| 释义 |
▪ I. future, a. and n.|ˈfjuːtjʊə(r), ˈfjuːtʃə(r)|
Also 4 futur.
[a. OF. and F. futur masc., future fem., ad. L. futūrus, fut. pple. of esse to be, f. stem fu- (see be etym. 3).]
A. adj.
1. a. That is to be, or will be, hereafter. Often qualifying a n., with the sense: The person or thing that is expected to be (what the n. denotes).
c1374Chaucer Troylus v. 748 Futur tyme, er I was in the snare, Coude I not seen. c1440Gesta Rom. xxviii. 105 (Harl. MS.) Vyneger was gode, and that is for þe preterit tyme; wyne is gode, and þat is for the presente tyme; and muste shalle be gode, and that is for the future tyme. 1600Hakluyt Voy. III. 860 There is no likelihood of future sedition..in any of the kingdoms. 1641Milton Ch. Govt. i. vii, The trifling doubts and jealousies of future sects. 1725Watts Logic ii. v. §7 We attain the greatest assurance of things past and future by divine faith. 1816M. Greenleaf Distr. Maine 136 Like every thing future, all speculations on this subject must..be in a measure uncertain. 1838Lytton Alice 25, I wish I were the future Lady Vargrave. 1841–71T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4) 228 The little embryo bears no resemblance whatever to the future animal. 1860Tyndall Glac. ii. xxvi. 374 To help future observers to place this point beyond doubt, etc. 1882J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. II. 428 The series of events which the future Cardinal thus indicated in outline. 1884tr. Lotze's Metaph. 264 If to one and the same consciousness that is to become Present which was previously Future to it. 1895Law Times XCVIII. 280/1 The injury..blighting the plaintiff's whole future career.
b. In certain contexts used spec. with reference to the condition of the soul after death. a future state, life: existence after death, esp. as an object of belief.
1733Pope Ess. Man i. Contents, It is partly upon this Ignorance of future Events, and partly upon the Hope of a Future State, that all his Happiness in the Present depends. 1776Gibbon Decl. & F. I. xv. 450 The doctrine of a future life, improved by every additional circumstance which could give weight and efficacy to that important truth. 1799Willes & Durnford Comm. Pleas Cases 550 Supposing an infidel who believes a God..but does not believe a future state, be examined on his oath. 1814J. Kenrick (title) The necessity of revelation to teach the doctrine of a future life. 1879Psychol. Rev. I. 335 Those who believe in God and a Future Life. 1883Gilmour Mongols xvii. 207 The theory of a man's future state depending simply on the preponderance of his good or bad actions. 1945B. Russell Hist. Western Philos. ii. ii. 330 As regards the doctrine of a future life, in the West it was first taught by the Orphics and thence adopted by Greek philosophers.
c. absol. or ellipt.; esp. in phr. in future.
1607Shakes. Timon i. i. 141 Three Talents on the present; in future, all. 1650Weldon Crt. Jas. I 155 It utterly cast him out of all favour from the King in future. 1667Milton P.L. iii. 78 Him God beholding from his prospect high, Wherin past, present, future he beholds. 1808T. Lindley Voy. Brasil 28, I shall be obliged to..endure a dark room in future.
d. (Philos.) future contingent: a proposition which is neither true nor false, because it is about the future; sometimes, the future event itself, that may or may not occur. Also attrib.
1623,1788[see contingent n. 2]. 1885J. Veitch Institutes §463 This happens especially in future contingents. 1957A. N. Prior Time & Modality 120 We assign to future contingents a third truth-value. 1969N. Rescher Many-Valued Logic ii. 148 The so-called future-contingent propositions..involve the outcome of free human choices.
2. Of or pertaining to time to come; esp. in Gram. of a tense: Relating to time to come; describing an event yet to happen. Also ellipt. (= future tense).
future perfect (tense): expressing an event or action viewed as past in relation to a given future time.
1530Palsgr. 84 The future tens, as je parleráy. 1579Fulke Refut. Rastell 768 Hee maketh them..plainer by chaunging the pretertence into the future. 1612Brinsley Pos. Parts (1669) 34 What time speaks the Future Tense of? A. Of the time to Come. 1633Earl of Manchester Al Mondo (1636) 32 Man is a future creature, the eye of his soule lookes beyond this life. 1708Brit. Apollo No. 51. 1/2 Tho' the first Aorist be..used for the second future. 1824L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 5) I. 124 The first Future Tense..The second Future.
¶3. Loosely used for: Subsequent (to a specified past epoch).
1600J. Lane Tom Tel-troth 120 Since those times by future times were changed. 1630R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 114 Scotland..in times past began at the Mountaine Grampius..But in future times, by the extinguishment of the Picts, it reached also unto Tweed. 1664Power Exp. Philos. ii. 107 Prognosticks..made good by the future event of the Experiments. 1858W. L. Sargant Soc. Innov. 27 This rhapsody will not be intelligible to those unacquainted with St. Simon's future history.
B. n.
†1. pl. Future events. Obs.
c1374Chaucer Boeth. v. vi. 133 (Camb. MS.) It..procedith fro preteritz in to futuris. Ibid. 134 It ne hath nat the futuris þat ben nat yit. 1654Whitlock Zootomia 476 Providence against all sorts of Futures that fall under our Care.
