| 释义 |
unˈreadable, a.
[un-1 7 b.]
1. Too dull or distasteful to read.
1802–12Bentham Ration. Judic. Evid. Wks. 1843 VI. 441 Take up a history of an old French lawsuit, the evidence is absolutely unreadable. 1837Hallam Hist. Lit. i. iv. §70 Making the entire work unreadable by the most patient..of mankind. 1867Darwin in F. Darwin Life & Lett. (1887) III. 96 After the horrid, tedious, dull work of my present huge, and I fear unreadable, book.
2. Illegible through careless or indistinct writing.
1830Miss Mitford Village Ser. iv. 182 Oh such letters!..and in such a hand! so pretty and so unreadable! 1861Wynter Soc. Bees 13 An immense number of letters..with directions perfectly unreadable to ordinary persons.
transf.1839Carlyle Chartism iii, The emblem of darkness, of unreadable confusion.
3. Inaccessible to any reader.
1852C. B. Mansfield Paraguay, etc. (1856) 66 Whether I go down by steamer to Monte Video..or whether I go into the interior of San Paulo..is at present written in the Unreadable Book.
Hence unreadaˈbility, unˈreadableness; unˈreadably adv.
1780F. Burney Diary & Lett. (1842) I. vii. 316 In the evening we had Mrs. Lambert, who brought us a tale, called ‘Edwy and Edilda’, by the sentimental Mr. W―, and unreadably soft, and tender, and senseless is it. 1838J. S. Mill in Westm. Rev. Aug. 506 He could stop nowhere short of utter unreadableness. 1856Vaughan Mystics II. viii. vii. 74 Reason will not attempt to rescue him from condign sentence of unreadableness. 1870Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. (1873) 338 Klopstock himself is..an immortality of unreadableness. a1871De Morgan Budget Parad. (1872) 123 It is a climax of unsaleability, unreadability, and inutility. a1974R. Crossman Diaries (1975) I. 564 She may be right that if you want to impress people you must make things unreadably long.
Add:4. Of a face, expression, remark, etc.: that cannot be interpreted; inscrutable, incomprehensible.
1907Conrad Secret Agent xi. 364 He..dragged the veil off, unmasking a still, unreadable face. 1940W. Faulkner Hamlet ii. ii. 135 Varner..called a general greeting, short, perfectly inflectionless, unreadable. 1977Washington Post 28 Nov. a12/1 His eyes flicker with an unreadable expression, then focus somewhere in the middle distance. 1988Newsday 22 Apr. iii. 13/4 His furrowed brow is static, his face is unreadable. |