| 释义 |
▪ I. motherless, a.1|ˈmʌðəlɪs|
[f. mother n.1 + -less.]
Having no mother.
a1023Wulfstan Hom. xlv. (Napier) 228 Fylstan widewum and fæderleasum and moderleasum cildum. a1225Leg. Kath. 78 Ðis meiden was baðe faderles & moderles. 1382Wyclif Jas. i. 27 To visite pupilles, that is fadirles or modirles. 1477Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 79 Many poure children that wer fadir and modir lees. 1548Cranmer Catech. 100 b, Oppressers of fatherles and motherles children. 1631Gouge God's Arrows ii. Ep. Ded., To become a mother to the motherlesse. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull ii. iv, The three poor Motherless Children. 1829Southey All for Love iii. iii, An only child and motherless. 1901G. S. Layard Mrs. Lynn Linton i. 3 Eliza's was practically a motherless childhood.
b. As an intensive quasi-adv., esp. in phr. stone motherless broke. Austral. colloq.
1898Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Dec. Red Page, To these are prefixed the adjectives motherless and dead, thus dead motherless broke. 1916A. Wright Under Cloud 35 I'm stone motherless meself an' I could do with that hundred Booth is offerin'. 1925E. S. Sorenson Murty Brown 135 That leaves me stony, motherless broke again. 1945G. Casey Downhill is Easter i. 20 I'd only known Reg when we were both stone motherless broke. 1972A. Macdonald Ukulele Player under Red Lamp 147 Happy, full as a boot, and stone motherless broke.
Hence ˈmotherlessness.
1889A. Sergeant E. Denison v. xxxvii, An indefinitely lonely and neglected look hung about the two—the look of motherlessness.
▪ II. † ˈmotherless, a.2 Obs.
[f. mother n.2 + -less.]
Free from ‘mother’.
1607Lingua iv. iii, Steeped seven days in change of motherless rose-water. |