| 释义 |
pithy, a.|ˈpɪθɪ|
[f. pith n. + -y.]
1. Consisting or of the nature of pith; abounding in or full of pith.
1562J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 192 The pithy pith of an elder sticke. 1616Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 225 The inward substance white,..without anie tast,..and smell it hath none, neither is it anie thing pithie. 1793B. Edwards Hist. W. Indies II. v. i. 209 The body of the cane..contains a soft pithy substance. 1821Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 73 The pithy bunch of unripe nuts. 1853G. Johnston Nat. Hist. E. Bord. I. 96 [Elder] well known to every schoolboy.., who fabricates his pop-gun from its pithy branches. 1893Newton Dict. Birds 239 The rhachis [of a feather] is opaque, filled with a pithy substance.
2. fig. Full of strength or vigour; vigorous, strong; of liquor, strong, containing much alcohol. Now dial. or Obs.
13..Cursor M. 9384 (Cott.) Al-king thing was þan..Wel pithier [v.r. mihtier] þan þai ar now. 1483Cath. Angl. 282/1 Pythy, vbi strange. 1530Palsgr. 320/2 Pythy stronge, puissant. 1634Markham Archerie ix. 84 A strong pithie kinde of Shooting. 1773Fergusson Cauler Water iii, On mair pithy shanks they stood. 1812W. Tennant Anster F. iv, Some are flush'd with horns of pithy ale. 1876Swinburne Let. 10 Jan. (1960) III. 112 A sea without rocks or cliff,..water thick and pithy with sand.
3. a. Full of substance or significance; solid, substantial; esp. of speech or writing: Containing much matter in few words; expressing briefly the pith or substance of a thing; condensed and forcible in expression or style; sententious; terse. (Now the prevailing sense.)
1529More Suppl. Soulys Wks. 299/1 The sore pythye point wherwith he knitteth vp all hys heuy matter. 1531Tindale Exp. 1 John (1537) 93 It is a shorte and pythy sentence to moue or admonyse. 1571Golding Calvin on Ps. ii. 5 Very piththie is this pronown I. 1657Sparrow Bk. Com. Prayer (1661) 74 These short but pithy Ejaculations. 1754Richardson Grandison (1781) VI. liii. 341 Finding something to say to each, in his pithy, agreeable manner. 1824S. E. Ferrier Inher. xv, With one of her sharp pithy glances at Colonel D. 1893J. C. Jeaffreson Bk. Recollect. I. i. 13 He preached..a plain, short, pithy sermon.
b. transf. of a speaker or writer.
1548Udall Erasm. Par. Luke xix. 150 That other man also was piththie and an earnest bidder of Jesus. 1693J. Edwards Author. O. & N. Test. 235 The pithy moralist [Seneca]. 1713Addison Ct. Tariff ⁋13 In all these particulars [he] was very short but pithy. 1879Geo. Eliot Theo. Such ii. 39 He was a pithy talker. |