| 释义 |
fatal, a.|ˈfeɪtəl|
Also 4 fathel, 5–6 Sc. fatell, 6–7 fatall.
[ad. L. fātāl-is, f. fātum fate. Cf. Fr. fatal.]
†1. Allotted or decreed by fate or destiny; destined, fated. Const. to, unto. Obs.
c1374Chaucer Troylus v. 1 The fathel destyne, That Joves hath in disposicioune. c1430Lydg. Bochas iv. xiv. (1554) 114 a, Was neuer seine prince nor princesse That more proudly toke their fatal death. 1513Douglas æneis xi. Prol. 178 Prynce Enee, That, for his fatale cuntre, of behest Sa feill dangeris sustenit. c1610Sir J. Melvil Mem. (1683) 67 It appeared to be fatal to him, to like better of flatterers..than plain speakers. 1658Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 909 Obnoxious to..very much rain, a thing fatall to Islands. 1663–78Butler Hud. i. iii. 530 It was Still fatal to stout Hudibras..when least He dreamt of it to prosper best. 1667Milton P.L. ii. 104 With perpetual inrodes to allarme, Though inaccessible, his fatal Throne. 1713Bentley Collins' Freethinking i. xxvi. 142 It is fatal to our author ever to blunder when he talks of Egypt.
†2. Condemned by fate; doomed. Const. to.
1509Hawes Past. Pleas. vii. ii, More lyker..Unto a place which is celestiall, Than to a certayne mancion fatall. c1592Marlowe Massacre at Paris i. iv, Now have we got the fatal, straggling deer Within..a deadly toil. 1602Warner Alb. Eng. x. liv. (1612) 242 The Guizian Scot Fatall to Seaes of blood. a1634Randolph Amyntas iv. viii, A fatall oake, at which great Jove Levels his thunder. 1668Davenant Man's the Master iii. i, She, whose fatal and unexperienc'd heart too soon believ'd thy many oaths.
3. Of the nature of fate; resembling fate in mode of action; proceeding by a fixed order or sequence; inevitable, necessary.
1605Camden Rem. 33 As though..fatall necessitie concurred..with voluntary motion in giving the name. 1610Healey St. Aug. Citie of God v. ix. (1620) 198 Euery cause is not fatall, because there are causes of chance, nature and will. 1663J. Spencer Prodigies (1665) 134 Nature is a blind and fatal Agent. 1751Jortin Serm. (1771) II. i. 14 We must not charge our transgressions upon a fatal necessity. 1863Hawthorne Our Old Home 114 What a hardy plant was Shakspeare's genius, how fatal its development. 1874Mivart in Contemp. Rev. Oct. 776 ‘Instinct’ is ‘fatal’ but blind.
4. Concerned or dealing with destiny. Of agents: Controlling the destinies of men. (the) fatal dames, ladies, sisters: the Fates, or Parcæ. the fatal thread: that supposed to be spun by the Fates, determining the length of a man's life; so fatal web, fatal shears.
1447O. Bokenham Seyntys (Roxb.) 8 Not to hastyly My fatal threed a sundyr smyte. 1552Huloet, Fatal ladies, parcæ. a1592R. D. Hypnerotomachia 9 b, Abiding the proofe of their paine and the cutting in Sunder of their fatall thread. 1622Fletcher Spanish Curate iv. v, Fatall Dames, that spin mens threds out. 1624Heywood Gunaik. i. 45 The Parcæ (or fatall Goddesses) are three. 1704S. Dale in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 210 Death cut the fatal thread of life. 1708Pope Ode St. Cecilia 94 How wilt thou now the fatal sisters move? a1721M. Prior Turtle & Sparrow 56 Nor Birds nor Goddesses can move The just Behests of Fatal Jove. 1880Brewer Reader's Hand-bk. 323/2 The three Fatal Sisters were Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos.
†b. Prophetic. Obs.
1503Hawes Examp. Virt. vii. 129 Poetes that were fatall. 1509― Past. Pleas. viii. iii, They [the poets]..Pronounced trouthe under cloudy figures, By the inventyon of theyr fatall scriptures. 1614Raleigh Hist. World II. 393 They..taking direction..from the fatall Bookes, burned alive two men. 1635Cowley Davideis i. 917. As he [Balam] went his fatal Tongue to sell.
†c. Foreboding or indicating mischief; ominous.
