| 释义 |
unˈhelpful, a.
[un-1 7.]
1. Unable to help; not rendering help.
1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. i. 218 Euen so my selfe bewayles good Glosters case With sad vnhelpefull teares, and with dimn'd eyes. 1643–5Milton Divorce ii. xvii, A blamelesse creature,..to whose ease you cannot adde the tithe of one small atome, but by letting alone your unhelpfull surgery. 1856C. M. Yonge Daisy Chain i. xvii, Standing unhelpful, when the others were busy bringing in the benches. 1880Swinburne Stud. Shaks. 62 As yet the one contemporary book..remains..inaccessible and unhelpful to students.
2. Helpless, shiftless. Also absol.
1855I. Taylor Restor. Belief (1856) 290 The luckless, the unhelpful, the feeble,..receive such help as their several cases call for.
Hence unˈhelpfully adv.; unˈhelpfulness.
1626Bp. Hall Contempl., O.T. xxi. v, To take vengeance..for this cold unhelpfulnesse to his distressed Church. 1889in Cent. Dict. 1971Daily Tel. 21 Apr. 12/3 The situations are promising, but the play becomes unhelpfully confusing. |