| 释义 |
languishment|ˈlæŋgwɪʃmənt|
[f. languish v. + -ment.]
1. Sickness, illness; physical weakness, faintness, pining, or suffering. ? Obs.
1596Spenser F.Q. iv. xii. 23 Who now was falne into new languishment Of his old hurt, which was not throughly cured. 1609J. Davies (Heref.) Holy Roode F 3 b, That in the Lab'rinth of his Languishment [sc. Christ's passion] We may, though lost therein, find solagement. 1625Jackson Creed v. viii. 73 The languishment of a certain friend..hath taught me of late, that we are best men when we are sickly. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. vii. xiii. 364 He dyed at Chalcis of a naturall death and languishment of stomack. 1742Young Nt. Th. v. 496 When by the bed of Languishment we sit. 1809Kendall Trav. II. lii. 211 Pulmonary consumption... This disease, which, after the country-people among the whites, they call a languishment, is equally fatal to the Indians. 1831J. Wilson in Blackw. Mag. XXIX. 289 A hue foreboding languishment and decay. 1845Wordsw. Love Lies Bleeding 8 Thus leans..Earthward in uncomplaining languishment, The dying Gladiator.
b. pl. Sufferings, fits of weakness or illness.
1665Boyle Occas. Refl. ii. iii. (1848) 107 If it [a Disease] tire out the Patient with tedious Languishments. 1674T. Turnor Case Bankers & Creditors Concl. 33 The Law..acquits the person that steals viands to pacify the present Languishments of nature. 1685Evelyn Mrs. Godolphin 150 Thus ended this incomparable Lady:..leaving..a disconsolate Husband, whose vnexpressible griefe..would hardly suffer him to be spectator of her languishments. 1702C. Mather Magn. Chr. iii. iii. (1852) 577 He fell into some languishments attended with a fever.
c. Weariness, lassitude, languor; listlessness, inertness.
c1620T. Robinson Mary Magd. 388 Parte of her time in idle languishement..shee spent. a1680Charnock Attrib. God (1834) II. 23 God can produce more worlds than the sun doth plants every year, without weariness, without languishment. 1748Thomson Cast. Indol. i. 39 Each sound, too, here to languishment inclined, Lulled the weak bosom, and inducèd ease.
d. fig. Of things: Decline, decay, loss of activity.
1617Hieron Wks. (1619–20) II. 252 The graces of regeneration and sanctification, when they are abused and brought to a kinde of languishment. 1626T. H[awkins] Caussin's Holy Crt. 117 The first is a certaine languishment, and debility of Fayth. 1821Examiner 546/2 There is a languishment here for want of persecution.
2. Mental pain, distress or pining; sorrow, trouble, grief; depression or affliction of spirits, sadness.
1591Spenser Ruins Time 159 Yet it is comfort in great languishment, To be bemoned with compassion kinde. 1591Troub. Raigne K. John (1611) 38 Madame good cheere, these drouping languishments Add no redress to salue our awkward haps. 1626T. H[awkins] Caussin's Holy Crt. 427 Mariamne resisted the dull languishments of this captiuity with a generous constancy. 1681Glanvill Sadducismus ii. 206 He would put him in a course to rid his Wife of this languishment and trouble. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 159 ⁋11 Who can wonder that the mind..quickly sinks into languishment and despondency.
3. esp. Sorrow caused by love or by longing of any kind; amorous grief or pain.
a1541Wyatt Compl. Love in Tottel's Misc. (Arb.) 48 Thence came the tears, and thence the bitter torment, The sighs, the words, and eke the languishment. 1594Spenser Amoretti lx, The spheare of Cupid fourty yeares containes: Which I have wasted in long languishment. 1596Edw. III, ii. i. 14 How heart-sick and how full of languishment Her beauty makes me. a1711Ken Hymnotheo Poet. Wks. 1721 III. 237 As a chast Dove..For her dead Mate a lively Love retains, And in continued Languishment remains. 1712Steele Spect. No. 423 ⁋5 The Comparison of Strephon's Gayety to Damon's Languishment. 1819Keats Sonn., ‘Happy is England’, Yet do I sometimes feel a languishment For skies Italian. 1822B. W. Procter Scenes Julian Apostate ii, That inward languishment of mind, which dreams Of some remote and high accomplishment. 1877Mrs. Oliphant Makers Flor. i. 21 Love-agonies and languishments beyond the reach of words.
b. Expression of longing or tenderness.
1709W. King Art of Love iv. 19 Whilst sinking eyes with languishment profess Follies his tongue refuses to confess. 1717Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to C'tess Mar 18 Apr., Her eyes!—large and black, with all the soft languishment of the blue. 1748Smollett Rod. Rand. (1812) I. 361 A look full of languishment. 1814Scott Wav. ii, The sighs and languishments of the fair tell-tale. 1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. v. xxxv, Adorers who might hover around her with languishment. |