| 释义 |
▪ I. insult, n.|ˈɪnsʌlt|
[a. F. insult (1380 in Godef.) now insulte, or ad. late L. insultus, f. in- (in-2) + saltus leap, after insultāre; see next.]
1. a. An act, or the action, of attacking or assailing; attack, assault, onset (lit. and fig.). arch. †b. Mil. An open and sudden attack or assault without formal preparations: cf. insult v. 4 b (obs.).
1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 618 Talking of the instances, the insults, the intercidences, communities of diseases, and all to shew..that we know the words and tearmes of physick. 1610F. Herring Cert. Rules Contagion (1625) C iij, The venyme, by a second insult and incounter surpriseth..the Heart, and caryeth away the Patient. 1697Potter Antiq. Greece iii. xx. (1715) 152 To defend them against the Insults of Winds and Waves. 1710Steele Tatler No. 174 ⁋10 We sufficiently cover from all Insults both our Siege and Convoys. 1726Cavallier Mem. i. 48 The others were obliged to retire into fenced Cities, for fear of our Insults. 1808Scott Marm. vi. ii, Many a rude tower and rampart there Repelled the insult of the air. 1844H. H. Wilson Brit. India II. 448 The enterprising pirate, Kanhoji Angria, by whom the trade of the Company was subjected to repeated insult and plunder during the first thirty years of the eighteenth century.
†c. fig. A ‘leaping in’; an inrush. Obs. rare.
1652Gaule Magastrom. 201 It [the acquisition of prophecy] is a free, sudden, extraordinary insult, or illapse.
d. Med. Anything which tends to cause disease in or injury to the body or to disturb normal bodily processes; also, the resulting reaction, lesion, or injury.
[Cf. quots. 1603, 1610 for sense 1.]1904Stedman Dunglison's Dict. Med. Sci. (ed. 23) 581/1 Insult, injury; trauma exciting a morbid process. 1959S. Duke-Elder Parson's Dis. Eye (ed. 13) xvii. 228 The avascularity of the sclera and the lack of reaction of its dense fibrous tissues to insult whether traumatic or infective, make diseases of this tissue relatively rare. 1961Acta Psychiatrica et Neurol. Scand. Suppl. cl. 110 Patients with cerebro⁓vascular insults. Ibid. 112 It was possible that the insult had been provoked by the anti-hypertensive therapy. 1962Harris & Gruber in A. Pirie Lens Metabolism Rel. Cataract 373 Changes in the level of inorganic and organic phosphate within the lens may follow certain metabolic insults. Ibid. 375 The older the lens, the less is it able to withstand the insult which cold induces. 1970G. R. Taylor Doomsday Bk. vii. 158 The US population was exposed to ‘severe chronic lead insult’ (insult being a technical term in medicine). 1971Nature 23 July 276/2 Left handedness may be caused by neurological insults associated with prenatal or birth trauma. 1971Sci. Amer. Oct. 118/2 Congenital heart abnormalities are the most serious of the commoner defects. Often caused by rubella or similar insults in the early months of pregnancy, they affect about one birth in 60.
2. An act, or the action, of insulting (in sense 1 or 2 of vb.); injuriously contemptuous speech or behaviour; scornful utterance or action intended to wound self-respect; an affront, indignity, outrage. Freq. in phr. to add insult to injury.
