| 释义 |
infantile, a.|ˈɪnfəntaɪl, -tɪl|
[ad. late L. infāntil-is, f. infānt-em infant n.1: cf. F. infantile (16th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. a. Of or pertaining to an infant, infants, or infancy; belonging to a person when an infant; existing in its infancy or earliest stage of development.
1696Brookhouse Temple Open. 13 All this time, Monarchy was as a Beast in its Infantile State. 1713Derham Phys. Theol. viii. vi. (1727) 390 The Fly lies all the Winter in these Balls in its Infantile State. 1753N. Torriano Midwifry 5 We are obliged to them for their tender Care of the infantile Age. 1800Med. Jrnl. III. 293 Medical men..who are often consulted on infantile diseases. 1806T. S. Surr Winter in Lond. I. 260 The interest which his story first impressed upon her infantile imagination. 1864Spectator 24 Dec. 1476 The rapid growth of infantile literature.
b. Of the character of an infant; infant-like.
1772Priestley Inst. Relig. (1782) II. 117 Consider the infantile state of the first man. 1875Emerson Lett. & Soc. Aims ix. 220 In the savage man, thought is infantile.
2. Geol. Of a landscape: in the earliest stage of the cycle of erosion. Of a land form or feature: characteristic of such a landscape.
1885Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci. XXXIII. 429 Just as the surface of the deposit rises above its base-level of erosion..a smooth, unbroken plain is revealed... The smoothness of the surface and the shallow lakes are indeed truly infantile features, retained only during the earliest life of the plain, and soon lost in its further development. 1941C. A. Cotton Landscape xvii. 191 The theoretical distinction between ‘infantile’ forms developing on a peneplain as it is slowly uplifted and the ‘senile’ forms it exhibited before uplift was first made by Walther Penck. 1968R. W. Fairbridge Encycl. Geomorphol. 1110/2 Initial or infantile (i.e., uneroded) forms of mountains composed of such materials have indeed had no real existence, because they have been destroyed while relatively slow or intermittent upheaval has been in progress.
3. Special collocations: infantile mortality = infant mortality; infantile paralysis, poliomyelitis (which affects chiefly the young).
1859W. Moore (title) On *infantile mortality, and the establishment of hospitals for sick children. 1901Daily Chron. 14 Nov. 5/5 In England the term ‘infantile’ mortality applies only to the deaths of children under one year of age. 1911G. B. Shaw Getting Married 135 The high birth-rate of the very poor is counterbalanced by a huge infantile-mortality in the slums.
1843Lancet 27 May 301/1 There is a disease of very considerable frequency—I mean *infantile paralysis—to which, I think, so much attention has not been given as its importance merits. 1916Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 5 July 1/2 Twenty-five children died from the epidemic of infantile paralysis..during the 24 hours ending at 6 o'clock tonight. 1955Sci. News Let. 16 Apr. 242/2 No matter how it is called, poliomyelitis, infantile paralysis, or polio for short, it is a scourge that has long been a crippler and killer. 1957Economist 7 Sept. 847/1 Experience with the Salk vaccine during the past two years has convinced the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis that the enemy is in full retreat. |