| 释义 |
undeˈcided, ppl. a. and n.
[un-1 8.]
A. adj.
1. a. Not decided; unsettled; uncertain.
1540in Charters, etc. Edinb. (1871) 212 The pley beand..as yet ondecidit, na innovatioun suld be maid. 1588Lambarde Eiren. iii. i. 330, I find it both doubted and undecided. 1603Florio Montaigne i. xxvi. 89 Glory..forbids vs to leaue any thing vnresolued or vndecided. 1651Hobbes Leviath. i. xv. 78 For else the question is undecided, and left to force. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 132 A Cast of scatter'd Dust will..undecided leave the Fortune of the Day. 1731Hist. Litteraria III. 762 Finding, that notwithstanding the great pains he had taken, many Controversies remained still undecided. 1782F. Burney Cecilia ii. vi, If any thing is yet undecided, it will not, perhaps, be amiss that I should be consulted. 1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 671 It appears to us that this point still remains in a very undecided state. 1853Ruskin Stones Ven. (1874) II. vi. §91. 217 This is not an unimportant distinction, nor an undecided one.
b. Lacking in decision or definiteness.
1828Lytton Pelham III. vii, To engage a certain rather than a doubtful and undecided support. 1864Trevelyan Compet. Wallah (1866) 292 To have..an undecided opinion on the question of Eternal Punishment.
c. Coursing. Not decided between the competing dogs; indecisive.
1839in Youatt Dog (1845) 261 In running a match the judge may declare the course to be undecided. 1856‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports 206, etc.
2. Irresolute, hesitating.
1779Mirror No. 66, He knows..that the undecided mind, without choice or active sense of propriety, is equally accessible to the next [feelings] that occur. 1791Cowper Iliad i. 242 So doubted he, and undecided yet Stood drawing forth his faulchion huge. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. xi. 71 The man..stood beside the chasm manifestly undecided as to whether he should take the step. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 173 When action above all things is required he is undecided.
B. n.
1. Coursing. An indecisive course.
1876Coursing Calendar 5 Miss Steel and No More ran a short undecided. Ibid. 222 We did not make the anticipated headway, only getting thirty courses, including the two undecideds.
2. An undecided person, one who has not made up his mind.
1968Listener 31 Oct. 568/2 Who can decide what an undecided is going to do? 1974Times 7 Oct. 4/4 The Labour Party is picking up more support from the undecideds than any other party.
Hence undeˈcidedly adv.
[1847Webster.] 1856Olmsted Slave States 19 They seem to move very awkwardly, slowly, and undecidedly. 1885Sir J. F. Stephen in Law Q. Rev. Jan. 8 Their language hovers undecidedly between two meanings.
Add: undeˈcidedness n., the quality or state of being undecided.
1897N.E.D. s.v. Doubt sb.1, The (subjective) state of uncertainty..; undecidedness of belief or opinion. 1987Legal Times 21 Sept. 9/2 Heflin himself joined in the punditry, offering an opinion on the undecidedness of his colleague. |