| 释义 |
caprice|kəˈpriːs|
[a. (after 1660) F. caprice, It. capriccio: see capriccio, and caprich, which both preceded this. About 1700 ˈcaprice was a usual accentuation; Pope rimed the word with vice.]
1. A sudden change or turn of the mind without apparent or adequate motive; a desire or opinion arbitrarily or fantastically formed; a freak, whim, mere fancy.
1667G. Digby Elvira v. in Hazl. Dodsley XV. 82 Dependent on the wild caprice of others. 1673Dryden Marr. à la Mode iv. iv, Rho. Now I have the oddest thought..Melan. This is the strangest caprice in you. 1727Swift Gulliver iii. ii. 192 The caprices of woman-kind are not limited by climate or nation. 1732Pope Ess. Man ii. 239 That counter-works each folly and caprice; That disappoints th' effect of ev'ry vice. 1776Adam Smith W.N. I. ii. i. x. 146 He was liable to be removed..at the caprice of any church-warden. 1856Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. ii. 120 The restraint which ordinary persons..are able to impose on their caprices.
b. The disposition of a mind subject to such humours; capriciousness.
1709Pope Ess. Crit. 287 Critics of less judgment than caprice. 1712Addison Spect. No. 435 §1 The Folly, Extravagance, and Caprice of the present Age. 1728Young Love Fame vii. 161 Say, Britain! whence this caprice of thy sons? 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 433 There was something appalling in the union of such boundless power and such boundless caprice.
c. transf. of things.
1748Anson's Voy. ii. ii. (ed. 2) 178 The vessel..left to the caprice of the winds and waves. 1793T. Beddoes Catarrh 150 This caprice of our climate. 1867Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) I. iii. 136 By a caprice of language.
2. A work of irregular and sportive fancy.
1721Bailey, Caprichio, Caprice..also a particular Piece of Musick, Painting and Poetry. 1838Hallam Hist. Lit. I. i. iii. §82. 199 Extravagant combinations of fancy, caprices rapid and sportive as the animal from which they take their name.
b. Music. = capriccio 3 b.
1880E. Prout in Grove Dict. Mus. s.v. Capriccio, In the present day the word Caprice is usually..applied to a piece of music constructed either on original subjects, and frequently in a modified sonata- or rondo-form (as in Mendelssohn's ‘Three Caprices,’ op. 33, or Sterndale Bennett's Caprice in E), or to a brilliant transcription of one or more subjects by other composers.
3. A kind of scarf so called.
1838Workwoman's Guide, A kind of scarf made of broad ribbon, and called a caprice. |