| 释义 |
▪ I. mystify, v.1 rare.|ˈmɪstɪfaɪ|
Also 8 mist-.
[f. mist n. or misty a. + -fy.]
Only in pa. pple.: Beclouded, befogged (lit. and fig.).
a1734North Life Ld. Keeper North (1742) 79 His Lordship was not so mistified, by his Amour, as not to discern these Arts. 1819Byron Juan ii. xii, When gazing on them, mystified by distance, We enter on our nautical existence. 1833R. H. Froude Rem. (1838) I. 284 As we went up, every thing was mystified and cloudy.
▪ II. mystify, v.2|ˈmɪstɪfaɪ|
(Also mist-.)
[ad. F. mystifier (1772 in Hatz.-Darm.), irreg. f. mystère mystery1 or mystique mystic: see -fy.
Often associated with Eng. mist: cf. prec.]
1. To bewilder or perplex intentionally; to play on the credulity of; to hoax, humbug.
1814Hazlitt Pol. Ess. (1819) 73 The noble Secretary mistified the house, as he had himself been mistified by his highness of Benevento. 1816Southey Ess. (1832) I. 262 He was sometimes thus wantonly imposed upon, or, to use a word which seems now to be naturalized, thus mystified. 1818Blackw. Mag. IV. 222 To bewilder, or, in the French phrase, to mistify the attentive world. 1863Cowden Clarke Shaks. Char. 200 She has a tilt at him, jeering, joking, mystifying, obfuscating him. 1873Dixon Two Queens iv. vii. I. 218 Puebla was to choose his words—to hint at dark intrigues—to mystify the council.
absol.1837Fraser's Mag. XV. 339 We would not swear that she was not secretly quizzing and mystifying all the time.
2. Of impersonal agencies: To bewilder, cause perplexity to. Chiefly pass.
1823Spirit Publ. Jrnls. (1825) 293 The poor lad seemed quite mystified with his strange adventures. 1837Dickens Pickw. iii, Mr. Pickwick, who was considerably mystified by this very unpolite by-play. 1876N. Amer. Rev. CXXIII. 112 This view led to positive evil in the observations of the late transit by mystifying the observers.
3. To wrap up or involve in mystery; to make mystical; to interpret mystically.
1829I. Taylor Enthus. ix. 237 The practice of mystifying the Scriptures must be named as an especial characteristic of monkish religion. 1855W. Irving Wolfert's Roost i, The fabulous age, in which vulgar fact becomes mystified, and tinted up with delectable fiction. 1855Milman Lat. Chr. viii. viii. V. 22 note d, The early life of Becket has been mystified..by the imaginative tendencies of the age immediately following his own.
4. To involve in obscurity; to obscure the meaning or character of.
1827Southey Let. to H. Taylor 12 Apr., The metapoliticians have dealt with their branch of policy as the metaphysicians have with their branch of philosophy,—they have muddied and mystified it. 1828C. Wordsw. Chas. I, 20 Why bring this perplexity into one of the simplest things in the world, by the only means through which it could be mystified? 1874Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. xcviii. 2 We abhor those who mystify it [sc. the gospel].
Hence ˈmystifying n. and ppl. a.; ˈmystifyingly adv.
1818T. L. Peacock Nightmare Abbey xi, All this mystifying and blue-devilling of society. 1825Scott Diary in Lockhart Life (1837) VI. 132 Another of Byron's peculiarities was the love of mystifying. c1827Coleridge in Blackw. Mag. (1882) CXXXI. 119 Such a mystifying cant of Hylozoism [etc.]. 1862Thornbury Turner I. 317 The lines may be in Dibdin—I never could find them; but such is the mystifying fun Turner was so fond of. 1934Webster, Mystifying. 1953in Botkin & Harlow Treas. Railroad Folklore 508 The Delaware and Hudson came tooling up from Pennsylvania with what it mystifyingly called ‘Standard gauge; 6 foot and 4 foot, 3 inches’. 1966English Studies XLVII. 19 A conjunction which appears mystifyingly vexing. 1973Daily Tel. 2 Mar. 15/2 The Wrath of God (Empire Two, ‘X’) would seem to parody that novel, mystifyingly, I would say, to most people. |