| 释义 |
antediluvian, a. and n.|ˌæntɪdɪˈl(j)uːvɪən|
[f. ante- + diluvi-um the deluge + -an.]
A. adj.
1. Of or belonging to the world before the Noachian deluge; existing before the Flood.
1657Trapp Comm. Job xxii. 15 II. 200 Those Antediluvian Belialists. 1748Hartley Observ. Man i. iii. §1 ⁋83 Parts of the antediluvian Language. 1821W. Craig Drawing, etc. ii. 109 The ingenious Dr. Burnet..has made the antediluvian world a beautiful, smooth sphere, entirely covered with fine rich pasture land.
2. Concerning or referring to the period before the Flood.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 344 The antediluvian Chronology. a1849H. Coleridge Ess. II. 299 The antediluvian and postdiluvian history.
3. Of the sort which obtained before the Flood.
1698Norris Pract. Disc. IV. 367 Could I then lengthen out my Span to an Antediluvian stretch. 1711F. Fuller Med. Gymn. Pref., An Antediluvian Diet of Roots and Vegetables. 1846H. Rogers Ess. I. iv. 165 An antediluvian lease of life.
4. Belonging or proper to long past ages; very antiquated, primitive. (In a disparaging sense.)
a1726Vanbrugh & Cib. Prov. Husb. iii. (1730) 334 Such primitive antediluvian notions of life. 1823Lamb Elia Ser. i. xxiv. (1865) 188 The cottage, a sorry antediluvian make-shift of a building.
B. n. [the adj. used absol.]
1. One who lived before the Flood; fig. one who attains to a very great age.
1684T. Burnet Th. Earth I. 222 The long lives of the antediluvians. 1713Guardian No. 101 (1756) II. 81 An antediluvian could not have more life and briskness in him at three-score and ten. 1823Scott St. Ronan's xxxi, From what cursed old antediluvian, who lived before the invention of spinning-jennies, she learned this craft, Heaven only knows. |