| 释义 |
▪ I. character, n.|ˈkærəktə(r)|
Forms: 4–7 caracter, 6 caractere, carracter, -actre, 7 -ecter; 6 charecter, 7 charracter, characture, (charractker), 6– character.
[ME. caracter(e, a. F. caractere, ad. L. charactēr, a. Gr. χαρακτήρ instrument for marking or graving, impress, stamp, distinctive mark, distinctive nature, f. χαράττ-ειν to make sharp, cut furrows in, engrave; or perhaps a refashioning of the earlier F. caracte after this. In Eng. it was further assimilated in 16th c. by (fictitious) spelling with ch-. (Wyclif used both caracte and caracter; he may have taken the latter directly from Latin, as Littré cites F. caractère only from 15th c. In 16–17th c. often chaˈracter.]
I. Literal senses.
1. a. A distinctive mark impressed, engraved, or otherwise formed; a brand, stamp.
c1315Shoreham 44 Caracter thet is prente y-cliped, Nys non of eliinge. 1382Wyclif Rev. xiii. 16 To haue a caracter..in her forhedis. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 264 Amongst the ancients, there was a custom to make the character of a horse in the forehead of a bondslave. 1642Rogers Naaman 220 What Characters are in your seale, will soon be seen by your wax. 1658Evelyn Fr. Gard. (1675) 150 Melons..full of embroidery and characters. 1762Churchill Ghost iv. Wks. 1774 II. 135 On which, in Characters of fire, Shapes Antic, horrible and dire, Inwoven flam'd. 1851D. Wilson Preh. Ann. II. iv. iv. 280 Graven characters on the walls. 1875Jevons Money (1878) 58.
b. fig. with distinct reference to the literal sense.
1586Marlowe 1st Pt. Tamburl. i. ii, Thou..by characters graven on thy brows..Deserv'st to have the leading of an host. a1643W. Cartwright Lady-Errant iv. i, Woman's the Gem of Heaven, in which Nature Hath carv'd the universe in less Characters. a1771Gray Wks. (1807) I. 26 The characters of hell to trace. 1794Sullivan View Nat. I. 92 All are stamped with the character of sublimity.
2. A distinctive significant mark of any kind; a graphic sign or symbol.
1597Morley Introd. Mus. 3 A Cliefe is a charecter set on a rule at the beginning of a verse. 1674Playford Skill Mus. i. viii. 26 Pauses or Rests are silent Characters. 1801Hutton Course Math. (1806) I. 8 Various characters or marks used in Arithmetic.
3. a. esp. A graphic symbol standing for a sound, syllable, or notion, used in writing or in printing; one of the simple elements of a written language; e.g. a letter of the alphabet.
1490Caxton Eneydos vi. 25 The Fenyces were the fyrst inuentours of caracteris dyfferencing that one fro that other, of whiche were fourmed lettres for to write. 1530Palsgr. 11 If i and u be vowelles, they shalbe written with these caracters y and v. 1599Thynne Animadv. (1865) 13 With whiche Carractris ys Geffry Chausyer written. 1611Bible Pref. 6 Set forth by Potken in Syrian characters. 1649Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. Ed. Ded. 4 God hath writ his Commandements in so large characters. 1712F. T. Shorthand 36 Several of the Characters may signifie whole words. 1829Dickens in Forster Life (1871) I. 70 When I had..mastered the alphabet, there appeared a procession of new horrors, called arbitrary characters. 1837Penny Cycl. vii. 32 The Chinese characters or written words are symbols of ideas. 1851D. Wilson Preh. Ann. II. iv. iv. 280 The experienced eye will discern Runic characters.
†b. spec. in pl. Shorthand. Obs.
1641in Rushw. Hist. Coll. iii. (1692) I. 478 Whom his Majesty had observed to take his Speech in Characters. 1680Baxter Answ. Stillingfl. xxxiii. 48 Short writing called Characters though expeditious, is hard to be read by others. 1723J. Edwards Wks. (1834) I. lxxvi/1 [Mem.] When I am unfit for other business to perfect myself in writing characters.
c. Computers. One of a set of letters, digits, or other symbols which can be read, stored, or written by a computer and used to denote data; also, a representation of such a symbol by means of a small number of bits, holes in punched tape, etc., arranged according to a specified code and taken as a unit of storage.
