| 释义 |
▪ I. quite, adv.|kwaɪt|
Forms: 4–6 quit, quyte, 5 Sc. quhyt, 5–6 quyt, 6 quyght, 6–7 quight, 4– quite.
[f. quite quit a.]
I. Completely, wholly, altogether, entirely; to the fullest extent or degree.
1. With verbs, esp. in the pa. pple., denoting the thorough completion of the action. † Formerly also in phr. quite and clean: see clean adv. 6.
c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 45 Lyndessie he destroied quite alle bidene. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints iv. (James) 288 In þe entent Þat þai suld have bene quyt schent. a1529Skelton Phyllyp Sparowe 706 Comfort had he none For she was quyte gone. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 273 b, All that was there begonne, was quite dasshed. 1590Spenser F.Q. iii. v. 41 His foule sore..she reduced, but himselfe destroyed quight. 1603Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 204 For now was the Greeke Emperour..quite driuen out of the lesser Asia. 1630Prynne Anti-Armin. 133 That I may quite vnuaile the hidden mysteries of this vniuersal grace. 1700S. L. tr. Fryke's Voy. E. Ind. 57 We found our selves forced to Intrench, lest they should have routed us quite. 1785Reid Wks. (1863) I. 67/2 My distemper is almost quite gone. 1859M. Arnold Southern Night in Poems (1869) I. 218 Thy memory, thy pain, tonight..Possess me quite. 1880Jefferies Gt. Estate 59 Haws..which often quite cover the hawthorn bushes.
2. With prepositional or adverbial phrases.
c1375Sc. Leg. Saints xxxiv. (Pelagia) 124 It..flaw vpe quyt in þe ayre. c1440Generydes 3048 It ranne down quyte thorough the harnes. 1470–85Malory Arthur x. lxxix, He smote hym doune quyte from his hors. 1545Brinklow Compl. 28 b, He bracke it quyte in pecys. 1551Robinson tr. More's Utop. i. (1895) 112 That is..quyte out of remembraunce. a1600Hooker Serm. Sorrow & Fear Wks. 1888 III. 649 The sword that pierceth their souls quite through. 1638R. Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. II) 43, I have done it against the streame of my resolution quite. c1710C. Fiennes Diary (1888) 91 Severall nitches for statues quite round it. 1766Goldsm. Vic. W. xviii, Dryden's and Rowe's manner..are quite out of fashion. Ibid. xxi, I had thrown all their power quite away. 1816J. Wilson City of Plague ii. ii. 3 Here have I sat..Quite by myself. 1870E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. I. 153 The room was not quite without ornament.
3. a. With adjs., and advbs. or ns. derived from these, denoting that they are to be understood in their fullest or most absolute sense.
c1375Sc. Leg. Saints xl. (Ninian) 1336 Blynd I ame quhyt & fre. 1597Bp. Hall Sat. i. iii. 17 Threats, That his poore hearers hayre quite vpright sets. 1604Bp. Andrewes Wks. II. 142 Able to quicken our consideration, if it be not quite dead. 1671Milton P.R. iv. 317 One regardless quite Of mortal things. 1751Franklin Lett. Wks. 1840 V. 263 By quite dry air, I mean the dryest we have. 1765A. Dickson Treat. Agric. (ed. 2) 196 The mold-board in the common ploughs is..almost quite straight. 1838J. Kemper in Wisconsin Mag. Hist. (1925) VIII. 429 It was quite one when we arrived at Lathrop's tavern at Mineral Point. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. xxiv. 170, I spent that day quite alone upon the Mer de Glace. 1879R. K. Douglas Confucianism iv. 95 A man should be quite certain what he knows and what he does not know. 1927M. de la Roche Jalna xix. 223 There were quite eight books in the packet.
b. Preceded by def. or indef. article, chiefly with adjs. expressing difference. † a quite other = quite another; † the quite contrary (freq. in 17th c.) = quite the contrary (see next).
1594Carew Huarte's Exam. Wits 116 In the Spaniards, we discerne the quite contrarie. 1618Bolton Florus ii. vi. 108 Livius marcht..into the quite opposit quarter. 1661Cressy Refl. Oathes Suprem. & Alleg. 51–2 It speaks a quite other language. 1665Boyle Occas. Refl. iv. xiii. (1848) 249 Upon a quite contrary account than they intended. 1712Steele Spect. No. 493 ⁋1 In proportion to his deserving the quite contrary. a1774Goldsm. Hist. Greece I. 251 Into things of a quite opposite nature. 1875Ruskin Fors Clav. V. lx. 348 When the luxuries are produced, it becomes a quite separate question who is to have them.
c. Preceding the article, chiefly as in prec., and esp. in phr. quite another (thing, question, etc.); occas. with intervening prep. (cf. 2).
