| 释义 |
unˈfathomable, a.
[un-1 7 b.]
1. fig. Of feelings, qualities, conditions, etc.: Incapable of being fully ascertained, explored, exhausted, etc.
1617Collins Def. Bp. Ely ii. ix. 404 Who are you then to gage hearts, which Hieremy sayes are vnfaddomable. 1663Bp. Patrick Parab. Pilgr. xxvii, Thy Goodness is unfathomable, else we should have sunk long before this beyond the depth of it. 1719Young Busiris v. i, An earnest Of vast unfathomable woes to come. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 119 What their real sentiments may be I shall not pretend to guess, for they are an unfathomable sort of people. 1802–12Bentham Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827) II. 315 Subjected to an unfathomable mass of punishment. 1850Thackeray Pendennis iv, Her eyes..shone with tenderness and mystery unfathomable. 1891Meredith One of our Conq. xxvi, Lady Cantor spoke to her of Dudley's unfathomable gloom.
2. Incapable of being fathomed or measured; unsoundable, immeasurable, vast:
a. Of space (esp. in depth).
a1676Hale Prim. Orig. Man. ii. vii. (1677) 187 Not..meerly by the Superficies of the Sea, but by its vast depth, which in some places is unfathomable. 1712Addison Spect. No. 420 ⁋3 Those unfathomable Depths of Ether. 1799Kirwan Geol. Ess. 479 The unfathomable abysses of the ocean. 1815Shelley Alastor 373 On the unfathomable stream The boat moved slowly. 1851Mrs. Browning Casa Guidi Wind. i. 760 Ye may well look up surprised To those unfathomable heavens that feed Your purple hills! 1879M. E. Braddon Clov. Foot iv, The long dazzling boulevards stretching into unfathomable distance before her eyes.
b. In fig. contexts. (Cf. 1.)
1640Bp. Hall Chr. Moder. ii. §7. 47 These are indeed unfadomable depths in that Ocean, wherin we shall vainly hope to pitch our anchor. 1672Stillingfl. Serm. xii. (1673) 237 O the unfathomable Abysse of Eternity! 1712Addison Spect. No. 309 ⁋14 Sounding the unfathomable Depths of Fate, Free-will and Fore-knowledge. 1739Wesley ‘Lo! God is here!’ v, Thou source and life of all! Thou vast, unfathomable Sea! 1820Shelley Fiordispina 9 For thou the wonders of the depth canst know Of this unfathomable flood of hours. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxi. IV. 575 In truth the depths of this man's knavery were unfathomable. 1859Geo. Eliot A. Bede iii, An unfathomable ocean of love and beauty.
absol.1831Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. viii, Two little visual Spectra of men, hovering..in the midst of the Unfathomable.
c. fig. Of the eyes.
1817Shelley Rev. Islam vi. xxxviii, The sweet peace of joy did almost fill The depth of her unfathomable look. 1854Thackeray Newcomes xxx, Her unfathomable eyes were wells of gloom. 1882‘Ouida’ Maremma I. 212 Her lustrous, unfathomable, star-like eyes.
Hence unˈfathomableness.
1690Norris Beatitudes (1692) 133 The Unfathomableness of the great Dispensation of Mercy. 1832tr. Tour Germ. Prince II. xii. 244 The immortal secret.., the unfathomableness of which had so tormented the ‘élégants’ of the metropolis. 1872Geo. Eliot Middlem. iii. xxiii, In Mr. Horrock there was certainly an apparent unfathomableness, which offered play to the imagination. |