Quot. 1949 belongs strictly to sense 3 a.
[1949Math. Tables & Other Aids to Computation III. 428 The word length of both numbers and orders in this machine is 44 binary characters.] 1950Ibid. IV. 32 Decimal digits may be recorded as 4-digit binary code groups, and alphabetical characters may be recorded as 5- or 6-digit binary groups. 1958Gotlieb & Hume High-Speed Data Processing ix. 187 The need for inserting or deleting characters occurs most frequently in editing information for output or for transfer from one medium to another. 1967Cox & Grose Organiz. Bibl. Rec. by Computer iv. 97 The searchable section may be up to 12,000 characters long. 1969B. Hodge Computers for Engineers iii. 76 During reading, the block begins with the first character sensed after a gap and continues without interruption until the next gap is reached.
4. collect.
a. gen. Writing, printing.
c1600Shakes. Sonn. lix, Since minde at first in carrecter was done. 1607― Timon v. iii. 6 What's on this Tomb, I cannot read: the Charracter Ile take with wax. a1626Fletcher Law of Com. i. ii. 52 Without the help of art or character.
b. The series of alphabetic signs, or elementary symbols, peculiar to any language; a set of letters.
1596Spenser State Irel. 29 The Saxons Character is the same with the Irish. 1655Marquis of Worcester Cent. Inv. xxxii, An universal Character..easie to be written, yet intelligible in any Language. 1685Stillingfl. Orig. Brit. i. 11 That Inscription..was by the Character not of above 300 years Antiquity. 1882Daily News 11 Oct. 5/4 Bismarck says that it takes him eighty minutes to read in Roman type what he can read in an hour in German character.
c. The style of writing peculiar to any individual; handwriting.
1603Shakes. Meas. for M. iv. ii. 208 Heere is the hand and Seale of the Duke: you know the Charracter I doubt not. 1638Wentworth Let. in Carte Coll. (1735) 26, I write in much pain..be your Majestie therefore pleased to pardon..the badness of the character. 1704J. Trapp Abra-Mulé iii. i. 1036 Some of your Friends may by the Character Discover him who sent it. 1883Lloyd Ebb & Fl. II. 252 Written in a rough unsteady character.
d. Kind or style of type or printed letter.
1641Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 29 Elzevir's printing house..renowned for the politeness of the character and editions of what he has published through Europe. 1853Lytton My Novel ii. iv, Imitation of printed Roman character.
5. A cabbalistic or magical sign or emblem; the astrological symbol of a planet, etc.; = charact 2.
c1590Marlowe Faust. v. 168 A book where I might see all characters and planets of the heavens. 1608Bp. Hall Char. Vertues & Vices ii. 90 He weares Paracelsian Characters for the tooth-ache. 1671Milton P.R. iv. 384 By what the stars Voluminous, or single characters In their conjuction met, give me to spell. 1801Southey Thalaba iv. xv, The characters That tell beneath what aspect they were set. 1805Scott Last Minstr. vi. xvii, On cross, and character, and talisman.
†6. gen. A symbol, emblem, figure; an expression or direct representation. Obs.
1606L. Bryskett Civ. Life 175 Signed with the character of Christ in baptisme. c1630Drummond of Hawthornden Poems Wks. (1711) 4 Enamell'd bank, whose shining gravel bears These sad characters of my miseries! 1670Cotton Espernon i. iv. 186 No truths, but such as are couch'd in the worst Characters. 1702tr. Le Clerc's Prim. Fathers 117 That the Son is..the Brightness of his Glory and Character of his Power.
7. A cipher for secret correspondence.
[1603Shakes. Meas. for M. i. i. 28 There is a kinde of Character in thy life, That to th'obseruer, doth thy history Fully vnfold.] 1659–60Pepys Diary 18 Jan., I..interpreted my Lord's letter by his character. 1664Ibid. 15 July, He hath given my Lord a character, and will oblige my Lord to correspond with him. 1748Richardson Clarissa (1811) IV. 296 That [letter] which I copied myself in character last Sunday.
