| 释义 |
imprecate, v.|ˈɪmprɪkeɪt|
[f. L. imprecāt-, ppl. stem of imprecārī, in senses 1 and 2, f. im- (im-1) + precārī to pray.]
1. trans. To pray for, invoke (something, usually from a deity).
a. To invoke or call down (evil or calamity) upon a person.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 216 The falling sicknesse..they vse to imprecate it to each other in their anger, as they also doe the plague. 1672Cave Prim. Chr. iii. i. (1673) 220 Imprecating upon himself that he might be burnt. 1681–6J. Scott Chr. Life (1747) III. 215 How importunately soever our past Guilts may imprecate the divine Vengeance upon us. 1753Smollett Ct. Fathom (1784) 45/2 She..imprecated a thousand curses upon his head. 1852Hawthorne Grandf. Chair iii. ix, There is scarcely a tongue..that does not imprecate curses on his name.
b. To pray for; to beg for, entreat (something good). rare.
1636Prynne Unbish. Tim. (1661) 63 Priests and Presbyters who give Baptism and imprecate the Lords Advent to the Eucharist. 1664Ld. Carlisle in Marvell's Wks. (1872–5) II. 110, I wish and imprecate to your Imperial Majestie all Happiness. 1861Lowell Biglow P. Ser. ii. Introd., He..would only imprecate patience till he shall again have ‘got the hang’ (as he calls it) of an accomplishment long disused.
2. To pray (a deity), invoke, supplicate. Now rare or Obs.
1643Prynne Sov. Power Parl. ii. 39 b, Which I shall dayly imprecate the God of Peace speedily to accomplish. 1843Carlyle Past & Pr. ii. viii, Imprecating the Lord.
†3. absol. or intr. To pray; to invoke evil. Obs.
1647W. Browne tr. Gomberville's Polexander iv. ii. 204 Polexander, not knowing whom to accuse but his destinie, imprecated against himselfe. 1669Gale Crt. Gentiles i. ii. ix. 140 After they had imprecated on the head of the sacrifice, they cut it off. 1673Lady's Call. i. 23 Aristides..was so far from acting, or imprecating against them, that [etc.].
4. trans. To invoke evil upon (a person); to curse. Now rare or Obs.
1616Bullokar, Imprecate, to curse and wish euill. 1641J. Jackson True Evang. T. i. 66 The Jewes imprecated themselves with ‘His blood bee on us, and on our children’. 1760Derrick Lett. (1767) I. 90 View this..baseness and ingratitude of the Stuarts, and imprecate the name, ye infatuated friends of that family. 1879W. Minto Defoe iii. 33 His co-religionists were imprecating him as the man who had brought this persecution upon them.
Hence ˈimprecating ppl. a., that imprecates, invoking a curse; whence ˈimprecatingly adv., in the way of a curse.
1652Gaule Magastrom. 280 Picus Mirandula..was envyously and imprecatingly told..that [etc.]. 1686Burnet Trav. i. (1750) 40 He swore to them in a most imprecating Style, that he would never discover the Secret. |