| 释义 |
unamˈbitious, a.
[un-1 7 and 5 b]
Not ambitious or aspiring; devoid of ambition. a. Of thoughts, occupations, productions, etc.
16..Nobody & Someb. in Simpson Sch. Shaks. (1878) I. 332 My unambitious thoughts have bin long tird With this great charge. 1656Cowley Praise Pindar iv, Whilst, alas, my tim'erous Muse Unambitious tracks pursues. 1713Guard. No. 167 ⁋3 Train them up in the humble unambitious Pursuits of Knowledge. 1768Boswell Corsica Dedication p. v, Predicting greatness to those who afterwards pass their days in unambitious indolence. 1814Wordsw. Excurs. v. 111 The calm delights Of unambitious piety he chose. 1862Latham Channel Isl. iii. xviii. (ed. 2) 430 The bottom of this unambitious window..is but four feet from the ground. 1887Spectator 25 Mar. 421/2 He can produce an unambitious though not unsatisfying tiny cabinet picture.
b. Of persons, the mind, etc.
1621G. Sandys Ovid's Met. i. (1626) 3 Then, vnambitious Mortals knew no more, But their owne Countrie's Nature-bounded shore. 1728Young Love Fame ii. 291 Is thy ambition sweating for a rhyme; Thou unambitious fool, at this late time? 1784Cowper Task iv. 798 An unambitious mind, content In the low vale of life. 1816Byron Ch. Har. iii. lxiv, Stainless victories, Won by the unambitious heart and hand Of a proud, brotherly, and civic band. 1893Liddon Life Pusey I. App. 455 That unenterprising and unambitious but useful class of the English gentry.
Hence unamˈbitiously adv., -ness.
1746Hervey Medit. (1818) 120 While others, free from all aspiring views, creep unambitiously on the ground, and look like the commonalty of the kind. a1755Conybeare (Mason), Others through unambitiousness of temper are gradually sinking. 1791Coleridge Math. Problem iii. 10 Unambitiously join'd in equality's band. 1814Wordsw. Excurs. vii. 473 That monumental stone..unambitiously relates How long..The sad privation was by him endured. 1847Lytton Lucretia 19 He felt a lively satisfaction at the thought of leaving his friend honourably, if unambitiously, provided for. |