| 释义 |
ˈnight-piece
[f. night n. + piece n. Cf. Du. nachtstuk, G. nachtstück.]
1. A painting or picture representing a night-scene. Also transf.
1605B. Jonson Masque Blackness Wks. (Rtldg.) 545/1 The scene behind seemed a vast sea..to which was added an obscure and cloudy night-piece. 1655Vaughan Silex Scint. 160 Some meek night-piece which day quails To candlelight unveils. 1692–3Norris Pract. Disc. IV. 45 But I have drawn a sad, and black Night-piece of this already. 1711Addison Spect. No. 83 ⁋9 He had likewise hung a great Part of the Wall with Night-pieces. 1762–71H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) II. 195 Excelling particularly in night-pieces and candle-lights. 1797Holcroft tr. Stolberg's Trav. II. li, Christ before Caiaphas. A night piece. c1850tr. Hugo's Hunchback i. iii, Faces..which Rembrandt has brought out so grave and so expressive from the dark ground of his night-piece.
b. Applied to an actual night-scene, or to a landscape as viewed by night.
1643Sober Sadness 46 This plot was laid; and this designe in agitation (though it be a night-piece, which few have hitherto discover'd fully). 1646J. Gregory Notes & Obs. (1650) 109 So the Tradition, and so the Masters decribe the Night-peice of this Nativity. 1832Downes Lett. Cont. Countries I. 54 The solitude..illumined by the bright and steady moon—I thought it the finest night-piece I had ever witnessed.
c. As a title of literary compositions.
1648Herrick Hesp., The Night-piece to Julia. a1718Parnell (title) A Night-piece on Death.
†2. fig. A mistress. Obs. rare—1.
1620Middleton Chaste Maid i. ii, Some merchants would in soul kiss hell..To deck their night-piece. |