| 释义 |
▪ I. maze, n.|meɪz|
Forms: 3–8 mase, 4 masse, 4– maze.
[See maze v.]
†1. the maze. (The use of the article is somewhat difficult to account for, but cf. the similar use with names of diseases.) Obs.
a. Delirium, delusion; disappointment.
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 6585 Wite he sede alle men þat an erþe wonieþ her Þat it nis bote þe pure mase [B. masse] eni kinges poer. c1305Judas Iscariot 14 in E.E.P. (1862) 107 Þis wyf was wel sore adrad: to hire louerd heo tolde [her dream] anon Ȝe, he seide, hit is þe mase. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. iii. 155 Heo ledeþ þe lawe as hire luste and loue⁓dayes makeþ, Þe Mase for a Mene mon þauȝ he mote euere. 1377Ibid. B. Prol. 196 Better is a litel losse þan a longe sorwe Þe mase amonge vs alle þouȝ we mysse a schrewe.
b. Vanity, vain amusement, dissipation.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. i. 6 Sixt þou þis peple Al hou bisy þei ben aboute þe mase? 14..How Goode wyfe 62 in Q. Eliz. Acad. 46 Go not as it wer A gase Fro house to house, to seke þe mase.
†2.
a. A delusive fancy.
b. A trick, deception.
c1374Chaucer Troylus v. 468 Al this nas but a mase [v.r. maze]. c1386― Nun's Pr. T. 273 Men dreme al day of Owles or of Apes, And of many a maze ther-with-al. 1412–20Lydg. Chron. Troy v. xxxvii. (1555), All was done for an ydell mase. 14..Kyng & Hermit 417 in Hazl. E.P.P. I. 29 Hopys thou, I wold for a mase Stond in the myre there?
3. a. A state of bewilderment. Obs. exc. dial.
In early examples it is uncertain whether a maze or amaze n. is intended.
1430[see amaze n. 1]. c1489Caxton Blanchardyn liv. 221 The faire Beatrix..stood in a maze. 1535Joye Apol. Tindale (Arb.) 48 Orels leue the reder as yt were in hys Maze. 1577–87Holinshed Chron. III. 1139/2 The maze was such, that besides his sonne maister Arthur Greie..not a man else did follow him. 1631Heywood 2nd Pt. Faire Maid of West iii. Wks. 1874 II. 374 Six, to the maze Of all the rest, were slain. 1653Cloria & Narcissus 274 Admiration stands at a maze. 1666Bunyan Grace Ab. §20 (1900) 302 At this I was put to an exceeding Maze. 1722Sewel Hist. Quakers (1795) I. iv. 271 That he came to a perfect recovery from his having been in a maze seems to appear plainly. 1819W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd (1827) 136 [He] up the street Rade on—in mickle maze I ween, For fient ae face was to be seen.
¶b. Used by Scott for: Confusing haze.
1813Scott Trierm. Concl. i, When a pilgrim strays, In morning mist or evening maze, Along the mountain lone.
4. a. A structure consisting of a network of winding and intercommunicating paths and passages arranged in bewildering complexity, so that without guidance it is difficult to find one's way in it; a labyrinth; occas. in pl., the windings of a labyrinth. Also in fig. context. spec. in Psychol., a device, consisting of a correct path concealed by blind alleys, used to study human and animal intelligence and learning. Also attrib. and Comb.
Sometimes loosely applied to a structure in which there is a single path winding in such a manner that the distance from the entrance to the end is enormously greater than it would be in a direct line. (So in quot. 1903.)
c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 2010 Ariadne, The hous is krynkeled two & fro, And hath so queynte weyis for to go For it is shapyn as the mase is wrought. 1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 311 In that yle is also oon of the iiij. mases [L. de quatuor labyrinthis]. 1534More Comf. agst. Trib. ii. Wks. 1202/2 They walke round about as it were in a round mase. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 66 Roses growing in Borders, and made in a maze. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. ii. i. 99. 1615 R. Brathwait Strappado (1878) 104 There doth grow, A groue of fatall Elmes, wherein a maze, Or labyrinth is fram'd. 1762Falconer Shipwr. ii. 207 Such arduous toil sage Daedalus endur'd, In mazes self-invented long immur'd. 1835Thirlwall Greece v. I. 133 He vanquished the monster of the labyrinth, and retraced its mazes. 1836–9Dickens Sk. Boz, Seven Dials, The gordian knot was all very well in its way: so was the maze of Hampton Court: so is the maze at the Beulah Spa. 1901W. S. Small in Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. XII. 228 The process of learning the way through this maze is adequately described as a gradual establishment of direct associations by profiting by chance experience. 1903G. E. Jeans Handbk. Linc. 222 A maze, called Julian's Bower, is cut in the grassy brow of the cliff. 1914F. A. C. Perrin (title) An experimental and introspective study of the human learning process in the maze. 1921Lancet 19 March 597/2 The..Porteous maze tests which, testing as they do the foresight, the capacity to plan, the practical judgment and concentration of the child, supply a marked lack of the Binet scale. 1940Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Jan. 191 Many maze workers have noted the fact of variability in performance from day to day. 1951G. Humphrey Thinking viii. 257 Verbal instruction improves the score in stylus-maze running. 1958Spectator 8 Aug. 201/1 The obsessional maze-running experiments of the American rat-psychologists. 1964M. Argyle Psychol. & Social Probl. v. 67 [Areas in which delinquents differ from non-delinquents] Impulsiveness, weakness of ‘ego-control’, tendency to cut corners in maze tests.
