| 释义 |
multiform, a. and n.|ˈmʌltɪfɔːm|
[a. F. multiforme or ad. L. multiform-is: see multi- and -form.]
A. adj.
a. Having many forms, shapes, or appearances; highly diversified in form; of many and various forms or kinds.
1603Florio Montaigne iii. iii. (1632) 458 Life is a motion unequall, irregular and multiforme. 1667Milton P.L. v. 182 Aire, and ye Elements..that in quaternion run Perpetual Circle, multiform. 1744Harris Three Treat. i. (1765) 32 Human Life—a Compound of various and multiform Actions. 1784Cowper Task ii. 287 The shifts and turns, Th' expedients and inventions, multiform, To which the mind resorts. a1817T. Dwight Trav. New Eng., etc. (1821) I. 509 The multiform brogue, which salutes the ears of a traveller in..New-York. 1859Darwin Orig. Spec. v. 131 The variations..so common and multiform in organic beings under domestication. 1895Army & Navy Co-op. Soc. Price List No. 62. 1649 Multiform or Lounge [Hat]. 1903H. James Ambassadors xvi. 146 The question of where, among packed accumulations, so multiform a wedge would be able to enter. Were seventy volumes in red-and-gold to be..the fruit of his mission? 1955Times 21 July 7/5 It includes a model, drawings, and photographs of the multiform playhouse which the Questors Theatre at Ealing hopes to build and which could be adapted to five different types of stage.
b. Math. (See quot.)
1893A. R. Forsyth Theory of Functions 15 If a function have more than one value for any given value of the variable, or if its value can be changed by modifying the path in which the variable reaches that given value, the function is called multiform.
B. n. That which is multiform; that which exhibits many and various forms. Also, multiform character, multiformity.
a1849Poe Landscape Garden Wks. 1864 IV. 340 In the multiform of the tree, and in the multicolor of the flower. 1852H. Rogers Ecl. Faith (1853) 123 When I attempt..to seek the elusive unity in the infinite multiform. 1856Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh iii. 9 If He spoke To Peter then, He speaks to us the same; The word suits many different martyrdoms, And signifies a multiform of death. 1913D. H. Lawrence Love Poems 37 You who are twisted in grief like crumpled beech-leaves,..who fall to earth At last like a bean-pod: what are you, oh multiform?
Hence ˈmultiformness rare—0, multiformity.
1727in Bailey vol. II. |