| 释义 |
monstrous, a.|ˈmɒnstrəs|
Forms: 5 monstrows, 6 monstrowis, -terus, -trose, -t(e)rouse, monstreous, 6–7 monsterous, 6– monstrous.
[ad. OF. monstreux, -tereux, ad. late L. monstrōsus, f. L. monstrum monster: see -ous and cf. monstruous.]
†1.
a. Of things, material and immaterial: Deviating from the natural order; unnatural. Obs.
1460J. Capgrave Chron. (Rolls) 26 Zoroastes, whan he was bore, low as no child ded but he, and this lawhing was no tokne of good, for it was monstrows, that is to seyn, ageyn course of kynde. 1508Dunbar Tua Mariit Wemen 57 God gif matrimony were made to mell for ane ȝeir! It war bot monstrous to be mair, but gif our myndis pleisit. 1577T. Vautrollier Luther on Ep. Gal. 83 It seemeth a very straunge and a monstrous maner of speaking thus to say: I liue, I liue not: I am dead, I am not dead [etc.]. 1625Bacon Ess., Unity in Relig. (Arb.) 433 It is a thing monstrous, to put it [i.e. the temporal sword] into the hands of the Common People. 1648Beaumont Psyche i. xv, His Diadem was neither brass nor rust, But monstrous Metal of them both begot. 1682Sir T. Browne Chr. Mor. i. §9 That Vice may be uneasy and even monstrous unto thee, let iterated good Acts..make Virtue..a second nature in thee. 1701Rowe Amb. Step-Moth. ii. ii. 924 More monstrous Tales have oft amus'd the Vulgar. 1736Butler Anal. i. iii. Wks. 1874 I. 60 That there are instances of an approbation of vice..for its own sake..is evidently monstrous.
†b. Of persons: Strange or unnatural in conduct or disposition. Obs.
1568Bible (Bishops') Zech. iii. 8 They are monstrous persons. 1579Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 108 Pasiphae so monstrous to love a Bull. Ibid. 158 An atheist, a man in my opinion monstrous. 1627Drayton Moone-calfe, Aginc. etc. 165 And in her fashion she is likewise thus, In euery thing she must be monstrous. 1607Shakes. Timon iv. ii. 46 Hee's flung in Rage from this ingratefull Seate Of monstrous Friends. 1654tr. Scudery's Curia Pol. 137, I must appear to them..uncivill and monstrous.
2. a. Of animals and plants: Abnormally formed; deviating congenitally from the normal type; malformed.
1597Gerarde Herbal i. lxxxix. 143 A degenerate Garlick growen monstrous. 1638Junius Paint. Ancients 23 They are as little brought forth after the nature of man, as prodigious and monstrous bodies. a1697South Serm. ii. v. 224 We sometimes read and hear of Monstrous Births. 1790Horne in Phil. Trans. LXXX. 296 The..double skull of a monstrous child. 1830R. Knox Béclard's Anat. 307 Certain monstrous fœtuses, acephalous and others, have been seen destitute of all the muscles. 1859Darwin Orig. Spec. v. (1873) 115 This is often seen in monstrous plants.
fig.1742Young Nt. Th. v. 489 A sensual, unreflecting life is big With monstrous births. 1875E. White Life in Christ iii. xviii. (1878) 233 It was a mingling of the law and the gospel; which, like all unnatural unions, produced a monstrous birth.
†b. said of human beings. Obs.
[1500–20: see 4.] 1586Marlowe 1st Pt. Tamburl. iv. (1590) D 2 b, Were that tamburlaine As monstrous as Gorgon, prince of Hell, The Souldane would not start a foot from him. 1615Chapman Odyss. ix. 268 In which kept house A man in shape, immane, and monsterous. 1688in Wood's Life 28 July (O.H.S.) III. 273 A monstrous young woman,..whose shapes is very wonderful.
transf. and fig.1538Starkey England i. iii. 84 The partys in proportyon not agreyng..make in thys polytyke body grete and monstrose deformyte. 1575–85Abp. Sandys Serm. xx. 349 Those are ougly paternes of monstrous mindes.
