| 释义 |
▪ I. limping, vbl. n.|ˈlɪmpɪŋ|
[f. limp v.2 + -ing1.]
The action of limp v.2
1555W. Watreman Fardle Facions i. vi. 91 The Claudians: which they so terme of claudicacion or limping. 1604F. Herring Def. Caveat 15 The extreme limping and halting thereof will easily appeare.
▪ II. limping, ppl. a.|ˈlɪmpɪŋ|
[f. limp v.2 + -ing2.]
a. That limps.
1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. ii. 28 Well apparreld April on the heele Of limping Winter treads. 1607― Timon iv. i. 14 Sonne [printed Some] of sixteen, Plucke the lyn'd Crutch from thy old limping Sire. 1724Ramsay Vision xix, Limpand Vulcan. 1791Cowper Odyss. viii. 430 The limping smith far-famed replied. 1891A. Welcker Wild West 18 They..were followed by limping,..mangy Indian dogs.
b. fig. (Cf. halting, lame.)
1577–87Holinshed Chron. I. 164/1 The Danes had..a lame and limping rule in this land. 1599Marston Sco. Villanie ii. v. 195 Rude limping lines fits this lewd halting age. 1603Florio Montaigne (1634) 490 Nothing wrested, nothing limping: all marcheth with like tenour. 1702Dennis Monument xxv, She to new Slaughter lash'd on limping Fate. 1858J. Martineau Stud. Chr. 146 To give..the vigor of an athlete to our limping wills. 1876Spurgeon Commenting 113 His prophetic work has been reprinted, but not this limping poetry.
Comb.1577Gosson in Kirton Mirr. Mans Life K vij b, A lame and lothsome lymping legged wight.
c. transf. Of certain relationships that are held to be legal in one country but not in another.
1963Listener 17 Jan. 122/1 There is probably no more embarrassing experience for a couple than to find that they are regarded as validly married in one country, but living in sin in another. Even worse, perhaps, is the position of a man regarded by one country's laws as divorced and therefore single, but by another country as married and liable to be convicted for bigamy if he remarries. This situation, vividly called ‘the limping marriage’, is deplored by most systems of law including our own. Ibid. 123/2 It goes some way towards mitigating the evil of the ‘limping marriage’. 1970Internat. & Compar. Law Q. XIX. i. 12 It was scarcely in the child's interests to make her a ‘limping infant’ by pronouncing an order which would be refused recognition in a country with which she had significant links. Ibid. 17 There was the particular danger..that the adoption order would not be recognised in some countries, producing a ‘limping’ adoption.
Hence ˈlimpingly adv., ˈlimpingness.
1579Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 826/1 Though wee goe limpingly, yet..we striue with our selues to go forward. 1611Cotgr., Boistément, limpingly. 1754Richardson Grandison (1781) VI. liii. 345 Both were applauded; the time of life of the Lady, the limpingness of my Lord, considered. 1787Beckford Italy (1834) II. 38 Our conversation was limpingly carried on in a great variety of broken languages. |