II. Figurative senses.
8. a. A distinctive mark, evidence, or token; a feature, trait, characteristic. arch. in gen. use.
1502Ord. Crysten Men i. iii. (W. de W. 1506) 39 A spyrytuell token yt these theologyens call caractere, that maye neuer be defaced. 1597Bacon Coulers Good & Evill ix. 151 Felicitie seemeth to bee a character of the fauour..of the diuine powers. 1654Evelyn Mem. (1857) III. 65 It were imprudent, and a character of much ignorance to inquire, etc. 1774Burke Amer. Tax. Wks. I. 174 Tell me, what one character of liberty the Americans have. 1886Stevenson Dr. Jekyll 126 Complete moral insensibility and insensate readiness to evil, which were the leading characters of E.H.
b. now esp. in Natural History. One of the distinguishing features of a species or genus. See also acquired character s.v. acquired ppl. a. (c).
1727–51Chambers Cycl., Character of a Plant. See Genus, Characteristic, etc. 1776Withering Bot. Arrangem. (1796) 127 The most striking character is the 2 upright petals at the top. 1875Dawson Dawn of Life ii. 34 Dr. Hunt has discussed very fully their chemical characters. 187819th C. Dec. 1037 These attributes of structure, size, shape, and colour are what are called its ‘specific characters’.
9. The aggregate of the distinctive features of any thing; essential peculiarity; nature, style; sort, kind, description.
1659Pearson Creed (1839) 372 The character of the day on which our Saviour died is undeniable. 1790Burke Corr. (1844) III. 173 Your paper has much more the character of a piece in an adverse controversy. 1840Carlyle Heroes (1858) 234 Natural stupidity is by no means the character of Mahomet's Book. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 90 He now tried to give to the war the character of a crusade. 1866Crump Banking ii. 59 The amount and character of the deposits of English banks.
†10. The face or features as betokening moral qualities; personal appearance. Obs.
1601Shakes. Twel. N. i. ii. 51, I will beleeue thou hast a minde that suites With this thy faire and outward charracter. 1607― Cor. v. iv. 28, I paint him in the Character. 1768Sterne Sent. Journ. (1778) I. 68 She was a widow, and wore a character of distress.
11. The sum of the moral and mental qualities which distinguish an individual or a race, viewed as a homogeneous whole; the individuality impressed by nature and habit on man or nation; mental or moral constitution.
1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. I. 36 The Nature, and Character, and Fortune of the Duke. 1660C. Lyttelton Let. in Hatton Corr. (1878) 20, I heare he writt the King's charractker. 1705Addison Italy 9 Cunning, Industrious, and enur'd to Hardship..which was likewise the Character of the old Ligurians. 1729Butler Serm. Wks. 1874 II. 158 There is greater variety of parts in what we call a character, than there are features in a face. 1839Keightley Hist. Eng. II. 74 Thorough selfishness formed the basis of Henry's character. 1875Manning Mission H. Ghost ii. 52 The character is that intellectual and moral texture into which all our life long we have been weaving up the inward life that is in us.
12. a. Moral qualities strongly developed or strikingly displayed; distinct or distinguished character; character worth speaking of.
1735Pope Ep. Lady 2 Most Women have no Characters at all. 1737Whiston Josephus' Wars iv. xi. §4 As the day came on, many men of character came over. 1818Jas. Mill Brit. India II. v. viii. 660 Too void of character, to write anything of himself. 1859J. S. Mill Liberty 108 A person whose desires and impulses are his own—are the expression of his own nature, as it has been developed and modified by his own culture—is said to have a character. One whose desires and impulses are not his own, has no character, no more than a steam-engine has a character.
b. transf.
1781J. Moore View Soc. It. (1790) I. xlv. 500 What is usually called Character in a face, is probably excess in some of its parts. 1888W. P. Frith Autobiog. II. 213 It is an excellent picture and from its strong character must be a good likeness.
13. a. The estimate formed of a person's qualities; reputation: when used without qualifying epithet implying ‘favourable estimate, good repute.’
1712Steele Spect. No. 478 ⁋5 Till he be prov'd by Time, and established in a Character. 1786T. Jefferson Writ. (1859) I. 566 These debts must be paid, or our character stained with infamy. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. II. xv. 164 It pleased me to find that I had earned character with these people. 1868Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. vii. 60 An act strangely out of keeping with his character for sanctity.
b. transf. of things.