b. transf. and fig.
In 16–17th c. often in phr. to tread a maze, perhaps with allusion to 4 c.
1542–5Brinklow Lament. (1874) 106 Leadynge them in an endlesse mase of dyrtye tradicyons and folyshe ceremonyes. 1578Chr. Prayers 17 To the intent we should not wander any longer vp and down in the mazes of this world. 1596Keymis 2nd Voy. Guiana G 4 In the discouerie of Guiana, you may read both of Oreliano..and of Berreo, with others that haue trode this maze, and lost them selues in seeking to find this countrie. 1605Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. xi. §1 The trauaile therein taken seemeth to haue ben rather in a Maze, then in a way. 1615Crooke Body of Man 15 The Labyrinthæan Mazes and web of the small arteries. 1646Sir. T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. x. 42 To lose us in this maze of error. 1781Crabbe Library 121 Whether 'tis yours to lead the willing mind Through History's mazes, and the turnings find. 1837Disraeli Venetia iv. ii, They were lost in a delicious maze of metaphor and music. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 347 Bath was..a maze of only four or five hundred houses. 1872Black Adv. Phaeton vi. 74 A tangled maze of bracken and briar.
c. A winding movement, esp. in a dance.
1610Histrio-m. iii. 232 The world doth turn a maze in giddy round. 1617B. Jonson Vision of Delight (near end), In curious knots and mazes so The Spring at first was taught to go. 1704Pope Windsor For. 122 To plains with well-breath'd beagles we repair, And trace the mazes of the circling hare. 1742Young Nt. Th. ix. 9 Dancing, with the rest, the giddy Maze, Where Disappointment smiles at Hope's Career.
†d. ? A mode of plaiting the hair. Obs.
1657R. Ligon Barbadoes 16 Their haire not shorne..close to their heads; nor in quarters, and mases.
5. attrib., as maze-like adj. and adv.; Maze-Monday dial. (Cornw.), the Monday after pay-day at a mine (cf. Mazed Monday, mazed ppl. a.) (E.D.D.); † Maze-Sunday dial. (Devon), some particular Sunday set apart for feasting.
1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. iv. Columnes 749 The Maze-like Mean that turns and wends so fair. 1700T. Brown Acc. Journ. Exon Wks. 1709 III. 103. I arrived at Exon... The next Day being Sunday, call'd by the Natives of this Country Maze-Sunday, (and indeed not without some Reason, for the People look'd as if they were Gallied) I was waked by [etc.]. 1889Pater G. de Latour (1896) 35 Its maze-like crypt, centering in the shrine of the sibylline Notre-Dame. 1904Westm. Gaz. 15 Mar. 1/3, I looked down on to rows of clipped, regular, hornbeam hedges, with grass paths between them, maze-like.
▪ II. maze, v.|meɪz|
Forms: 3–6 mase, 5 mayze, 6 mayse, 4– maze.
[The vb. and the related maze n. appear before 1300; OE. may have had *masian vb. or *mæs, *mase n.; a compound ámasod (= amazed) occurs once in the alliterative phrase ‘ámasod and ámarod’ (Be Domes Dæᵹe 125, whence quoted by Wulfstan Hom. 137).
Possible cognates are Norw. dial. mas exhausting labour, annoying pertinacity, whim, fancy, idle chatter; masa to be busy, toil, to pester, worry, to chatter, pass. to fall into a doze; Sw. mas sluggard, masa to crawl, walk lazily, refl. to bask, sun oneself.]
