| 释义 |
unˈwonted, ppl. a.
[un-1 8. Cf. unwont.]
1. Not wonted, usual, or habitual; not commonly heard, seen, practised, etc.; infrequent.
In very frequent use from c 1810.
1553Brende Q. Curtius 177 b, They put the Macedones in terrour, troublyng with their vnwonted crye. 1579E. K. Ded. to Spenser's Sheph. Cal. §1 Old and vnwonted words. 1580T. Wilson Rhet. (ed. 2) 197 His maister marueilyng..at suche an vnwonted [1553 vnwonte] kindnesse. 1611B. Jonson Catiline i. i, A strange vn-wonted horror doth inuade me. 1668Glanvill Sadducismus 6 Epocha's made of those unwonted events. 1713Rowe Jane Shore i. ii, Man..Shall pity thee, and with unwonted Goodness, Forget thy Failings. 1743Francis tr. Hor., Epodes v. 88 Soon the Wretch my Wrath shall prove, By Spells unwonted taught to love. 1764H. Walpole Otranto ii, It is not seemly for me to hold farther converse with a man at this unwonted hour. 1808Scott Marm. iii. xxi, His own menials..Beheld..the grisly Sire, In his unwonted wild attire. 1847C. Brontë J. Eyre vii, Difficulties in habituating myself to new rules and un⁓wonted tasks. 1863Stanley Jew. Ch. xix. 428 The constant expectation of some new Prophet appearing in the most secluded or unwonted situation. 1876Freeman Norm. Conq. (ed. 2) IV. 291 Those who survived kept up life on strange and unwonted food.
b. Not wont to appear; rarely seen.
1784Cowper Task vi. 301 Spring..calls the unwonted villager abroad With all her little ones. 1825Scott Talism. xviii, It seemed as if a tear (unwonted guest) were gathering in his dry and glazened eye.
2. Not made familiar by practice; unused or unaccustomed to something. Used (a) predicatively with to, or ellipt., and (b) attrib.
(a)a1586Sidney Arcadia ii. xi, Philoclea..tenderly moved her feete, unwonted to feele the naked ground. 1628May Virg. Georg. iii. 99 The Fishes..Float dead..to the shore: Sea-calves unwonted to fresh rivers fly. 1828–32Webster s.v., A child unwonted to strangers. 1870Bryant Iliad ii. I. 51 Boys unwonted to the tasks of war.
(b)1791Cowper Iliad i. 735 So He; then Juno,..smiling still, from his unwonted hand Received the goblet. 1822Milman Martyr Antioch 108 Are not these chambers thine, That with their splendour load my unwonted eyes?
3. Going beyond ordinary limits. rare—1.
1642Milton Apol. Smect. 11 If I shall be large, or un⁓wonted in justifying my selfe to those who know me not.
Hence unˈwontedness.
1594Southwell M. Magd. Funeral Teares 8 b, Let..the vnwontednesse of the miracle plead her pardon. a1652Brome Mad Couple ii. i, I confesse it is (by reason of my unwontednesse to it) some difficulty for me. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 251 We encountred two horrid Shapes both for Grandeur and Unwontedness. 1861Geo. Eliot Silas M. iv, A too bewildering dreamy sense of unwontedness in his position. 1895Daily News 7 Nov. 5/3 A girdle of rubies which may have given a faint shock of unwontedness to the experience of even a Vanderbilt bride. |