| 释义 |
nonsensical, a. and n.|nɒnˈsɛnsɪkəl|
[f. nonsense + -ical.]
A. adj. That is nonsense; of the nature of, or full of, nonsense; having no sense; absurd.
1655Nicholas Papers (Camden) II. 221 They haue such nonsensicall conceipts that there is some impossibility to please their humours. 1668Pepys Diary 12 Oct., A ridiculous nonsensical book set out by Will. Pen for the Quakers. 1684Wood Life 28 Dec. (O.H.S.) III. 120 Lord Hawley, the great bull-maker or maker of nonsensicall puns. 1742Richardson Pamela IV. 11 Canst thou not forbear letting thy discerning Lord see thy nonsensical Emotions? 1816Scott Antiq. xiv, The knight's a punctilious old fool, but I promise you his daughter is above all nonsensical ceremony and prejudice. 1869Ainsworth Hilary St. Ives ii. i, Put aside all nonsensical feeling, and accept Sir Charles. 1885Law Times LXXVIII. 186/2 This sentence is certainly the worst.., and it would be hard to invent a more nonsensical one.
b. Of persons.
1682Enq. Elect. Sheriffs 24 Stupid and nonsensical Fops. 1704Swift Batt. Bks. Wks. 1751 I. 220 A Pack of..confounded Loggerheads and illiterate Whelps, and nonsensical Scoundrels. 1815Jane Austen Emma xxvi, ‘Nonsensical girl,’ was his reply. 1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xv. 141 Come, now, Marie, what do you think of the likeness? Don't be nonsensical, now.
B. n. A nonsensical, absurd, or trifling thing.
1842Peter Parley's Ann. III. 246 Silks and satins..and the host of nonsensicals with which little minds pride themselves. 1856Ferrier Inst. Metaph. App. I. 498 It does not..hold the mind thus circumstanced.. to be a nonentity, but only a non-sensical, an absolutely inconceivable.
Hence nonˈsensically adv.; nonˈsensicalness, nonsensiˈcality.
1654Whitlock Zootomia 83 If they misapply words..never so non-sensically, they passe for fine Fellowes. 1674R. Godfrey Inj. & Ab. Physic 186 Observing the nonsensicalness of the Compound, and the multitude of Simples, mixt without Reason. 1702C. Mather Magn. Chr. vii. App. (1852) 644 A certain silly scribbler, the very first-born of Nonsensicality. 1754Edwards Freed. Will i. iii. (1762) 15 If any Man uses these Terms in such Cases, he either uses them nonsensically, or in some new Sense. a1850Hawthorne in Hawthorne & his Wife (1885) I. 498 She..keeps our little nonsensicalities from ourselves. 1850Sir W. Hamilton Discuss. Philos., etc. (1852) 624*, I admit, that had we thus spoken, we had spoken, not only ungrammatically, but nonsensically. 1891Spectator 9 May 665/1 Good nonsense is very difficult to write, for it ought to express gaiety of heart even in its very nonsensicalness. |