| 释义 |
lofty, a.|ˈlɒftɪ, -ɔː-|
[f. loft n. (in on loft, aloft) + -y1.
The word occurs first in figurative applications, and even when literal has always had an emotional or rhetorical character.]
1. Extending to a great height in the air; of imposing altitude, towering.
Said of mountains, trees, buildings, rooms; not of persons, though lofty stature is a common phrase.
1590Spenser F.Q. i. ix. 13 Forwearied with my sportes, I did alight From loftie steed. 1593Shakes. Lucr. 1167 The Barke pild from the loftie pine, His leaues will wither, and his sap decay. 1611Bible Isa. lvii. 7 Vpon a loftie and high mountaine hast thou set thy bed. 1646Crashaw Assumpt. Our Lady 31 Each loftyest tree Bowes low'st his leauy top, to look for thee. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) I. 508 The baptistery..is a large and lofty octangular structure. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) I. 146 The plains are extensive; and the mountains remarkably lofty. 1791Cowper Iliad ii. 268 Antenor's valiant son Of loftiest stature. 1823Rutter Fonthill 19 The loftiest apartment which domestic architecture can present, probably, in the world! 1835Thirlwall Greece I. 21 The lofty and precipitous rock..on which stood the citadel of Corinth. 1884Pae Eustace 6 Fading away into the loftier Highland Mountains.
†b. lofty tricks: acrobatic feats, tumbling. Obs.
[1567Turberv. Ovid's Epist. P iiij b, Then did my wanton tricks and lofty mounting, more..delight thy minde.] 1603Florio Montaigne i. xxv. 1622B. Jonson Masque of Augurs.
c. Of flight: Soaring to a great height. Of the brow: Imposingly high.
1738Wesley Psalms cxlvii. ii, Ye Birds of lofty Wing, On high his Praises bear. 1798Landor Gebir ii. 154 The kingly brow, arched lofty for command.
2. In figurative and immaterial applications.
a. Haughty, overweening, proud. † Const. of.
c1485Digby Myst., Mary Magd. 944 Whan I loke on þis lady, I am lofty as the lyon. 1561T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer iii. (1577) R j a, Bearing themselues lofty of their beautye and worthynesse. c1586C'tess Pembroke Ps. cxxxi, A lofty hart, a lifted eye Lord thou dost know I never bare. 1611Bible Isa. ii. 12 The day of the Lord of hostes shall bee vpon euery one that is proud and loftie. 1681Dryden Abs. & Achit. 516 Cow'ring and Quaking at a Conq'ror's Sword, But Lofty to a Lawful Prince Restor'd. 1712–3Pope Guardian No. 4 ⁋2 A lofty gentleman, whose air and gait discovered when he had published a new book. 1787F. Burney Diary 21 Aug., He appeared very lofty, and highly affronted. 1868Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. App. 601 Several particulars are worked in with a lofty contempt for chronology. 1873Black Pr. Thule viii. 123 Inclined to treat everybody..with a sort of lofty good humour.
absol.1597J. Payne Royal Exch. 28 Sum tymes the prowde and loftie do walke there to be sene in there heyght and braverie. 1611Bible Isa. v. 15 The eyes of the loftie shall be humbled.
b. Exalted in dignity, rank, character, or quality. Of expectations, aims, desires: Directed to high objects.
[14..: see loft a.] 1548Elyot Dict., Excelsus, hyghe or great, lofty, haute, noble. 1586Day Eng. Secretary (1625) 129 Their estate (being peraduenture loftie, and of power to command or sway ouer vs) will not admit by writting to intermeddle with their actions [etc.]. 1611Bible Isa. lvii. 15 Thus saith the High and loftie One that inhabiteth eternitie. 1776Gibbon Decl. & F. xii. I. 246 These lofty expectations were, however, soon disappointed. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iv. I. 501 The courage of the survivor was sustained by an enthusiasm as lofty as lofty as any that is recorded in martyrology. 1857Buckle Civiliz. I. xi. 646 How can they, constantly occupied with their lofty pursuits have leisure for such inferior matters? 1874Mahaffy Soc. Life Greece viii. 257 The moral teaching of Euripides, of Socrates, and of the more lofty Sophists, was making sure and silent progress. 1877E. R. Conder Bas. Faith v. 203 It is man's nobility, not his defect, that the most lofty and commanding part of him is his moral nature. 1878E. Jenkins Haverholme 61 Heir to one of the loftiest of the English peerages.
c. Of compositions or utterances (hence occas. of writers or speakers): Elevated in style or sentiment; sublime, grandiose.
