| 释义 |
▪ I. levity1|ˈlɛvɪtɪ|
Forms: 6 levitye, 7 -tie, 7– levity.
[ad. OF. levité = It. levità, ad. L. levitātem, levitās, f. levis light: see -ity.]
1. a. As a physical quality: The quality or fact of having comparatively little weight; lightness. Also † specific levity: cf. specific gravity (gravity 4 c).
1597A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 40/2 Consideringe theire ponderousnes or levitye. 1645Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 221 He abounded in things petrified,..a morsel of cork yet retaining its levity, sponges, etc. 1684Boyle Porousn. Anim. & Solid Bod. iii. 85 Marble itself abounds with internal Pores..as may be rationally conjectured from the Specifick Levity of it, in comparison of Gold and Lead. 1756C. Lucas Ess. Waters I. 26 Rain-water..comes nearest to dew in levity, subtility and purity. 1787Winter Syst. Husb. 82 When they [vapours] ascend into that region of the atmosphere of the same specifick levity, there they float. 1802Paley Nat. Theol. xii. (1824) 482/1 A covering which shall unite the qualities of warmth, levity, and least resistance to the air. 1818Faraday Exp. Res. xxx. (1825) 166 The re-absorption..being..retarded in consequence of the superior levity of the fluid. 1869M. Somerville Molec. Sci. i. i. 12 Hydrogen..rises in the air on account of its levity.
b. In pre-scientific physics, regarded as a positive property inherent in bodies in different degrees, or varying proportions, in virtue of which they tend to rise, as bodies possessing gravity tend to sink. Cf. gravity 4 a. Obs. exc. Hist. or allusively.
1601Holland Pliny II. 406 That leuitie whereof they spake, can hardly and vnneath bee found and knowne by any other meanes than [etc.]. 1614Raleigh Hist. World i. (1634) 10 Hee..gave to every nature his proper forme; the forme of levitie to that which ascended. 1644Digby Nat. Bodies x. (1658) 100 There is no such thing among bodies, as positive gravity or levity. 1672Petty Pol. Anat. (1691) 334 What alterations are made in the gravity or levity of the air from hour to hour. 1775Priestley Exper. Air I. 267 That phlogiston should communicate absolute levity to the bodies with which it is combined, is a supposition that I am not willing to have recourse to. 1794G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. III. xxxiv. 381 As paradoxical as the weighing of levity. 1830Herschel Stud. Nat. Phil. 142 We know of no natural body in which the opposite of gravity, or positive levity, subsists. 1854H. Miller Sch. & Schm. (1858) 249, I had not levity enough in my framework to float across the lever.
c. fig. applied to immaterial things.
1704Swift T. Tub Introd., Little starued conceits are gently wafted up by their extreme leuity to the middle region. 1779–81Johnson L.P., Prior Wks. 1787 III. 147 The burlesque of Boileau's Ode on Namur has, in some parts, such airiness and levity as will [etc.].
†2. Lightness in movement; agility. Obs.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 257 The natural constitution of a Horse is hot..because of his Levity, and Velocity. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. i. 122 The Levitie of men made shift to enter thorow places scant passable.
3. As a moral or mental quality, in various senses.
a. Want of serious thought or reflexion; frivolity. Also (now chiefly), ‘Trifling gaiety’ (J.); unbecoming or unseasonable jocularity. (The prevalent sense.)
1564Brief Exam. A iij, As though they were ledde with a certayne irreligious leuitie, to ouerthrowe and abolyshe all thynges vsed before in religion. 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. vii. 128 Our grauer businesse Frownes at this leuitie. 1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. §4 The levity of one, and the morosity of another. 1671Milton Samson 880, I..unbosom'd all my secrets to thee, Not out of levity, but overpowr'd By thy request. a1686B. Calamy Serm. (1687) 6 He never employed his omnipotence out of levity or ostentation; but onely as the necessities and wants of Men required it. 1806Med. Jrnl. XV. 108 The subject has been treated with indecent and disgusting levity. 1830D'Israeli Chas. I, III. vi. 116 It is mortifying to disclose the levity of feeling of men of genius. 1841–4Emerson Ess., Politics Wks. (Bohn) I. 237 But politics rest on necessary foundations, and cannot be treated with levity. 1882J. L. Watson Life A. Thomson iii. 44 He could be gay without levity.
b. Incapacity for lasting affection, resolution, or conviction; heedlessness in making and breaking promises; instability, fickleness, inconstancy.
1613R. C. Table Alph. (ed. 3), Leuitie, lightnesse, inconstancie. 1633P. Fletcher Poet. Misc. 76 The Cause that with my verse she was offended, For womens levitie I discommended. 1685Baxter Paraphr. N.T., Acts xiv. 19 This is the levity of the vulgar, that one day will sacrifice as to Gods, to those, whom after they would kill as malefactors. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xvii. II. 94 The Sarmatians soon forgot, with the levity of Barbarians, the services which they had so lately received. 1832tr. Sismondi's Ital. Rep. xiv. 296 Maximilian forgot, with extreme levity, his promises and alliances. 1834Macaulay Ess., Pitt (1851) 303 Sick of the perfidy and levity of the First Lord of the Treasury.
c. ‘Light’ or undignified behaviour; unbecoming freedom of conduct (said esp. of women); an instance of this.
1601Marston Pasquil & Kath. ii. 11, I know that women of leuitie and lightnesse are soone downe. 1699Burnet 39 Art. xx. (1700) 195 Vain Pomp and indecent Levity ought to be guarded against. 1702Penn in Pennsylv. Hist. Soc. Mem. IX. 171 Give him the true state of things, and weigh down his levities. 1710Steele Tatler No. 76 ⁋6 An un⁓becoming Levity in their Behaviour out of the Pulpit. 1727Swift What passed in Lond. Wks. 1755 III. i. 184 Those innocent freedoms and little levities so commonly incident to young ladies of their profession. 1766Fordyce Serm. Yng. Wom. (1767) II. xiii. 239 Their natural graces..are lost in levity. 1791Mrs. Radcliffe Rom. Forest viii, Distinguishing between a levity of this kind and a more serious address. 1828Scott F.M. Perth xxiii, So many charges of impropriety and levity. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vii. II. 256 Her elder sister..had been distinguished by beauty and levity.
†d. nonce-use. Lightness (of spirit), freedom from care. Obs.
1630Donne Serm. xxvi. (1640) 264 To what a blessed levity (if without levity we may so speake) to what a cheerefull lightnesse of spirit is he come, that comes newly from confession.
4. A saying or expression marked by levity.
1930Blunden in Nation 6 Dec. 327/1 Coleridge, wonderfully well edited by his grandson.., lacks his epigrams and levities.
▪ II. † ˈlevity2 Obs. rare—1.
[ad. L. lēvitāt-em, lēvitās, f. lēvis smooth.]
Smoothness; an instance of this, a smooth surface.
1613M. Ridley Magn. Bodies 20 Unlesse they be drawne aside by excrescenses and levities. |