| 释义 |
respectability|rɪspɛktəˈbɪlɪtɪ|
[f. respectable a. + -ity. Cf. mod.F. respectabilité.]
1. a. The state, quality, or condition of being respectable in point of character or social standing. Also with a somewhat derogatory implication of affectation or spuriousness.
1785J. Trusler Mod. Times I. p. vi, He is very sensible that there are in all classes of life, men of honour and respectability. 1802Mrs. J. West Infidel Father II. 157 He is said to have passed through the ordeal of a military life with high respectability. 1847C. Brontë J. Eyre x, A model of elderly English respectability. 1898G. B. Shaw You never can tell ii. Stage-direct., The excellent quality and condition of these garments, the gold-rimmed folding spectacles,..all testify to his respectability. 1907G. B. Shaw Major Barbara iii. 281 The seven deadly sins!—Yes, the deadly seven... Food, clothing, firing, rent, taxes, respectability and children. 1969Listener 3 Apr. 443/1 The social cost was high: hypocrisy;..the substitute of ‘respectability’ (spurious morality) for thought-out morals. Now that couples who aren't ready to support them needn't have children at all, marriage is redundant. 1978P. Bailey Leisure & Class in Victorian England viii. 178 We approach respectability as a role rather than as an ideology... The myth of substantial working-class respectability.
b. concr. Those who are respectable.
1808Spirit Public Jrnls. XII. 327 All the weight, talent, and respectability of the country. 1891S. C. Scrivener Our Fields & Cities 87 Respectability pooh-poohs, but ‘Respectability’ does not visit the north-east corner of the cemetery Père la Chaise at Paris.
c. transf. Of things.
1903G. B. Shaw Man & Superman p. xxviii, He and I and Mr. Sidney Webb were sowing our political wild oats as a sort of Fabian Three Musketeers, without any prevision of the surprising respectability of the crop that followed. 1976Times 21 May 1/4 The alleged smear campaign against the Liberal Party..gained new respectability yesterday when the Prime Minister confirmed..that attempts were indeed being made to discredit individual members of the Liberal Party.
2. a. A person of respectable character.
1840Carlyle Heroes (1858) 342 Smooth-shaven Respectabilities not a few one finds, that are not good for much. 1888Times 20 Sept. 7/2 Irishmen..laugh in their sleeve when the dull respectabilities of the Gladstonian party take the thing seriously.
b. pl. Those features of life and conduct which are regarded as respectable.
1843Carlyle Past & Pr. i. v. 41 With his cash-accounts and larders dropping fatness, with his respectabilities, warm garnitures, and pony-chaise. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 191 Out of a regard to the respectabilities of life.
3. Importance. rare.
1817T. Dwight Trav. New Eng., etc. (1821) II. 241 The District of Maine is fitted to derive its respectability especially from fishing, and commerce. 1824L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 5) I. 223 The diversity of sentiment on this subject, and the respectability of the different opponents, will naturally induce the readers to pause and reflect, before they decide. |