| 释义 |
miserable, a. and n.|ˈmɪzərəb(ə)l|
[a. F. misérable (from 14th c.), ad. L. miserābil-is pitiable, f. miserārī to be pitiful, f. miser wretched.]
A. adj.
1. Of persons:
a. Existing in a state of misery; wretchedly unhappy in condition. Now rare.
1526Tindale 1 Cor. xv. 19 Then are we off all men the miserablest. 1536Prymer of Salysbery fol. clviij b, I am a wretched: and a miserable synner. 1548–9(Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Litany, Haue mercy vpon vs miserable synners. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 273 a, He..besecheth him for Christes sake..not to worke any extremitie against hym, beyng a myserable Prince [miserum sane principem]. 1588Shakes. Tit. A. iii. ii. 28 To bid æneas tell the tale twice ore How Troy was burnt, and he made miserable. 1604E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies v. xii. 360 It was a thing very common..that the Divell..answered in these false Sanctuaries deceiving this miserable people. 1667Milton P.L. xi. 500 O miserable Mankind, to what fall Degraded, to what wretched state reserv'd! 1710Beveridge Thes. Theol. II. 383 How miserable wilt thou be without Christ, Satan always domineering over..thee.
absol.1484Caxton Fables of æsop iv. v. (1889) 107 Every one ought to do wel to the straunger and forgyue to the myserable. 1711Steele Spect. No. 84 ⁋2 In the Regard for the Miserable, Eucrate took particular Care, that the common Forms of Distress..should never obtain Favour by his Means.
b. Mentally full of misery; wretchedly unhappy in feeling. Now often in somewhat trivial sense: Wretchedly uneasy or uncomfortable.
1591Shakes. Two Gent. iv. i. 35 My youthfull trauaile, therein made me happy, Or else I often had beene often miserable. 1696Swift Let. (1768) IV. i, He is the miserablest creature in the world; eternally in his melancholy note, whatever I can do. 1766Goldsm. Vic. W. xvii, Go and be miserable, for we shall never enjoy one hour more. 1802E. Parsons Myst. Visit IV. 152 Mr. Clifford..seemed very miserable by the loss of his box. 1847C. Brontë J. Eyre ii, I cry because I am miserable. 1859Tennyson Enid 7 The pang That makes a man, in the sweet face of her Whom he loves most, lonely and miserable. 1866[see 3].
absol.1890Spectator 15 Mar., Not by subordinating religious principle to the desires of the miserable.
2. Needy, poverty-stricken; wretchedly poor. Obs. exc. as merged in 1 a.
1585Reg. Privy Council Scot. Ser. i. III. 747 Ydill beggaris and miserable personis. 1590Swinburne Testaments 30 They be poore and needie, such as the law tearmeth miserable persons. 1697W. Dampier Voy. (1699) 464 The Inhabitants of this Country [New Holland] are the miserablest People in the World. The Hodmadods of Monomatapa, though a nasty People, yet for Wealth are Gentlemen to these. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Miserable, wretched, unfortunate, distressed, poor. 1842Borrow Bible in Spain xxxiv, San Vincente, a large dilapidated town, chiefly inhabited by miserable fishermen.
3. Of conditions, events, etc.: Full of or fraught with misery; causing wretchedness.
1500–20Dunbar Poems lxi. 50 My lyf hes bene so miserable. 1535Coverdale 2 Kings xiv. 26 The Lorde considered the myserable affliccion of Israel. 1594Shakes. Rich. III, i. iv. 2 O, I haue past a miserable night, So full of fearefull Dreames, of vgly sights. 1666Dryden Ann. Mirab. Pref., Ess. (ed. Ker) I. 11 The destruction being..so vast and miserable, as nothing can parallel in story. 1726Swift Gulliver ii. viii, What could I expect but a miserable death of cold and hunger? 1813Shelley Q. Mab v. 248 Disease, disgust, and lassitude, pervade Their valueless and miserable lives. 1866Mrs. Charles Winifred Bertram i. 13 Auntie says it is not of the least use to make one's self miserable about miserable things that never happened at all.
b. In weakened sense: Causing extreme discomfort.
1850Beck's Florist 233 It was a miserable morning..when we started for Slough in our open conveyance. 1856Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. v. 403 The journey in the wild weather was extremely miserable.
