| 释义 |
nervous, a.|ˈnɜːvəs|
Also 7 -vouse, 8 narvous.
[ad. L. nervōs-us: see nervose a. and -ous. Cf. It., Sp., Pg. nervoso, F. nerveux.]
†1. Affecting the sinews. Obs. rare—1.
c1400Lanfranc's Cirurg. 99 (Ashm. MS.), Þe crampe is a sijknes cordous eiþer neruous, in þe which..þe senewis weren drawen to her bigynnynge.
2. Sinewy, muscular; vigorous, strong.
a. Of parts of the body. Now rare.
1413Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) iv. xxxii. 81 These armes ben neruous, that is to seyn wel frett with senewes. 1653R. Sanders Physiogn. 248 The arms strong and nervous, having the veins conspicuous. 1677Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 3) 26 The body of this fish is..narrow towards the tail, which is nervous. 1720Pope Iliad xxii. 497 The nervous ankles bor'd, his feet he bound With thongs. 1763Sir W. Jones Caissa Poems, etc. (1777) 136 Nervous limbs, where youthful ardour glow'd. c1842M. J. Higgins Ess. (1875) p. xviii, By a judicious application of his nervous tail to some prominent branch.
b. Of animals or persons. Now rare.
1616J. Lane Contn. Sqr.'s Tale xi. 305 His nervous horse of sorrell shininge hyde. 1756W. Toldervy Hist. 2 Orphans IV. 186 The nervous reaper had levelled the golden field. 1762–9Falconer Shipwr. i. 716 The nervous crew their sweeping oars extend. 1829I. Taylor Enthus. viii. 202 The busy, nervous, and frigid people of the north. 1844Emerson Lect., Yng. Amer. Wks. (Bohn) II. 296 The nervous, rocky West is intruding a new and continental element into the national mind.
c. Of strength, energy, courage, etc. Also, nervous tension (with admixture of sense 7).
1828Scott F.M. Perth ii, The nervous strength and weight of one of the muscular armourer's [hands]. 1849Thoreau Week Concord Riv. 338 They..handled their paddles unskilfully, but with nervous energy and determination. 1870Froude Hist. Eng. XI. 491 The nervous courage which could face death without flinching. 1933Burlington Mag. Feb. 54/1 Everywhere the nervous tension is relaxed, the rhythms are less vital and less consistent. 1936Discovery Nov. 357/2 His nervous tension is surely not lessened if precautions are taken against his actually watching the operation [on himself]. 1951M. McLuhan Mech. Bride (1967) 33/1 Books on how to relax would seem just about to cancel out books on how to build up nervous tension for success drive. 1953J. S. Huxley Evolution in Action iv. 91 Behaviour is always the result of a flow of something—what many psychologists and most laymen call nervous energy. Unfortunately, the physiologists are driven to say ‘excitation’, because energy is another word the physicists have taken over from ordinary speech and given a restricted scientific meaning. Perhaps the term ‘neurergy’ would serve.
3. a. Of writings, arguments, etc.: Vigorous, powerful, forcible; free from weakness and diffuseness.
1637Mede Wks. (1672) 847 A nervous, close and well-composed Discourse. 1691T. H[ale] New Invent. p. xlii, The Author hath in so nervous a Manner given..Directions. 1727Gay Fables i. xxviii, When envy reads the nervous lines, She frets. 1780Cowper Let. 2 July, Whatever is short should be nervous, masculine, and compact. 1828Carlyle Misc. (1857) I. 197 Mr. Lockhart's own writing is generally so good, so clear, direct and nervous. 1896F. Harrison in 19th Cent. June 981 The nervous and learned works of his more glowing autumn.
b. So of speakers and writers.
1775T. Sheridan Art Reading 140 The plain nervous orator will no longer gain attention. 1867H. Kingsley Silcote of S. I. 225 Miss Bronté? A good and nervous tho' coarse describer of a narrow landscape.
†4.
a. Sinewy, tendinous. Obs.
1541R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. D iv, It is a neruous or synewy substaunce. 1615Crooke Body of Man 777 In the originall this Muscle is broade..& Neruous. 1661Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 77 Some eate the flesh which is very nervouse. 1726Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 25/2 The Oak, being hard, close, and nervous, and of the smallest Pores. 1747–96H. Glasse Cookery v. 81 Roast a piece of fillet of veal, cut off the skin and nervous parts.
†b. Resembling a sinew in texture; strong. Obs.