1845McCulloch Taxation ii. vi. (1852) 275 Shops of established character and respectability. 1875Jevons Money (1878) 40 Such an impression..as shall establish its character as current money of certain value.
†c. by character: by repute or report. in (great) character: in (good) repute. Obs.
1789Saunders in Phil. Trans. LXXIX. 82 A medicine formerly in great character. 1791Smeaton Edystone L. §76 A nobleman scarce known to him, but by public character. c1815Jane Austen Persuasion (1833) I. x. 294, I had known you by character long before.
14. a. A description, delineation, or detailed report of a person's qualities.
c1645Howell Lett. i. iii. 18, I heard her setting him forth one day, and giving this character of him. a1714Burnet Own Time (1823) I. 465, I name Sir George Saville last because he deserves a more copious character. 1868E. Edwards Raleigh I. xx. 455 He went on to amuse himself by drawing the characters of the conspirators.
†b. transf. of things. Obs.
1651Evelyn (title) A Character of England. 1705Addison Italy (J.) This subterraneous passage is much mended, since Seneca gave so bad a character of it. 1721Perry Daggenh. Breach 13 Believing by the Character which he had given me, that the Work was brought near to the being finish'd.
c. esp. A formal testimony given by an employer as to the qualities and habits of one that has been in his employ.
1693Col. Rec. Penn I. 399, I have had a good character of you, Sir. 1785R. Cumberland in Observer No. 96 §2 [I] took the rascal upon his word without a character. 1859Lang Wand. India 120 Then came..the coachman, the grooms, the sweeper. For each and all of these I had to write characters. 1878Lady Lytton Shells fr. Sands of T. 162 She got a place with a false character.
15. Recognized official rank; status; position assumed or occupied. Now influenced by sense 17.
c1645Howell Lett. i. iii. 10 The Spaniard, when he petitions to his King, gives him no other Character but Sir. 1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. vi. (1703) II. 151 Mr. Hyde was made Chancellor of the Exchequer; who, till that time..was not under any Character in the Court. a1714Burnet Own Time II. 39 He had the appointments of an ambassador, but would not take the character. 1786Burke Art. W. Hastings Wks. 1842 II. 160 The East India company, not only in their political character, as a great sovereign power in India, but in their commercial character. 1852H. Rogers Ess. I. vii. 335 He never really appeared but in one character, that of a philosopher. 1875Stubbs Const. Hist. III. xviii. 189 From that day the legal recognition of his royal character begins.
16. a. A person regarded in the abstract as the possessor of specified qualities; a personage, a personality.
1749Fielding Tom Jones vii. i, Eminent characters have..played the fool. 1791Hampson Mem. Wesley II. 29 A magistrate, who acquits himself with ability..is a respectable and useful character. 1854Landor Lett. American 52 He [Cobbett] had more sagacity and foresight than any other public character of his time. 1867Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) I. ii. 53 ælfred is the most perfect character in history.
b. colloq. A person, man, fellow (freq. slightly derogatory: cf. sense 18).
1931D. Runyon Guys & Dolls (1932) 15 Marvin Clay is a most obnoxious character. Ibid. 75 The paymaster must be a very dishonest character. 1938― Take It Easy 16 Tammany Hall is greatly dissatified with the character who already represents it in Congress. 1946J. Richardson Phoney Phleet 150 So widely was this Swordfish known That characters could not be found To drive it. 1954W. W. Tarn in E. Barker et al. Europ. Inheritance I. 163 Archilochus of Paros, an unpleasant character who started the fashion of writing about oneself. 1962J. Cannan All is Discovered iv. 88 The character who owns Mab..leaves his gear out in her.
17. a. A personality invested with distinctive attributes and qualities, by a novelist or dramatist; also, the personality or ‘part’ assumed by an actor on the stage.
