| 释义 |
inhospitable, a.|ɪnˈhɒspɪtəb(ə)l|
[a. OF. inhospitable (15–16th c. in Godef.) = It. inhospitabile, ad. med. or mod.L. inhospitābilis (= L. inhospitālis): see in-3 and hospitable.]
Not hospitable.
1. Of persons, their actions, disposition, etc.: Not disposed to welcome and entertain strangers; withholding hospitality from guests or visitors.
1570Levins Manip. 4/28 Inhospitable, inhospitabilis. 1649Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. iii. Sect. xiv. §18. 47 He found the inhabitants of a little village so inhospitable, as to refuse to give him entertainment. 1671Milton Samson 989 Jael, who, with inhospitable guile Smote Sisera sleeping, through the temples nailed. 1727A. Hamilton New Acc. E. Ind. I. iii. 22 The Coast is inhospitable as well as the People. 1800Asiat. Ann. Reg., Misc. Tr. 172/2 But I assured him, that, on account of his inhospitable treatment, he would receive nothing from me. 1832Lytton Eugene A. i. v, What on earth could make you so inhospitable to your Uncle's guest?
2. transf. Of a region, coast, etc.: Not affording or offering shelter or entertainment.
1616Bullokar, Inhospitable, harbourles: not fit to entertaine one. 1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 183 Our journey lay sometimes through inhospitable straits. 1667Milton P.L. xi. 306 All places else Inhospitable appear and desolate. 1748Anson's Voy. i. vi. 57 We..were now proceeding to an hostile, or at best, a desart and inhospitable coast. 1873Hamerton Intell. Life iii. viii. (1875) 112 The gardeners of an inhospitable climate contend against the natural sunshine of the south. 1880Geikie Phys. Geog. iv. 270 Its arid sandy surface stretches for leagues as an inhospitable desert.
Hence inhospitaˈbility, inˈhospitableness, the quality or character of being inhospitable.
1641Evelyn Diary 27 Sept., We, impatient of the tyme and inhospitablenesse of the place, sailed again. 1658Phillips, Inhospitality, or Inhospitability. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xxxviii. (1856) 353 Never leaving this utter destitution, this frigid inhospitableness. 1882–3Schaff Encycl. Relig. Knowl. I. 122/1 [Arabia] occupies a very isolated position, partly on account of the inhospitableness of its coasts. |