| 释义 |
unˈpliable, a.
[un-1 7 b, 5 b.]
1. Unyielding, obstinate, stubborn.
c1400Wycliffite Bible Heb. x. 23 We..holde the confessioun of oure hope vnbowynge [v.r. vnpliable; L. indeclinabilem]. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 687 Their stiffenesse and unpliable disposition, the roughnesse also of their skinne, argueth their dry nature. 1627I. Bargrave Serm. 4 Wee are all as oxen unpliable to the yoake. 1652Urquhart Jewel 250 Such..sinners as should prove unpliable to the stamp of his wholesome admonitions. 1774Reid Aristotle's Logic iv. §3 It is somewhat unpliable to rules. 1885S. Cox Expositions I. 101 He saw a new heaven and a new earth,..free from all that renders it hostile or unpliable to the spirit of man.
2. Unbending, inelastic, stiff. Also fig.
1622F. Markham Bk. War i. x. 38 Buckram..is too stiffe and unplyable. 1747Cooke in Hanway Trav. iv. lvi. (1762) I. 260 The paper was very hard and unpliable. 1759Phil. Trans. LI. 290 [Wires] so unpliable and brittle, as to be rendered quite useless. 1773Johnson 8 Oct. in Boswell Tour Hebrides, She had no notion of a joke,..had a mighty unpliable understanding. 1806Forsyth Beauties Scotl. IV. 31 The spruce..has unpliable branches. 1825Scott Betrothed iii, A broad countenance, with heavy and unpliable features.
Hence unˈpliableness.
1635R. Brathwait Arcad. Pr. 99, I feele very usually such a stiffnesse, or unpliablenesse in my selfe. c1720Gibson Diet Horses i. (1731) 11 From an Unpliableness or Straitness of the Ligaments. 1754Hume Hist. England I. 158 That the commons,..by their unpliableness and independance, were insensibly changing. 1787Best Angling (ed. 2) 9 The line by reason of their unpliableness must be much endangered. |