1626Bacon Sylva §125 For the Impression of the Sound, it is quite another Thing. 1657W. Rand tr. Gassendi's Life Peiresc ii. 262 Trees, quite of another kind. 1664Pepys Diary III. 91 The comet..is gone quite to a new place in the heavens. 1679Penn Addr. Prot. ii. 146 That's quite another thing than being certain. 1716Davies Athen. Brit. II. 401 Which was quite the reverse in those two..Prelates. 1751R. Paltock P. Wilkins (1883) II. 194 That I did first was quite of a different colour from the leaf. 1810Bentham Offic. Apt. Maximized, Def. Econ. (1830) 52 Any such accidental display is quite another business. 1845M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 16 For quite another reason.
d. colloq. Expressing appreciation of or agreement with a statement. Freq. quite so.
1892A. Conan Doyle Adv. Sherlock Holmes x. 246 ‘This maid Alice, as I understand, deposes that she..put on a bonnet, and went out.’ ‘Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde-park.’ 1896[see so adv. 5 b]. 1924Galsworthy White Monkey ii. ii. 131 ‘I don't hold with it, myself.’ ‘No, quite!’ 1931Wodehouse If I were You xxii. 243 ‘Our likes and dislikes are not the point,’ she said. ‘The thing's impossible.’ ‘Quite,’ agreed Sir Herbert. 1953E. Simon Past Masters i. 26 ‘I didn't know there was a settlement..only a cemetery.’ ‘The burial ground: quite so.’ 1962D. Lessing Golden Notebook i. 131 ‘I've been supporting policies that should put an end to the whole bloody business.’ ‘Quite. And quite right.’ 1976K. Bonfiglioli Something Nasty in Woodshed x. 123 ‘No takers,’ I said. ‘Quite. By the way, I'm sorry to say ‘quite’ all the time but..my work lies amongst Americans and they expect Englishmen to say it.’
II. Actually, really, truly, positively (implying that the case or circumstances are such as fully justify the use of the word or phrase thus qualified).
4. a. With adjs. or pa. pples., and derived advbs.
1742Richardson Pamela (1811) III. 311 They tell me she's..quite smart and handsome. 1749Fielding Tom Jones xiii. v, The widow, quite charmed with her new lodger, invited him..to breakfast. 1805Emily Clark Banks of Douro I. 248 She felt..so perturbed..that she was quite ill and restless. 1834Beckford Italy I. 326 The gallery immediately before its entrance appeared quite gay. 1848Herschel Ess. (1857) 342 A ship sailing northwards passes quite suddenly from cold into hot water. 1871Ruskin Fors Clav. iii. 17 You would observe..the quite Anglican character of Richard.
b. Preceding the indef. article. quite a few: see few a. 2 d.
1756W. Toldervy Hist. 2 Orphans III. 49 It is quite a pleasing, rural,..plentiful retirement. 1799Southey Lett. (1856) I. 84 Quite a comfortable dwelling. 1843Mill Logic (1865) I. 403 Up to quite a recent period. 1860Keble Lett. (1870) 184 They are quite a large party in Edinburgh. 1884Manch. Exam. 3 May 6/1 At quite an early hour.
c. Coupled with too.
1763C. Johnston Reverie I. 137 Your offer is quite too low. 1782F. Burney Cecilia vii. i. (1893) 269 Going to Mr. Harrel's again would have been quite too dismal. 1843J. Martineau Chr. Life (1867) 14 Presenting the Creator to us in a relation quite too mean. 1882H. C. Merivale Faucit of B. III. ii. xii. 47, I quite too awfully near put my foot in it! 1890Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang II. 164/2 Quite too nice (society), expression much used by the aesthetic female portion of society, meaning much the same as ‘awfully jolly’. 1897A. Beardsley Let. 26 Apr. (1970) 308 It is quite too nice to be here... Yesterday we had a charming lunch party at Lapérouse. 1909J. R. Ware Passing Eng. p. v, It may be hoped that there are errors on every page, and also that no entry is ‘quite too dull’. 1977P. Scupham Hinterland 15 Paquerelle, we fall back on the language of the Aesthetics: Your composition is quite too utterly too too.
d. With superlatives.