1671Milton P.R. iii. 190 Try'd in humble state..By tribulations, injuries, insults, Contempts, and scorns, and snares, and violence. a1743Savage (J.), The ruthless sneer that insult adds to grief. 1748E. Moore Foundling v. v. 60 This is adding Insult to Injuries. 1751Earl of Orrery Remarks Swift (1752) 121 The voyage to the Houyhnhnms is a real insult upon mankind. 1769Junius Lett. xii. 48 They did not dare to offer a direct insult to their understanding. 1805Deb. Congress U.S. 31 Jan. 1072 It was adding insult to injury, and expenses to both, as it regarded the claimants. 1807Ibid. 18 Nov. 933 Were the laws of a free and respectable State to be evaded by such shameful expedients as these? This was adding insult to injury. 1820Byron Mar. Fal. ii. i, 'Twas a gross insult. 1853H. T. Riley tr. Phædrus' Fables 429 You wanted to revenge the sting of a tiny insect with death; what will you do to yourself who have added insult to injury? 1874Green Short Hist. vii. §8. 433 The young prince who..plucked them in insult by the beard. 1876E. Mellor Priesth. viii. 364 To talk of ‘orders’ without ‘fitness’ in a spiritual kingdom is an insult both to God and man. 1928A. Huxley Point Counter Point ix. 155 It shocked him that one should lie in bed while other people were up and working. To get up late was somehow to add insult to injury. 1970B. Spock Decent & Indecent 19 The behavioural sciences then added insult to injury. Psychologists have given man the impression that he responds like a laboratory rat. 1972Times 12 Dec. 22/7 They submitted defective contracts, made arithmetical errors adding up to several thousand pounds and, to add insult to injury, charged their fees on the wrong and higher scale.
†3. The act of leaping upon; ‘covering’. Obs.
1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 99 The Mother Cow must wear a low'ring Look..The Bull's Insult at Four she may sustain.
4. Used attrib. in expressions denoting contests in verbal insult, characteristic of U.S. Blacks.
1964Amer. Folk Music Occasional i. 81 One of the standard routines of both the Negro and blackface minstrel show was the insult-dialogue. Though this theatrical expression is no longer widely current, this kind of dialogue has retained an interest... Here..is an insult⁓routine used in a street corner situation. 1968P. Oliver Screening Blues vi. 246 Dr Abrahams makes acknowledgment of the dozens as played by young Negroes in the army but had not himself noted much use of the insult game among females or adults generally. 1969Language XLV. 602 The children I studied engaged in constant verbal play..(for instance, their ritualized insult game).
▪ II. insult, v.|ɪnˈsʌlt|
[ad. L. insultāre to leap at or on, assail, insult. Cf. F. insulter (14th c. in Littré), possibly the immediate source.
Insultāre may be viewed either as freq. of insilīre to leap upon, f. in- (in-2) + salīre to leap, or as a compound of in- + saltāre freq. of salīre. Cotgrave 1611 has (F.) Insulter, ‘to insult, crow, vaunt, or triumph over; to wrong, reproach, affront; contemne; also, to rebound, reioyce at, leape for ioy’. The Fr. intrans. constr. takes à, L. has the dative, or in with accus.]
1. intr. To manifest arrogant or scornful delight by speech or behaviour; to exult proudly or contemptuously; to boast, brag, vaunt, glory, triumph, esp. in an insolent or scornful way.
†a. absol.
a1592H. Smith Wks. (1866–7) I. 439 Let no man insult beyond the lists of humility. a1619Daniel Funeral Poem Poems (1623) 24 They know how, The Lyon being dead euen Hares insult. 1637R. Humfrey tr. St. Ambrose ii. 2 Those that much insult, and solace themselues in sounding forth a trumpet. 1670Dryden 1st Pt. Conq. Granada iii. i, Then proudly she insults, and gives you Cares And Jealousies. 1674Milton Samson 113 My enemies who come to stare At my affliction, and perhaps to insult.
b. Const. over, upon, on, against, rarely at (the object of scorn or triumph). Obs. or arch.
1570–6Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 164 What was it else for this proud Prelate, thus to insult over simple men? 1583Fulke Defence xvii. 512 You shall have little lust hereafter to insult against mine ignorance. 1586A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 89 When injuriously..we insult upon a mans doings. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. xxi. §4 Because they insist so much and so proudly insult thereon. 1617Moryson Itin. iii. 288 Nothing is more frequent, then for little girles to insult over their brothers much bigger then they, reproving their doings. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. ii. iii. ii. (1651) 318 Let no filius terræ, or upstart, insult at this which I have said. 1690Dryden Amphitryon Ep. Ded., They are not apt to insult on the Misfortunes of their Countrymen. 1699Bentley Phal. 425 Will the Examiner insult upon that Great Man, as he has done upon Me? 1711Addison Spect. No. 171 ⁋5 There are many who..insult over an aking Heart. 1785Paley Mor. Philos. (1818) II. 97 Whilst the infidel..insults over their credulous fears. 1857De Quincey S. Parr Wks. 1862 V. 185 We all know that it was not in his nature to insult over the fallen.