3. a. Having the nature or appearance of a monster (see monster n. 3).
c1540Pilgr. T. 325 in Thynne's Animadv. (1863) App. 86 This is the woman..whom Iohn saw..syting apon a monsterus best. 1547Boorde Introd. Knowl. vi. (1870) 141 Castours and whyte beares, & other monsterous beastes. 1581Marbeck Bk. of Notes 924 The Sea of the monsterous beast Antichrist. 1615G. Sandys Trav. 113 Adorned with the statues of gods and men; with other monstrous resemblances. 1667Milton P.L. ii. 625 Nature breeds, Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things..Gorgons and Hydra's, and Chimera's dire. 1697Dryden Virg. Past. vii. 62 Such and so monstrous let thy Swain appear, If one Day's Absence looks not like a Year. 1719De Foe Crusoe ii. (Globe) 580 Their monstrous Idol. 1835Thirlwall Greece I. vi. 210 On its confines are the haunts of the monstrous Chimæra, and the territory of the Amazons. 1870Morris Earthly Par. I. i. 418 Long-necked dragons..And many another monstrous nameless thing.
b. Abounding in monsters. ? Obs.
1637Milton Lycidas 158 Where thou..under the whelming tide Visit'st the bottom of the monstrous world. 1725Pope Odyss. iv. 658 Must I the warriors weep, Whelm'd in the bottom of the monstrous deep?
4. a. Of unnaturally or extraordinarily huge dimensions; gigantic; immense; enormous.
1500–20Dunbar Poems xviii. 29 Be I bot littill of stature, Thay call me catyve createure; And be I grit of quantetie Thay call me monstrowis of nature. 1553Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 29 They haue serpentes of monstrous greatnes. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 379 This man..in his Mairaltie had made great and monstreous stockes to emprison men in. 1582T. Watson Centurie of Love lviii, There is a monstrous hill in Sicill soyle. 1600J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa ix. 349 Of locustes there are..such monstrous swarmes..that [etc.]. 1667Milton P.L. i. 197 Thus Satan..Lay floating..in bulk as huge As whom the Fables name of monstrous size, Titanian,..Briarios,..or that Sea-beast Leviathan. 1711Addison Spect. No. 129 ⁋7 Dressed in a most monstrous Flaxen Periwig. 1726Swift Gulliver ii. viii, I was equally confounded at the Sight of so many Pigmies..after having so long accustomed mine Eyes to the monstrous Objects I had left. 1818Creevey in C. Papers (1904) I. 277 Dined at Lord Hill's with my young ladies..and a monstrous party. 1879S. C. Bartlett Egypt to Pal. xxi. 452 The soil revealed its singular fertility in noble grain-crops and weeds of monstrous growth.
b. of immaterial things.
1601Shakes. All's Well ii. ii. 34 It must be an answere of most monstrous size, that must fit all demands. 1867J. G. Rogers Priests & Sacram. v. 103 The power, indeed, is too monstrous for any man under heaven to exercise.
†c. Excessively difficult. Obs. nonce-use.
1664Power Exp. Philos. i. 81 The right figures of both which Crystallines are monstrous, if not impossible, to find out.
5. With emotional sense, expressing indignation or wondering contempt: Outrageously wrong or absurd.
1573–80Baret Alv. E. lf. 1 What a monstrous absurditie is this that E...should haue neither sound nor signification. 1588Marprel. Epist. (Arb.) 31 Nay saies my L. of winchester (like a monstrous hypocrite, for he is a very duns). 1588Shakes. Tit. A. iv. iv. 51 Shall I endure this monstrous villany? 1610― Temp. iii. ii. 33 Wilt thou tell a monstrous lie? 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacræ iii. i. §15 What monstrous arrogancy would it be in any man to think there is a mind and reason in himself and that there is none in the world? 1682Dryden & Lee Dk. of Guise iii. i, To spread your monstrous Lyes and sow Sedition. 1715Addison Freeholder No. 7 ⁋4 So many absurd and monstrous falshoods. 1836J. Gilbert Chr. Atonem. viii. (1852) 221 Monstrous would be the supposition that an injury could be repaired by a compensation provided at the cost of Him who had been injured. 1850Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. i. (1872) 4 The monstrous fact of Christian persecution. 1878R. W. Dale Lect. Preach. ix. 285 It seems monstrous for us to sing about God's goodness to the Jews and never to sing about his goodness to ourselves. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. I. xxv. 371 A monstrous system of bribery.