1664Dryden Rival Ladies Epist. ded., He may be allow'd sometimes to Err, who undertakes to move so many Characters and Humours as are requisite in a Play. 1668― Dram. Poesie 53 Besides Morose, there are at least 9 or 10 different Characters and humours in the Silent Woman, all which persons have several concernments of their own. 1674T. Rymer Pref. to Rapin sig. A 4 Many of his Characters have but little of the Heroick in them; Dalga is a Jilt, proper onely for Comedy [etc.]. 1679Dryden Troil. & Cress. Pref. sig. a 4 The chief character or Hero in a Tragedy..ought in prudence to be such a man, who has so much more in him of Virtue than of Vice... If Creon had been the chief character in Œdipus [etc.]. 1749Fielding Tom Jones xviii. i, Whatever characters any..have for the jest-sake personated..are now thrown off. 1756–82J. Warton Ess. Pope I. ii. 57 The comic character of Sir Trusty. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 5 In the Philebus the character of Socrates has disappeared. 1882A. W. Ward Dickens vii. 215 To no other author were his own characters ever more real.
b. in (or out of) character: in (or at variance with) the part assumed; hence gen. in (or out of) harmony, appropriate, fitting.
1745J. Mason Self-Knowl. i. iv. (1853) 41 It is always Self-ignorance that leads a man to act out of character. 1777Sheridan Sch. Scand. iii. i, That would be in character, I should think. 1876Freeman Norm. Conq. II. App. 715 The matter of the answer is clearly in character.
18. colloq. An odd, extraordinary, or eccentric person.
1773Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. ii. i, A very impudent fellow this! but he's a character, and I'll humour him. 1832G. Downes Lett. Cont. Countries I. 473 ‘Ahi lassa’, added with a sigh the old man, who was a bit of a character. 1839Ld. Brougham Statesm. Geo. III (ed. 2) 270 He was..a character as it is called: By this is meant a mind cast in a peculiar mould.
19. attrib. or in comb., as character-drawing, character-formation, character-monger, character-study, character-trait, etc.; character-building, character-forming, character-making, character-moulding, character-reading, character-training ns. and adjs.; also character-actor, an actor who specializes in character parts; so character-act v., character-acting, character-actress; character assassin, one who destroys the reputation of another person; so character assassination; character comedian, a character-actor specializing in comic roles; character dance, (a) Ballet, a dance which interprets a real or imaginary personality; (b) a characteristic national dance; so character dancer, character dancing; character part, an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or peculiarities; character set Computing, a set of letters, digits, and other characters that can be drawn on to represent data, usu. varying according to the hardware involved; character-sketch, a brief description of a person's character; so character-sketching; character string Computing, a linear sequence of characters, esp. stored in or processed by a computer; character-structure, the various traits in a person's character, seen as forming a system in which some are more important than others.
1895G. B. Shaw Our Theatres in Nineties (1932) I. 106 Mr Volpé..is a credible and natural Brixton paterfamilias, and does not ‘*character-act’.
1878J. Knight in Athenæum 16 Mar. 359/2 What is known as *character acting has definitely established its supremacy in England upon the ruins of tragic art. 1895G. B. Shaw Our Theatres in Nineties (1932) I. 197 She..allows her comic-song singing to decay into mere seventh-rate character acting.
1883Stage 9 Nov., By a ‘*character actor’ is understood one who pourtrays individualities and eccentricities, as opposed to the legitimate actor who..endeavours to create the rôle as limned by the author.
1926New Republic 12 May 362 Miss Cadell is a *character actress in the English school. 1933P. Godfrey Back-Stage xvi. 197 The general manager's wife was a character actress of no great distinction.
1951in Amer. Speech XXVI. 293/2 A period of ‘the big lie’, of the furtive informer, of the *character assassin.
1949Amer. Sociol. Rev. Feb. 17 Gossip..is the principal means of communication within and between the castes, with *character-assassination and ego-expansion being the principal topics. 1951H. MacInnes Neither Five nor Three vi. 92 Character assassination, they call it... If they can't find out anything against a man, they invent it. 1958Listener 2 Jan. 13/1 The effects of these ‘character assassinations’ have been disastrous..on the willingness of scientists to work for the government.
1886E. G. White Pract. Addresses in Hist. Sk. Seventh-Day Adventists 134/2 We should make daily advancement in the work of *character-building. 1900J. Clifford in Daily News 28 Nov. 4/4 Character-building literature. 1925W. Deeping Sorrell & Son vii. 69 They call it ‘forming your mind’—character building. 1944R. Lehmann Ballad & Source 178, I felt the ominous subject of character-building begin to breathe its threat upon me.