1601Holland Pliny II. 3 The thred it selfe that they make of their Flax..is..neruous also and strong. 1655tr. Sorel's Com. Hist. Francion vii. 9 Which of all thy strings is the hardest to tune?.. It is that which is the biggest and most nervous of all. 1762Falconer To Dk. York 225 To wake the lyre..And tune to war the nervous string.
†c. Strung with sinews. Obs. rare—1.
1718Rowe tr. Lucan iii. 689 From nervous Cross-Bows whistling Arrows fly.
†5. Bot. Of leaves: Nerved, nervose. Obs.
1668Wilkins Real Char. ii. iv. 78 Herbs of nervous leaves. 1707Sloane Jamaica (1725) II. 52 Seven or more ribs..going through the leaf with some transverse ones, making the leaf very nervous. 1776J. Lee Introd. Bot. 385 Nervosum, nervous, with Nerves extended from the Base to the Apex.
6. Full of nerves.
1659Pearson Creed (1741) 189 The dilaceration of those nervous parts created a most sharp and dolorous sensation. 1727De Foe Eng. Tradesman vi. (1841) I. 44 As they lessen his stock, so they wound him in the tenderest and most nervous part. 1756Burke Subl. & B. iv. ix, The retina, or last nervous part of the eye. 1855Bain Senses & Int. ii. ii. §2 The retina, or the nervous coat of the eye.
7. a. Of or belonging to the nerves. nervous system, the complex of nerves and nerve-centres.
1665Phil. Trans. I. 75 Whether there be a Nervous and Nutritious Juice? 1740Cheyne Regimen 168 Accidents that injure the arterial and nervous system. Ibid. 306 The extreme Tenuity of..nervous Fibre. 1830R. Knox Béclard's Anat. 226 A very ancient opinion..attributed to the pericranium the origin of all the nervous membranes. 1848Carpenter Anim. Phys. 56 The brain and spinal cord are termed the nervous centres. 1874― Ment. Phys. i. ii. (1879) 53 Irritating..the cut extremity of the nervous cord.
b. Affecting the nerves; characterized by a disordered state of the nerves. nervous breakdown: see break-down 1 c. Freq. as nervous exhaustion, nervous fever, nervous headache.
1734Cheyne (title) On Nervous Diseases. 1768Wesley Jrnl. 4 Jan. (1827) III. 302 It is the most efficacious medicine in nervous disorders. 1787H. More Let. June (1925) 120 A very tedious nervous headache has made me less than ever qualified to traffic with you. 1807A. Putnam in Danvers Hist. Soc. Coll. (1917) V. 57 Mr. David Tapley is very sick with the nervous fever. 1813L. Hunt in Examiner 22 Feb. 113/2 It was a disorder of what is called the nervous species... A nervous consumption was apprehended. 1857J. A. Symonds Let. 16 Nov. (1967) I. 125, I must..not work much these trials since yesterday I had the same sort of nervous headache. 1869R. T. Claridge Cold Water Cure 195 A severe nervous fever ensued. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 415 In all nervous cases the determination of the dose is a matter of experiment. 1924H. Crane Let. 23 Sept. (1965) 190 The sneezing and nervous fever..begin to subside. 1927‘R. Crompton’ William—in Trouble viii. 207 He's suffering from nervous exhaustion. 1973E. Berckman Victorian Album 142 The thought of any considerable threat to her happiness..is always enough to give me a nervous headache.
c. Pertaining or relating to, occupied with, the nerves.
1804Gentl. Mag. LXXIV. i. 219 You have an unequivocal proof of nervous sympathy. 1848Mill Pol. Econ. i. i. §1 (1876) 15 Labour is..either muscular or nervous. 1877M. Foster Physiol. iii. i. 342 The foundation of modern nervous physiology.
Comb.1858Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. VI. 291 The electrical nervous-muscular sensibility of man.
8. Of medicines: Acting upon the nerves or nervous system; curative of nervous disorders.
1718Quincy Compl. Disp. 76 Nervous Simples..may be extended to take in all those Parts of the Materia Medica by which the Nerves are affected. 1790Med. Comm. II. 489, I ordered..a cordial or nervous medicine to be taken. 1844Lady G. C. Fullerton Ellen Middleton II. xv. 169 She gave me a nervous draught.
9. Of persons: Suffering from disorder of the nerves; also, excitable, easily agitated, timid. Also, nervous wreck (colloq.).
