| 释义 |
promiscuous, a.|prəʊˈmɪskjuːəs|
[f. L. prōmiscu-us mixed, indiscriminate, in Gram. epicene (f. prō, pro-1 + miscēre to mix) + -ous. Cf. late L. prōmiscēre to mix up.]
1. a. Consisting of members or elements of different kinds grouped or massed together without order; of mixed and disorderly composition or character; also, with pl. n., of various kinds mixed together.
1603Knolles Hist. Turks 283 About them..the promiscuous common people, doubling and redoubling the praises of the King, and Huniades. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. Democr. to Rdr. 20 Hee told him that hee saw a vast multitude and a promiscuous. 1667Milton P.L. i. 380 While the promiscuous croud stood yet aloof. 1692Bentley Boyle Lect. ii. 41 The Apostle who was to speak to such a promiscuous Assembly. 1752Hume Ess. & Treat. (1777) I. 222 The characters of nations are very promiscuous in the temperate climates. 1830Lyell Princ. Geol. (1875) I. i. iii. 46 He conceived the strata to have settled down from this promiscuous mass. 1875Helps Soc. Press. xx. 291 What Milverton contemptuously would call our miscellaneous and promiscuous essays.
b. Rarely of a single thing.
1663Butler Hud. i. i. 99 It had an odd promiscuous Tone, As if h' had talk'd three Parts in one. 1711Pope Temp. Fame 22 Sudden I heard a wild promiscuous sound.
2. a. That is without discrimination or method; done or applied without respect for kind, order, number, etc.; confusedly mingled, indiscriminate.
1605Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. vii. §3 Axioms which are promiscuous and indifferent to several sciences. 1650Hobbes De Corp. Pol. 179 To forbid the promiscuous Use of Women. 1678R. L'Estrange Seneca's Mor. (1776) 334 The common and promiscuous lot both of good men and bad. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 144 ⁋9 Secrets are not to be made cheap by promiscuous publication. 1772― 31 Mar. in Boswell, Promiscuous hospitality is not the way to gain real influence. 1816Scott Old Mort. ii, The profane custom of promiscuous dancing—that is, of men and women dancing together in the same party. 1853J. H. Newman Hist. Sk. (1873) II. i. i. 28 At Metz he [Attila] involved in one promiscuous massacre priests and children.
b. Of an agent or agency: Making no distinctions; undiscriminating. Now esp.: indiscriminate in sexual relations (cf. promiscuity 2).
1633E. Porter in Donne's Poems 405 Why should death, with a promiscuous hand, At one rude stroke impoverish a land? 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 310/1 Promiscuous Birds..feed on Flesh, Insects, Fruit, or Grain, as the Raven. a1763Shenstone Ess. vi. (1765) 21 A well-discriminated landscape was..to be preferred to a distant and promiscuous azure. 1900A. Lang Hist. Scot. I. i. 5 People..still polyandrous or promiscuous in the relation of the sexes. 1924C. Connolly Let. Dec. in Romantic Friendship (1975) 32, I am not promiscuous but I can't be loyal to an icicle. 1937A. Huxley Let. 17 Dec. (1969) 430 Where it is ‘done’ to attach a great deal of importance to the achievement of promiscuous satisfaction..there..will the amount of attention given to other matters decline. 1949Times Lit. Suppl. 21 Oct. 680/2 She was promiscuous in her favours, and did not at once become his alone. 1955G. Greene Quiet American ii. ii. 130 One starts promiscuous and ends like one's grandfather, faithful to one woman. 1978S. Herzel in P. Moore Man, Woman, & Priesthood viii. 119 It is precisely because men can compartmentalize that they are more easily promiscuous than women.
3. Of common gender; epicene. rare.
a1637B. Jonson Eng. Gram. i. x, The promiscuous, or epicene, which understands both kinds. 1878L. Villari Life & Times Machiavelli (1898) I. iii. vii. 130 There were three sexes, male, female and promiscuous.
†4. That forms part of a promiscuous or mingled company; hence (slang), a term of depreciation or contempt. Obs.
1753Smollett Ct. Fathom (1813) I. 162 One may see with half an eye that he is no better than a promiscuous fellow. 1785Crabbe Newspaper 233 This, like the public inn, provides a treat, Where each promiscuous guest sits down to eat. 1889Gretton Memory's Harkb. 58 ‘Go back to bed, you promiscuous old bird!’ ‘Promiscuous’ was just then a term in slang use.
5. Casual, carelessly irregular. vulgar or colloq.
1837Dickens Pickw. xxxiv, I walked in..just to say good mornin', and went, in a permiscuous manner, up-stairs, and into the back room. 1883L. Oliphant Altiora Peto I. 5 On the beach, where he will, in the most promiscuous and accidental manner, certainly go for a stroll.
6. quasi-adv.
a. = promiscuously 1.
1671Milton P.R. iii. 118 Glory he receives Promiscuous from all Nations, Jew, or Greek. 1695Addison King 110 And Planks, and Arms, and Men promiscuous flow'd. 1747Francis tr. Horace, Sat. ii. ii. 99 Roast, and boil'd, when you promiscuous eat, When fowl and shell-fish in confusion meet. 1813Shelley Q. Mab ii. 153 Old age and infancy Promiscuous perished.
b. = promiscuously 2. vulgar.
1826Disraeli Viv. Grey II. xii. 170, I do wish you'd come in some day quite promiscuous. 1827Ibid. III. viii. 115 It's remarkable wrong to tax 'em all promiscuous. 1875Swinburne Let. 5 Nov. (1960) III. 82 It turned up promiscuous when at last wanted after ten years. 1885G. Allen Babylon xiv, Colin only kissed her now and again quite promiscuous like. 1901A. Forbes Odd Fish 92 You get a barrel o' the reds, and send it aboard just permiscuous like. |