1898W. Archer Theatr. World of 1897 332 Mr Sydney Valentine's Pew was the powerful, picturesque and humorous embodiment which was only to be expected of one of the very best of our *character-comedians.
1911J. E. C. Flitch Mod. Dancing iii. 42 Her *character dances..were new and graceful. 1922Beauclerk & Evrenov tr. Svetlov's T. Karsavina 44 A series of dances, either classical or combined with the ‘character’ dance. 1943K. Ambrose Ballet-Lover's Pocket-Bk. 42 A character-dance is usually taken to mean a dance in which les pointes are not used: or a national dance of some kind.
1899Cosmopolitan Nov. 30 Spanish *character-dancer. 1936A. L. Haskell in ‘C. Brahms’ Footnotes to Ballet i. 11 There is the character dancer who may specialise in the miming of comic rôles or in villainous miming (usually also comical) or in national dancing.
1928― Some Stud. Ballet 135 Such a ballet shows Massine at his best, true to tradition, yet decidedly original, blending classical and *character dancing in a manner entirely his own.
1882Pall Mall G. 16 Aug. 5/2 His powers of plot-weaving or *character-drawing.
1944H. Read Educ. Free Men vi. 22 This gives the teacher his only possibility for..‘*character-formation’.
1903Abp. of Canterbury in Westm. Gaz. 22 Aug. 3/2, I want the fullest assurance I can get that one who is to help the children..regards the Book as..far superior in *character-forming power to the creeds of the Churches. 1910Daily Chron. 25 Jan. 7/4 This..character-forming state can be keyed up by passion into an everlasting harmony.
1921*Character-making [see Africanoid a.].
1843Macaulay Mad. D'Arblay, Ess. (1854) 710/2 His dear little Burney, his little *character-monger.
1877New Dominion Monthly i. 183 It is only *character-moulding,..for which we demand neither preparation nor a knowledge of the business. 1907Daily Chron. 27 Aug. 3/3 The restricting and character-moulding nature of environment.
1811in Dram. Censor for 1811 (1812) 481 (Advt.), For the Ballet.—Monsieur Didelot, Ballet-Master, and occasionally to perform *Character Parts. 1866Reader 26 May 510 In comedy and *character parts, such as Justice Shallow. 1939T. S. Eliot Old Possum's Bk. Pract. Cats 37, I'd a voice that would soften the hardest of hearts, Whether I took the lead, or in character parts.
1892‘Mark Twain’ Amer. Claimant 217 The difficult science of *character-reading. 1924V. Woolf Mr. Bennett 4 It would be impossible to live for a year without disaster unless one practised character-reading.
1958Communications Assoc. Computing Machinery Dec. 10 Each one of these uses the *character set of a particular computer and is the language accepted by a translator for that computer. 1967Cox & Grose Organiz. Bibliogr. Rec. by Computer II. 45 This is important when one wants to go back and insert an odd character in the middle of a standard character set. 1985Pract. Computing May 19/3 (Advt.), The CPC464 has a..numeric keypad for fast data entry and a full 8-bit character set.
1885Eng. Illustr. Mag. May 515 (heading) Wolseley: A *Character Sketch. 1897M. Loyd & F. Simmonds tr. Gréard's Meissonier 71 His charming character-sketch of this worthy is almost a watercolour.
1888Atalanta I. 413/2 It is full of bits of *character-sketching. 1936Discovery Dec. 398/1 Those who like a seriously-written book with plenty of character-sketching will enjoy it.
1966IFIP-ICC Vocab. Information Processing 31 *Character string. 1973C. W. Gear Introd. Computer Sci. ii. 74 Because a computer can manipulate character strings, a program can be written to read statements in a language such as FORTRAN and translate them into machine-language sequences. 1984Which Micro? Dec. 32/2 The program would not permit one to enter a character string, where a number is expected.
1949M. Mead in M. Fortes Social Struct. 20 The *character structure of the individuals. 1962R. Fine Freud v. 67 Character structure is built on the modes in which the biologically determined instincts are handled.
