| 释义 |
rotundity|rəʊˈtʌndɪtɪ|
[ad. L. rotunditas, f. rotund-us round: see -ity. So F. rotondité, It. rotonditá, Sp. rotundidad.]
1. The condition of being round or spherical; roundness, sphericity.
1597A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 10 b/1 The heade.., the rotunditye and rowndnes therof. Ibid. 43/1 The hole as greate as the rotunditye of a bullet. 1610Healey St. Aug. Citie of God 465 Which in the beginning gave rotundity both to the Heavens and Sunne. 1650Bulwer Anthropomet. 85 Some bring in another rotundity of face. 1660F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 348 They believe the rotundity of the earth. 1733Cheyne Eng. Malady ii. ii. §7 (1734) 131 Gold..having no innate Fluidity, nor natural Rotundity of Particles. 1837W. Irving Capt. Bonneville II. 52 Large tracts, which are probably concealed from view from the rotundity of the lake's surface. 1878Huxley Physiogr. xix. 318 One of the most convincing proofs of this rotundity.
b. concr. A round or spherical mass; a round building, etc.
1744J. Armstrong Preserv. Health II. 544 This huge rotundity we tread grows old. 1799Campbell Pleas. Hope ii. 211 The shrine where motion first began,..From whence each bright rotundity was hurl'd. 1819W. Faux Mem. Days Amer. (1823) 95 Dr. Storton's chapel, an immense, elegant rotundity, like Rowland Hill's in the Surrey road. 1839Hawthorne Transformation l, The..black rotundity of the Pantheon. a1864― Amer. Note-Bks. (1879) II. 81 The..winter-squash..turns up its big rotundity to ripen in the autumn sun.
2. Rounded fullness, esp. of language.
1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. xi[i]. (Arb.) 114 It must be slenderer in some part, and yet not without a rotunditie and smoothnesse to giue the rest an easie deliuerie. a1661Fuller (Annandale), For the mere rotundity of the number and grace of the matter it passeth for a full thousand. 1803Edin. Rev. II. 245 In order to give their narrative smoothness and rotundity. 1819G. S. Faber Dispensations (1823) I. 108 In order to give due rotundity to his grand system. 1879Farrar St. Paul (1883) 686 He began..with true legal rotundity of verbiage.
3. Roundness or plumpness of the body or its parts; fullness of habit.
1786tr. Beckford's Vathek (1883) 38 The cursed Indian, who still preserved his rotundity of figure. 1826in Sheridaniana 88 The jolly rotundity of his Lordship. 1891Hardy Tess xi, The faultless rotundities of a lusty country girl.
b. Used concr. (Cf. 1 b.)
1858Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-bks. II. 31 An ugly, old, fat, jolly Bacchus,..a tipsy rotundity of flesh. 1900G. H. Kingsley Sport & Trav. 425 That this cumbrous rotundity may attack a wounded whale is likely enough. |