6. Like or befitting a ‘monster’ of wickedness; atrocious, horrible.
1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 336 Monstrouse and pestiferous persones. 1567Ballad on Murder Darnley in Fraser's Mag. LXX. 221 His cruell murther ye will call monsterous. 1595Shakes. John ii. i. 173 Qu. Thou monstrous slanderer of heauen and earth. Con. Thou monstrous Iniurer of heauen and earth. 1608Yorksh. Trag. i. ix, What made you show such monstrous cruelty? a1661B. Holyday Juvenal (1673) 22 No man at first is monstrous. 1858Holland Titcomb's Lett. viii. 159 So I say that a godless woman is a monstrous woman.
absol.1898G. Meredith Odes Fr. Hist. 15 Nor would he shun her sullen look, nor monstrous hold The doer of the monstrous.
†7. As an exclamation, in the sense ‘greatly to be marvelled at’, ‘astounding’. Obs.
1590Shakes. Mids. N. iii. i. 107 O monstrous. O strange. We are hanted. 1596― 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 243 O monstrous! eleuen Buckrom men growne out of two? Ibid. 591 O monstrous, but one halfe penny-worth of Bread to this intollerable deale of Sacke? 1605― Lear v. iii. 159 Most monstrous! O, know'st thou this paper? 1693Congreve Old Bach. iv. xxi, O bless me! O monstrous! A Prayerbook?
†8.
a. Used as a colloquial or affected intensive. Obs. Cf. 4.
1710–11Swift Jrnl. to Stella 7 Feb., We have a monstrous deal of snow. 1717Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Abbé Conti 29 May, The Greeks have a most monstrous taste in their pictures..drawn upon a gold ground. 1782F. Burney Cecilia i. iii, After all this monstrous fatigue, I was forced to have my hair dressed by my own maid. 1782Wolcot in J. J. Rogers Opie & his Wks. (1878) 22 West the famous painter, a monstrous favourite of George's. 1825Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) II. 38 Here is a monstrous deal of vanity and egotism.
b. quasi-adv. in the sense: Exceedingly, wonderfully, ‘mighty’. Now mainly U.S.
1590Shakes. Mids. N. i. ii. 54 Ile speake in a monstrous little voyce. 1608Rowlands Humors Looking Glasse 14 A Gentleman..Hath a young wife and she is monstrous fine. 1655in Nicholas' Papers (Camden) II. 262, I cannot but feare he may doe this monstrous vnhappy act. 1710Swift Jrnl. to Stella 6 Dec., It is such monstrous rainy weather, that there is no doing with it. 1782F. Burney Cecilia i. v, She's a monstrous shocking dresser. 1801tr. Gabrielli's Myst. Husb. III. 84 She had a prettyish face and monstrous nice hair. 1826Disraeli Viv. Grey ii. xiii, The most monstrous clever young man. 1840F. Trollope Widow Married xii, I think we shall be monstrous good friends. 1848W. T. Thompson Major Jones's Sketches of Travel iii. 23 Augusty's a monstrous pretty city; but it ain't the place it used to was, not by a grate sight. It seems like it was rottin off at both eends, and ain't growin much in the middle. 1884‘Mark Twain’ Huck. Finn 134 Behind a monstrous long raft. 1907Dialect Notes III. 233 ‘Yes'm, I'se monstrous hungry.’ 1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §20/14 Very; exceedingly,..mighty, monstrous.
9. Comb., as † monstrous-kinded adj.; monstrous craws, a form of elephantiasis common in the West Indies; monstrous pippin, rennet, large kinds of apple.
1787H. Walpole Let. to C'tess Ossory 6 Sept., The principal babe put me in mind of what I read so often, but have not seen, the *monstrous craws.
1558T. Phaer æneid viii. (1562) Cc ij b, All *monstrous kynded gods.
1860R. Hogg Fruit Manual 9 (Apples), Gloria Mundi,..*Monstrous Pippin.
1731Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Apple, A List of such Apples as are preferr'd for Kitchen Use..*Monstrous Reinette. 1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XV. 721/1 Monstrous rennet. |