1894W. Archer in World 5 Sept. 11/2 A more searching *character-study than he has hitherto attempted.
1898Daily News 27 June 4/7 The social side of *character-training is to be attempted.
1924tr. Freud's Coll. Papers II. iv. 50 The permanent *character-traits are either unchanged perpetuations of the original impulses, sublimations of them, or reaction-formations against them. 1962Philosophy XXXVII. 38 Character-traits are shown in the sort of things a man can decide to be.
▪ II. character, v.|ˈkærəktə(r)|
Also 7 carractre, caracter, charracter.
[f. prec. n. By Shakespeare, and in 17th c., often accented chaˈracter.]
1. trans. To engrave, imprint; to inscribe, write.
1591Shakes. Two Gent. ii. vii. 4 The Table wherein all my thoughts Are visibly Character'd, and engrau'd. c1600― Sonn. cviii, What's in the braine that Inck may character Which hath not figur'd to thee my true spirit? 1609Heywood Bryt. Troy v. xxviii, The hoofed Centaures..character deepe halfe Moones where they tread. 1784Cowper Task iii. 823 As if in golden pomp Were character'd on ev'ry statesman's door, ‘Batter'd and bankrupt fortunes mended here’. 1856Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh ii. 1052 His holy ring Charactered over with the ineffable spell.
b. fig.
1602Shakes. Ham. i. iii. 59 These few Precepts in thy memory See thou Character. 1641J. Jackson True Evang. T. ii. 101 Religion charactereth itselfe upon the regenerate soule in innocency. 1657Divine Lover 278 Imprint, and caracter them in my Hart.
2. To represent, symbolize, portray. arch.
1594Greene Selimus Prol., You shall behold him character in bloud, The image of an vnplacable King. a1640Day Parl. Bees ii. (1881) 17 The Author in his Russet Bee Characters Hospitalitie. 1782Paine Let. Abbé Raynel (1791) 47 Several of our passions are strongly charactered by the animal world. a1834Lamb Final Mem. viii. (1848) 272 The contrition so queerly charactered of a contrite sinner.
3. To describe the qualities of; to delineate, describe; = characterize v. 3.
1618Hist. Perkin Warbeck in Select. fr. Harl. Misc. (1793) 68 Perkin, according to the Dutch phrase, who character cowardly and timorous younglings in that manner. 1627Bargrave Serm. 8 In Sauls offence, cleerely characterd in this chapter, two points are most remarkable. 1798Southey in Robberds Mem. W. Taylor I. 232 You have well charactered him. 1868Browning Ring & Bk. I. i. 189 There's our Count Charactered in a word.
†b. with complement. Obs.
1647W. Browne Polex. ii. 27 This great Prince, which his [divining] art had charactered to him for the miracle of these times. 1649Selden Laws Eng. i. lxx. (1739) 187 Otherwise it can..be charactered as a trick. 1650Fuller Pisgah i. ii. 6 Charactered to be a countrey flowing with milk and honey. Ibid. ii. xii. 254 The Canaanites..hitherto had charactered them invincible. 1709Strype Ann. Ref. I. xxi. 237 He was charactered to be a virtuous godly man.
4. To distinguish by particular marks, signs, or features; to stamp; = characterize v. 4.
1647Lilly Chr. Astrol. i. 26 We call that Aspect an Opposition, and character the Aspect thus {opp}. 1662Fuller Worthies (1840) I. xxi. 85 We have..charactered them with a ‘Rem.’ for ‘Remove’. c1800K. White Christmas-Day 25 So has the year been character'd with woe. 1805Southey Madoc in Art. iii, But her son Had Nature character'd so legibly, That when his tongue told fair, his face bewray'd The lurking falsehood.
5. To invest with a character, impart a character to; = characterize v. 5.
1654[see charactered ppl. a.]. 1686Goad Celest. Bodies i. vii. 23 That the Days are.. Character'd in their constitution, according to her accesses or recesses to the Sun or Tropick. 1814Southey Roderick xvii, A warrior's impulse character'd The impassion'd gesture. 1865Bushnell Vicar. Sacr. ii. vii. 369 The trusting of one's self over, sinner to Saviour, to be..new charactered by Him. |