| 释义 |
unˈreasonableness
[un-1 12.]
1. The quality (in things or actions) of being unreasonable or at variance with reason.
1532Dial. on Laws Eng. (ed. 2) ii. xlviii. 122 It were a greate vnreasonablenes in the lawe if it shulde prohibit hym [etc.]. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 305 Considering the vnreasonablenes of the thing. 1645Vane Lost Sheepe 24 The vnreasonablenesse of this assertion. 1691Ray Creation i. (1692) 18 The folly and unreasonableness of this..ungrounded Figment. 1748Anson's Voy. iii. ix. 388 The Commodore urging the unreasonableness of this procedure, from the inability of the forts to have done otherwise. 1778F. Burney Evelina xlvi, The folly and unreasonableness of this speech. 1830Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) I. 248 There are depths of unreasonableness, which surpass all human folly. 1886Law Times Rep. LIII. 660/1 The agreement is invalidated by the unreasonableness of the restriction.
†b. Unfairness, injustice. Obs.
a1533Ld. Berners Huon xviii. 48 Ye..haue well herde the grete vnresonablenes that the kynge do too one of oure peres. Ibid., The place wher as suche extorsyon and vnresonableness is vsed.
c. Immoderateness; excessiveness.
1665Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 282 The Ambassadour..acquainted his Master with the unreasonableness of the Turks demands. 1797Mrs. Radcliffe Ital. xxxi, The unreasonableness of her claims was forgotten.
2. The quality (in persons) of being unreasonable in action, demands, etc.
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 184 Here maye a manne doubte whether of these twoo thynges he ought rather to maruaill at, the kynges liberalitee in geuyng, orels the vnreasonablenes of the philosophier, in askyng. 1598R. Bernard tr. Terence, Andria v. i, You would (now at last) giue ouer to cumber me with your vnreasonablenesse. 1703S. Centlivre Beau's Duel v. i, Did ever man of your hairs ask such questions? I vow I blush at your unreasonableness. 1736Butler Anal. i. vi. 156 This is vanity, conceit and unreasonableness. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xv. III. 595 The difficulties by which the government was beset on all sides, the malignity of its enemies, the unreasonableness of its friends. 1879L. Stephen Hours in Library Ser. iii. 322 The grand unreasonableness of the average Englishman.
†3. Lack of reason; irrationality. Obs.
1598Florio, Irationalita, vnreasonableness, brutishnes. 1647H. More Song of Soul i. ii. 88 But what with judgement doth them both compare? Is't reason or unreasonableness, I pray. |