| 释义 |
wasteness|ˈweɪstnɪs|
[-ness.]
1. The state of being waste.
†a. Desolation, destruction, ruin. lit. and fig. (Chiefly Biblical.) Obs.
1382Wyclif Isa. xlvii. 11 Ther shal feerli falle vp on thee wastnesse [Vulg. calamitas]. ― Hos. ix. 6 Thei ben gon fro wastnesse [Vulg. a vastitate]. 1535Coverdale Isa. xxiv. 12 Desolacion shal remayne in the cities, and the gates shalbe smytten with waistnesse. 1561T. Norton Calvin's Inst. iv. xii. 74 b, We do now se at hande certaine beginninges of a horrible wastenesse in the Chirch. 1598Spenser Wks. (1882) I. 538 Out of the ashes of disolacon and wastnes of this your wretched Realme of Ireland. 1611Bible Zeph. i. 15 A day of wastenesse and desolation. a1672Sterry Freed. Will (1675) 144 A dark, horrid, and bottomless pit, where all wastness, woe, disorder, deformity..dwell together. 1863J. G. Murphy Comm. Lev. iv. Introd., Trespass is the moral wasteness.
b. The state of lying waste, being wild or uncultivated or barren.
1608in Buccleuch MSS. Whitehall (Hist. MSS. Comm.) I. 76 The present wastenes of that country proveth both the facility and the necessity of the plantation. 1799S. Robertson Agric. Perth 245 Wasteness admits of various degrees. Some land in a state of nature may be worth ten or even fifteen shillings an acre of yearly rent; while other land is not worth so many farthings. 1818Scott Rob Roy xxviii, Under her rays, the ground over which we passed assumed a more interesting appearance than during the broad daylight, which discovered the extent of its wasteness. 1863J. G. Murphy Comm. Gen. i. 14 The wasteness of the land..has begun to be adorned with the living forms of a new vegetation.
2. An uninhabited or unfrequented region or place. Obs. or dial.
a1500Hist. K. Boccus & Sydracke (? 1510) U iv, He shuld fynde wastenes ful great There nethere were drynke ne mete But wylde beastes many one. 1572Buchanan Detect. Mary Q. Scottis (1727) 68 Was not that desolate Waistnes [orig. L. illa deserta vastitas], that unhantit Place, abill of itself to put simpill Men in Feir? 1590Spenser F.Q. i. iii. 3 She of nought affrayd, Through woods and wastnesse wide him daily sought. 1600Fairfax Tasso iv. iii, The drearie trumpet blew a dreadfull blast,..Through wastnes wide it roard, and hollowes vast. 1647Cressy Exomologesis 17 Which is able to convert Paradice it selfe into a savage wastnesse. 1876Mid-Yorksh. Gloss., Wasteness, a waste place. |