1863F. Locker London Lyrics (1870) 106 And all that sort of thing, of which Dear Hawthorne's ‘quite’ the best describer. 1883Harper's Mag. Nov. 882/1 The auditorium is quite the largest in the world. 1911G. B. Shaw Getting Married 218 Don't you think her letters are quite the best love-letters I get? 1934W. B. Yeats Words upon Window-Pane 36 Exactly: quite the best kind of mediumship if you want to establish the identity of a spirit. 1981Country Life 12 Feb. 409/1 The high degree of accuracy..quite the highest, surely, that can be attained.
5. a. With substantives preceded by a, or in pl. Also in mod. usage, implying emphatic, and occas. ironic, commendation.
c1586C'tess Pembroke Ps. lxix. iv, To my kynn a stranger quite, Quite an alien am I grown. 1737Pope Hor. Sat. ii. vi. 146 Something..quite a scandal not to learn. ― Ep. i. i. 50 Far from a Lynx, and not a Giant quite. 1762Lloyd Poet. Wks. (1774) I. 183 It's quite a journey to come here. 1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life I. 291 That must have been quite a scene. 1816Jane Austen Emma iii. vi. 86 You are an odd creature!.. You are a humourist... Quite a humourist. 1840Thackeray Catherine i, There's many a girl in the village that at my age is quite chits. 1859C. M. Tuttle Diary 30 May in Wisconsin Mag. Hist. (1931) XV. 78 Council Bluffs is quite a place containing about 3 thousand inhabitants. 1896T. F. Tout Edw. I, iv. 79 A daughter..who died when quite a child. 1917Dialect Notes IV. 398 An extension of the adverbial use as in ‘He is quite a lad’. 1938E. Hemingway Fifth Column i. iii. 28 Comrade's quite a word. I suppose I oughtn't to chuck it around. 1950‘D. Divine’ King of Fassarai xx. 166 We had us a party last night—quite a party. 1962‘A. Garve’ Prisoner's Friend ii. 97 Sheila was in a much happier frame of mind... As he was beginning to think she was quite a girl. a1974R. Crossman Diaries (1975) I. 219 It had been quite a week and I wanted a day of relaxation.
b. With ns. preceded by the (also with adj.).
1762Goldsm. Cit. W. lxxvii, It [silk] is at once rich, tasty, and quite the thing. 1799Coleridge Lett. (1895) 277 Pipes are quite the rage. 1803in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. VII. 20 Quite the tippy for the boxes. 1865Sat. Rev. July 14 The Chancellor is not quite the right man for his..place. 1888Poor Nellie 114 It was quite the thing to be in love.
c. With ns. preceded by some. Chiefly U.S.
1894Dialect Notes I. 333 Quite..common in C[entral] J[ersey] in such expressions as ‘quite some’. 1896Ibid. I. 422 You'll have quite some potatoes on the patch. 1931Amer. Speech Oct. 20 It was quite some excitement we had for a while. 1977Lancs. Life Nov. 58/2 A wooden toy..for {pstlg}125. It was, as you will have gathered, quite some toy.
d. Phr. quite something, a remarkable thing; a good deal. colloq.
1958‘N. Blake’ Penknife in Heart iv. 60 Well now, that's quite something. Thank you. 1968Guardian 10 Oct. 7/2 She found out that I was sleeping with someone else and she had to accept the situation which was quite something because it wasn't even a woman. 1971‘L. Black’ Death has Green Fingers iii. 25 Your village seems to be quite something with the lid off. 1973Where Jan. 27/2 Ideally, of course, all readers should have been included—but the work involved in analysing such a mass of information would have been quite something. 1977Lancs. Life Nov. 74/3 The Women's Institute itself is quite something.
6. With verbs (= ‘to go as far as’, ‘to do as much as’).
1770E. Carter Lett., to Mrs. Montagu II. 67, I quite longed for you to share my admiration of it. 1819Metropolis I. 213 Lady Mildew..quite haunts us. Ibid. 249 A certain upstart commoner..quite made love to me. 1848J. H. Newman Loss & Gain 192 A great personage..quite scoffed at their persisting to hold it. 1866G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. xiii. (1878) 285 You can't quite believe there is a God at all.
7. With prep. phrases or advbs.
1846Landor Wks. II. 16 There are minerals and instruments quite at hand.
