| 释义 |
reˈbarbative, a.
[a. F. rébarbatif, -ive (14th c.), f. barbe beard.]
Repellent, forbidding; unattractive, dull; unpleasant, objectionable.
1892Sat. Rev. 12 Nov. 571/1 It is not very clear why Sir Robert Coke..bestows so much trouble and time on this very rebarbative lady. 1927Observer 1 May 20 The small minority that is not put off by the dry and rebarbative quality of the tuition. 1946Beerbohm Mainly on Air 67 Even A. B. Walkley..found Ibsen rather rebarbative. 1958I. Murdoch Bell iv. 48 Still, everyone appeared to be extremely nice, except that that Dr. Greenfield man was a trifle rebarbative. (This was a word which Toby had recently learnt at school and could not now conceive of doing without.) 1958J. Press Chequer'd Shade i. 12 Unless he commands sufficient poetic authority to compel the general acceptance of his minted coinage his work will inevitably be judged rebarbative and obscure. 1963Listener 7 Mar. 436/1 Some rebarbative club member does seem to have opened one or two windows in the smoking-room. 1971P. D. James Shroud for Nightingale iii. 63 Her face matched her personality, rebarbative and defensive. 1976Gramophone Aug. 266/1 An accessible musical language can be equally deceptive and pose as many (though of course different) problems as an entirely novel and rebarbative idiom.
Hence reˈbarbatively adv.; reˈbarbativeness; rebarbaˈtivity.
1947I. Brown Say Word 102 Is Max our only dealer in rebarbativity? 1966Punch 16 Nov. 754/3 A veritable drummer boy, all knobbly North Country rebarbativeness and almost incomprehensible obsolete dialect. 1968I. Murdoch Nice & Good vii. 57 Beyond Uncle Theo were some alien holiday-makers,..of whom this part of the beach happily attracted few, because of its rebarbatively stony nature. 1975M. Amis Dead Babies lvii. 214 During the Americans' twenty-minute absence from the sitting-room Celia joined in her husband's wholly successful attempt..to moderate Roxeanne's rebarbativeness to the odd aside. 1976Listener 22 Apr. 495/1 A rejection of formal logic and with it of a rebarbatively technical foundation and medium for philosophical thinking. |