretch. 1738Johnson London 239 The midnight murd'rer bursts the faithless bar. 1766Goldsm. Hermit 10 Yonder faithless phantom flies To lure thee to thy doom. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xlix. (1856) 466 Striving to tear us from this faithless anchorage.
Hence ˈfaithlessly adv., in a faithless manner.
1643Prynne Treachery & Disloyalty App. 218 Had we..not faithlessely betrayed, but sincerely discharged the severall trusts reposed in us. |