| 释义 |
improbable, a.|ɪmˈprɒbəb(ə)l|
[ad. L. improbābil-is, f. im- (im-2) + probābilis probable, likely: cf. F. improbable (1611 in Cotgr.).]
1. a. Not probable; not likely to be true; not easy to believe; unlikely.
1598Florio, Improbabile, that cannot be prooued, improbable. 1600E. Blount tr. Conestaggio 90 They pleaded against the most Christian Queene, that her pretention was improbable. 1601Shakes. Twel. N. iii. iv. 141 If this were plaid vpon a stage now, I could condemne it as an improbable fiction. 1710Steele & Addison Tatler No. 254 ⁋2 Were they not so well attested, [they] would appear altogether improbable. 1770Junius Lett. xxxix. 193, I think it was highly improbable. 1860Tyndall Glac. ii. xxx. 407, I agree..in regarding the explanation as improbable.
b. Qualifying a clause, usually introduced by it.
1617Moryson Itin. i. 30 Though it bee improbable that there should be any want of waters. 1674tr. Scheffer's Lapland 24 It is very improbable that so many Christian Kings should take no care of propagating their Religion. 1790Paley Horæ Paul. Rom. i. 11 It is in the highest degree improbable that it should have been the effect of contrivance and design. 1836Macaulay Ess., Temple (1887) 448 When two armies fight, it is not improbable that one of them will be very soundly beaten. Mod. That he will succeed is highly improbable.
c. With complement. rare.
1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. viii. §179 Nor was the design improbable to succeed. 1654–66Ld. Orrery Parthenissa (1676) 241 His Love could not be more improbable of success than Perolla's had been.
2. In pregnant sense: Unlikely to ‘do’, suit, etc. Also, that does not ‘look the part’.
1659Hammond On Ps. civ. 16–18 And that in the most improbable soile. 1958Times 18 Apr. 11/7 An immense arched building of blue painted woods decorated with an improbable metal dove. Ibid. 14 May 15/1 As if it were miraculous that this gentle and improbable individual should exist at all.
Hence imˈprobableness, improbability.
1727in Bailey vol. II. |