| 释义 |
shapeless, a.|ˈʃeɪplɪs|
[f. shape n.1 + -less.]
1. Without shape or form; having no definite or regular shape.
a1300Cursor M. 350 Þat es þe elementes to sai, Þat first scapless al samen lay. 1587Golding De Mornay vii. 103 The sayd Chaos was as a shapelesse Child [vn Embryon]..scarce set together in the moothers wombe. 1592Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 415 Who weares a garment shapelesse and vnfinisht? 1636Earl of Manchester Contempl. Mortis & Immort. 33 But what is this soule that so delights in futures? Though it be shapelesse and immateriall, yet [etc.]. 1698Froger Voy. Ded., I cou'd not forbear, how shapeless soever the same [sc. this Relation] may be, to present it to Your Honour. 1709Pope Ess. Crit. 158 Some objects please our eyes..The shapeless rock, or hanging precipice. 1770Goldsm. Des. Vill. 47 Sunk are thy bowers in shapeless ruin all. 1799Sir J. Mackintosh Disc. Law Nat. 17 A shapeless compilation, in which reason lies buried under a mass of authorities and quotations. 1821Shelley Prometh. Unb. i. 36 And shapeless sights come wandering by, The ghastly people of the realm of dream. 1891Farrar Darkn. & Dawn xlix. 157 The statue had been fused and disfigured into a mass of shapeless metal.
2. Destitute of beauty or elegance of form, unshapely.
1588Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 303 Let vs complaine to them what fooles were heare, Disguis'd like Muscouites in shapelesse geare. 1590― Com. Err. iv. ii. 20 He is deformed, crooked, old, and sere, Ill-fac'd, worse bodied, shapelesse euery where. a1661B. Holyday tr. Juvenal Sat. x. (1673) 191 A shape-less Lad no Tyrant e're did make His dear Court-Eunuch. 1750Gray Elegy 79 Some frail memorial still erected nigh, With uncouth rhimes and shapeless sculpture deck'd. 1813Scott Trierm. iii. xv, In shapeless characters of yore, The gate this stern inscription bore. 1868Geo. Eliot F. Holt i, The old women at Smyrna are like sacks. You've not got clumsy and shapeless.
3. Without guidance or direction, aimless. rare.
1591Shakes. Two Gent. i. i. 8 To..Weare out thy youth with shapelesse idlenesse. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 133 The drunkard's nerveless, hopeless, shapeless life in death.
Hence ˈshapelessness.
1587Golding De Mornay vii. 102 A proper imagination surely,..to father his so orderly essence vppon the shapelessenesse of a Chaos. 1872Echo 3 Oct. 3 The incoherence and shapelessness which Sir George Jessel vaunts as the perfection of human contrivance. |