| 释义 |
inutility|ɪnjuːˈtɪlɪtɪ|
[a. F. inutilité (1416 in Hatz.-Darm.), or It. inutilità (Florio), ad. L. inūtilit-ās, f. in- (in-3) + ūtilitās utility: see prec. and -ity.]
The quality or state of being useless; want of utility; uselessness, unprofitableness.
1598Florio, Inutilita, disprofit, inutilitie, vnprofitablenes. 1603― Montaigne i. li. (1632) 165 The Mahometans, by reason of it's inutilitie, forbid the teaching of it [Rhetoric] to their children. 1651Life Father Sarpi (1676) 11 The vanity and inutility thereof he did always and absolutely despise. 1731Bolingbroke in Swift's Lett. (1766) II. 135 The absolute inutility I am of to those whom I should be the best pleased to serve. 1786Burke Art. Hastings Wks. 1842 II. 132 The moral impossibility, as well as inutility in point of profit, of forcing a son to greater violence and rigour against his mother. 1825Lytton Falkland 14 To teach me, like Faustus, to find nothing in knowledge but its inutility.
b. An instance of uselessness; a thing or person that is useless.
1802W. Taylor in Robberds Mem. I. 433 Give me the spot where victories have been won over the inutilities of nature by the efforts of human art. 1813E. S. Barrett Heroine (1815) II. 68 One of the beautiful Inutilities, who sits in sweet stupidity, [and] plays off the small simpers. 1884Hunter & Whyte My Ducats & My Dau. xxviii. (1885) 438 Constantly engaged in the purchase of inutilities or superfluities. |