| 释义 |
frightfulness|ˈfraɪtfʊlnɪs|
[f. as prec. + -ness.]
The quality or state of being frightful.
1. The state of being filled with fright.
1621Lady M. Wroth Urania 401 Her face sad and perplexed, shewing frightfulnesse so perfectly. 1633Bp. Hall Hard Texts 453 Express a frightfulness and an amazed suspicion of the approach of an enemy. 1684tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. ix. 333 Is Wormwood good for frightfulness?
2. a. The quality of causing fright; hideousness.
1713Nelson Dr. Bull Introd. (1840) 7 All this serveth chiefly to cover the frightfulness of mortality.
b. Used during the war of 1914–18 to render G. schrecklichkeit (see Schrecklichkeit), implying a deliberate policy of terrorizing the enemy (esp. non-combatants) as a military resource. Also transf.
1914R. Brooke Let. 11 Nov. (1968) 632 Belgium is..the country where three civilians have been killed to every one soldier. That damnable policy of ‘frightfulness’ succeeded for a time. 1915D. O. Barnett Lett. 115 We are having a quiet time to-day, without any frightfulness for a change. 1915P. Gibbs Soul of War 155 It was only when special orders for ‘frightfulness’ had been issued,..that the rank and file of the enemy's army committed its brutalities. 1924J. S. C. Bridge Hist. France II. 119 Attributing to the French the deliberate pursuit of a policy of ‘frightfulness’. 1945R. Hargreaves Enemy at Gate 70 The impression persists..that his preference was for the methods of ‘frightfulness’. But if terrorisation was the besiegers' object, their sanguine hopes were doomed to condign disappointment. 1968G. Jones Hist. Vikings iii. iii. 212 Ragnar attacked the smaller Frankish force..and took 111 prisoners. These as a deliberate exercise in ‘frightfulness’ he hanged..in full view of the second Frankish division. |