| 释义 |
grandmotherly, a.|ˈgrænd-, ˈgrænmʌðəlɪ|
[f. grandmother n. + -ly1.]
Pertaining to or befitting a grandmother. Now often fig. of government, legislation, etc.: Characterized by a trivial minuteness of detail in its regulations, as if the governed were children incapable of protecting their own interests.
1842C. Whitehead Richard Savage (1845) III. vii. 390 But this device is grandmotherly. 1871Daily News 7 Apr., They have abjured all attempt to rule Paris except by a grandmotherly kind of coaxing. 1874Mrs. J. W. Horne Sex & Educ. 17 A good old grandmotherly doctrine, handed down from parent to child. 1880Harper's Mag. LX. 914 ‘Now Jerome’, said Irene, in the advising grandmotherly manner she often assumed. 1883Athenæum 8 Sept. 309/3 The enterprising traveller had set their rather grandmotherly regulations at defiance. 1888Lowell Prose Wks. (1890) VI. 218 Those theories of grandmotherly government which led to our revolt from the mother country. 1889Jessopp Coming of Friars vi. 277 There was no grandmotherly legislation in those days. |