| 释义 |
asquint, adv. (and a.)|əˈskwɪnt|
Forms: 3– asquint, 4 a squynte, 5 asquynt, 7 a squint.
[Of uncertain origin; apparently f. a prep.1 and a word corresponding to Du. schuinte ‘slope, slant,’ of the independent use of which no instances survive; the later squint adv. and adj. being an aphetic form of asquint, and squint vb. and n. still later derivatives of this. Evidence is wanting to determine whether the original word was actually adopted from Dutch, or was a cognate word, unrecorded in OE.; the total absence of any related words in OE. (or ON.) makes the latter improbable.]
A. adv.
I. With look or a synonymous verb.
* Of voluntary turning of the eyes.
1. (To look) to one side instead of straight forward; obliquely, out at the corners of the eyes.
c1230Ancr. R. 212 Auh winckeð oðere half, & biholdeð o luft & asquint. 1594Blundevil Exerc. v. 560 Looking somewhat asquint. 1611Dekker Roar. Girle Wks. 1873 III. 200 Didst neuer see an archer..looke a squint when he drew his bow? 1679E. Everard Pop. Plot 11 Who looking on me a⁓squint, went down the Privy Stairs. 1822Hazlitt Table T. I. x. 217 He does not survey the objects of nature as they are in themselves, but lookes asquint at them.
b. transf. of things.
1642Fuller Holy & Prof. State iii. vii. 168 Let not the front look asquint on a stranger, but accost him right at his entrance. 1657B. I. Heroic Educ. in N. & Q. 19 June 1880, 492 Sweden is a country on which the sun does not look asquint.
c. fig. of mental vision.
1601Cornwallyes Ess. ii. xxviii, To look a squint, our hand looking one way and our heart another. 1639J. Saltmarsh Pract. Policie 81 Be not too fixt nor intent upon what is before you..but looke asquint into your considerations and about you.
2. With reference to various mental attitudes, of which averted, oblique, sidelong, or furtive glances are the outward expression: arch. (To look)
a. with distrust, suspicion; jealously, askance.
1413Lydg. Pylgr. Sowle ii. xiv. 51 Thou somtyme ar this mettist with enuye, that loked asquynt. 1670Cotton Espernon ii. vi. 252 The envy of many of the greatest men..who had long look'd a squint upon the Duke's Prosperity. 1729Savage Wanderer III. 229 Envy asquint the future wonder eyes.
b. with unfairness, with prejudice or partiality.
1605B. Jonson Volp. Ded., Men will impartially, and not asquint, look toward the Office and Function of a Poet. 1655W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. i. 376 O Sirs, do we think that Christ's love looks asquint? doth he pray for one child more than another?
c. with an eye drawn aside by interest.
1627Sanderson Serm. I. 270 His heart even then hankered after the wages of unrighteousness when he looked asquint upon Balaaks liberal offer. 1678Trial Coleman in Howell St. Trials (1816) VII. 12 He had a little too much eye to the reward; he looked too much a-squint upon the matter of money.
d. with furtive or stolen glances.
1725Pope Odyss. xix. 82 In ambush here to lurk by night, Into the woman-state asquint to pry. 1845Carlyle Cromwell (1871) III. 228 Peering asquint into the Holy of Holies.
†3. To cast a passing glance; fig. to make incidental reference. Obs.
a1638Mede Apost. Later Times (1641) 33 [Nothing] may so much as look asquint upon any other object, or behold any other face but the face of God alone. 1650Bulwer Anthropomet. xxii. 250 Others..have lookt asquint upon the Body of Woman.
†b. fig. To glance unfavourably or adversely; to reflect unfavourably upon. Obs.
1658Osborn Adv. to Son (1673) 239 Uncharitable Censures..against any judgement looking a squint upon theirs.
** Of habitual obliquity of vision.
4. esp. (To look) obliquely through defect in the eyes, to have the axes of the eyes not coincident, so that they look in different directions; to squint.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vi. iv. (1495) 191 A place that is to bryghte..ofte makyth chyldren to loke a squynte. 1540T. Raynalde Birth Man iii. iii. (1634) 185 Of Goggle-eyes, or looking a-squint. 1657S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1751) 20 His other eye look'd so asquint, That it was hard to ward his dint. 1675Hobbes Homer 21 Lame of one leg he was; and looked asquint. 1763Churchill Rosciad Poems (1769) I. 20 Doth a man stutter, look a-squint, or halt? a1849Poe Loss of Breath Wks. 1864 IV. 305 The looking asquint—the showing my teeth.
b. fig. and transf. of things.
c1744Swift Wks. 1841 II. 73 Rather than suffer his learning to look asquint as it does, and make so frightful a figure from the press. 1881Blackie Lay Serm. i. 31 The beer-toper..finding the moon looking somewhat asquint, the houses all nodding.
c. fig. of mental vision: (To look) awry, so as to miss seeing or see distortedly.
1616W. Forde Serm. 35 If old, wee looke a squint, and see not death before our eyes. 1643Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. 7 Those vulgar heads that look asquint on the face of Truth.
II. With other verbs. rare.
5. Off to one side; obliquely. ? Obs.
1645Milton Tetrach. Wks. 1851, 203 Whether is common sense flown asquint. 1651Cleveland Rupert. 13 Could I thus write asquint, then Sir long since You had been sung a Great and Glorious Prince.
B. quasi-adj. (Only in pred. or after the n. eye.)
1643Answ. W. Bridges' Observ. War 1 As if every eye were asquint. c1661Argyle's Last Will in Harl. Misc. (1746) VIII. 29/1 His Eyes very much a-squint, so that he was nicknamed, in Scotland, Gleed Argyle. a1764R. Lloyd Prog. Envy Wks. 1774 I. 139 A ghastly grin and eyes asquint. 1876Emerson Ess. Ser. i. iv. 126 The eye is muddy and sometimes asquint. |