| 释义 |
frailty|ˈfreɪltɪ|
[ad. OF. fraileté:—L. fragilitāt-em, f. fragilis fragile.]
1. Liability to be crushed or to decay, either in a material or immaterial sense; perishableness, weakness; an instance of this; † also, a frail feature or spot, a flaw. Now rare.
1382Wyclif Heb. vii. 28 The lawe ordeynede men prestis hauynge sykenesse or freelte. c1400Mandeville (1839) Prol. 5 Mynde of Man ne may not ben comprehended ne withe⁓holden, for the Freeltee of Mankynde. 1593Nashe Four Lett. Confut. 29 No frailtie hath thy fame, but the imputation of this Idiots friendship. 1615G. Sandys Trav. 216 Tyrus is now no other then an heape of ruines; yet..they..instruct the..beholder with their exemplary frailty. 1635Quarles Embl., Hierogl. vi, Behold the frailty of this slender snuff. 1665Hooke Microgr. Pref. a b, The like frailties are to be found in the Memory; we often let many things slip away from us. 1781Cowper Convers. 554 The works of man inherit..Their author's frailty, and return to dust. 1818Cruise Digest (ed. 2) IV. 230 A person may feel conscious of such weakness, and frailty of mind. 1883Manch. Exam. 26 Nov. 5/3 The frailty of the vessels which are employed in the lake traffic.
2. Moral weakness; instability of mind; liability to err or yield to temptation.
a1340Hampole Psalter xxi. 2 To shew þe frelte of mannys fleysse. a1400Prymer (1891) 105 Alle the synnes þat they han doon by freelte of worldli lifynge. c1440Gesta Rom. xi. 37 (Harl. MS.) If we synne by..frailte..late vs with shrifte..do it away. 1538Starkey England i. i. 18 They consydur not the fraylty of man, wych seyng the best folowyth the worst. 1604Shakes. Oth. iv. iii. 100 Is't Frailty that thus erres? 1661Cowley Disc. Govt. O. Cromwell Verses & Ess. (1669) 57 Sir, it may be you have spoken all this rather to try than to tempt my frailty. 1725Watts Logic Introd., Something of this Frailty is owing to our very Constitution. 1876C. M. Davies Unorth. Lond. 78 All frailty is taken clean away.
b. A fault arising from infirmity; a ‘weakness’.
1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. x. ii. 123, I..do confesse I haue Bene laden with like frailties, which before Haue often sham'd our Sex. 1635Quarles Embl. iii. vi. (1718) 150 See not my frailties, Lord, but through my fear. 1718Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Abbe Conti 19 May, My vanity (the darling frailty of mankind) [is] not a little flattered. 1750Gray Elegy 126 No farther seek..to..draw his frailties from their dread abode. 1877Mozley Univ. Serm. vii. 159 There is some characteristic frailty at the bottom of every human heart. |