| 释义 |
unˈfavourable, a. (and n.)
[un-1 7 b.]
1. Not favourable, in various senses:
a. Of persons, opinions, etc.
1548Udall Erasm. Par. Luke xix. 147 The Pharisees..thynke theimselues fortunate that they carry the deuill on theyre backes, ye roughest sitter possible and ye moste vnfauourable. 1678Sir G. Mackenzie Crim. Laws Scot. ii. xxii. §i. (1699) 239 After a Crime is proved, the Pannel is most unfavourable. 1777Robertson Hist. Amer. ii. ⁋12 Talavera, at last, made..an unfavourable report to Ferdinand and Isabella. 1779Mirror No. 32, He was pleased..to communicate his opinions. The last I found generally unfavourable both of men and things. 1835T. Mitchell Acharn. of Aristoph. 200 note, The insertion of a choriambus.., viewed with an unfavourable eye by Bentley and Elmsley. 1890Retrospect Med. CII. 45 The prognosis was unfavourable only in severe cases.
b. Of conditions, circumstances, times, etc. Also const. to or for.
1748Anson's Voy. i. viii. 77 These tempests.., though unattended by any other unfavourable circumstance, were yet rendered more mischievous to us by their inequality. 1766Smollett Trav. xi. I. 174, I have always found a cold and damp atmosphere the most unfavourable of any to my constitution. 1796F. Burney Camilla III. 444 [She] thought the moment unfavourable for a tête-à-tête. 1846A. Marsh Father Darcy II. xvi. 277, I must dispose of the outlaying estates in Northamptonshire, and these times are unfavourable. 1874J. Geikie Gt. Ice Age xxiii. 302 In situations that would now be considered most unfavourable to their growth.
c. Of winds or weather.
1788Gibbon Decl. & F. xli. IV. 132 An unfavourable wind detained them four days. 1789C. Smith Ethelinde IV. 155 A successless hunt, the morning being frosty and unfavourable. 1820W. Scoresby Acc. Arctic Reg. I. 307 The winds were mostly unfavourable. 1865Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xix. viii. V. 581 In spite of..the unfavorablest weather, it was..his fixed purpose to recapture Dresden.
†d. Of diseases, physical injuries, etc. Obs.
1782V. Knox Ess. clxiii. (1819) III. 217 They were seized with an unfavourable small-pox. 1793Cowper Let. to J. Hill 10 Dec., You mentioned..an unfavourable sprain that you had received. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xxxiii, Her mind is totally alienated, which..is sometimes the consequence of an unfavourable confinement.
2. Of features or appearance: Ill-favoured.
1776E. Topham Lett. Edin. 83 The men are large and disproportioned with unfavourable, long, and saturnine countenances. 1782A. Highmore Ramble Coast Sussex (1873) 47 She said I did not carry an unfavourable appearance. 1825Scott Talism. v, With all this most unfavourable exterior, there was one trait in the features of both which argued alertness and intelligence.
b. Creating a bad impression.
1817Jas. Mill Brit. India II. iv. vi. 230 A procedure which bore a most unfavourable appearance.
3. n. An unfavourable result.
1838De Morgan Ess. Probab. 42 But of these 36 throws, any one of the five unfavourables of the first throw may combine with any one of the second throw.
Hence unˈfavourableness.
1764Phil. Trans. LIV. 105 The best account..of my observation, however imperfect through the unfavourableness of the weather. 1842Loudon Suburban Hort. 123 The unsuitableness of the soil, the unpropitiousness of the climate, and the unfavourableness of the seasons. |