| 释义 |
unˈweave, v.
[un-2 3, 7. Cf. (M)Du. ontweven, OHG. antwepan (MHG. and G. entweben).]
1. trans. To take out of a woven, intertwined, or entangled state or condition; esp. to unravel or undo (a woven fabric).
Freq. in fig. context, and in allusion to the story of Penelope (Odyssey ii. 96–105).
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 63 b, Then used she this policie, to unweave in the night as much werke, as she had made up in the daye before. 1565Cooper, Texta soluere, to vnweaue that one hath wrought. 1592Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 991 Now she [sc. love] unweaves the web that she has wrought; Adonis lives. a1637B. Jonson Celebration of Charis ix. 50 Nor do wrongs, nor wrongs receive, Nor tie knots, nor knots un⁓weave. 1640G. Sandys Chr. Pass. i. 81 That I should thus unweave the web of Fate. 1859Tennyson Enid 1114 She..pluck'd the grass,..And into many a listless annulet, Now over, now beneath her marriage ring, Wove and unwove it. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 461 Weaving instead of un⁓weaving her Penelope's web.
absol.1631R. Brathwait Eng. Gentlew. 49 Chuse rather with Penelope to weaue and vnweaue, than to giue Idlenesse the least leaue.
fig.a1625Fletcher Love's Cure v. iii, Custom..You did unweave, and had the power to charm A new creation in me. 1634Heywood Witches of Lanc. iv. G 4 b, Vnweave my age O time, to my first thread. 1820Keats Lamia ii. 237 Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings,..Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine—Unweave a rainbow. 1849De Quincey Eng. Mail Coach Wks. 1862 IV. 349 Light unwove the mazes of darkness.
b. To untwine (the fingers).
1863Baring-Gould Iceland 271 Several of the men came up, and endeavoured to unweave the fingers [from the sword]. 1897― Guavas xviii, She plaited the fingers together and unwove them, to again re-plait them.
†2. To make clear by exposition; to expose, disclose. Also absol. Obs.
1642H. More Song of Soul ii. ii. iii. xxv, They're mixt, soild and contaminate, But truth doth clear, unweave, and simplifie. 1647R. Stapylton Juvenal 48 Dædalus, who flying viewed the whole world (if we believe the poets), or that (if we unweave their fables) made discoveries of the world by sea with his winged sailes.
3. intr. To become disentangled. In quot. fig.
1798W. Sotheby tr. Wieland's Oberon iv. lviii, How wonderfully strange my fate unweaves!
Hence unˈweaving vbl. n.
1706Stevens Sp. Dict., Desteximiento, unweaving. 1847Helps Friends in C. I. vi. 89 The sleep-inducing weavings and unweavings of political combination. 1893J. Pulsford Loyalty to Christ II. 112 What unweavings and siftings and cleansings we shall have to undergo! |