| 释义 |
hopeful, a. (n.)|ˈhəʊpfʊl|
[f. hope n.1 + -ful.]
1. a. Full of hope; feeling or entertaining hope; expectant of that which is desired.
1594Shakes. Rich. III, i. ii. 24 Childe..Whose vgly and vnnaturall Aspect May fright the hopefull Mother at the view. 1665Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 124 Hopeful of some reward. 1822Jeffrey Let. lxxxix. in Cockburn Life II, The..happiest, hopefulest, creature that ever set fortune at defiance. 1886Ruskin Præterita I. vii. 220 A time of active and hopeful contentment for both the young people.
b. Expressive of hope.
1607Rowlands Guy, Earl Warw. 81 The comfort of a hopeful word bestowing. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. i. iii, It is likely enough that ten thousand other young men..made the same hopeful remark in the course of the same evening.
2. a. Causing or inspiring hope; giving promise of success or future good, ‘promising’: said of a person or thing on which one's hope is set, or concerning which hope is entertained; sometimes ironically, of a young person who is likely to disappoint hopes.
1568Queen Elizabeth Let. to Cecil in Strype Ann. Ref. (1709) I. li. 515 That she would allow honorary salaries to the acute and hopeful youth, for their maintenance in their studies there. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. ii. 15 Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she, Shee's the hopefull Lady of my earth. 1647in Wood's Life (O.H.S.) I. 301 note, Money to maintain hopeful students at the University. 1732Swift Sacram. Test Wks. 1761 III. 294 Which of the two is in the hopefullest Condition to ruin the Church. 1768Goldsm. Good-n. Man i. Wks. (Globe) 611/1 Here comes his hopeful nephew; strange, goodnatured, foolish, open⁓hearted. 1865–6H. Phillips Amer. Paper Curr. II. 92 Loans now seemed to afford a hopeful prospect of relief.
b. as n. (colloq.) A ‘hopeful’ boy or girl: often ironical. (Sometimes as a quasi-proper name.)
1720Duchess Ormond Let. 18 Apr. in Swift's Wks. (1814) XVI. 363 Else young Hopeful might have been in danger. 1811Byron Hints fr. Hor. 256 O'er hoards diminish'd by young Hopeful's debts. 1842C. Whitehead Richard Savage (1845) III. vi. 381 Some of the young hopefuls make their parents pay pretty smartly for their love. 1860G. H. Lewes Let. 26 Sept. in Geo. Eliot's Lett. (1954) III. 349 My hopeful and his parent will appear at the ‘Bedford’ on Monday morning. 1899F. J. Crowest Beethoven 41 He committed this hopeful, only now some nineteen years of age, to the care of an old lawyer friend. 1957W. Thielens in R. K. Merton Student-Physician 133 This difference is more than partially due to anticipation by medical school hopefuls of the more demanding entrance requirements. 1972Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 27 Oct. 9/2 A dozen new applications arrive each day and are filed away with all the other hopefuls anxious to establish themselves on the circuits. |