| 释义 |
no less, adv. and a.
[no adv.2 + less a.]
Not less, as much, in various uses.
1. Used absolutely.
a1300Cursor M. 6915 Fourti winter, an nales. 1500–20Dunbar Poems xxvi. 102 The feyndis gaif thame hait leid to laip, Thair lovery wes na less. 1559W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 139, I confesse no lesse. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. IX. 192 That fatall year generally foretold that it would be wonderfull, as it proved no less. 1798Coleridge Anc. Mar. vi. xvii, The rock shone bright, the kirk no less. 1818Shelley Eugan. Hills 302 The dun and bladed grass no less, Pointing from this hoary tower. 1847Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 10 John had bid me take two glasses (no less) of Madeira. 1871R. Ellis tr. Catullus viii. 9 Now she resigns thee; child, do thou resign no less.
2. Constr. with than:
a. In reference to number.
a1121O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 897 Þy ilcan sumera forwearð no læs þonne xx. scipa mid monnum.
1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. ii. i. 379 No lesse Then three great Argosies, besides two Galliasses. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 321 The sacred servants, which were no lesse then sixe thousand. 1709Steele Tatler No. 46 ⁋12 No less than Ten People produced the following Poem. 1801M. Edgeworth Cast. Rackrent (c 1880) 20 No less than three ladies in our county talked of for his second wife. 1841Macaulay Warren Hastings Ess. (c 1853) III. 174 Matter for no less than twenty Articles of impeachment.
b. In reference to comparison or degree.
1561Winȝet Cert. Tractates Wks. (S.T.S.) I. 8 Thay ar na les than the vtheris degenerat ignorantis. 1578Timme Calvin on Gen. 87 She accounted him no less than a domesticall beast. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 230 The Pilot directed their journey by the Compasse..no lesse then if it had beene at Sea. 1667Milton P.L. viii. 248 Pleas'd with thy words no less then thou with mine. 1711Addison Spect. No. 55 ⁋4 The Aim of each of them was no less than Universal Monarchy. 1767Fordyce Serm. Yng. Wom. I. Pref. 7 Dictated by friendship no less than by conviction. 1822Shelley tr. Calderon's Mag. Prodig. i. 250, I am Held no less than yourselves to know the limits Of honour and of infamy. 1882Farrar Early Chr. II. 236 In the Books of Esdras, Enoch and Baruch, no less than in St. John—there are for us some necessary difficulties.
3. Directly preceding the word qualified (usually with than following):
a. With verbs.
1559W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 11 Plato (whiche otherwyse is a grave Philosopher) did no lesse erre then the other, imagining [etc.]. 1611Shakes. Wint. T. i. ii. 392 Clerke-like experienc'd, which no lesse adornes Our Gentry, then our Parents Noble Names. 1667Milton P.L. ii. 848 Death Grinnd horrible a gastly smile... No less rejoyc'd His mother bad.
b. With adjectives.
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 200 b, Auouchyng hymself to bee no lesse beholdyng to the said Aristotle then to his father. 1585T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. i. xv, A history no lesse lamentable then full of dispayre. 1605Shakes. Macb. iii. i. 136 Whose absence is no lesse materiall to me, Then is his fathers. 1652Milton Sonn. xvi. To Cromwell, Peace hath her victories No less renownd then warr. 1711Addison Spect. No. 128 ⁋7 The same female Levity is no less fatal to them after Mariage than before. 1766Goldsm. Vic. W. v, My little ones were no less busy. 1861Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 47 The export trade of the Steelyard was no less extensive than its import. 1892N. Smyth Chr. Eth. i. iii. 158 A moral order no less infrustrable, and as universal in its dominion.
c. With substantives.
1711Steele Spect. No. 33 ⁋1 The Father received his Intelligence with no less Joy than Surprize. 1874Gladstone Glean. (1879) II. 235 He spoke no less a number of them than twenty-three. 1882Nature XXVI. 147/2 The no less fertility of ingeniously-devised experiment. |