| 释义 |
weakness|ˈwiːknɪs|
[f. weak a. + -ness.]
1. The quality or condition of being weak, in any sense of the adj.; deficiency of strength, power, or force.
a1300Cursor M. 27054 Botes thre, Quar-wit þat we mai strenghed be. Þe first for waikenes of vr fa Þat qua-sum will mai were him fra. Ibid. 28932 [Of alms-giving] ‘Weiknes’ sal þou lok for mede, For þou man agh all helpe in nede, Þe waikest and þe mast vn-fere. 1340Hampole Pr. C. 9026 Alle þe strenthe of Sampson þat was pereles, War noght tald þare bot wayknes. c1400Destr. Troy 3323 Syn weikenes of wemen may not wele stryve, Ne haue no myght tawardes men maistries to fend. c1440Promp. Parv. 520/2 Weykenesse, of hert, vecordia, pusillanimitas. 1525Grete Herbal clxxiii. (1529) L j, Agaynst vomyte caused of weykenesse of the vertue retentyfe, take [etc.]. 1538Starkey England 43 Wych thyng [sc. retirement from the world] surely ys not amys downe of them wych perceyue theyr owne imbecyllyte and wekenes. 1595Shakes. John v. iii. 17 To my litter straight, Weaknesse possesseth me, and I am faint. 1601― Jul. C. iv. iii. 276, I thinke it is the weakenesse of mine eyes That shapes this monstrous Apparition. 1651Hobbes Leviath. iii. xxxvii. 236 And so make the weaknesse of his voice seem to proceed..from distance of place. 1678Lady Chaworth in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 45 Lady Portsmouth [is] going to Bourbon as soone as her weaknesse will permitt. 1686Tillotson Serm. at White-Hall (1 Cor. iii. 15) 19, I shall shew the weakness of the principle upon which this argument relies. 1707Curios. Husb. & Gard. 259 The weakness of the Sun in that Season. 1748Richardson Clarissa (1768) VII. 33 They depend upon the indulgent weakness of their Parents tempers. 1769Junius Lett. xvi. 69 The man who is conscious of the weakness of his cause is interested in concealing it. 1774[W. Mitford] Ess. Harmony Lang. 153 The expression of the 829 line is much heightened by the extreme weakness of the accent in the first foot [etc.]. 1781Burns Let. W. Burnes 27 Dec., The weakness of my nerves. 1782Jrnl. Yng. Lady of Virginia (1871) 22 Nancy was much better... Weakness is her only complaint. 1818Cruise Digest (ed. 2) VI. 162 Where..a testator..was incapable of disposing of his lands from any weakness of mind. 1821Lamb Elia, Witches Wks. 1908 I. 554 Credulity is the man's weakness, but the child's strength. 1838Prescott Ferd. & Is. ii. xxiii. III. 425 The independence of Navarre had hitherto been maintained less through its own strength than the weakness of its neighbours. 1856Kane Arctic Expl. I. xxiii. 301 He was startled by the growing weakness of the ice. 1861M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 33 The weakness of Henry III would not suffer him to commit himself heartily to a Ghibelline policy. 1869Tanner Clin. Med. (ed. 2) 20 Dementia... This form of insanity is often seen in those who in early life exhibit weakness of will, or of moral self-control. 1875Economist 23 Jan. 95/2 The special causes of weakness affecting the markets have..been greatly influential here. 1884Law Times Rep. L. 118/2 Rule 15..is a rule meant to make a litigant expose the weakness of his case. 1920Conquest Nov. 7/2 The mountains..are lines of weakness caused by the crumpling of the earth's crust.
2. In particularized uses.
a. A weak point, a circumstance of disadvantage.
1597Bacon Ess., Of Negotiating (Arb.) 92 If you would worke any man, you must either know his nature, and fashions and so leade him,..or his weakenesses or disaduantages, and so awe him. 1627Donne Serm. lxxxi. (1649) II. 9 Here, it is a faire portion of that Angelicall happinesse, if you be alwaies ready to support, and supply one another in any such occasionall weaknesses. 1914‘Ian Hay’ Knt. on Wheels xix, The brakes of the Britannia cars have always been their weakness. 1920Discovery Apr. 114/1 Any weakness there was in our pre-war small house design was a tendency to fussiness.
b. An infirmity of character, a failing.
c1645Howell Lett. (1650) I. v. xii. 148, I shall heartily thank you..if you tell me of my weaknesses. 1671Milton Samson 773 Dalila. First granting, as I do, it was a weakness In me, but incident to all our sex, Curiosity. 1711Addison Spect. No. 255 ⁋10 This very Thirst after Fame..is it self looked upon as a Weakness in the greatest Characters. 1748Chesterfield Let. to Son 29 Oct., Not to seem to perceive the little weaknesses, and the idle but innocent affectations of the company. 1776Gibbon Decl. & F. xiv. (1782) I. 525 The laws of Constantine against rapes were dictated with very little indulgence for the most amiable weaknesses of human nature. 1797Jane Austen Sense & Sens. xlix, His heart was now open to Elinor, all its weaknesses, all its errors confessed. a1859Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxv. V. 256 Many who could not help smiling at Burnet's weaknesses did justice to his abilities and virtues.
†c. A weakened condition of body; an attack of faintness. Obs.
1602Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 148 He..Fell into a Sadnesse,..thence into a Weaknesse. 1617Moryson Itin. I. 236, I was all the day troubled with a weaknesse of bodie. 1749Hartley Observ. Man i. i. §1. 51 The Numbness, and paralytic Weaknesses, which frequently succeed after Opiates. 1756M. Calderwood in Coltness Collect. (Maitl. Club) 203 And ever since, I am given to violent passions and weaknesses in my head.
3. An unreasonable or self-indulgent liking or inclination for (a person or thing).
1712Steele Spect. No. 442 ⁋1, I must own my Weakness for Glory is such, that if I consulted that only, I might [etc.]. 1746Chesterfield Let. to Son 4 Oct., I have no womanish weakness for your person. 1852Thackeray Esmond iii. xi, He hath every great and generous quality, with perhaps a weakness for the sex which belongs to his family. 1869A. Macdonald Love, Law & Theol. x. 172, I think she would like to have Porter, but he doesn't seem to see that she has a weakness for him. 1895H. A. Kennedy in 19th Cent. Aug. 330, I own to a weakness for a play that, without any flourish of pretence, does very distinctly amuse me. 1913Jrnl. Friends' Hist. Soc. Jan. 4 He had a weakness for getting on his feet several times in the course of one First⁓day morning.
b. quasi-concr. Something for which one has an unreasonable liking.
1822Byron Vis. Judgm. xxxix, Nor wine nor lust Were of his weaknesses. 1840Dickens Old C. Shop iv, You have been exciting yourself too much—talking perhaps, for it is your weakness. 1853― Bleak Ho. xx, It's the fashionable way; and fashion and whiskers have been my weaknesses, and I don't care who knows it. |