| 释义 |
undeˈfinable, a. and n.
(un-1 7 b, 5 b.)
1694Locke Hum. Und. (ed. 2) iii. iv. §4 marg., Names of simple Ideas undefinable. 1750Chesterfield Lett. (1774) 49 That is the occasion in which manners, dexterity, address, and the undefineable je ne sçais quoi, triumph. 1780Burke Œcon. Reform Wks. III. 306 Other persons meriting as little as they do, might be put upon it to an undefinable amount. 1827Disraeli Viv. Grey v. xv, When he was experiencing emotions, which, though undefinable, he felt to be new. 1884Church Bacon viii. 201 The undefinable but very real character of greatness.
n.1809Malkin Gil Blas x. xii. ⁋23, I had no mind to meddle any more with the dish of undefinables.
Hence undeˈfinableness; undeˈfinably adv.
1705Berkeley in Fraser Life (1871) 437 There may be another cause of the undefinableness of certain ideas,..viz. the want of names. 1796F. Burney Camilla V. x. xi. 470 This reverie, poignantly agitating, yet undefinably soothing. 1886W. J. Tucker E. Europe 127 Every village one passes through has..something undefinably characteristic about it. |