| 释义 |
pregnable, a.|ˈprɛgnəb(ə)l|
Forms: 5–7 prenable, 6 prenn-, prein-, preign-, preygn-, prign-, 7 prægn-, 6– pregnable.
[Late ME. prenable, a. F. prenable (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), also in OF. pregnable (1306 in Godef. Compl.), f. prendre (ppl. stem pren-):—L. prendĕre, contr. from prehendĕre: see prehend and -able. As to the g see impregnable.]
Of a fortress: Capable of being taken by assault. Also transf.
1435in Wars Eng. in France (Rolls) II. 581 If the placis were righte prenable. 1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cclv. 379 They thought well the towne was preignable. Ibid. cclxv. 392 They sawe well that y⊇ place was prignable. 1523St. Papers Hen. VIII, VI. 165 What places he supposeth there most preinable, or facile to be had. c1540tr. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (Camden No. 29) 14 Out of hope that it was pregnable by assault. 1591Sir H. Unton Corr. (Roxb.) 66 It is hardlie otherwise prennable. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 413 margin, A strong hold kept by a coward is pregnable. 1632― Cyrupædia 107 Cyrus..desirous in very deed to see whether the Castle were any where prenable. 1845Petrie Round Towers Irel. 371 The door alone could be pregnable. 1880Harper's Mag. LX. 615 Its pregnable approaches are the portals of entrance and exit for the tube.
b. fig. Open to attack; assailable, vulnerable.
1836New Monthly Mag. XLVIII. 334 There were but few points on which it [Libertino's character] was pregnable. 1837Sir J. Paget in Mem. v. 100 A hard-headed English infidel, pregnable to neither religion nor common-sense. 1902Daily Chron. 26 Apr. 3/1 He attacks Arnold's very pregnable idea that Christianity is only Stoicism ‘touched with emotion’.
¶ Erroneously used for pregnant a.1, a.2 Obs.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 69 In those elder times, wherein wisdom and invention was most pregnable. Ibid. 674 Leaving those brief and pregnable Narrations of Bellonius and Scaliger. a1660Contemp. Hist. Irel. (Ir. Archæol. Soc.) II. 41 These solide and pregnable reasons.
Hence pregnaˈbility, pregnable quality.
1838S. Bellamy Betrayal 107 There's not a flaw In frailty coupled with defect more near Than this man's strength to pregnability. |