| 释义 |
inexplicable, a. (adv.) and n.|ɪnˈɛksplɪkəb(ə)l|
[a. F. inexplicable (1486 in Godef. Compl.), ad. L. inexplicābilis that cannot be unfolded or loosened, f. in- (in-3) + explicābilis explicable.]
A. adj.
†1. That cannot be unfolded, untwisted, or disentangled; inextricable; very intricate or complex. Obs.
1555Eden Decades Pref. (Arb.) 49 Of the Mazes cauled Labyrinthi..of knottes inexplicable..and dyuers suche other portentous inuentions. 1601Holland Pliny II. 579 Before a man can come to the Labyrinth indeed which is so intricat and inexplicable. 1656Stanley Hist. Philos. v. (1701) 159/1 He was busied in surveying the inexplicable banks of Nilus..and the winding compass of their Trenches. [1837Emerson Addr., Amer. Schol. Wks. (Bohn) II. 175 There is never a beginning, there is never an end, to the inexplicable continuity of this web of God.]
†b. as adv. = inexplicably. Obs.
1490Caxton Eneydos xiv. 49 The contynuelle thoughte wherinne she is Inexplycable occupyed.
†2. That cannot be ‘unfolded’ or expressed in words; inexpressible, indescribable. Obs.
1502Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W. 1506) v. ii. 363 Flagellacyons and tormentes inexplycables without ende or without releasynge. 1551Recorde Cast. Knowl. (1556) 97 The inexplicable benefite of knowledge. 1622Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 431 The miseries and afflictions of imprisonment are inexplicable and cannot bee conceiued by any that haue not felt or had proofe thereof. 1691Ray Creation i. (1704) 81 Fire..a Subject or Utensil of so various and inexplicable use.
3. That cannot be explained; inscrutable, unintelligible; (in recent use) that cannot be accounted for, unaccountable.
1546Gardiner Declar. Joye (Quarto ed.) 84 b, You turne the matteir so aboute, as it is inexplicable. 1570Billingsley Euclid x. ix. 239 The matter..obscure and hard, and in a maner inexplicable. 1602Shakes. Ham. iii. ii. 13 Inexplicable dumbe shewes. 1699Burnet 39 Art. i. (1700) 37 If God has declared this inexplicable thing concerning himself to us, we are bound to believe it. 1793Beddoes Calculus 188 Phænomena hitherto inexplicable in the animal and vegetable œconomy. 1828Scott F.M. Perth vi, The wooer had begun to hold the refusal of the damsel as somewhat capricious and inexplicable. 1860Maury Phys. Geog. Sea xiii. (Low) §566 There were, in the depths of the sea, untold wonders, and inexplicable mysteries. 1879Froude Cæsar xv. 226 Still more inexplicable was the ingratitude of the aristocracy.
B. n.
1. Something that cannot be explained. (Usually in pl.)
1745Needham Microsc. Disc. Introd. 5 We may surely reckon it among the Inexplicables. 1864Bowen Logic ix. 294 Miscellaneous sophisms of so puzzling a character that the old logicians called them the Inexplicables.
2. pl. A vulgar euphemism for ‘trousers’: cf. inexpressibles.
1836–7Dickens Sk. Boz III. 257 He usually wore a brown frock coat without a wrinkle, light inexplicables without a spot. |