| 释义 |
unˈstableness
[f. unstable a.]
The condition of being unstable; instability: a. Of persons, the mind, etc.
c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. II. 58 Medling of freris cloþis telliþ unstablenesse [in virtue] of þes ordris. 1387Trevisa Higden II. 175 Þe vnstabilnesse of þouȝtes schal be bytokened by many manere dyuersite of cloþinge. c1425Eng. Conq. Irel. 136 Thegh thay, throgh kynd falsnesse & vnstablenesse that yn ham ys, lytyl tel of othes. 1539Elyot Cast. Helthe 75 Unstablenesse of wytte and slipper remembraunce. 1590Greenwood Answ. Gifford 13 Your vnstablenes in denying and affirming with one breath. 1646P. Bulkeley Gospel Covt. v. 368 By reason of our unstablenesse of spirit, we are apt to make many a breach. 1676Hale Contempl. II. 49 Unstableness, Vanity, Love of Pleasures, Easiness to be corrupted in Youth. 1815W. H. Ireland Scribbleomania 124 His natural unstableness debars him from adopting any fixed mode of action.
b. Of conditions, life, etc.
c1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 353 Þe unstabelnes of þis werld. c1374Chaucer Boeth. ii. pr. iv. (1868) 43 Þe vnstablenesse of fortune. c1430Lydg. Compl. Bl. Knt. 457 Thy stormy wilful variaunce I-meynt with chaunge and gret vnstablenesse. c1440Gesta Rom. lxxxix. 411 A woman..that sawe..the synnes, and the vnstablenesse, that was in the worlde. a1589Palfreyman Baldwin's Mor. Philos. (1600) 52 O world thou hast so many countenaunces in thy vanitie, that thou leadest all wandering in vnstablenesse. 1601Sir W. Cornwallis Ess. ii. xxxvi, The frailty and vnstablenes of wealth. 1670in Somers Tracts I. 27 To shew unto those insolent Commanders of the Army, the Unstableness of their Condition. 1807G. Chalmers Caledonia I. iii. vii. 421 A weaker prince would have lost his crown, considering its unstableness. |