| 释义 |
unˈsettle, v.
[un-2 3 and 7.]
1. trans. To undo from a fixed position; to unfix, unfasten, loosen.
1598Florio, Discasciare,..to make loose the teeth, to dismount artillerie, to vnsettle anything. [1755Johnson, To Unsettle, v.a., to move from a place.] 1818Keats Endymion iv. 414 He..strives in vain to unsettle and wield A Jovian thunderbolt.
2. To force out of a settled condition; to deprive of fixity or quiet:
a. a state of things, institutions, etc.
1651Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxvii. 154 Such as..take upon them..to unsettle the Lawes with their publique discourse. 1679Alsop Melius Inq. i. i. 91 To set Religion upon its proper Basis, and unsettle it from the feeble foundations upon which former Ages had erected it! a1700Evelyn Diary 21 April, 1695, Never were so many private Bills pass'd for unsettling estates. 1704Atterbury On 1 Tim. ii. 7 Those Mighty Events, that fix, or unsettle the Peace of the World. 1803Wordsw. ‘England! the time is come’ 4 Old things have been unsettled. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. i. I. 71 This theory, though intended to strengthen the foundations of government, altogether unsettles them. 1884Leeds Merc. 15 Nov. 6/4 Such a struggle..must unsettle all the institutions of the country.
b. beliefs, thoughts, the mind, etc.
1644Milton Divorce (ed. 2) i. viii. 19 They should but seek..to unsettle our constancie with timorous and softning suggestions. 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. iii. i. §2 When men bent their wits to unsettle the Beleef of such things as tended to Religion. 1671in Verney Mem. (1907) II. 354 My thoughts are unsettled. 1759S. Fielding C'tess of Dellwyn II. 261 His Father had unsettled his Resolution. 1794Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xlvii, The long struggle which Agnes suffered..at length unsettled her reason. 1816Scott Bl. Dwarf xviii, The shock was even sufficient to unsettle his wits. 1839Dickens Nich. Nick. iv, None of those ill-judged comings home twice a year that unsettle children's minds so. 1885Spectator 25 July 971/2 That his mind had been unsettled by his peril.
c. persons (in respect of beliefs, etc.).
1833Coleridge Table Talk (1884) 225 What is the spirit which seems to move and unsettle every other man..at this time? 1851Helps Comp. Solit. xii. 236 Provided they do not, as they would say, unsettle their neighbours. 1880R. G. White Every-Day Eng. 140 A phonetic printing of those two words would unsettle all these people.
3. intr. To become unsettled.
1605Shakes. Lear iii. iv. 167 His wits begin t' vnsettle. 1624Sanderson Serm. I. 102 The house cannot but unsettle apace, and without speedy repairs fall to the ground. 1643Milton Divorce 8 Their wild affections unsetling at will have been as so many divorces to teach them experience. a1859De Quincey Posth. Wks. (1891) I. 14 He gazes, and slowly under the blazing scenery of his brain the scenery of his eye unsettles.
4. trans. To clear of settlers.
1895Advance (Chicago) 11 Apr. 991/1 Probably no [other] section of our country has ever been un-settled so rapidly.
Hence unˈsettling vbl. n. and ppl. a.
Also, in recent use (1901), unsettler.
1665Boyle Occas. Refl. i. vii, Troublesome and unsettling Employments. 1775Ash, Disconcerting, p.a.,..unsettling, discomposing. 1828Miss Mitford Village Ser. iii. 70 The unsettling, and the journey, and the settling again,..fairly killed her. 1866Cornh. Mag. XIII. 437 Christianity..must have raised among the believers in the Law very unsettling questions much akin to these. 1894H. H. Gardener Unoff. Patriot 10 The unsettling times which brought Methodism..into the ranks of established things. |