| 释义 |
lesser, a. and adv.|ˈlɛsə(r)|
[A double comparative, f. less a. + -er3.]
A. adj.
1. a. = less a. Chiefly, and now only, used attrib.
1459Inv. in Paston Lett. I. 478 Item, ij. pillowes of lynen clothe of a lasser assyse. Ibid. 487 Item, ij. aundyrys, grete, of one sorte. Item, ij., lasse, of anothyr sorte. Item, iij. lesser aundiris. 1552Huloet, Beate..a thynge, wherby to make it lesser or thynner. 1561T. Norton Calvin's Inst. i. 29 To offer Sacrifices to spirites, lesser Gods or dead men of honor. 1611Bible Gen. i. 16 The greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 171 Setting the lesser Lords at variance with their Prince. 1756Burke Subl. & B. iv. xxiv, These lesser and if I may say more domestick virtues. 1787Winter Syst. Husb. 83 The less the height of their descent, the lesser is the resistance they meet with in the air. 1842Tennyson Locksley Hall 151 Woman is the lesser man. 1863Kinglake Crimea (1876) I. x. 145 The lesser minds gave way to the greater. 1896Howells Impressions & Exp. 259 The lights of lesser craft dipped by, and came and went in the distance.
ellipt.1489Caxton Faytes of A. ii. xx. 135 Thre other gonnes wherof one grete and two lesser. 1594Barnfield Aff. Sheph. ii. lv, For lesser cease, when greater griefes begin. 1660Barrow Euclid i. iii, To take away the right line BE equal to the lesser A. 1665Boyle Occas. Refl. iv. xiv, The parting with a great Fortune, as freely as with a lesser. 1710Prideaux Orig. Tithes ii. 61 It must be either for a larger portion, or for a lesser. 1842James M. Ernstein I. x. 185 When the lesser of the two scoundrels comes to me.
†b. Followed by than. Obs.
1579Fulke Heskins' Parl. 115 This is in nothing lesser then that. 1673Ray Journ. Low C. 40 We judged it [Amsterdam] to be..lesser than one half of London. 1692S. Patrick Answ. Touchstone 71 In these, none was greater or lesser than another. 1710Prideaux Orig. Tithes ii. 62 The work and duty of the Christian Priesthood is lesser than was that of the Levitical.
2. In special or technical use, opposed to greater.
a. Astron. in the names of certain constellations, as the Lesser Bear. † Also lesser circle, a ‘small circle’ of a sphere (obs.). Also Geog. in Lesser Asia (now arch.), Asia Minor.
b. Mus. Applied to intervals which are now usually called minor.
c. in the names of plants and animals.
d. Anat.
e. For lesser excommunication, line, litany, see the ns.
a.1551,1727–51[see greater a. 4 a]. 1559W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 39 The iiij. lesser Circles, which are the tropicke of Cancer, the tropick of Capricorne, the circle Articke, and the circle Antarticke. 1594[see circle n. 2 a]. 1613J. Dennys Secr. Angling iii. xxi, When cold Boreas..Lookes out from vnderneath the lesser beare. 1676Moxon Tutor Astron. (ed. 3) 221 Canis Minor, the Lesser Dog. 1768Hume National Char., Essays xx, Throughout..Greece, the Lesser Asia, Sicily [etc.].
b.1674,1727–51[see greater a. 4 b]. 1818Busby Gram. Mus. 323 Lesser Sixth, with Lesser Third. 1855Browning Toccata of Galuppi's vii, Those lesser thirds so plaintive, sixths diminished, sigh on sigh. 1873Bridges Shorter P. i. xiv, But let the viol lead the melody, With lesser intervals, and plaintive moan Of sinking semitone. 1876Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms, Lesser, minor, as: with the lesser third, in the minor key; lesser sixth, a minor sixth.
c.1678Ray Willughby's Ornith. 144 The lesser Reed-Sparrow. 1822Couch in Linnæan Trans. XIV. 75 Lesser forked Hake. 1837Macgillivray Withering's Brit. Plants (ed. 4) 341 Lesser Cat's-tail or Reed-mace. 1861Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. V. 190 Common Frog-bit... This plant was called by the old writers Lesser Water Lily.
d.1842E. Wilson Anat. Vade M. (ed. 2) 419 The lesser internal cutaneous nerve or nerve of Wrisberg. 1872Mivart Elem. Anat. 180 The lesser ischiatic notch.
3. attrib. and Comb., as lesser-angled, lesser-sized adjs.; lesser breed, applied allusively after Kipling (Recessional: see quot. 1897) to persons of inferior status; lesser light, applied allusively (after Gen. i. 16 ‘the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night’) to a person of less eminence or importance.
1889Anthony's Photogr. Bull. II. 4 A longer-focussed and lesser-angled lens.
1897Kipling Recessional in Times 17 July 13/6 Such boasting as the Gentiles use Or lesser breeds without the Law. 1955C. Pearl Girl with Swansdown Seat iv. 135 Wilfrid Scawen Blunt..was an English gentleman who shamed his class by championing the lesser breeds in Egypt and India. 1963Brown & Foote Early Eng. & Norse Studies 39 The next stanza, which begins with the hope that the text will not be miswritten nor mismetred by scribes and lesser breeds without the law of final -e. 1971A. Price Alamut Ambush ix. 113 The authentic supercilious voice of England—the lesser breeds shall not show unfitting qualities of sportmanship towards each other! 1973‘H. Howard’ Highway to Murder vii. 82 You and your kind think you can order the lesser breeds around.
1608Shakes. Per. ii. iii. 41 None that beheld him, but like lesser lights, Did vaile their Crownes to his supremacie. 1873R. Browning Red Cott. Nt.-Cap i. 34 Pilgrimage, Concourse, procession with, to head the host, Cardinal Mirecourt, quenching lesser lights. 1893G. Moore Mod. Painting 45 In the seventeenth century were Poussin and Claude; in the eighteenth Watteau, Boucher, Chardin, and many lesser lights. 1906Galsworthy Man of Property iii. v. 328 His interest was soon diverted from these lesser lights of justice by the entrance of Waterbuck, Q.C. 1943K. Tennant Ride on Stranger xiii. 152 One of the lesser lights of the announcers' staff had his face slapped by a young lady. 1964Ann. Reg. 1963 22 At all events the most senior Ministers..turned up on Saturday 27 April, and the lesser lights on the Sunday morning. 1974Times 21 Jan. 14/7 His deepest affection was reserved for the Romantics—Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, and the lesser lights.
1713G. C. Pref. H. More's Div. Dial. vi, The lesser-sized Bodies.
†B. adv. Less. In quot. 1625 = to less purpose. Obs.
1594Shakes. Rich. III, iii. iv. 54, I thinke there's neuer a man in Christendome Can lesser hide his loue, or hate, then hee. 1611― Cymb. v. v. 187 He (true Knight) No lesser of her Honour confident Then I did truly finde her. a1625Fletcher Laws Candy ii. i, I was an eare-witness When this young man spoke lesser then he acted, And had the souldiers voice to helpe him out. |