| 释义 |
unˈprofitable, a.
(un-1 7 b, 5 b.)
a1325Prose Psalter xiii. 4 Alle boweden, to-gider hij ben vnprofitable. 1390Gower Conf. I. 263 Envie..is..to man⁓kinde unprofitable. c1412Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 2268 Swiche an eschaunge [is] but vnprofitable. c1435Chron. London (Kingsford, 1905) 42 Demyng hym sylff..vtterly vnprofitable to the Rewle and good gouernaunces off the Rewme. 1526Tindale Heb. xiii. 17 That is an vnproffitable thynge for you. 1577Googe tr. Heresbach's Husb. 139 So that the Master be not deceiued with an olde unproffitable flocke. 1630Capt. Smith Trav. & Adv. xv. 27 Any beast unprofitable for service they kill. 1654S. Clarke Eccl. Hist. (ed. 2) i. 25 Such men as labor for shortlived honour are but like froth, which though it be uppermost, yet is un⁓profitablest. 1735Johnson Lobo's Abyssinia. Voy. i. 7 To expose ourselves..to a Death almost certain and unprofitable. 1826F. Reynolds Life & Times II. 377 This arduous, unprofitable, and ungracious office. 1878Lecky Eng. in 18th C. II. vii. 302 Prizes offered..for reclaiming unprofitable bogs.
absol.1838Penny Cycl. XI. 345/2 To distinguish good from evil,..the profitable from the unprofitable.
†b. As adv. Unprofitably. Obs.—1
c1425Orolog. Sapient. v. in Anglia X. 360/12 Þat I hadde so vnprofitabil spendid þe tyme. |