| 释义 |
knotty, a.|ˈnɒtɪ|
[f. knot n.1 + -y.]
1. Of a cord, etc.: Having or full of knots; tied or entangled in knots.
a1240Wohunge in Cott. Hom. 281 Þu wes..wið cnotti swepes swungen. c1440Promp. Parv. 280/2 Knotty, nodosus. 1576Gascoigne Philomene 112 She bare a skourge, with many a knottie string. 1602Shakes. Ham. i. v. 18 Make..Thy knotty [Qo. knotted] and combined locks to part, And each particular haire to stand an end. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 14 Their haire curld,..blacke and knotty. 1852R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour (1893) 310 Regardless of..the crack of his little knotty whip.
2. fig. Full of intellectual difficulties or complications of thought; hard to ‘unravel’, explain, or solve; involved, intricate, perplexing, puzzling. (Sometimes with mixture of sense 4.)
a1225Leg. Kath. 1157 Ich habbe uncnut summe of þeos cnotti cnotten. 1573–80Baret Alv. K 122 Knottie, full of knots, or difficulties. 1625Bacon Ess., Regim. Health (Arb.) 59 Auoid..Anger fretting inwards; Subtill and knottie Inquisitions. 1638Penit. Conf. vii. (1657) 192 Reckoned amongst the knotty pieces of Christian Religion. 1701Stanley's Hist. Philos. Biog. 14 æschylus, the most knotty and intricate of all the Greek Poets. 1702Pope Jan. & May 140 The knotty point was urg'd on either side. 1874Carpenter Ment. Phys. i. ii. §79 (1879) 83 The man who is..in a complete reverie, unravelling some knotty subject.
3. Abounding in or covered with knots, knobs, or rough protuberances; rugged, gnarled; containing knots, as a board.
c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1119 A forest,..With knotty knarry bareyne trees olde. c1420Pallad. on Husb. iii. 377 Ffertile, & fressh, ek knotty, sprongen newe Thy graffes be. c1440Promp. Parv. 280/2 Knotty, wythe-in the flesche, glandulosus. 1594Blundevil Exerc. iii. i. viii. (1636) 287 Like knots in a knotty board. 1692Bentley 8 Serm. (1724) 331 The scragged and knotty Backbone. 1762R. Guy Pract. Obs. Cancers 75 A Cancer in her Breast, rough on the Surface, with knotty Vessels. 1821Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 122 The wild shelter of a knotty oak. 1881C. M. Yonge Lads & Lasses Langley ii. 97 She knelt upon the grass, with her bare hard-working knotty hands clasped.
4. Hard and rough in character; rugged.
a1568R. Ascham Scholem. i. (Arb.) 34 A witte..that is not ouer dulle, heauie, knottie and lumpishe. 1643Milton Divorce Pref., Wks. (1851) 19 To doe this..with a smooth and pleasing lesson, which receiv'd hath the vertue to soften and dispell rooted and knotty sorrowes. 1663J. Spencer Prodigies (1665) 341 A kind of blunter wedges provided by divine Wisdom to work upon those knotty tempers, upon which those instruments of a finer edg..can do no good. 1821Lamb Elia Ser. i. Imperf. Symp., They beat up a little game peradventure—and leave it to knottier heads..to run it down.
5. Comb., as knotty-pated adj. [perh. associated with not-headed, not-pated (1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 78)], blockheaded.
1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 251 Thou Clay-brayn'd Guts, thou Knotty-pated Foole. |