| 释义 |
▪ I. madding, vbl. n.|ˈmædɪŋ|
[f. mad v. + -ing1.]
The action of the vb. mad; becoming or being mad, madness; mad behaviour. Now only in phrases (arch. or dial.) to go, † run, set a-madding (or † on madding).
13..E.E. Allit. P. A. 1153 My manez mynde to maddyng malte. a1400–50Alexander 3546 Madding marrid has þi mode & þi mynd changid. 1526Skelton Magnyf. 288 It is but a maddynge, these wayes that ye vse. 1565J. Calfhill Answ. Treat. Cross Pref. 5 They..went a madding after their Idols. a1586Sidney Arcadia iv. (1598) 394 Poore Dametas began now to thinke, that..a generall madding was falne. 1600Holland Livy xxxvii. xli. 969 The dromedarie camels..were unruly and set a madding. 1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xiii. (1623) 733 [They] forced sundry principall Gentlemen to attend them in their madding. 1614Bp. Hall Contempl., O. T. vii. iii, All the world would be glad to runne on madding after their bait. 1627–77Feltham Resolves i. xxix. 49 Our error of opinion,..and our madding after unnecessary gold, have brambled the way of Vertue. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull i. viii, John had not run on a madding so long, had it not been for an extravagant bitch of a wife. 1775F. Burney Early Diary 21 Nov., Lady Edgecumbe..declared she was set a-madding. 1857A. Mathews Tea-Table Talk I. 205 Men..whose crazed brains go a madding after forbidden fruit. 1865Mrs. Whitney Gayworthys viii. (1879) 79 To set all the urchins' brains a madding.
†b. attrib., as madding-day, madding month, madding time.
16..I. T. Grim the Collier of Croydon iii. (1662) 50 Why how now man! is this your madding month! 1625Gonsalvio's Sp. Inquis. 34 In all her madding time shee had nothing else in her mouth. 1691Ludlow Let. to Sir E. S. title-p., Occasioned by the reading Dr. Pelling's Lewd Harangues upon the 30th of Janvary, being the Anniversary, or General Madding-Day. 1717(title) A Rebuke to the High Church Priests for turning the 30th of January into a Madding-Day.
▪ II. madding, ppl. a. Now poet. or rhetorical.|ˈmædɪŋ|
[f. mad v. + -ing2.]
1. Becoming mad; acting madly; frenzied. Esp. in phrase far from the madding crowd (see quot. 1749), a conventional phrase denoting a secluded place removed from public notice.
1579Spenser Sheph. Cal. Apr. 26 But now from me hys madding mynd is starte, And woes the Widdowes daughter of the glenne. 1582T. Watson Centurie of Loue lxxvi. heading, The Author being, as it were, in halfe a madding moode. 1614Drummond of Hawthornden Sonn. ‘Deare Wood’ Farre from the madding Worldling's hoarse discords. 1635R. Brathwait Arcad. Pr. 171 Observe the madding motion of his eyes. 1667Milton P.L. vi. 210 The madding Wheeles Of brazen Chariots rag'd. 1697Dryden æneid vii. 539 She..mixing with the throng Of madding matrons, bears the bride along. 1714Addison To Princess of Wales, with Cato 38 Bid impious discord cease, And sooth the madding factions into peace. 1749Gray Elegy 73 Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife. [Cf. quot. 1614 above.] 1802Eng. Encycl. VIII. 308/1 These [words] are poetical, but were never in common use..shook (shaken), madding [etc.]. 1822Wordsw. Eccl. Sonn. ii. xx. Monastic Volupt., High conceits to madding Fancy dear. 1874Hardy (title) Far from the madding crowd. 1889J. K. Jerome Three Men in Boat i. 9, I..suggested that we should seek out some retired and old-world spot, far from the madding crowd, and dream away a sunny week among its drowsy lanes. 1944F. Clune Red Heart 14 People..far from the madding crowds, west of the Darling River. 1952G. Sarton Hist. Sci. I. xvi. 397 He [sc. Plato] did not want to teach in the streets and markets, but on the contrary in a place that was sufficiently distant from the madding crowd and secluded.
2. That makes mad; maddening.
c1600Shakes. Sonn. cxix, How haue mine eyes out of their Spheares bene fitted In the distraction of this madding feuer. 1644Maxwell Prerog. Chr. Kings 67 Superstition is a mad and madding thing. 1650Baxter Saints' R. iv. vi. §7 (1651) 154 Are these such sadding and madding thoughts? 1871R. Ellis tr. Catullus lxiv. 94 O thou cruel of heart, thou madding worker of anguish.
Hence † ˈmaddingly adv.
a1625Fletcher Women Pleased iv. i, Your poor neighbours Run maddingly affrighted through the Villages. |