| 释义 |
unˈwritten, ppl. a.
Also 4 unwrite.
[un-1 8 b. Cf. OE. unwriten (unᵹe-, uná-), ON. úritinn.]
1. Not committed to writing; left unrecorded.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. xi. 255 (MS. Univ. Coll. Oxford), Myn name [was] entred In ye legende of lyf..Or elles vnwrite [B. vnwriten, C. vnwryten] for wiled. c1440Jacob's Well 115 Þat none of here talys schulde be vnwretyn. c1445Pecock Donet 6 Bettir it is..þan forto leve alle suche þingis vnwritun and vntauȝt. 1533Tindale Supper of Lord B v, More muste gyve vs leaue to beleue his vn⁓wrytten vanityes (verities I shoulde saye) at leasure. 1577tr. Bullinger's Decades 774/1 An vnwritten tradition of the Apostles. 1635J. Taylor (Water P.) Very Old Man C 3, They..might from Sire to Son Have been unwritten Chronicles, and by Tradition shew Times mutabillity. 1650Baxter Saints' R. ii. iv. §3. 200 It was a former Record..delivered to us, and not onely an unwritten Testimony. 1792S. Rogers Pleas. Mem. ii. (1801) 59 High o'er the hearth his forest-trophies hung;..Each vast antler..unwritten records bore, Of gallant feats. 1851Hawthorne Snow Image, Old News (1879) 153 Diseases unwritten in medical books. 1878H. Sweet in Trans. Philol. Soc. 404 The characteristic features of a hitherto unwritten dialect.
absol.1880Meredith Tragic Com. (1881) 114, I have seen, have seen ahead, seen where all is dark, read the unwritten.
b. Of laws, etc.: Not formulated in written codes or documents; not reduced to writing; oral.
1456Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 128 Be all lawis wryttin and unwrittin. 1596Spenser State Irel. ⁋12 The Brehoone lawe..is a certayne rule of right unwritten, but delivered by tradition from one to another. 1641Milton Ch. Govt. i. iii. 11 Those unwritten lawes and Ideas which nature hath ingraven in us. c1670Hobbes Dial. Com. Laws (1681) 3 Equity is a certain perfect Reason that interpreteth and amendeth the Law written, it self being unwritten, and consisting in nothing else but right Reason. 1765Blackstone Comm. Introd. I. 63 The municipal law of England..may..be divided into two kinds:..the unwritten, or common law; and..the written, or statute law. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Universities Wks. (Bohn) II. 93 That an unwritten code of honour deals..an even-handed justice. 1888T. W. Reid Life W. E. Forster (ed. 2) II. vii. 294 The unwritten law of the Land League.
c. Not written of or about.
1761in Hull Museum Publ. (No. 102) 13 Which, having been hitherto concealed and unwritten of, is..worthy of a general knowledge.
2. Not written upon. Also with on.
1542in T. A. Beck Ann. Furnes (1844) App. 87 [He] sealyd therwyth vij. blanckes in perchement then beyng blanckes and unwryttene. 1555Eden Decades (Arb.) 57 A white paper vnwritten, vpon the which yow may..wryte what yow lyste. 1583Golding Calvin on Deut. lxix. 423 This disposednes is as a white vnwritten paper. 1664South Serm. (1715) II. 46 Like unwritten paper,..it..is white..and fair for an after-Inscription. a1700Evelyn Diary 27 Oct. 1664, He then..ask'd me if I had any paper about me unwritten and a crayon. 1760–2Goldsm. Cit. W. xlvi, When the large unwritten page presents its snowy spotless bosom to the writer's hand. 1833T. Hook Parson's Dau. i. xi, So that no possible spot or corner of her letters should escape unwritten on. 1873B. Harte Fiddletown 26 The unwritten side of one of these squares. |