| 释义 |
visitant, n. and a.|ˈvɪzɪtənt|
[a. F. visitant, pres. pple. of visiter, or ad. L. vīsitant-, vīsitans pres. pple. of vīsitāre to visit.]
A. n.
1. One who pays a visit to another; a visitor.
Very common in 17–18th cent.; now rare or Obs.
1599B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. ii. i, Hee has a rich wrought wast-coat to entertaine his visitants in. 1623Massinger Dk. Milan i. iii, For the most part she hath kept her private chamber, No visitants admitted. 1664Pepys Diary 22 Nov., Being sick, and full of visitants, we could not speak with him. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. ii. 644 No Palace, with a lofty Gate he wants, T' admit the Tydes of early Visitants. 1722Pope Lett. (1737) 127 As a visitant, a lodger, or a friend you are always welcome to me. 1760Johnson Idler No. 101 ⁋3 His chamber was filled by visitants, eager to catch the dictates of experience. 1825–9Mrs. Sherwood Lady of Manor I. v. 151 She calmly explained to her visitant the motives of her conduct. 1826Lamb Elia ii. Popular Fallacies xii, It is not of guests that we complain, but of endless, purposeless visitants. 1832R. & J. Lander Exped. Niger I. xi. 81 He was shy and bashful..and really appeared agitated and afraid of his white-faced visitants.
transf.1807J. E. Smith Phys. Bot. 260 The services rendered by such visitants [sc. insects] will be understood when we have described all the parts of a flower. 1862R. Vaughan Eng. Nonconformity 357 Rulers who deserve that an avenger should be upon their path, cannot always resist the impression that such a visitant may be at hand. 1868Gladstone Glean. (1879) III. 44 To the absolutely stereotyped forms both of faith and scepticism,..the author of ‘Ecce Homo’ has been a most unacceptable visitant.
b. Applied to supernatural beings or agencies, etc., esp. as revealing themselves to mortals.
1667Milton P.L. xi. 225 Adam..to Eve, While the great Visitant approachd, thus spake. 1782J. Brown Nat. & Revealed Relig. ii. ii. 133 We are commended to hear him, as infinitely superior to Moses and Elias, his then visitants. 1813Coleridge Remorse iii. i. 85 Thou sainted spirit, Burst on our sight, a passing visitant! 1847Disraeli Tancred ii. xi, I would ask those mountains..why they no longer received heavenly visitants! 1873M. Arnold Lit. & Dogma (1876) 248 The spiritual visitant, indeed, which rejoiced the wise poet of Asera, was not the Paraclete of Jesus.
c. One who visits from charitable motives.
1661Wither Improv. Imprisonment (title-p.), A few Crums & Scraps Lately found in a Prisoners-Basket at Newgate, And Saved together, by a Visitant of Oppressed Prisoners.
d. One who makes a short stay at a friend's house.
1769Wesley Wks. (1872) III. 365, I found a young gentlewoman there, a visitant. 1822Scott Peveril xii, An attachment, which lulled..to pleasing dreams, though of a character so different, her charge and her visitant. 1838Lytton Alice ii. ii, She was transferred from the little chamber,..to an apartment..usually appropriated to the regular Christmas visitant, the Dowager Countess of Chipperton.
2. One who visits some place or object of interest.
1677Plot Oxfordsh. 238 Being often used by way of sport to wet the Visitants of the Grot. 1710Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) II. 382 Visitants of the Library. 1815W. H. Ireland Scribbleomania 88 note, Which fact the visitant is given to understand from a long inscription upon a brass plate. 1839Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. II. 194/1 Some of the earliest and most extensive specimens of painted glass, well worthy of the attention of the visitant. 1894M. Dyan Man's Keeping (1899) 61 This gallery had frequent visitants.
b. One who visits a place, shrine, etc., from religious motives.
1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 45 Some of the Visitants count it meritorious to be trod to death under a weighty Chariot of Iron. a1797H. Walpole Mem. Geo. III (1845) I. x. 147 The father would accept no money from the various visitants, for which he was promised an adequate recompense by the chiefs of his sect. 1812Cary Dante, Par. xxv. 20 Behold the peer of mickle might, That makes Galicia throng'd with visitants. 1844Kinglake Eothen xvi. (1845) 228 The caution is said to be as applicable to the visitants of Jerusalem as to those of Mecca.
c. One who visits a strange town or country; a stranger who spends a short time in a place; a temporary resident.
1751Smollett Per. Pic. (1779) III. lxxxi. 183 Ghent..was much crowded with these new visitants. 1762Goldsm. Nash 24 The lodgings for visitants were paltry, though expensive. 1801J. Jones tr. Bijgge's Trav. Fr. Rep. i. 22 This town has very little to invite the eye of a visitant. 1823Jefferson Writ. (1830) IV. 361 The paper..was not written by a Virginian, but a visitant from another State. 1857G. M. Musgrave Pilgr. Dauphiné I. ii. 34 A splendid specimen..was continually surrounded by the French visitants. 1863Hawthorne Our Old Home (1879) 144 To show..the absurdity of a new visitant pretending to hold any opinion whatever on such subjects.
d. One who enters a country in hostile fashion; an invader.
1765Blackstone Comm. I. 93 The antient and christian inhabitants of the island retired to those natural intrenchments, for protection from their pagan visitants.
3. A thing which comes to one in a casual or temporary manner.
1742Young Nt. Th. v. 723 When your neighbour's knell (Rude visitant!) knocks hard at your dull sense. a1774Goldsm. Surv. Exp. Philos. (1776) II. 135 However irregular we find the wind.., they have it a more constant and more grateful visitant. 1833Whewell in Todhunter Acc. Writ. (1876) II. 160 Digby..is still ill of a rheumatic fever, his not unusual visitant. 1849Miss Mulock Ogilvies xvi, Chasing away sleep and making the faint daylight a welcome visitant. 1876Geo. Eliot in Cross Life (1885) III. 297, I am never in that mood of sadness which used to be my frequent visitant.
4. A migratory bird, etc., as temporarily frequenting a particular locality.
1770J. Logan Cuckoo iii, Delightful visitant! with thee I hail the time of flowers. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VI. 29 Such are our visitants. With regard to those which..breed here [etc.]. 1834Mudie Brit. Birds (1841) I. 19 Those [birds] which come in the spring and depart in the autumn are called summer visitants. 1883Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4) 97 Fresh-water fishes may be..merely visitants from the ocean for the purpose of depositing their spawn. 1894R. B. Sharpe Handbk. Birds Gt. Brit. I. 13 The Hooded Crow..being..in some localities a winter visitant only, in others a resident.
B. adj. Paying a visit or visits; having the position or character of a visitor.
1653H. Cogan tr. Scarlet Gown 67 One shall never see any visitant Coches there, he being no otherwise accounted of, then as of a forelorn Cardinal. 1676D'Urfey Mme. Fickle iii. ii, I begin to have a knowledge of the visitant kinsman that us'd to molest us. 1726De Foe Hist. Devil (1822) 247 An intimate Devil, or a Devil visitant. 1794Piozzi Synon. I. 125 The snappish housekeeper gives short answers to the poor visitant niece. 1807Wordsw. Song Feast Brougham Castle 129 He knew the rocks which Angels haunt Upon the mountains visitant. 1864Tennyson Aylmer's F. 166 And Edith's everywhere; And Edith ever visitant with him. 1887Ruskin Præterita II. 281 Mr. Melvill was entirely amiable in the Church visitant, though not formidable in the Church militant. |