| 释义 |
unˈserviceable, a.
[un-1 7 b and 5 b.]
1. Of things: Not capable of being employed for their proper purpose.
1535Wardr. Kath. Arragon 33 in Camden Misc. III, The thurde [chair] is broken and unservesable. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. xi. 25 The beast..his late wounded wing vnseruiceable found. 1600in St. Papers, Dom. (1869) 437 The others [= signets] having become unserviceable from long use. 1663Boyle Usef. Exp. Nat. Philos. ii. App. 328 Besides a not despicable quantity of terrestrial and unserviceable matter. 1690Locke Hum. Und. iii. iii. §17 The supposition..is so..unserviceable to any part of our knowledge. 1713Berkeley Guard. No. 35, His intellectuals, I observed, were grown unserviceable by too little use. 1737tr. Le Comte's Mem. & Remarks China Pref., They might not be unserviceable to those who might..take up such a design. 1801Farmer's Mag. Aug. 339 The horse I hire..may be in any degree serviceable or unserviceable. 1830H. N. Coleridge Grk. Poets 1 A perusal of these Introductions may not be unserviceable to many well educated readers. 1857Dickens Dorrit i. xxxii, What with her flapping cap, and..her unserviceable eye.
b. spec. Of ships, guns, etc.
1610Holland Camden's Brit. 35 The ships..so shaken with the tempest, that they became altogether unserviceable. 1618in Essex Rev. (1908) XVII. 102 The moderne use doth altogether exclude the caliver as unservicable. 1707Lond. Gaz. No. 4362/2, 10 Ships were destroyed.., and several others rendred wholly unserviceable. 1748Anson's Voy. ii. iv. 165 Three four pounders, which were altogether unserviceable. 1811Regul. & Orders Army 91 The disposal of Unserviceable Arms. 1865Cameron Malayan India 246 It is not that the forts are ungarrisoned,..but that they are unserviceable. 1876Voyle & Stevenson Milit. Dict. 446/2 Unserviceable, the term is applied..to all stores which are no longer of use, being either obsolete or worn out.
2. Of persons: Unable to be of service; not rendering service or help; useless.
1598Hakluyt Voy. I. 240 You haue too much liuing, and are vnseruiceable to your prince, lesse will serue you. 1614W. B. Philosophers Banquet (ed. 2) 121 One that would be vnseruiceable to him, and vnprofitable to the Commonwealth. 1655Nicholas Papers (Camden) II. 217, I did long since tell you that poore man would be made onseruiceable to you. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. II. i. 13 Our sick are about the same;..McGary and Riley unserviceable. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. iii. ii, I am an unserviceable friend of hers.
b. spec. Not capable of rendering military (or naval) service.
1596Spenser State Irel. Wks. (Globe) 653/2 The rebells..will turne away all theyr rascall people, whom they thinke unserviceable. 1601Shakes. All's Well iv. iii. 152 Fiue or sixe thousand, but very weake and vnseruiceable: the troopes are all scattered. 1681Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) I. 151 Poor souldiers rendred unserviceable by age, wounds, &c. 1786Burke Art. agst. W. Hastings Wks. 1842 II. 191 The country troops..would be ill-disciplined and unserviceable, if not worse. 1834Marryat P. Simple I. 124 Some of them were retained, but most of them sent on shore as unserviceable. 1881Jowett Thucyd. I. 146 The Plataeans had already conveyed to Athens their wives,..with the rest of their unserviceable population.
transf.1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 707 Unserviceable ticket; this is made out in the same manner, and requires the same notations, as a sick-ticket.
3. Marked by disinclination to be of service.
1614Raleigh Hist. World v. vi. 657 Such men of note..as had any way discouered an vnseruiceable disposition towards the Romans.
4. Prejudicial, disadvantageous.
1698Norris Pract. Disc. IV. 386 To reform his Temper, which I'm afraid is more unserviceable to Religion than any Hypothesis of mine can be.
Hence unserviceaˈbility.
1884Cyclists' Tour. Cl. Gaz. Nov. 335/1 The unserviceability of the new substitute. |