| 释义 |
toneless, a.|ˈtəʊnlɪs|
[f. tone n. + -less.]
Destitute of tone.
1. Soundless, mute; of a body: without resonance.
1773W. Kenrick Rhet. Gram. ii. §3 in Dict. 35 This sound..in oratorial and poetical stile..is contracted and rendered almost toneless in speech. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 129 The side of the chest is completely dull and toneless.
2. Having no distinctive quality; (a) of sound: without modulation or expression; (b) of colour: dull.
(a)1833Philol. Museum II. 386 The Old English..the Middle English, and the New, inflect all these verbs in a plain and toneless -ed. 1847Fraser's Mag. XXXVI. 105 The harsh roar of his toneless, irritating voice. 1861S. Brooks Silver Cord viii, ‘Mrs. Empson is my aunt..’, said Mrs. Berry, in a toneless voice.
(b)1843Ruskin Mod. Paint. I. ii. iii. i. §19 In paintings, they [the skies] are commonly toneless, crude, and wanting in depth and transparency. 1856Ibid. III. iv. xv. §6 The Apennine limestone is so grey and toneless. 1883Grant White W. Adams 80 Her hair, a toneless brown.
3. Lacking tone in body or mind; void of energy; listless, dull.
1854F. L. Mackenzie in Miles Mem. (1856) 263 Must I..withered, toneless..Trudge on through life. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 39 The fibres of the heart are not primarily diseased, but are merely more or less toneless and atrophied.
Hence ˈtonelessly adv.; ˈtonelessness.
1873Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue (ed. 2) §438 When this adverbial -ly was superadded to the adjectival the latter shrank into tonelessness. 1888tr. Ibsen's Ghosts (Camelot Classics) 198 Oswald (tonelessly as before) The Sun. 1891G. Meredith One of our Conq. II. v. 105 Her present tonelessness of blood and being. 1895Zangwill Master iii. vii, ‘I see he calls you Eleanor’, he observed tonelessly. |