| 释义 |
indefinite, a. (n.)|ɪnˈdɛfɪnɪt|
Also 6 indiffynit(e, -yte, indiffinite, indyfinyte, 7 indifinite, indefinit.
[ad. L. indēfīnīt-us, f. in- (in-3) + dēfīnīt-us definite. Cf. F. indéfini (Montaigne, 16th c.).]
Undefined, unlimited: the opposite of definite. I. generally.
1. Without distinct limitation of being or character; having no clearly defined or determined character: indeterminate, vague, undefined.
1561T. Norton Calvin's Inst. i. xiii. (1634) 46 When there is simple and indefinite mention made of God, this name belongeth no lesse to the Sonne and to the Holy Ghost, than to the Father. 1616Bullokar, Indifinite, not precisely exprest; vndefined. 1651Baxter Inf. Bapt. 76 Some generall indefinite promises. 1722Wodrow Corr. (1843) II. 678 Your address is likewise a little indefinite; but I send this at a venture as you direct. 1818Hallam Mid. Ages (1878) II. viii. ii. 329 Those indefinite aspirations for the laws of Edward the Confessor were changed into a steady regard for the Great Charter. 1875–6W. B. Pope Compend. Theol. (1881) 656 The indefinite use of the term Sacrament in the early church. 1885S. Cox Exposit. Ser. i. v. 66 A fine, though indefinite, emotion.
2. Of undetermined extent, amount, or number; unlimited.
1594Nashe Unfort. Trav. 46 Peace to thy Ghost, and yet me thinkes so indefinite a spirit should haue no peace or intermission of paines. 1625Bacon Ess., Usury (Arb.) 546 Let these Licensed Lenders be in Number Indefinite. 1842Grove Corr. Phys. Forces 86 Thus oxygen and hydrogen..will remain unaltered for an indefinite period. 1852Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. xii. 150 With respect to our moral and spiritual capacities, we remark that they are not only indefinite but absolutely infinite. 1877E. R. Conder Bas. Faith ii. 67 That is indefinite which has, or may have, a limit, but whose limit cannot be ascertained. 1884J. Rae Contemp. Socialism 100 Commodities that admitted of indefinite multiplication.
†b. Formerly, sometimes, Extending beyond any assignable limits; boundless, infinite. Obs.
1664Power Exp. Philos. Pref. 17 The process of Art is indefinite, and who can set a non-ultra to her endevours? 1745W. Thompson Sickness v. (R.), Indefinite and omnipresent God, Inhabiting eternity! shall dust, Shall ashes, dare presume to sing of thee?
II. specifically (in various technical uses).
3. Grammar.
a. Applied to various adjectives, pronominal words, and adverbs, which do not define or determine the actual person or thing, the place, time, or manner, to which they refer; as any, other, some, such, somewhere, anyhow, otherwise, etc.: esp. in indefinite article, a name for the individualizing adjective a, an (a adj.2), or its equivalents in other languages.
b. Applied to those tenses or inflexions of verbs which merely denote an action taking place at some time (past, present, or future), without specifying whether it is continuous or complete (thus distinguished from both imperfect and perfect), e.g. the Greek aorist and the English simple past; in French grammar formerly (as by Palsgrave) to the simple past tense corresponding to these, now called past or preterite definite; in modern French, past or preterite indefinite is applied to the compound tense corresponding to that called perfect in English, e.g. il a parlé, he has spoken.
c. In the Slavonic verb formerly applied to one of the branches or aspects.
d. Sometimes applied, in German and Old English grammar, to that declension of the adjective which is used when it is preceded by the indefinite article, possessive adjective, pronouns, etc.: the strong declension of the adj.
