| 释义 |
vacuous, a.|ˈvækjuːəs|
[f. L. vacu-us empty, void, free, clear, etc. (cf. vacuum n.) + -ous.]
†1. Not properly filled out or developed. Obs.—1
1651Smallwood Commend. Verses to W. Cartwright's Wks., False Vacuous Births in every street we see: But seldome, true and ripen'd, such as He.
2. Empty of matter; not occupied or filled with anything solid or tangible.
1655–60Stanley Hist. Philos. (1687) 374/1 It were impossible for one body to make another to recede, if the triple dimension..were vacuous. 1677Gale Crt. Gentiles iv. 226 Wil they say that these Atomes were introduced or produced in this vacuous space in time? 1794R. J. Sulivan View Nat. IV. 3 He contended, that thunder or sound would not be able to pass through walls,..unless there were some vacuous spaces in those bodies. 1813T. Busby Lucretius II. vi. Comm. p. xxiii, He notices many natural circumstances which..demonstrate the vacuous natures of all substances. 1860Tyndall Glac. ii. xxiv. 356 The water..is not able to fill it, hence a vacuous space must be formed in the cell.
b. Empty of air or gas; in which a vacuum has been produced.
1669Boyle Contin. New Exp. ii. (1682) 158, I put Pears bruised into a vacuous Reciever. 1842E. A. Parnell Chem. Anal. (1845) 490 The difference between its weight when containing the gas, and when vacuous. 1862Grove Corr. Phys. Forces (ed. 4) 59 No air is given off from the bubbles, so they seem to be vacuous. 1892Photogr. Ann. II. 233 In incandescent lamps the electric current heats up a carbon filament inclosed in a vacuous globe.
c. Bot. Not containing some part or feature usually present.
1866Treas. Bot. 1199/2 Bracts which usually support flowers are said to be vacuous when they have no flower in their axils.
d. Empty of any visible object.
1877Morley Crit. Misc. Ser. ii. 255 As the flies of a summer day dart from point to point in the vacuous air.
3. Empty of ideas; unintelligent; expressionless. Cf. vacant a. 5.
1848Thackeray Bk. Snobs x, A vacuous, solemn..Snob. 1883Standard 2 Jan. 5/2 The absence of anxiety..leaves their minds vacuous. 1889Times 26 Oct. 9/1 That gift of oppressive familiarity which by some vacuous people is taken to indicate..sterling sense.
Comb.1895‘H. S. Merriman’ Grey Lady i. iii. (1899) 28 He was rather a vacuous-looking young man.
b. Indicative of mental vacancy.
1855Thackeray Newcomes II. 25 With that vacuous leer which distinguishes his lordship. 1858O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t. vi. 55 These negative faces with their vacuous eyes and stony lineaments. 1873Black Pr. Thule xx. 320 There was a cheery, vacuous, smiling expression on his round face.
Comb.1879McCarthy Own Times v. I. 116 A huge white-headed, vacuous-eyed man was to be seen.
4. Devoid of content or substance.
1870Swinburne Ess. & Stud. (1875) 56 The vacuous monotonous desire and discontent, the fitful and febrile beauty of Alfred de Musset. 1879Howells L. Aroostook (1883) I. 45 Mrs. Erwin wrote an epistolary style exasperatingly vacuous and diffuse.
5. Unoccupied, idle, indolent; not filled up with any (profitable) employment or activity.
1872Morley Voltaire 334 It cannot for ever be tolerable that the mass should wear away their lives in unbroken toil without hope or aim, in order that the few may live selfish and vacuous days. 1897Review of Rev. 37 There are many rich people who..lead such mean and vacuous lives.
Hence ˈvacuously adv.; ˈvacuousness.
1648W. Mountague Devout Ess. i. 352 In that vacuousness the winds and vapors of tediousness and displicence rise. 1816J. Gilchrist Philos. Etym. 226 The mistiness and vacuousness of abstract expression. 1860All Year Round No. 88. 283 He had..a broad fair face, rather vacuously good natured in its ordinary expression. 1880Daily Tel. 14 Feb., So there he stood, with his hands in his pockets,..gazing vacuously at the fighting and rough play. |