| 释义 |
shortness|ˈʃɔːtnɪs|
[f. short a. + -ness.]
1. The quality or fact of being short in duration, linear magnitude, serial extent, etc.; absence of length, brevity.
c1000ælfric Gram. xliv. (Z.) 266 Maneᵹa synd ᵹyt Coniunctiones, þe we ne maᵹon nu secᵹan on ðissere sceortnysse. c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 44 Wiþ schortnesse of sermon. 1496–7Act 12 Hen. VII, c. 2 The seid Statutes for shortnes of tyme syn the making of theym..as yet may not be perfitely knowen. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. iii. i. 378 Such as the shortnesse of the time can shape. 1660Heylin Hist. Ref., Mary (1849) II. 222 [Mary's reign] was only commendable in the brevity or shortness of it. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VI. 47 The shortness of the legs in the web-footed kinds. 1782F. Burney Cecilia ii. vi, The shortness of our acquaintance. 1841Latham Eng. Lang. ii. vii. 136 The comparative shortness of Vowel u. 1885Law Times LXXVIII. 295/2 The shortness of the title might not have been a sufficient objection.
†b. Brevity or conciseness in speech or writing.
c1450in Aungier Syon (1840) 297 Withe a quyet schortenes, they schal say that is to be seyde. 1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 104 Therfore must I vse so much the more shortnesse at this present. 1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. iv. 39 Your plainnesse and your shortnesse please me well.
c. for shortness: for the sake of brevity, to save time or distance. Now rare. † Also for the sake of shortness, because of shortness, etc.
c1450St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 931, I leeue þe proloug for shortnes. 1599Hakluyt Voy. II. i. 84 And many other were wounded, whose names be not rehearsed here, because of shortnesse. 1710in Nairne Peerage Evid. (1874) 153 Under the reservations provisions and declarations above exprest (which are here holden as sett down for shortnes sake). 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. II. iv. vii, Taking side-roads, for shortness, for safety.
†d. (a) A short period (of time). (b) Short stature. Obs.
1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV. v. ii. 83 The time of life is short; To spend that shortnesse basely were too long. 1650Don Bellianis x. 56 Don Bellianis, whose shortnesse reached not to the others middle. 1684Contempl. St. Man i. ii. (1699) 12 Most of those things..even during the shortness of Time which they last, have a thousand changes.
2. Defective reach (of vision, memory, etc.).
1635R. N. tr. Camden's Hist. Eliz. iv. 586 The Queene made answer with shortnesse of minde. 1661Cowley Cromwell Ess. etc. (1906) 361 A little mistake of the shortness of his sight. 1704Swift T. Tub iii. 74 Yet has the unhappy shortness of my Memory led me into an Error. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. III. iii. iv, Their fatal shortness of vision. 1904H. Paul Hist. Mod. Eng. II. ix. 192 The extreme shortness of his sight would have interfered with his efficiency as a soldier.
†3. Defectiveness, imperfection; pl. defects, shortcomings. Obs.
1644Digby Nat. Bodies 346 Since his raigne was but at the beginning of sciences, he could not chose but haue some defects and shortenesses. 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacræ i. i. §9. 10 Which..through the shortness of their own reason doth appear to them to be so. 1736Butler Anal. ii. iii. Wks. 1874 I. 181 The shortness of our faculties.
4. shortness of breath: a dyspnœic condition, breathlessness.
1577Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 190 The water thereof distilled and drunke..helpeth the cough, and shortnesse of breath. 1898Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 350 The dyspnœa of pleurisy without liquid effusion is chiefly shortness of breath.
5. The condition of being ‘short of’ something; deficiency, want (esp. of money, food, etc.); also, scantiness (of a supply, a crop, † a meal).
1669Woodhead St. Teresa ii. 265 The meanness, and shortness of their Dinner. 1763Scrofton Indostan i. (1770) 20 The poor and middling sort are only curbed by the shortness of their finances. 1831Sir J. Sinclair Corr. II. 28 The shortness of the crop, will assist in reducing the price of lands still lower. 1838Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 174/2 The shortness of water in the boiler had the effect of over-heating the plates. 1882Mrs. J. H. Riddell Prince's Garden-Party 205 There was no shortness of money.
6. The quality of being ‘short’ in texture or substance; friability, brittleness.
1655Moufet & Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 271 The Head of the Carp, the Tail of a Pike, and the Belly of a Bream are most esteemed, for their Tenderness, Shortness, and well relishing. 1758Reid tr. Macquer's Chem. I. 363 The brittleness and shortness of Pig-iron. 1861W. Fairbairn Iron 175 Metallic manganese has been used by Mr. Mushet to correct red shortness or cold shortness in steel. |