1530Palsgr. Introd. 32 The indiffynite indicatyve of the thyrde conjugation endeth ever in S. Ibid. 84 The indiffinite tens, as je parlay, I spake. Ibid. 382 To knowe therfore howe and whan the frenche men use their preter imparfyte tence, and whan their indiffynyte tence, whiche name I borowe of the grekes, for they have a tence whiche they call aoristus, that is to say, indifinitus, whiche moche resembleth this tence in the frenche tonghe. 1727Bailey vol. II, Indefinite Pronouns. 1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v. Article, The article a is said to be indefinite, because applied to names taken in their more general, and confused signification. 1827J. Heard Gram. Russ. Lang. v. §1. 141 There are four branches: the indefinite, the perfect, the semelfactive, and the iterative. The indefinite expresses the action indeterminately with regard to its completion; as [on trogal], he moved. 1874R. Morris Chaucer's Prol. etc. (Clar. Press Ser.) Introd. 33 Adjectives, like the modern German, have two forms—Definite and Indefinite. 1877Moulton tr. Winer's Gram. N.T. iii. §25. 2 The indefinite pronoun τις, τι, is joined to abstract nouns.
4. Logic. Applied to propositions in which the subject has no mark of quantity; not distinguishing between ‘some’ and ‘all’.
1773Reid Aristotle's Log. ii. §6 Wks. II. 692/2 A proposition is called indefinite when there is no mark either of universality or particularity annexed to the subject: thus, ‘Man is of few days’ is an indefinite proposition. 1864Bowen Logic v. 122 The logicians formerly distinguished another Class of judgments as Indefinite, meaning those in which the Subject, having no sign or predesignation of Quantity affixed to it, is not expressly declared to be either Universal, Singular, or Particular. Thus, Elephants are sagacious animals;—Learned men are to be found at Oxford. 1887Fowler Deduct. Logic iii. (ed. 9) 29 ‘Indefinite’ or ‘indesignate’ propositions, as they are called, i.e. propositions in which the subject, being a common term, is not quantified, are inadmissible in Logic.
5. Bot.
a. Said of inflorescence in which the central axis grows indefinitely in length, producing a succession of lateral branches bearing flower-buds (or of sessile flower-buds) which open successively from the lowest upwards; also called centripetal or indeterminate.
b. Sometimes similarly applied to fibrovascular bundles which grow indefinitely, so that the stem increases in thickness, as in ‘Exogens’ or Dicotyledons.
c. Said of the stamens or other parts of the flower when numerous and not clearly multiples of the number of the petals, etc.
1845Lindley Sch. Bot. iv. (1858) 25 Stamens indefinite; that is to say, more numerous than can be easily counted. 1849Balfour Man. Bot. §77 The vascular bundles [in exogens], from their mode of development in an indefinite manner externally, have been called exogenous; and for the same reason, Schlieden has denominated them Indefinite. Ibid. §472 The ovules are very numerous or indefinite. 1876Hooker Botany Primer 46 Called indefinite, because the axis goes on elongating after the first flower opens. 1880Gray Struct. Bot. v. (ed. 6) 144 The kinds of Inflorescence..are all reducible to two types..viz. Indefinite and Definite, or..Indeterminate and Determinate. Each may be..simple or compound.
B. n. (ellipt. uses of the adj.) An indefinite thing, word, statement, etc.; something of indefinite nature or meaning, or which cannot be definitely specified, described, or classed.
1591Percivall Sp. Dict. F a, Aduerbs commonly gouerne an Indicatiue Moode: saue that where Interrogatiues are changed into Indefinites they haue some time a Subiunctiue. 1625Bacon Ess., Dispatch (Arb.) 248/1 That Negative is more pregnant of direction, then an indefinite. 1865Pall Mall G. 16 Aug. 10/1 A table of the occupations of the people after a new classification..I. ‘Professionals’..II. ‘Domestics’..III. Commercials; IV. Agriculturists..V. Industrials..VI. Indefinites, that is, general labourers, gentlemen of means, and paupers, with a few others not open to classification.
Hence † inˈdefinite v. Obs. (nonce-wd.), in phr. to indefinite it = to act or speak indefinitely. inˈdefinitism (nonce-wd.), indefinite character.
1656S. H. Gold. Law 76 If we indefinite it, when we should demonstrate, and universalize it. 1855D. Greenwell Present Heaven (1861) 103 The vague spirituality or rather indefinitism of our ideas. |