| 释义 |
feudality|fjuːˈdælɪtɪ|
[ad. F. feudalité (Cotgr.), feodalité, f. feudal (Cotgr.), feodal: see feudal a.1 and -ity.]
1. The quality or state of being feudal; the principles and practice of the feudal system.
1790Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 395 The leaders teach the people to abhor and reject all feodality as the barbarism of tyranny. 1827Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) I. i. 7 [The holding of Assizes] had a powerful tendency..to check the influence of feudality and clanship. 1845Mill Ess. II. 265 The very essence of feudality was..the fusion of property and sovereignty. 1858Buckle Civiliz. (1869) II. ii. 111 There followed that struggle between feudality and the church. 1877C. M. Yonge Cameos IV. iii. 36 The many means of raising money that feudality afforded.
b. pl. Feudal principles.
1814Witness i. iii, It was a breach in your feudalities To change the place.
2. A feudal regime or system; a feudal-like power; a feudal holding, a fief.
1800Coleridge Piccolom. ii. viii, All the great Bohemian feodalities. 1821Examiner 237/2 Capital in Great Britain has become a feudality. 1840Carlyle Heroes (1858) 366 He..strove to connect himself with..the old false Feudalities which he once saw clearly to be false. 1844H. H. Wilson Brit. India I. 203 A principle recognised throughout the feudality of India.
†3. (See quot.) Obs.—0
1701Kennet Cowel's Law Dict., Feodalitas, Feodality or Fidelity paid to the Lord by his feodal tenant. Hence1797Tomlins Law Dict., Feodality, fealty. 1847in Craig. |