| 释义 |
mediocre, a. and n.|ˌmiːdɪˈəʊkə(r)|
[a. F. médiocre, ad. L. mediocris of middle degree, quality, or rank, f. medi-us middle.
Formerly often printed in italics and with accent as Fr.]
A. adj. Of middling quality; neither bad nor good; indifferent. Said chiefly of literary or artistic works, ability, or knowledge, and hence of persons considered with reference to their mental power or skill.
1586A. Day Eng. Secretary i. (1625) 10 Mediocre [sc. style] a meane betwixt high and low, vehement and slender. 1659Macallo Can. Physick 97 A larger diet must be granted to children then to old folks, and a mediocre to those of a middle age. 1742Pope Let. to Warburton 27 Nov., A very mediocre poet, one Drayton, is yet taken some notice of, because Selden writ a few notes on one of his poems. 1797Monthly Mag. III. 29 There are four silver clasps..the style of the engraving of which is but médiocre. 1815Jane Austen Emma ii. xiv, My performance is médiocre to the last degree. 1829Lytton Devereux i. iii, His talent was of that mechanical, yet quick nature, which makes wonderful boys, but médiocre men. 1847–8H. Miller First Impr. iii. (1857) 34 We enter the suburbs, and pass through mediocre streets of brick. 1865Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xxi. iv. (1872) X. 17 It is thus that mediocre people seek to lower great men. 1880V. Lee Stud. Italy iii. ii. 104 He held up to contempt all that was mediocre in his art. 1884Graphic 18 Oct. 410/3 Captain Ross's Welsh cow gave 46 lb. of mediocre milk.
absol.1884Sir R. Harrington in Law Times LXXVII. 393/2 The mediocre..always form numerically the largest portion of every profession. 1903Speaker 17 Oct. 61/1 The result would be a kind of nightmare of the mediocre, a universal Brixton.
B. n. Only pl. Mediocre persons. rare.
1834–43Southey Doctor (ed. 2) I. 187 The mediocres in every grade aim at pleasing the public. 1893D. Pryde Pleas. Mem. ix. 131 You must bring forward the whole rank and file—duxes, mediocres, dullards, and dunces. |