1565Cooper Thesaurus s.v. Effero, Elatis verbis intensa oratio, a lofty and highe stile. 1577J. Knewstub Confutation (1579) **5 b, They set forth their trifling and halfepeny doctrines with loftie and high phrases of speech. 1590Spenser F.Q., Verses to Ld. Buckhurst, In loftie numbers and heroicke stile. 1612Brinsley Lud. Lit. 194 They may proceed..from the lowest kind of verse in the Eclogues, to something a loftier in the Georgics. 1637Milton Lycidas 11 He knew Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme. 1640Wilkins New Planet (1707) i. 148 His Book [Job] is more especially remarkable for lofty Expressions. 1692Atterbury On Ps. l. 14, Serm. 1726 I. 32 Therefore is the hymn it self so lofty and moving. 1704Pope Windsor For. 280 The shades where..lofty Denham sung. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 88 About which [astronomy] I am willing to speak in your lofty strain.
d. Of majestic sound.
1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, v. ii. 98 Sound all the lofty Instruments of Warre. 1814Wordsw. White Doe Ryl. i. 38 With one consent the people rejoice Filling the church with a lofty voice.
†3. Of the wind, the sea: = high 10. Obs.
1600Hakluyt Voy. (1810) III. 236 It is very hard to find it when the wind is lofty. 1745P. Thomas Jrnl. Anson's Voy. 146 Such a lofty and dangerous Sea as I have seldom seen.
4. dial. ‘Massive, superior’ (Eng. Dial. Dict., referring to Sleigh, Derbysh. Gloss. 1865). † Of sheep: Stout, in good condition.
1641Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees Soc.) 2 Yett is it a custome with many..to clowte their shearinges to hinder them from tuppinge, that by this meanes they may make them more lofty sheepe. 1778Pryce Min. Cornub. 324 Lofty Tin, in contradistinction to Floran Tin, for Lofty Tin is richer, massive, and rougher.
5. Comb.
a. In syntactical combs. with pres. pples., as lofty-looking, lofty-sounding;
b. in parasynthetic derivatives, as lofty-headed, lofty-humoured, lofty-lineaged, lofty-minded, lofty-necked, lofty-paced, lofty-peaked, lofty-plumed, lofty-roofed, lofty-windowed. Also † lofty-like adv., as if placed on high.
1610Holland Camden's Brit. i. 290 That with their *loftie-headed tops reach to the cloudy skie.
1611Cotgr., Madamoiselle de cinquante pour cent,..may be applyed to the *loftie-humored wife of an extorting Vsurer.
1604S. Grahame Pass. Spark E 4, Man climbes aboue the course of such conceate, That *loftie-like, they loath to look below.
1871Browning Balaust. Wks. 1896 I. 655/1 Both..*lofty-lineaged, each of us Born of the best.
1755J. Shebbeare Lydia (1769) I. 283 His great Creator..beholds with equal favour the creeping ant, and *lofty-looking Briton.
1611Cotgr., Orgueilleux,..hautie, *loftie-minded. 1791Boswell Johnson I. 93 note, That lofty-minded man.
1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 125 The Colt, that for a Stallion is design'd *loftyneck'd, Sharp headed, Barrel belly'd, broadly back'd.
1796Coleridge Lett. (1895) 210 He does not possess opulence of imaginative *lofty-paced harmony.
1844J. Tomlin Mission. Jrnls. 272 A *lofty-peaked mountain.
1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, v. iii. 25 Now the time is come, That France must vale her *lofty-plumed Crest.
1848B. D. Walsh Aristoph. Clouds i. iv, *Lofty-roofed fanes, and marble-built portals.
1777Potter æschylus, Prometheus chain'd 23 Woes like these Are earnings of the *lofty-sounding tongue.
1777T. Warton Poems 63 Along the *lofty-window'd hall The storied tapestry was hung.
Add:[A.] [4.] b. Of wool and woollen or piled fabrics: bulky and springy; resilient.
[1889J. Burnley Hist. Wool & Woolcombing xii. 321 The same curl or crochet, the same softness and loftiness, and the same high spinning qualities as the best handcombed wool of the old days.] 1909Webster, Lofty, full-bodied;—said of wool. 1974Anderson (S. Carolina) Independent 18 Apr. (Sears Advt. Suppl.) 7 Luxurious towels with a thick and lofty feel. 100{pcnt} cotton-looped on one side for absorbency and sheared on the other for velvety softness. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 2 Oct. 3/3 (Advt.), A warm, lofty blend of Dacron and worsted wool for good looks, wrinkle resistance and long wear.
B. n. colloq. (A nickname for) a very tall person or (iron.) a short person.
1933M. Lowry Ultramarine ii. 101 Lofty, you come, will you? Pateman, you too. 1949P. Newton High Country Days vii. 69 Lofty, in happy mood,..delighted young Wallace with tall stories of ‘down south’. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. ix. 169 In the following [terms] the chief emphasis is on height, ‘Lofty’ being the most popular nickname, followed by ‘Longshanks’. 1962J. Franklyn Dict. Nicknames 63/2 Lofty, nickname for a tall man. Of naval origin, its use has spread to other Services and into civilian life. Via the mechanism of humour by inversion it is very frequently bestowed upon a particularly small man. 1975L. Ryan Shearers 97 ‘All set?’ Lofty asked. ‘Set!’ Sandy said. ‘Come in, Spinner!’ |