†c. Const. in, of, on (the occasion of boasting). Obs. [= L. with abl.]
1589Nashe Ded. Greene's Menaphon (Arb.) 13 England might have long insulted in his wit. 1608–11Bp. Hall Occas. Medit. §92 (T. Suppl.) Too many insult in this just punishment, who have deserved more. 1630R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 575 [It] insulteth of two Summers, temperature of Aire, with duplicitie of increase. a1653Gouge Comm. Heb. vii. 111 They much insult on this, that they have such priests as offer up a real..sacrifice. 1666Pepys Diary 16 June, The Dutch do mightily insult of their victory, and they have great reason.
2. trans. To assail with offensively dishonouring or contemptuous speech or action; to treat with scornful abuse or offensive disrespect; to offer indignity to; to affront, outrage.
1620E. Blount Horæ Subs. 101 Insult them [servants] not too much, and reduce them not to ouer-great subiection. 1696Phillips (ed. 5), To Insult, to afflict one that is already afflicted, to reproach him with his Misery, to rejoyce over it. a1713Shaftesbury Misc. Refl. i. ii. Wks. 1749 III. 45 The sacred Pomp trodden under-foot, insulted. 1771Junius Lett. lxvii. 330 When you do not insult the man you have betrayed. 1823Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Poor Relation, [He] insults you with a special commendation of your window-curtains. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 400 What⁓ever the canting Roundhead had regarded with reverence was insulted.
b. To triumph over contemptuously.
1775Johnson Journ. West. Isl., Ostig 268 The Welsh, two hundred years ago, insulted their English neighbours for the instability of their Orthography.
†3. intr. To make an attack or assault (lit. and fig.). Obs.
1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 296 In whose road wee found thirty or forty Frigads of Mallabar men of warre, who durst not insult upon their numbers, but choose rather to avoyd. 1662J. Chandler Van Helmont's Oriat. 292 If a stinking muscilage inclining to bitterness doth arise, there is a giddiness of the head; and that more strongly insulting, doth stir up an Apoplexy. 1670Milton Hist. Eng. ii. Wks. (1851) 86 Having recover'd much Territory about Rhine, where the German inrodes before had long insulted.
4. trans. To attack, assault, assail (now only fig. in general sense).
†b. spec. (Mil.) To attack openly and suddenly without formal preparations.
1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 370 The spumy Waves..March onwards, and insult the rocky Shoar. 1727A. Hamilton New Acc. E. Ind. I. x. 100 Having no Fleet at Sea, the Portugueze insulted his Sea-coasts. 1729G. Shelvocke Artillery v. 396 The Tower appearing..Cæsar..ordered his Army to advance up to it, and insult it. 1775Montgomery in Sparks Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853) I. 492, I propose amusing Mr. C. with a formal attack, erecting batteries, &c., but mean to insult the works, I believe towards the Lower Town, which is the weakest part. 1853Stocqueler Mil. Encycl., Insult (to), in a military sense, is to attack boldly and in open day, without going through the slow operations of trenches. 1853James Agnes Sorel (1860) I. 4 A group of night-ramblers walked along insulting the ear of night with cries.
†5. intr. To leap wantonly, frisk. Obs. rare.
1652Gaule Magastrom. 249 A goat..began to insult with strange voyce and gesture.
Hence inˈsulted ppl. a., treated with contemptuous abuse, outraged.
1781Crabbe Library 271 Insulted reason fled the grov'ling soul. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xviii. IV. 153 If a rude word were spoken of him..he might vindicate his insulted dignity both by civil and criminal proceedings. |