| 释义 |
belittle, v.|bɪˈlɪt(ə)l|
[f. be- + little a. The word appears to have originated in U.S.; whence in recent English use in sense 3.]
1. trans. To diminish in size, make small.
1782Jefferson Notes Virginia (1787) 107 So far the Count de Buffon has carried this new theory of the tendency of nature to belittle her productions on this side the Atlantic. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. I. 230 On this side of the Atlantic there is a tendency in nature to belittle her productions. 1866N.Y. Herald Jan., His occupation is not absolutely gone; but the end of the war has belittled it sadly.
2. To cause to appear small; to dwarf.
1850S. F. Cooper Rur. Hours I. 127 The hills..belittle the sheet of water. 1862B. Taylor Home & Abr. Ser. ii. i. 22 A tower..not so tall as to belittle the main building.
3. To depreciate, decry the importance of.
1797Independent Chron. (U.S.) 30 Mar., [He] is..an honorable man,..let the writers..endeavour to belittle him as much as they please. 1837Haliburton Clockm. Ser. i. xxii. 226 When..they began to raise my dander, by belittleing the Yankees. 1843― Attaché II. xviii. 39, I won't stay here and see you belittle Uncle Sam, for nothin'. 1862Trollope N. Amer. II. 25 Washington was a great man, and I believe a good man. I, at any rate, will not belittle him. 1870Grant White Words & Uses (1881) 219 Time..spent by each party in belittling and reviling the candidates of its opponents. 1881Pall Mall G. 10 Dec. 20/2 The Times in 1809 belittled the victory of Talavera.
Hence beˈlittling ppl. a. and vbl. n., beˈlittlement.
1859Hills of Shatemuc 175, I never heard such a belittling character of the profession. 1882Pop. Sc. Monthly XX. 370 A systematic belittlement of the essential..in the story. 1884Fairbairn in Contemp. Rev. Mar. 377 The belittling burden of an exhausted yet authoritative past. |