| 释义 |
momentary, a.|ˈməʊməntərɪ|
Also 6 -tarry, -arye, 6–7 -arie.
[ad. L. mōmentāri-us, f. mōment-um: see moment n. and -ary1.]
1. Lasting but a moment; of but a moment's duration; transitory.
1526Tindale 2 Cor. iv. 17 Tribulacion, which is momentarry and light. 1592Greene Groat's W. Wit (1617) 2 All mortall things are momentarie. 1641Maisterton Serm. 17 A momentary dalliance. 1711Steele Spect. No. 75 ⁋8 His Griefs are Momentary, and his Joys Immortal. 1791Gentl. Mag. 32/1 This error seems to have arisen from a momentary forgetfulness. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. II. xxii. 220 We availed ourselves of a momentary lull to shoulder the sledge. 1903W. H. Gray Our Divine Sheph. 55 The liar may get some momentary benefit..from his falsehood.
2. Of living beings: Short-lived; ephemeral.
1587Greene Penelopes Web C 2 b, Men are..the true disciples of tyme, and therefore momentarie. 1640Quarles Enchirid. ii. c, How full of death is the miserable life of momentary Man. 1692Dryden Cleomenes iv. i. 47, I wou'd have swopp'd Youth for old Age, and all my Life behind, To have been then a momentary Man. a1762Lloyd Genius, Envy & T. 99 Born like a momentary fly, To flutter, buzz about, and die. 1873M. Arnold Lit. & Dogma (1876) p. xxxi, Truth more complete than the parcel of truth any momentary individual can seize.
3. nonce-use. Ready at the moment.
1725Pope Odyss. xiv. 552 Hardly waking yet, Sprung in his mind the momentary wit.
4. Recurring or operative at every moment. Now rare.
1745T. Warton Pleas. Melancholy 210 Attentive mark The due clock swinging slow.., Measuring time's flight with momentary sound. 1799E. Du Bois Piece Family Biog. II. 112 A dealer in the fine arts in momentary fear of a spunging-house. 1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) i. Introd., What..are the senses but five yawning inlets to hourly and momentary molestations? 1869Goulburn Purs. Holiness viii. 92 God is not only the ground, but the momentary support, of all existence.
†5. Instant, instantaneous. Obs.
1799E. Du Bois Piece Family Biog. I. 21 An affair that demands a momentary decision. 1847Disraeli Tancred ii. xi, I settled..that you were not to go away if anything occurred which required my momentary attention.
†6. Math. Pertaining to an infinitesimal portion of time. Obs.
1812–16Playfair Nat. Phil. (1819) I. 23 The change which any variable quantity undergoes in an infinitely small portion of time, is called the Momentary Increment of that quantity. 1833Herschel Astron. xi. 323 Between the momentary change of inclination, and the momentary recess of the node there exists an intimate relation.
7. quasi-adv.: = momentarily 3.
1725Pope Odyss. viii. 227 She spoke; and momentary mounts the sky: The friendly voice Ulysses hears with joy. |