| 释义 |
lonely, a.|ˈləʊnlɪ|
[f. lone a. + -ly1.]
1. a. Of persons, etc., their actions, condition, etc.: Having no companionship or society; unaccompanied, solitary, lone.
1607Shakes. Cor. iv. i. 30, I go alone Like to a lonely Dragon, that his Fenne Makes fear'd, and talk'd of more then seene. 1634Milton Comus 200 To give due light To the misled and lonely Travailer. 1667― P.L. xi. 290 Thy going is not lonely, with thee goes Thy Husband. 1708Rowe Roy. Convert iii. i. 27 When, fairest Princess, you avoid our Court And lonely thus from the full Pomp retire. 1750Gray Elegy 73 By Night and lonely Contemplation led. 1816C. Wolfe Burial Sir J. Moore 18 As we hollow'd his narrow bed And smoothed down his lonely pillow. 1856Stanley Sinai & Pal. iii. (1858) 176 Jacob, as he wandered on his lonely exile from Beersheba to Bethel. 1859W. Collins Q. of Hearts (1875) 1 We were three quiet, lonely old men. 1901Spectator 23 Feb. 270/2 The lonely seer has his place in the vast and complex order of things, whether as philosopher or saint.
b. Colloq. or dial. phr. on one's lonely(-o): on one's own; alone. Cf. lone a. 6 b (prob. infl. by only).
1919D. H. Lawrence England my England (1922) 61 Oh, I'm going home by myself to-night—all on my lonely-O. 1924‘K. Mansfield’ Something Childish 61 So you're on your lonely, missus? a1930D. H. Lawrence Phoenix (1936) v. 594 A child was to be given a lump of soft clay and told to express himself, presumably in the pious hope that he might model a Tanagra figure or a Donatello plaque, all on his little lonely-o.
2. poet. Of things: Isolated, standing apart; = lone 3.
1632Milton Penseroso 86 Or let my Lamp at Midnight hour, Be seen in som high lonely Towr. 1700Dryden Cock & Fox 3 Deep in a Cell her Cottage lonely stood. 1816Byron Ch. Har. iii. lxv, By a lone wall a lonelier column rears A gray and grief-worn aspect of old days. 1866M. Arnold Thyrsis xx, That lonely tree against the western sky.
3. Of localities: Unfrequented by men; desolate.
1629Milton Hymn Nativ. 181 The lonely mountains o're, And the resounding shore, A voice of weeping heard. 1749Fielding Tom Jones ix. vii, Being arrived in this lonely place, where it was very improbable he should meet with any interruption. 1798Coleridge Anc. Mar. vii. xix, This soul hath been Alone on a wide wide sea: So lonely 'twas, that God himself Scarce seemed there to be. 1864Tennyson En. Ard. 554 An isle..the loneliest in a lonely sea. 1868Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. viii. 231 A lonely spot by the river Charenton.
4. a. Dejected because of want of company or society; sad at the thought that one is alone; having a feeling of solitariness.
1811Byron ‘One Struggle More’ iii, Though pleasure fires the maddening soul, The heart—the heart is lonely still! 1840Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. i. Look at the Clock!, Mr. Pryce, Mrs. Winifred Pryce being dead, Felt lonely and moped. 1848C. Brontë J. Eyre vi. (1873) 51, I wandered..among the forms and tables and laughing groups without a companion, yet not feeling lonely. 1882Ouida Maremma I. 179 ‘No doubt they are dead’, she thought, and felt the sadder and the lonelier for the thought.
b. poet. Imparting a feeling of loneliness; dreary.
1813Shelley Q. Mab ix. 98 A heap of crumbling ruins stood, and threw Year after year their stones upon the field, Wakening a lonely echo. 1863Woolner My beautiful Lady 22 A lonely wind sighed up the pines.
†5. (? adv.) ? Alone, without counting anything else. Obs. rare—1.
1664in Dircks Mrq. Worc. xviii. (1865) 329 And above 40 others [horses] lonely worth {pstlg}50 a horse.
6. Comb. lonely-heart, a sentimental name for a friendless person; so (Miss) Lonelyhearts, a journalist who gives advice in a newspaper or magazine to people who are lonely or in difficulties; also transf. and attrib.; also lonely-hearted a. (and absol.).
1863Kingsley Water-Bab. vi. 227 He was so lonely-hearted, he thought that rough kissing was better than none. 1882H. De Windt Equator 64 Sarikei, a lonely-looking place. 1904W. de la Mare Henry Brocken 200 Criseyde..the lonely-hearted. 1931R. Campbell Georgiad i. 15 More lonely hearts are linked by the Reviews Than by the ‘Link’ or ‘Matrimonial News’. 1933‘N. West’ (title) Miss Lonelyhearts. Ibid. 14 Miss Lonelyhearts tells the story of a reporter,..detailed to write an agony column and answer daily the letters desperate with human misery addressed to his paper. 1938G. Greene Brighton Rock i. i. 9 Come on over here, lonely heart. 1955W. Gaddis Recognitions iii. ii. 749 Down the bar, the Big Unshaven Man was offered a job writing the lonely-hearts column for a newspaper in Buffalo. 1956A. Wilson Anglo-Saxon Att. i. iii. 59 You're so busy being Miss Lonelyhearts to your public. 1958M. Dickens Man Overboard ii. 31 Rose's weekly show was a toothsome mixture of soap opera and a Lonely-hearts column. 1959‘N. Blake’ Widow's Cruise 29 He might just be the fulsome, pathetic lonely-heart he appeared to be. 1959T. Griffith Waist-High Culture (1960) ii. 25 With a fellow lonely-heart,..he would drive out to remote lakes. 1959Listener 28 May 924/2 The office of Connie, the girl who writes the ‘Lonely Hearts’ column. 1975Times 1 Mar. 8/4 Music Through Midnight..the BBC's Miss Lonelyhearts spot. The other two nights there is Contact, a radio advice and counselling column.
Hence ˈlonelyish a., somewhat lonely.
1900Pinero Gay Lord Quex ii. 75 Grotto? dark I suppose, and lonelyish?
Add:[4.] [b.] Also applied, freq. by hypallage, to places in which feelings of loneliness are experienced. Cf. sense 2 above.
1635F. Quarles Emblemes iv. xii. 230 At length... She re-betakes her to her lonely bed. 1684Dryden Prol. to Southerne's Disappointm. 46 He hires some lonely room, love's fruits to gather. 1761F. Sheridan Mem. Miss Sidney Bidulph ii. 308 She has no business to go into her own lonely house again; it would be enough to kill her. 1818Keats Endymion i. 121 The surgy murmurs of the lonely sea. 1852P. J. Bailey Festus (ed. 5) 127 A maiden sat in her lonely bower Sadly and lowly singing. 1927A. Conan Doyle Case-bk. Sherlock Holmes ix. 233 My house is lonely. I, my old housekeeper, and my bees have the estate all to ourselves. 1982J. Simms Unsolicited Gift viii. 149 Offstage, the soloist waited in her lonely dressing room. |