1740Cheyne Regimen Pref. 1 The..Consumptive, or Nervous Valetudinarian-low-livers. 1763Brit. Mag. Aug. 406/1 The ladies were too narvous to venture further than the entrance of the cavern. 1783Johnson Let. to Mrs. Thrale 24 Nov., A tender, irritable, and as it is not very properly called, a nervous constitution. 1812J. W. Croker in C. Papers (1884) I. 39 A disposition naturally anxious and nervous. 1865Trollope Belton Est. xi. 126 He was at that moment so nervous that he had cut himself slightly through the trembling of his hand. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 296, I usually found the stock on both sides to be a highly ‘nervous’ one. 1899[see wreck n.1 7 b]. 1906W. James Let. 9 May (1920) II. 251, I didn't hear one pathetic word uttered at the scene of disaster, though of course the crop of ‘nervous wrecks’ is very likely to come in a month or so. 1932H. Crane Let. 22 Apr. (1965) 412 It certainly has about made a nervous wreck of me. 1936J. Buchan Island of Sheep i. vi. 110 He started at every noise. He was the very model of a nervous wreck.
Comb.1842Combe Digestion 303 An energetic or excitable temperament, such as the bilious or nervous-bilious. 1846Longfellow in Life (1891) II. 35 Let us be calm and happy, rather than excitable and nervous-minded.
10. Of feelings or actions: Characterized or accompanied by agitation of the nerves.
1797Jane Austen Sense & Sens. xxix, With all the eagerness of the most nervous irritability. 1844Lady G. C. Fullerton Ellen Middleton II. xi. 64 With a nervous attempt at a laugh. 1871Dixon Tower III. i. 7 Nervous terror often makes men bold.
11. Agitating to the nerves; exciting.
1775Crabbe Inebriety Wks. 1834 II. 300 The gentle fair on nervous tea relies. 1834R. H. Froude Rem. (1838) I. 359 Really I never saw such a nervous sight. 1843Ruskin Mod. Paint. I. ii. i. §18 (1846) 337 It is a very nervous thing for an ignorant artist.
Add:[9.] b. transf. Of money: invested cautiously at only short-term risk. Of trading on a stock market: characterized or dominated by apprehension over uncertainties in the market.
[1929Economist 26 Oct. 777/1 Many brokers..find that their correspondence nowadays consists very largely of nervous inquiries for adequate explanations of price-declines, followed..by requests as to whether shares should be sold.] 1933Times 13 Dec. 14/1 Mr. Douglas proceeds upon the assumptions..that nervous capital would resume that long-term investment which will accelerate construction; [etc.]. 1955Times 13 Aug. 10/2 Fresh nervous selling before Monday's Cabinet meeting kept stock markets dull yesterday. 1979Washington Post 1 Apr. f17/6 Nervous buying helped push prices of scarce merchandise lower. 1983Economist 24 Sept. 84/3 Markets were nervous ahead of the latest round of Sino-British talks on Hongkong's future.
▸ With pl. concord. With the: nervous people as a class.
1775P. M. Freneau To Americans in Poems (1929) 23 No toils should daunt the nervous and the bold. 1827J. Nicholson Lyre of Ebor 48 Thy healthy mountains, wells, and air, Can cure the nervous. 1884Overland Monthly Dec. 571/1 In time, the strong and weak, the nervous and the placid,..become imbued with the genial contentedness so characteristic of the town. 1929Times 8 Nov. 5/4 (advt.) For the nervous and the sleepless, Guinness..‘acts like a soothing balm’. 1999Guardian 6 Mar. (Weekend Mag.) 65/5 A standing stone, and a cillinich—a graveyard for children who died before being baptised—marked on the Ordnance Survey map but far enough from the house to be avoided by the nervous.
▸ nervous stomach n. (the condition of having) a stomach or digestive system which is easily disturbed by anxiety, dietary change, etc.
1833R. Fletcher Brain & Nerv. Disturbances xiii. 207 No fact is more clear, than the great value of the practice of changing the air, in the *nervous stomach cases in question. 1882Freeborn (Minnesota) County Standard 31 Aug. 3/6 A ‘nervous’ stomach is irritated by food which a healthy baby could easily digest. 1925Social Forces 4 441/1 He refers to..the gastro-intestinal theory of neuroses, without referring to the authors of..The Nervous Stomach. 1997C. P. Dancey & S. Backhouse IBS i. 3 During this time my nervous stomach was completely out of control. The diarrhoea was so bad I couldn't leave the house, I felt very nauseous and had a lot of stomach pain. |