释义 |
▪ I. heightening, vbl. n.|ˈhaɪt(ə)nɪŋ| [f. as prec. + -ing1.] The action of the verb heighten. 1. Raising, elevation.
1598–9in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) II. 486 For the hightning of the greate Tower. 1631Weever Anc. Fun. Mon. 428 The heighthening of the ground for garden plots. a1683Oldham Poems (1697) 39 (Jod.) You'r low And must some height'ning on the place bestow. 2. transf. and fig. Augmentation, increase, intensification; exaggeration. Also with a and pl.: An instance of this; sometimes, a means of augmenting.
1629Dekker Lond. Tempe Wks. 1873 IV. 119 The Dutch⁓mans thunder, and the Spaniards lightning, To whom the sulphures breath giues heate and heightning. 1658Whole Duty Man iii. §5 (1673) 28 A great heightning of the Sin. 1752C. Lennox Fem. Quix. i. i, These native charms were improved with all the heightenings of art. 1818Hazlitt Eng. Poets i. (1870) 4 Without the heightenings of the imagination. b. spec. in Art: see heighten v. 3. With a and pl.: An instance of this; concr. the colouring which produces the heightened effect.
1662Evelyn Chalcogr. iv. (R.), Had he performed his heightenings with more tendernesse, and come sweetly off with the extremities of his hatchings. 1700Pepys in Academy (1890) 6 Sept. 200/3 To..embellish y⊇ same with its just Heightenings and Shadowings. 1855tr. Labarte's Arts Mid. Ages iv. 161 A few heightenings of white and gold. ▪ II. ˈheightening, ppl. a. [f. as prec. + -ing2.] That heightens (trans. and intr.): see heighten v.
1768Beattie Minstr. ii. xl, To joy each heightening charm it can impart. 1803J. Porter Thaddeus ii. (1831) 15 The palatine observed the heightening animation of his features. |