| 释义 |
ˈgutless, a.
[f. gut n. + -less.]
†a. Having no guts; disembowelled. Obs.
1605Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. iii. Law 643 When the Falcon..shall..make on the sense-less ground The gut-less Quar, once, twice, or thrice, rebound. 1606W. Birnie Kirk-Buriall (1833) 4 The Gerrens, a Schithian sect, after exinteration bespyced their gutlesse goodsirs. 1621G. Sandys Ovid's Met. xii. (1626) 247 He bounds, and on the earth his bowels trailes;..and with a gutlesse bellie dies.
b. Lacking in energy, courage, or determination. Also gutsless.
1915E. Pound in Lett. J. Joyce (1966) II. 364 Gutless Oxford graduates. 1927D. H. Lawrence Let. 19 May in E. & A. Brewster D. H. Lawrence (1934) 133 The rest [at an art exhibition] piffle... So old-fashioned and timid and gutsless. 1929W. J. Locke Ancestor Jorico x, Dr. Chepstow firmly refused to allow the convalescent and..gutless Nicholas to venture a second time. 1930G. M. Sanders Burnt Man xv. 175 He was thinking that the man before him was a poor gutsless creature after all, and that he had been foolish to suppose either of his sisters would ever be attracted to him. 1941L. A. G. Strong Bay ix. 228 Now you see what a gutless poor worm I am. 1969Daily Tel. 16 May 18 The housing situation in North Kensington has been created by a short-sighted and gutless national housing policy.
Hence ˈgutlessness, lack of determination.
1936R. Lehmann Weather in Streets ii. 245 Isn't it [sc. psycho-analysis] an excuse for gutlessness? |