| 释义 |
nondescript, a. and n.|ˈnɒndɪskrɪpt|
[non- 3.]
A. adj.
†1. Nat. Hist. Of a species, etc.: Not hitherto described. Obs.
1683Ray Corr. (1848) 134 The description..is scarce sufficient to determine..whether it be a nondescript species. 1772Phil. Trans. LXII. 386 This fine non-descript owl lives upon hares. 1793Jefferson Writ. (1859) IV. 64 They agree it is a nondescript disease, and no two agree in any one part of their process of cure. 1806T. Ashe (title) Memoirs of Mammoth..Bones, of Incognita or Nondescript Animals. 1812Brackenridge Views Louisiana (1814) 54 Mr. Bradbury has discovered nearly one hundred and fifty non-descript plants.
transf.1820Southey Wesley II. 260 Sectarians of every kind, descript and non-descript, had been introduced in Cromwell's time.
2. Not easily described or classified; of no particular class, kind, or form; that is neither one thing nor another.
1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) ix. i, The dry rank remains of some non-descript cheese. a1822Byron Juan vii. ii, A non-descript and ever-varying rhyme. 1851Mayhew Lond. Labour II. 51 A cottage of wood, nondescript in shape, but pleasant in locality. 1876C. M. Davies Unorth. Lond. (ed. 2) 77 Those nondescript animals that are neither boys nor young men.
B. n.
†1. Nat. Hist. A species, etc., that has not been hitherto described. Obs.
1693Phil. Trans. XVII. 730 Some curious Plants.., amongst which are few Non-descripts, or such as have not been taken notice of by other Writers. 1783Herschel in Phil. Trans. LXXIII. 279 This curve, to borrow a term from natural history, is a non-descript as far as I can find at present. 1794Kirwan Elem. Min. I. 107 He gives a much fuller account of this stone, which he considers as a non-descript. 1817J. Bradbury Trav. Amer. 81 A few scattered shrubs of a species of Artemisia, apparently a nondescript.
transf.1790Burke Fr. Rev. 15 A valuable addition of non⁓descripts to the..known classes, genera and species, which..beautify the hortus siccus of dissent. 1800Weems Life of Washington i. (1877) 6 A perfect nondescript of baseness.
2. A person or thing that is not easily described, or is of no particular class or kind.
1811Southey in Edin. Ann. Reg. II. i. 289 The House contains about 250 country gentlemen, 120 courtiers [etc.]. The rest are non-descripts. 1813Weekly Reg. (Baltimore) IV. 149/2 The British, now, affect to consider our frigates a sort of ‘terrible non-descripts’. 1836–7Dickens Sk. Boz, Tales viii, A few ostlers and stable nondescripts were standing round. 1883Stevenson Treas. Isl. iii. xv, I was now, it seemed, cut off upon both sides; behind me the murderers, before me this lurking nondescript [sc. the maroon]. |