| 释义 |
hardness|ˈhɑːdnɪs|
Forms: see hard a.
[f. hard a. + -ness.]
a. The quality or condition of being hard; difficulty of penetration, solution, apprehension, performance, endurance; inflexibility, rigidity, stiffness, harshness; rigour, severity, cruelty; obduracy, obstinacy; hardiness, etc.: see hard a.
a700Epinal Gloss. 871 Rigore, heardnissæ. c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. xix. 8 For eower heorte heardnysse. c1000Sax. Leechd. I. 296 Wiþ ðæs maᵹan heardnysse. c1025Rule St. Benet (Logeman) 96 Beon ᵹebodenne ealra heardnessa and stiðnissa. c1175Lamb. Hom. 47 He mihte noht iþolie þe herdnesse of þe rapes. a1300Cursor M. 19325 (Gött.) Þai durst no hardnes þaim do. 1390Gower Conf. II. 71 Hys lady..With hardnesse his herte fyreth. c1440Jacob's Well (E.E.T.S.) 195 Hardnes of clothyng on bak & in bed. c1440Promp. Parv. 227/2 Hardeness of knowy(n)ge, or dede doynge..difficultas. a1529Skelton Now synge we, etc. 75 Jesu..That for man suffred great hardnes. 1552Bk. Com. Prayer, Litany, From hardnesse of hearte..Good lord, deliuer us. 1573–80Baret Alv. N 108 Hardnesse is sparing of expenses, niggardship. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 14 The tediousnesse and hardnesse thereof driveth them away. Ibid. iv. 160 b, Powre in Plaister, or some liquid thing, that may come to a hardnesse in the shell. 1579E. K. Gloss. Spenser's Sheph. Cal. Mar. 23 By reason of Winters hardnesse. 1596Spenser F.Q. iv. viii. 27 Enur'd to hardnesse and to homely fare. 1598R. Barckley Felic. Man (1631) 440 Wealth maketh a woman proud, beauty suspected, and hardnesse of favour lothsome. 1604Shakes. Oth. iii. iv. 34 Oh hardnes to dissemble! 1691Ray Creation (1714) 164, I have armed thee with courage and Hardness to attempt the Seas. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 155 Honeycombs of Golden Juice..T' allay the Strength and Hardness of the Wine. 1704Collect. Voy. & Trav. (Churchill) III. 53/2 Because of the Hardness of the Weather. a1745Swift (J.), The tenants poor, the hardness of the times. 1822–34Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) III. 191 When hardness of hearing depends upon a deficiency of cerumen. 1836Penny Cycl. VI. 142/1 Carbonate of lime..to this in part the hardness of water is owing. 1862Mrs. H. Wood Mrs. Hallib. ii. xxvi. (1888) 290 A stony hardness settled on the young lady's face. 1883Manch. Exam. 3 Dec. 4/1 The tendency of the rates was firm, owing to the hardness of the short loan market. 1895Story-Maskelyne Crystallogr. i. 8 The hardness of crystals in different directions has been estimated by means of an instrument termed a sclerometer.
b. With a and pl. An instance of this quality; a hardship.
1340Ayenb. 236 Hit be-houeþ þet uless beate and wesse be dissiplines and be hardnesses. c1374Chaucer Boeth. iv. pr. v. 102 (Camb. MS.) So as god..yeueth..to goode folk hardnesses and to shrewes he grauntyth hym hir wyl. 1658Jer. Taylor Let. to Evelyn in Evelyn's Mem. (1857) III. 102 One of the hardnesses will be that you must over⁓come even this just and reasonable grief. a1700Dryden (J.), Sculptors are obliged to..make many ample folds, which are insufferable hardnesses. 1790By-stander 43 The crudest hardnesses..are to be rubbed off.
c. spec. The degree of resistance of a mineral to abrasion or scratching.
1784R. Kirwan Elem. Mineral. i. App. 171 (heading) Table of the comparative hardness of different Species of Stones, extracted chiefly from the Memoirs of Stockholm, for 1768. Mr. Quist, the author of this Memoir determined the hardness of most of the following stones. 1904Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 279/2 Hardness, the hardness of a mineral is determined by noting which of the standard minerals the specimen may be scratched by, and which of the ten it will scratch.
d. Of radiation (cf. hard a. 17 a).
1926R. W. Lawson tr. Hevesy & Paneth's Man. Radioactivity iv. i. 45 The shorter the wave-length of the γ-rays, the greater is their penetrating power through matter, or the greater their ‘hardness’. |