1. trans. To stupefy, daze; to put out of one's wits; † to craze, infatuate. Chiefly in pass. Now arch. and dial.
a1300E.E. Psalter lxxvii[i]. 71 [65] And wakened es lauerd als slepand, Als mased [Vulg. crapulatus] of wine mightand. c1374Chaucer Anel. & Arc. 322, I am so mased þat I deye, Arcyte hathe borne aweye þe keye Of all my worlde, and my goode Aventure! c1386― Man of Law's T. 428 She seyde, she was so mazed in the see That she forgat hir mynde, by hir trouthe. a1400Cursor M. 27891 (Cott. Galba) Dronkinhede..mase a man..bod for to speke and do foly;..so es his minde mased and mad. c1400Destr. Troy 13280 Folis..Þat heron the melody [of the Sirens], so mekill are masit in hert, Lettyn sailis doun slyde, & in slym fallyn. c1425[see map v.2]. 1530Palsgr. 633/2 You mased the boye so sore with beatyng that he coulde nat speake a worde. 1563B. Googe Sonn. (Arb.) 88 Gorgon..Who with her Beautie mazed men, and nowe doth raygne in Hell. 1591Troub. Raigne K. John ii. (1611) 79, I am mad indeed, My heart is maz'd, my sences all foredone. 1610B. Jonson Alch. v. v, Finding This tumult 'bout my dore (to tell you true) It somewhat maz'd me. 1658Manton Exp. Jude 16 Wks. 1871 V. 318 This is the devil's device, first to maze people, as birds are with a light and a bell in the night, and then to drive them into the net. 1716B. Church Hist. Philip's War (1865) I. 21 The Pilot yet sat his Horse, tho' so maz'd with the Shot, as not to have sense to guide him. 1725Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Milk, Neither should the Milk-maid..affright the Cow or maze her. 1820Scott Abbot xix, ‘The lad is mazed!’ said the falconer to himself. 1855A. Manning O. Chelsea Bun-house xiv. 232 My head was mazed with my journey. 1863Mrs. Gaskell Sylvia's L. III. 100, If I could but think; but it's my head as is aching so; doctor, I wish yo'd go, for I need being alone, I'm so mazed. 1870Morris Earthly Par. III. iv. 295 Then said the King, ‘The man is mazed with fear’.
†2. intr. To be stupefied or delirious; to wander in mind. Obs.
c1350Will. Palerne 438 A fers feintise folwes me oft,..þat i mase al marred for mournyng neiȝh hondes. c1386Chaucer Merch. T. 1143 ‘Ye maze, maze, goode sire’, quod she. a1568R. Ascham Scholem. ii. (Arb.) 159 All men may stand still to mase and muse vpon it.
3. trans. To bewilder, perplex, confuse. Often with some notion of a figurative maze or labyrinth.
1482Caxton Trevisa's Higden i. xxx. 40 b, Who that gooth in to that hows [a labyrinth] & wolde come out agayn..shal be so mased that out can he not goo. a1500Assemb. Ladies 38 Other ther were, so mased in her mind, Al wayes [of a maze] were good for hem, bothe eest and west. 1768Johnson Pref. Shaks. Wks. IX. 245 He who has mazed his imagination in following the phantoms which other writers raise up before him, may here be cured of his delirious ecstacies. 1868Rogers Pol. Econ. Pref., The historian who is ignorant of the interpretations of political economy is constantly mazed in a medley of unconnected and unintelligible facts.
refl.1627W. Sclater Exp. 2 Thess. (1629) 73 Wee maze our selues sometimes in following Schoolemen.
4. intr. To move in a mazy track. † Also to maze it.
1591Sylvester Du Bartas i. iii. 86 Like as moulten Lead being poured forth Upon a levell plat of sand or earth, In many fashions mazeth to and fro. 1756Langhorne Poems (1760) 44 Thus silver Wharf..Still, melancholy-mazing, seems to mourn. 1767H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (ed. 2) II. xi. 179 Walter led his..patron through this field and that field;..till, having mazed it and circled it for..three hours, he finally conducted the serjeant to the very gate at which he had first entered. 1865Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xix. i. (1872) VIII. 108 They struck their tents everywhere,..and only went mazing hither and thither.
†b. trans. To involve in a maze or in intricate windings; to form mazes upon. Obs.
1606Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. 1. Tropheis 1003 Meander-like..Thou run'st to meet thy self's pure streams behind thee Mazing the Meads wher thou dost turn & wind thee. 1654Whitlock Zootomia To Author A iv, Some maze their Thoughts in Labyrinths, and thus Invoke no Reader, but an Oedipus.
▪ III. maze
obs. form of maize; var. mease. |