| 释义 |
modernize, v.|ˈmɒdənaɪz|
[ad. F. moderniser, f. moderne: see modern a. and -ize.]
1. trans. To make or render modern; to give a modern character or appearance to; esp. (a) to rewrite (an old text) in modern spelling or language; to change (obsolete words, language, spelling) for modern equivalents; (b) to remodel and refashion an ancient building.
1748[implied in modernized ppl. a.]. 1752Fielding Covent Gard. Jrnl. 11 July, I have taken the liberty to modernize the language. 1802Brookes' Gazetteer (ed. 12) s.v. Russia, The young generation are modernizing these antic [= antique] vestments. 1818Brathwait's Barnabees Jrnl. Introd. 9 The text was modernized throughout. 1880Dixon Windsor III. xii. 116 No one ever dreamt of modernising Surrey's lines. 1901Daily Express 28 Feb. 5/3 The King has decided to have Windsor Castle thoroughly modernised.
b. To bring about modern conditions in.
1860Thackeray Round. Papers, De Juventute, Gunpowder and printing tended to modernise the world.
2. intr. To adopt modern customs, habits, ways, or the like. rare.
1753Richardson Grandison (1811) II. ii. 10 He scruples not to modernize a little; but then you see, that it is in compliance with the fashion, and to avoid singularity. 1802Mrs. J. West Infidel Father I. 27 Muggleton had modernized so far as to have a chitterlin tacked into his holland shirt. a1853W. Jay Autobiog. xviii. (1855) 172 Several new schools also, or to modernize—‘colleges’, for the sons of the prophets, have been established.
Hence ˈmodernized ppl. a.; ˈmodernizing vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1748H. Walpole Let. to Montagu 25 July (1857) II. 119 The rest of the house is all modernised. 1824J. Winterbottom Observ. Two Fr. Words 29 A very good modernized edition of the Essays. 1869Farrar Fam. Speech ii. (1873) 77 The Lettish, spoken in Courland and Livonia, is only a modernised form of Lithuanian. 1885Athenæum 25 Apr. 533/2 Capt. Burton is justly severe on the unwarrantable modernizing of Camoëns. 1904Blackw. Mag. Feb. 309/1 The modernising spirit has taken hold of the Statistical Department. 1905Athenæum 19 Aug. 249/3 The Gatehouse which gave entrance to the now modernized Council House. |