| 释义 |
lenient, a. and n.|ˈliːnɪənt|
[ad. L. lēnient-em, lēniens, pr. pple. of lēnīre to soothe, f. lēnis soft, mild.]
A. adj.
1. Softening, soothing, relaxing, both in a material and immaterial sense; emollient. † Const. of. Somewhat arch.
1652French Yorksh. Spa viii. 74 Taking..a little Cassia, or some such lenient medicament. 1671Milton Samson 659 Lenient of grief and anxious thought. 1732Arbuthnot Rules of Diet 271 One should begin with the gentlest [Remedies] at first, as the lenient, relaxing, diluent, demulcent. 1760Dodd Hymn to Good-Nature Poems (1767) 4 Touch with the lenient balm of thy soft love..the heart morose. 1781E. Darwin Bot. Gard. i. (1791) 84 The rapturous God..With lenient words her virgin fears disarms. 1805Foster Ess. iv. viii. 251 Softened by the lenient hand of time. 1810Crabbe Borough viii. Wks. 1834 III. 147 Nor these alone possess the lenient power Of soothing life in the desponding hour. 1832Bryant Poems, Hymn to Death 103 When thy reason..taught Thy hand to practise best the lenient art.
2. Of persons, their actions and dispositions, also of an enactment: Indisposed to severity; gentle, mild, tolerant. Const. to, towards.
1787Winter Syst. Husb. 170 The lenient laws of this happy isle do not compel men to get or save. 1828D'Israeli Chas. I, I. vi. 153 This venerable Protestant was..disgusted at the lenient measures pursued by the Queen. 1832H. Martineau Ella of Gar. vii. 86 Archie's family thought him much too lenient towards Mr. Callum. 1857Buckle Civiliz. I. iv. 201 The greatest observer and the most profound thinker is invariably the most lenient judge. 1870Dickens E. Drood xiii, We have so much reason to be very lenient to each other. 1879Froude Cæsar xii. 155 Cicero, who was inclined at first to be severe, took on reflection a more lenient view.
†B. n. A soothing appliance; an emollient.
1672Wiseman Wounds i. ix. 99, I..cleansed the wound, and drest him up with lenients. 1684tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. iii. 50 In the Stone in the Kidneys..I think it safer to use Lenients. 1767Gooch Treat. Wounds I. 205 How necessary it may sometimes be found..to use lenients and anodynes. |