2. the future.
a. Time to come; future time. Phr. for the future: in all future time.
c1400Rom. Rose 5015 Aforn hir she may see In the future som socour. 1601Shakes. All's Well iv. ii. 63 That what in time proceeds, May token to the future, our past deeds. 1693Hum. & Conv. Town 63 All the Fury of Minor Criticks follow..all his Opinions for the future. 1796Campaigns 1793–4 II. viii. 52 I'll..teach him to take better care for the future. 1822Hazlitt Table-t. I. iii. 52 The future is like a dead wall or a thick mist hiding all objects from our view. 1878Morley Crit. Misc. Ser. i. Carlyle 197 The industrial organization of the future.
personified.1821Shelley Adonais i, Till the Future dares Forget the Past.
b. What will happen in the future.
1607Shakes. Timon ii. i. 157 The future comes apace. 1732Pope Ess. Man i. 81 Oh blindness to the future! Kindly giv'n. 1759Johnson Rasselas xxix. (1787) 85 The future [is the object] of hope and fear. 1820Lamb Elia, Oxf. in Vac., The mighty future is as nothing, being every⁓thing! 1866Gladstone in Pall Mall G. 28 July (1892) 1/2 You cannot fight against the future..time is on our side.
3. a. A condition in time to come different (esp. in a favourable sense) from the present.
1852H. Rogers Ecl. Faith (1853) 61 Every little present has its little future for which we live. 1879E. Arnold Lt. Asia v. 132 Making all futures fruits of all the pasts. 1891C. T. C. James Rom. Rigmarole 86, I would soon carve out a new future for us both.
b. The prospective condition (of a person, country, etc.); spec. a prospective condition of success, prosperity, etc.; (there is) no future in (something): there is no prospect of success or advancement in (it).
1858Lytton What will he do? ii. viii, My sacrifice to Jasper's future might not have been in vain. 1863M. Howitt tr. F. Bremer's Greece I. viii. 263–4 See every⁓thing which belongs to the future of Greece. 1882C. Pebody Eng. Journalism xx. 152 Its future is a future which..is likely to add fresh lustre to the Newspaper Press. 1891Wilde Pict. Dorian Gray xv. 268, I like men who have a future, and women who have a past. 1921[see futuristic a.]. 1926Galsworthy Silver Spoon ii. x. 199 No future in it! 1932Week-end Rev. 7 May 586/2 Miss Stone certainly has a future as a novelist. 1948‘N. Shute’ No Highway ii. 40 We can't hide things up. There's no future in that. 1960L. Cooper Accomplices i. vi. 62 You can't rob a bank or bash a chap's head in and then say to the police, Oh it doesn't matter I'm leaving here next week. (You can, I suppose, if you feel that way, but there's no future in it.) 1968Listener 28 Nov. 714/2 I've known Lowry since 1919, when we were both working in the life class in Manchester School of Art, and I predicted a future for Lowry. 1971‘H. Carmichael’ Most Deadly Hate v. 62 There's no future in being an accessory after the fact in a murder case.
4. Gram. = future tense: see A. 2.
1881Rutherford New Phrynichus 405 It affords the necessary authority to supply deponent futures to a group of verbs..of which by a singular fatality no future form has been preserved.
5. One who is affianced in marriage, one's betrothed. [After F. futur, future.]
1827T. Moore Mem. (1854) V. 196 Lord Charles took his pretty future to Church this morning to receive the sacrament.
6. Comm. in pl. Goods (esp. corn, cotton and other produce) and stocks sold on an agreement for future delivery. Also, contracts to sell or buy on these terms. Also attrib., as in future system.
1880Daily News 10 Nov. 3/8 American futures are in better demand. 1883Manch. Exam. 6 Nov. 4/4 Amongst the new developments of the cotton trade, the buying of futures may be looked upon as the most prominent. 1888Times 26 June 12/1 Coffee very dull on the spot and not much done in futures. 1896Daily News 22 Sept. 8/4 The question on the programme was that of ‘futures’. 1897Westm. Gaz. 5 Jan. 9/1 The future system had created..in New York..an enormous market.
7. attrib., as future(s) research, study = futurology; future shock: see shock n.3 4 d (b).
1969New Scientist 18 Dec. 588/2 A conflict about the conduct of futures research in West Germany has blown up among the futurologists themselves. 1971Observer 10 Jan. 21/4 ‘The Institute for the Future’..is trying to get futures study out of the gee-whiz stage and give it a much more intellectually solid basis. 1971Sunday Times (Johannesburg) (Business Section) 28 Mar. 10/2 (Advt.), Duties will include so called ‘future’ research into the implications of rapid technological change for Man.
▪ II. † ˈfuture, v. Obs.
[f. future a.; cf. med.L. futūrāre in the same sense.]
trans. To make future, put off to a future day. Also absol.
1642R. Harris Serm. 15 And who knows but that there⁓fore God hath futured other hopes, and frustrated other means, to the intent that he might honor this ordinance? 1646Trapp Comm. John xii. 35 So they trifle, and by futuring, fool away their own salvation. 1647― Matt. xxv. 11 Trifling..with Christ and their souls, futuring their repentance. 1650― Gen. xx. 8 So [they] are shut out, with the foolish Virgins, for their lingring and futuring. |