4. Of things: Exciting, or such as to excite, pity; pitiable, deplorable. Now rare exc. with mixture of sense 5.
1552Abp. Hamilton Catech. Pref. (1884) 5 Bot and the samyn office be done negligently, thair is na thing afore God mair miserabil, mair hevy and mair damnabil. 1665Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 307 Superstition I detest; but that it should become a derision, is miserable and to be pitied. 1726Swift Gulliver ii. vii, To show the miserable effects of a confined education. 1870Max Müller Sci. Relig. (1873) 272 His success was after all a miserable failure.
5. Pitiably unworthy, inadequate, or meagre; contemptible, despicable; paltry, ‘sorry’, ‘poor’.
1500–20Dunbar Poems lxiii. 37 Ane vthir sort, more miserabill, Thocht thai be nocht sa profitable. 1534Whitinton Tullyes Offices i. (1540) 58 Ambycion and contencion for honour is a vyce vtterly very miserable. 1535Coverdale Job xvi. 2 Miserable geuers of comforte are ye. 1597Pilgrim. Parnass. ii. (1886) 8 [He] often scratcheth his witts' head for the bringinge of one miserable period into the worlde. 1620T. Granger Div. Logike 350 The Proposition is miserable. For a false adiunct is put a true adiunct, happie. 1723Chambers tr. Le Clerc's Treat. Archit. I. 137 Their Bases and Corniches will be confounded together, which must needs have a miserable Effect. 1743Wesley in Wks. 1872 I. 412 One of the most miserable sermons I ever heard. 1794Burke Sp. agst. W. Hastings Wks. 1827 VIII. 301 This miserable balance of 60,000l. 1818in Harper's Mag. (1884) June 126/1 The corn is miserable..; we have to pound it. 1841L. Hunt Seer (1864) ii. 34 It would be the miserablest and most despicable of all mistakes. 1873Hale In His Name vi. 60 He had lost certainly half an hour in that miserable altercation.
b. colloq. Applied to very weak tea. Also absol.
1842S. Lover Handy Andy xv. 130 The large bowl of miserable Mrs. O'Grady had prepared. 1900E. Glyn Visits Eliz. 205 There was only a miserable tea left.
6. Miserly, mean, stingy. Now dial.
1484Caxton Fables of æsop iv. iv. (1889) 106 The myserable auarycious, the more goodes that they haue the more they desire to haue. 1522[implied in miserableness 2]. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxv. §20 The liberall harted man is by the opinion of the prodigall miserable, and by the iudgement of the miserable lauish. 1611Cotgr. s.v. Fourmage, Cheese is good when a miserable hand giues it. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. ii. i. iv. ii. (1651) 228 That he be not too niggardly miserable of his purse. 1646Quarles Judgem. & Mercy Wks. (Grosart) I. 78/1 If I am covetous it is interpreted providence; if miserable, it is counted temperance. 1816–60Whately Comm.-pl. Bk. (1864) 235 In Norfolk and Suffolk, among the common people, the word miserable is the only one in use to signify what we call penurious. 1853N. & Q. Ser. 1. VII. 544. 1859 Mrs. Gaskell Round the Sofa II. 101 A certain kind of sober pleasure in amassing money, which occasionally made them miserable (as they call miserly people up in the north).
†7. Having pity, compassionate. Obs.
1584Three Ladies Lond. F j b, Therefore pray ye Sir, be miserable to me, and let me go. 1600Heywood 1st Pt. Edw. IV, iv. iv. I j b, My sonnes..itha Gaile,..and outstep [= outcept] the King be miserable, hees like to totter. 1630J. Taylor (Water-P.) Wks. ii. 80/1 Although my crime is vnmeasurable, yet I hope your Lordship will not forget to become miserable.
8. Comb., as miserable-looking adj.
1839Darwin Jrnl. Voy. Beagle 3 A hospital, containing about a dozen miserable-looking inmates.
B. n. A miserable person; one who is in misery, extreme unhappiness, or great want.[In mod. use chiefly after F. misérable.] 1534Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1559) H h vj b, These miserables after that they be appoincted and set in their offices, where of they be nothynge woorthy [etc.]. 1640tr. Verdere's Rom. of Rom. III. 131 Parmolina (so is this miserable called that speaks to you) loves you with passion. 1679E. Everard Disc. 23 We need not admire at the Tribulation which these poor miserables do suffer. 1768Sterne Sent. Journ., Dwarf, So many miserables, by force of accidents driven out of their own proper class. 1815Southey Roderick xxv, Saying thus, he seized the miserable. 1833Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) II. 480 The same kind of effect, that a clean shirt and a razor have upon the miserable who was in want of them. 1896‘Ian Maclaren’ Kate Carnegie 287 It ill became such miserables [sc. students in grimy towns] to be insolent. |