| 释义 |
ˈnumberless, a.
[f. number n. + -less.]
1. Innumerable, countless, beyond computation.
1573Twyne æneid xi. (1584) R b, The hugie heape of such as there lay slaine, Both numbrelesse, and honourlesse they burne. 1590Greene Never too late (1600) 68 Then should..the furrowes in my face be numberlesse. 1624Gataker Transubst. 68 To bee in heaven, and in number⁓lesse places of the Earth. 1667Milton P.L. vii. 197 About his Chariot numberless were pour'd Cherub and Seraph. 1736Butler Anal. Introd., Wks. 1874 I. 3 Number⁓less instances might be mentioned. 1782Priestley Corrupt. Chr. II. ix. 189 The clergy exercised numberless cruelties. 1819Shelley Cyclops 175 The cavern has recesses number⁓less. 1879R. K. Douglas Confucianism iii. 79 The ‘Book of History’ contains numberless references to them.
b. Used with number(s). (Freq. in 17th cent.)
1594Peele Alcazar iv. i, A number almost numberless. 1612J. Davies Muses Sacr. Wks. (Grosart) II. 26/1 Cast, if thou canst, a Number numberlesse. 1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 181 Of all the trees I saw, none exceeded the Mulberies, for numberlesse numbers. a1716South Serm. (1744) VII. 60 What then will become of those numberless numbers of men?
2. Devoid of metrical numbers. rare—1.
a1658Cleveland Agst. Ale iv, Saltless and galless be thy Curse, Numberless, rugged. |