| 释义 |
gratuitous, a.|grəˈtjuːɪtəs|
[f. L. grātuīt-us free, spontaneous, voluntary (cogn. w. grātia favour, grātus pleasing) + -ous. Cf. obs. F. gratuiteux.]
1. Freely bestowed or obtained; granted without claim or merit; provided without payment or return; costing nothing to the recipient; free.
1656Jeanes Fuln. Christ 38 How that the Father hath given unto the Sonne..to have life in himselfe..; not by any gratuitous gift, but by natural generation. a1690E. Hopkins Expos. Lord's Prayer (1692) 97 Our Pardon is free and gratuitous; for whatsoever God doth he doth it freely..without respect to any former deserts, or expectations of any future recompence. 1692L'Estrange Fables cccvii. 270 We are..given to Mistake the Gratuitous Blessings of Heaven, for the Fruits of our Own Industry. 1841W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. III. 371 Besides this number, the gratuitous schools received 5584 children. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Gratuitous money, a term officially used for bounty granted to volunteers in Lord Exmouth's expedition against Algiers. 1868M. Pattison Academ. Org. v. 200 A student..attends with more assiduity a course for which he has paid money, than one which is gratuitous. 1870Emerson Soc. & Solit., Farming Wks. (Bohn) III. 59 The earth is a machine which yields almost gratuitous service to every application of the intellect.
b. spec. Sc. Law. Of a charter or deed: Made or granted without any value given in return.
1773Erskine Inst. Sc. Law ii. iii. §22. 189 A charter which proceeds merely from the love and favour which the granter hath for the grantee, is said to be granted for a lucrative or gratuitous cause. Ibid. iii. viii. §45. 566 The institute can defeat the substitution, even by a gratuitous deed. 1872Bell's Princ. Law Scotl. §64 (ed. 6) 33 Obligations which are, as free gifts, voluntarily undertaken, or at least without an adequate consideration, are called gratuitous.
2. Done, made, adopted, or assumed without any good ground or reason; not required or warranted by the circumstances of the case; uncalled-for; unjustifiable.
1691Ray Creation i. (1692) 17 The second Motive they had to introduce this gratuitous Declination of Atoms, the same Poet gives us. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. 95 But as these occasions may never arrive, the mind receives a gratuitous taint. 1844H. H. Wilson Brit. India III. 507 A gratuitous interference with private rights. 1844Lingard Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858) I. App. A. 318 A gratuitous and unfounded supposition. 1860J. Payn Bateman Househ. xxi. 260 The innuendo conveyed in the notice is not only malicious and cruel, but a gratuitous lie. 1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. lviii. IV. 179 There never was more gratuitous sinning.
b. Of the agent: Performing the action implied without reason or justification.
1864Sala in Daily Tel. 29 Sept., I should be held up to execration as a malignant slanderer and a gratuitous liar.
†3. Requiring no proof; axiomatic. Obs. rare.
1775Johnson Tax. no Tyr. 1 Of these gratuitous and acknowledged truths it is often the fate to become less evident by endeavours to explain them. |