| 释义 |
intractable, a. (n.)|ɪnˈtræktəb(ə)l|
[ad. L. intractābil-is, f. in- (in-3) + tractābilis tractable: cf. F. intractable (15th c.).]
Not tractable.
1. Of persons and animals: Not to be guided; not manageable or docile; uncontrollable; refractory, stubborn.
1545Joye Exp. Dan. i. 14 b, Preseruing the good and iuste a lyue, and the intractable and incurable to suppresse them. 1548Hooper Declar. 10 Commandm. Pref., They were a stiff-necked people, and intractable. 1579Fenton Guicciard. i. (1599) 22 Ferdinand was not intractable to this marriage. 1769Robertson Chas. V, ix. (1796) III. 149 They..found Charles more haughty and intractable than before. 1837M. Donovan Dom. Econ. II. 117 The Dshikketaei, or Wild Mule..is a timid animal, yet indocile and intractable. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. i. I. 84 He convoked a second Parliament, and found it more intractable than the first. 1878Dowden Studies Lit. 162 Lesson after lesson of experience was wasted upon his intractable will.
2. Of things: Not to be manipulated, wrought, or brought into any desired condition; not easily treated or dealt with; resisting treatment or effort.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 152 The teeth of those elephants..are so smooth and hard as they seem intractable. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) I. 148 Its iron is..so hard and intractable in the fire, that, without some other iron ore, it cannot be brought to a fusion. 1774Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry I. i. 2 A language extremely barbarous, irregular and intractable. 1861Tulloch Eng. Purit. i. 73 Lands..of a boggy, intractable character. 1899Arnold White Modern Jew ii. 37 When Russia became the chief accomplice in the murder of Polish liberty.., the poisonous Jewish Question infected her life-blood. She acquired the disease in a peculiarly intractable form.
B. n. An unmanageable person.
1883Spectator 1 Sept., If they refuse, opinion will punish them as Intractables.
Hence inˈtractableness, the quality of being intractable; intractability. inˈtractably adv., in an intractable manner.
1664H. More Myst. Iniq. 242 The halting of the Horse..and his contumacy and intractableness. 1802Paley Nat. Theol. v. §1 (1819) 50 To expose some intractableness and imperfection in the materials. 1824Landor Imag. Conv. Wks. 1846 I. 23 When the leading stag..is intractably wild..he ought to be hamstrung. 1860Mill Repr. Govt. (1865) 21/1 The impediments opposed to the most salutary public improvements by the ignorance, the indifference, the intractableness, the perverse obstinacy of a people. |