| 释义 |
sinuous, a.|ˈsɪnjuːəs|
Also 7 sinewes (?).
[ad. L. sinuōs-us (see sinus and -ous) or F. sinueux; cf. It., Sp., and Pg. sinuoso.]
1. a. Characterized by or abounding in turns, curves, or sinuosities; sinuate, curving.
1578Banister Hist. Man i. 28 It behoued the head of Radius also to be more depressed, and somewhat sinuous. 1626Bacon Sylva §132 It would be tryed, how..the Voice will be carried..in a Trumpet, which is a line Retorted; Or in some Pipe that were Sinuous. 1667Milton P.L. vii. 481 Whatever creeps the ground, Insect or Worme,..Streaking the ground with sinuous trace. 1686Snape Anat. Horse App. i. 11 The Seed-leaf on its outside is sinuous or full of crinkles. 1708Ozell tr. Boileau's Lutrin 20 In a Cap's round sinuous Bottom laid. 1717Berkeley Tour Italy Wks. 1871 IV. 585 Obstinate, deep, and sinuous ulcers. 1822J. Parkinson Outl. Oryctol. 117 The mouth large, widely sinuous. 1843R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. xxiii. 280 The lungs..containing several sinuous cavities. 1862Darwin Orchids i. 12 The slightest touch causes it to rupture transversely, in a sinuous line.
b. Of rivers, coasts, roads, routes, etc.
1633J. Done Hist. Septuagint 51 The Flood Meander running with his Sinewes returnes and windings. 1635J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Banish'd Virg. 179 Roving from Port to Port in that sinuous Region. 1784Cowper Task i. 165 Here Ouse, slow winding through a level plain.., Conducts the eye along his sinuous course. 1797Coleridge Kubla Khan 8 There were gardens bright with sinuous rills. 1810T. L. Peacock Genius of the Thames 7 While Thames impels, with sinuous flow, His silent-rolling stream below. 1854Hooker Himal. Jrnls. I. xviii. 379 Its bold spurs enclosing sinuous river gorges. 1878Huxley Physiogr. xviii. 303 A sinuous band of highlands stretches almost continuously.
c. transf. Intricate, complex; roundabout.
1853Card. Wiseman Ess. II. 338 The perplexities of this formulary,..its sinuous involutions,..make its character too plain, as a snare to the simple of heart. 1860O. W. Holmes Poet Breakf.-t. ix, I have been sinuous as the links of Forth..; sinuous, I say, but not..hard to follow for a reader of the right sort.
d. fig. Deviating from the right; not straight-forward or direct; morally crooked.
1850Whipple Ess. & Rev. (1856) I. 207 A man..who has acquired high station by no sinuous path. 1859Helps Friends in C. Ser. ii. II. x. 230 The beginning of a sinuous course of extravagance. 1901Scotsman 28 Feb. 6/3 The end of his sinuous career is in view.
2. Of movements: Taking place in curves.
1877Rosenthal Muscles & Nerves 11 A..whip-like process by the sinuous motions of which these animals move themselves about in the water.
3. Of animals: Moving with supple bends of the body. Also of people.
1897F. Thompson New Poems 143 The stealthy terror of the sinuous pard. 1906B. Vaughan Sins of Society 129 The lithesome, sinuous girl trips with it across the stage to her mother.
4. quasi-adv. Sinuously.
1885M. E. Braddon Wyllard's Weird I. i. 2 Now the line seems strung like a thread of iron.., now winds sinuous as a snake.
Hence ˈsinuously adv., ˈsinuousness.
1684Phil. Trans. XIV. 513 The..Streams which do arise from under the Mountains do evidence the hollowness, and Sinousness [sic] of them. 1727Bailey (vol. II), Sinuousness, Fulness of Turnings and Windings. 1847Proc. Berw. Nat. Club II. 249 Whence it narrows rather sinuously to the posterior angles. 1880T. Hodgkin Italy & her Invaders iii. v. II. 409 The dragon ensigns floated sinuously to the breeze. 1924R. Macaulay Orphan Island xiii. §4 Like a sturdy little boy without feminine elegances, or any of Flora's wild-animal sinuousness. 1980Early Music July 308/1 Any actor reciting them..would certainly emphasize the contrast between the biting sk sound at the beginning of these two words and the powerful sinuousness of ‘l'onde’. |