1590Marlowe 2nd Pt. Tamburl. iv. iii, The black and fatal ravens. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iii. i. 195 Now I feare that fatall Prophecie. 1628Wither Brit. Rememb. 35 Such fatall fowles As croking Ravens. 1658Willsford Natures Secrets 173 For seven nights after his death, there was heard hideous howling.., fatal Birds screaking in their Cities. Ibid. 188 These fatal Meteors are great motives to humble Man, to make him repent.
5. Fraught with destiny; fateful. Often with mixture of 6 or 7.
c1386Chaucer Man of Law's T. 163 The woful day fatal is come. c1430Lydg. Bochas i. viii. (1544) 13 Her father had fatal heere..the which did him assure Manly to fyght ayeinst his mortal foone. c1470Henry Wallace iv. 294 With out respyt cummyn was thair fatell houris. 1548Hall Chron. 115 The fatall daie of her obstinacie was come. 1612Monniepennie Abr. Chron. in Misc. Scot. I. 7 Who transported the marble fatall chayre to Westminster. 1667Milton P.L. ii. 725 The Snakie Sorceress..kept the fatal Key. 1713Addison Cato i. iii, What anxious moments pass between The birth of plots, and their last fatal periods. 1828Scott F.M. Perth xix, The fatal spot where the unlucky Bonnet-maker's body was lying. 1863Kinglake Crimea (1876) I. xi. 179 In these same fatal days the Emperor Nicholas did much to bring his good faith into question.
6. Producing or resulting in death, destruction, or irreversible ruin, material or immaterial; deadly, destructive, ruinous. Const. to. Also in phrase to prove fatal (to).
1514Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.) 10 That fatal fruyte which kyndled all theyr care. 1685–8Roxb. Ball. VII. 454 O that my sorrows were ended, by the most fatalest hand. 1692Dryden St. Evremont's Ess. 24 Suspicions fatal to the merit of Strangers. 1732Arbuthnot Rules of Diet iv. 369 A Palsy..when it seizeth the Heart, or Organs of Breathing, [is] fatal. 1759Robertson Hist. Scot. I. ii. 87 His death was fatal to the Catholic religion. 1781Cowper Charity 144 A stroke as fatal as the scythe of Death. 1791Mrs. Radcliffe Rom. Forest i, A removal in her present state must be fatal. 1803Med. Jrnl. X. 315 Influenza..is by no means a fatal disease. 1838Thirlwall Greece V. 80 The Spartan power had suffered a fatal blow. 1862H. Spencer First Princ. i. ii. §14 To carry away this conclusion..would be a fatal error. Mod. A fatal accident occurred on Monday.
b. Of a weapon, bait, etc.: Sure to kill, deadly.
1599Shakes. Hen. V, v. ii. 17 Your eyes which hitherto haue borne In them..The fatall Balls of murthering Basiliskes. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VII. 293 A crooked sting..that fatal instrument which renders this insect so formidable. 1879Jefferies Wild Life in S.C. 358 A gudgeon is a fatal bait. Nothing is so certain to take.
7. The hyperbolical use of the word in sense 6 gives rise to a weakened sense: Causing serious harm, disastrous, gravely mischievous.
Cf. F. fatal, which is often used in a trivial manner unknown in English.
1681Dryden Abs. & Achit. 146 By their Monarch's fatal mercy grown, From Pardon'd Rebels, Kinsmen. 1758S. Hayward Serm. xvii. 513 Incredible, did not fatal experience too much shew it. 1794S. Williams Vermont 181 Wars had also a fatal influence on population. 1845Carlyle Cromwell (1871) I. Introd. 42 To develop itself in other still fataler ways. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 371 Never would such disasters have befallen the monarchy but for the fatal law which [etc.]. 1862Mrs. Browning Last Poems, Ld. Walter's Wife x, Now, you no longer are fatal, but ugly and hateful.
8. Comb. with pr. and pa. pples., as fatal-looking; also (quasi-adv.) in fatal-boding, fatal-plotted.
1588Shakes. Tit. A. ii. iii. 47 Giue the King this fatall plotted Scrowle. 1594Lodge Wounds Civ. War iii. i. in Hazl. Dodsley VII. 149 The screech-owl chants her fatal⁓boding lays. 1839Carlyle Chartism i, Brandishing pike and torch (one knows not in which case more fatal-looking).
†9. n. in pl. Fatal persons or things. the three Fatals: the three Fates or Parcæ. Obs.
1560Rolland Crt. Venus ii. 556 The thre fatales. Ibid. ii. 985 Thir Fatallis thre..bad me pas, stand to my destinie. 1652Gaule Magastrom. 162 Providence is in the ordering of casuals as well as fatals. |