| 释义 |
nameless, a.|ˈneɪmlɪs|
Also 4–7 nameles, 6–7 -lesse.
[ME. namelēs = MDu. name-, naemloos (Du. name-, naamloos), MHG. namelôs (G. namenlos, namlos), Da. navnlös, Sw. namnlös: see name n. and -less.]
1. Not possessed of a (distinguished) name; devoid of name or fame; unknown by name; obscure, inglorious.
c1311Pol. Songs (Camden) 254 For fiht is fliht, the lond is nameles. c1374Chaucer Boeth. iv. pr. v. (1868) 131 Exiled pore and nedy and nameles. 1582Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 61 Prince Priamus..In shoare now namelesse dooth ly lyke a truncheon al headlesse. a1616Beaum. & Fl. Bonduca ii. 1, When one is smother'd with a multitude, And crowded in amongst a nameless press. 1658Sir T. Browne Hydriot. v. 75 To be namelesse in worthy deeds exceeds an infamous history. 1728Pope Dunc. iii. 157 Each Songster, Riddler, ev'ry nameless name. 1813Scott Rokeby iii. xviii, Maiden! a nameless life I lead, A nameless death I'll die. 1855Tennyson Maud i. iv. iii, I am nameless and poor. 1887Bowen Virg. æneid vi. 505 Thou hadst laid thee to die on a heap of the nameless dead.
b. Not mentioned by name; left in obscurity.
a1535More Rich. III, Wks. 57 The other two were somwhat greter parsonages, & natheles of their humilite content to be nameles. 1667Milton P.L. vi. 380 Nameless in dark oblivion let them dwell. 1868Freeman Norm. Conq. (1877) II. App. 545 The lands had been held by a nameless freeman.
2. Not specified by name, left unnamed, in order to avoid giving offence, or for some other reason.
c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 31 Thou tolde me,..That thou kneuhest one, nameles of me as nowhe. a1529Skelton Ware Hauke 38 He shall be as now nameles, But he shall not be blameles. 1617Moryson Itin. iii. 194 A great Prince of Germany (for good respect namelesse). 1653Walton Angler ii. 46 Another of the company that shall be nameless. 1711Steele Spect. No. 91 ⁋1 The Loves of a Family in Town, which shall be nameless. 1800E. Hervey Mourtray Fam. II. 38 A certain person, who shall be nameless, is now engaged on Tower duty. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 489 On the authority of one who shall be nameless.
†3. Of a book, letter, etc.: Having no name attached to it, anonymous. Obs.
1529More Dyaloge iii. Wks. 223/1 For y⊇ boke is put forth namelesse, & was in the beginning rekened to be made by Tindal. 1643Prynne in P. & Walker Fiennes' Trial 5, I received a Note..with a datelesse, namelesse Paper inclosed. 1667Sir R. Moray in Lauderdale Papers (Camden) II. 88 There is a Damned book come hither..called Naphtali, or the Wrestlings of the Church of Scotland, &c. nameless. 1786Wesley Wks. (1872) IV. 339 One of the hearers wrote me a nameless letter upon it. 1822Galt Provost xxx, I received a twenty-pound note in a nameless letter.
4. Whose name is not, or has not been, divulged; anonymous, unknown. Also const. to.
1591Shakes. Two Gent. ii. i. 111, I haue writ your Letter Vnto the secret, nameles friend of yours. 1624Gataker Transubst. 36 On the false report of another namelesse author like to himselfe. 1697Stillingfl. Disc. Trinity 173 A certain nameless Socinian was the Author of them. a1735Atterbury Serm. (J.), Little credit is due to accusations of this kind, when they come from suspected, that is, from nameless pens. 1807Crabbe Hall of Just. i. 33 Yet nameless let me plead—my name Would only wake the cry of scorn. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xv. III. 576 The two nameless executioners who had done their office..on the scaffold. 1856De Quincey Confess. Wks. I. 226 A gang of Vandals (nameless, I thank heaven, to me).
absol.1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. xxxi. (Arb.) 74 After whom followed Iohn Lydgate.., and that nameles, who wrote the Satyre called Piers Plowman.
5. a. Bearing no legitimate name.
1593Shakes. Lucr. 522 Thy issue blur'd with namelesse bastardie. 1693Dryden Juvenal (1697) 157 And into Noble Families advance A Nameless Issue, the blind work of Chance. 1732Pope Ep. Cobham 233 A rev'rend sire, whom want of grace Has made the father of a nameless race.
b. Having no name; unnamed.
1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 333 Iles for the greatest part namelesse and numberlesse. 1719De Foe Crusoe ii. (Globe) 581 We began..to enter upon the vast nameless Desart. 1792S. Rogers Pleas. Mem. ii. 209 A thousand nameless rills that shun the light. 1819Shelley Prometh. Unb. i. 205 All the gods Are there, and all the powers of nameless worlds.
6. Of altars, tombs, etc.: Bearing no name or inscription.
1655Stanley Hist. Philos. i. (1701) 57/2 Nameless Altars, Monuments of that Expiation. c1718Pope Epit. Rowe, Beneath a rude and nameless stone he lies. 1859A. A. Procter Legends & Lyr. Ser. i. 104 Over a nameless grave.
7. That cannot be definitely named or described; inexpressible, indefinable.
1591Shakes. Two Gent. iii. i. 319 She hath many namelesse vertues. 1593― Rich. II, ii. ii. 40 What I cannot name, 'tis namelesse woe I wot. 1709Pope Ess. Crit. 144 Music resembles Poetry, in each Are nameless graces which no methods teach. 1780Cowper Progr. Err. 244 Are all the nameless sweets of friendship fled? 1817Shelley Rev. Islam iii. iv, When suddenly was blended With our repose a nameless sense of fear. 1850Tennyson In Mem. iv, Such clouds of nameless trouble cross All night below the darken'd eyes. 1887Ruskin Præterita II. 256 The nameless ailing of overwearied flesh.
8. That one shrinks from naming; unutterable; horrible, abominable.
1611Bible Wisd. xiv. 27 Worshipping of idoles not to be named [marg. namelesse], is the beginning, the cause, and the end of all euill. a1704T. Brown Satire Woman Wks. 1730 I. 56 Of impotent, still varying desires; And of ten thousand nameless vices more Is this vile idol made, which men adore. 1819Shelley Cenci v. i. 44 Avenging such a nameless wrong As turns black parricide to piety. 1866Liddon Bampton Lect. vi. (1875) 308 Paganism allowed man to sink beneath a flood of nameless sensualities.
†b. nameless finger, the middle finger. Obs.—1
After L. digitus impudicus or infamis.
1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xii. xviii. (1886) 223 Put thy nameles finger in the wound.
Hence ˈnamelessly adv., ˈnamelessness.
1847Webster, Namelessly. 1861Meredith Evan Harrington III. xi. 179 A bunch of the best flowers that could be got were..sent namelessly. 1866Dickens Mugby Junction i, A youth with a bitter sense of his namelessness. 1885Spectator 10 Jan. 51/1 The very namelessness helps to deepen the impression of remoteness. |