III. 8. In a weakened sense: rather, to a moderate degree, fairly.
This sense has develped out of sense II, and is often difficult to distinguish from it. As a result, sense I is usually felt to be old-fashioned or stilted, and has become less common, except where quite is in collocation with certain types of adjective (and their derived adverbs) such as different, separate, right, wrong, sure, definite, etc.
1854Thoreau Walden 226 Perhaps I have owed to this employment and to hunting, when quite young, my closest acquaintance with Nature. 1886Science 30 Apr. 403/1 The lithographer has done his work quite, though hardly very, well. 1889J. K. Jerome Three Men in Boat ix. 144 If so, who was the real one that was dreaming, and who was the one that was only a dream: it got quite interesting. 1919G. B. Shaw Heartbreak House ii. 54 Theyve been proud of my poverty. Theyve even joked about it quite often. 1931E. O'Neill Homecoming 1, in Mourning becomes Electra (1932) 16 Borne on the light puffs of wind this music is at times quite loud. 1952A. Wilson Hemlock & After iii. 58, I quite like queers if it comes to that, so long as they're not on the make like Evelyn's boys. 1958‘A. Bridge’ Portuguese Escape xvi. 265 You shall..when you have answered one quite small question: where is now Dr. Antal Horvath? 1970G. F. Newman Sir, you Bastard ii. 43 Sneed quite liked DI Johnny Doleman, and the man treated him like an intelligent equal. 1976C. Sarfas Space & Space Travel 19 But the astronauts were wearing their heavy spacesuits and equipment, so even on the moon it was quite hard to move. 1980J. McClure Blood of Englishman xvi. 144, I only said a ‘quite’ brilliant idea, sir—not a ‘very’.
IV.
9. quasi-adj. ellipt. for ‘quite a gentleman (lady, etc.)’; socially acceptable. Usu. in neg. Also quite-quite.
1867Trollope Last Chron. Barset I. xlii. 371 Still he wasn't quite,—not quite, you know—‘not quite so much of a gentleman as I am’—Mr Walker would have said, had he spoken out freely that which he insinuated. But he contented himself with the emphasis he put upon the ‘not quite’, which expressed his meaning fully. 1878― Is he Popenjoy? I. xiv. 195 ‘I have always liked the Dean personally,’ said Lady Sarah... ‘But he isn't—he isn't quite—’ ‘No; he isn't quite—,’ said Lord George, also hesitating to pronouce the word which was understood by both of them. 1907M. E. Braddon Dead Love has Chains vi. 124 Oh, she is quite quite, don't you know... Her father is Sir Michael Thelliston. 1915V. Woolf Voyage Out xi. 159 Mr. Perrott..knew he was not ‘quite’, as Susan stated..not quite a gentleman she meant. 1926Whispering Gallery viii. 114 He's not ‘quite quite’, you know, but he's so clever. 1930C. Williams Poetry at Present 165 That awful moment when..one feels that one is ‘not quite’. 1945A. Huxley Time must have Stop xxi. 200 ‘You'll find him a bit..well, you know, not quite...’ The deprecating gesture sufficiently indicated what he quite wasn't. 1956J. Masters Bugles & Tiger xv. 182 This was supposed to be not quite quite, and British officers took no part in it. 1960M. Cecil Something in Common 7 ‘She's a Lady’ (acceptable), or ‘He's not Quite’ (rejected).
▪ II. ‖ quite, n. Bullfighting.|ˈkite|
[Sp.]
The action of distracting the bull from a man or a horse by means of elaborate capework.
1926E. Hemingway Sun also Rises xviii. 225 His first ‘quite’ was directly below us. The three matadors take the bull in turn. 1932― Death in Afternoon xvii. 184 The spectator..will be liable to..watch the horse and miss the quite that the matador has made. 1957A. MacNab Bulls of Iberia v. 52 As the picador falls on the sand, the first matador rushes in with his cape, to distract the bull... This rescue job is called making a quite. 1967McCormick & Mascareñas Compl. Aficionado ii. 36 We are told that the glory of the early corrida was the emphasis upon cape work in the quites necessitated by the large number of pics to the toro. 1975Oxf. Compan. Sports & Games 140/1 The measures take the form of keeping the bull under control at all times..making certain that the animal is not excessively enfeebled during the suerte de varas due to tardy quites.
▪ III. quite
obs. form of quit a. and v.; white. |