| 释义 |
uninˈtelligible, a. and n.
[un-1 7.]
1. Not intelligible; incapable of being understood. Also absol.
1616Bullokar Eng. Expos., Vnintelligible, which cannot be vnderstood. 1647Cowley Mistr., Womens Superstit. i, Or I'm a very Dunce, or Womankind Is a most unintelligible thing. 1684T. Burnet Theory Earth i. 259 The trajection..is to me, I confess, unintelligible. 1717Berkeley Tour Italy Wks. 1871 IV. 527 The ruins above ground are pretty unintelligible. 1796F. Burney Camilla V. 516 This is..so incredible—so unintelligible! 1834Lamb Wks. (1908) I. 454 Coleridge..had the tact of making the unintelligible seem plain. 1871Jowett Plato I. 26 He made an unintelligible attempt to hide his perplexity.
b. Of language, statements, etc., or persons in respect of such.
1651Hobbes Leviath. i. xii. 53 Men..choose rather to confesse he is Incomprehensible,.. than to..confesse their definition to be unintelligible. 1683Brit. Spec. 40 Their Records also were preserved in the Greek Tongue and Characters..unintelligible by the Vulgar. 1703De Foe More Reform. 41 To b' Unintelligible is a Crime. 1765Johnson Shakespeare's Plays I. p. lxviii, Homer has fewer passages unintelligible than Chaucer. 1841Lane Arab. Nts. I. 113 Where, taking a little of its water, she pronounced over it some unintelligible words. 1884Solicitors' Jrnl. 8 Nov. 29/2 The prisoner..having an impediment in his speech, which made him unintelligible and unable to read it.
c. n. An unintelligible thing.
1838Southey Doctor cxlix. V. 176 As two negatives make an affirmative, it might be found that two unintelligibles make a meaning.
†2. Unintelligent. Obs.—1
1694R. Franck North. Mem. 121 Nor has it any Claim or Title from the Lough Minever, as superstitiously surmiz'd by the unintelligible Inhabitant. |