| 释义 |
slightness|ˈslaɪtnɪs|
[f. as prec. + -ness.]
The character or quality of being slight, in various senses of the word.
1. Lack of substance, strength, thoroughness, etc.
1607Shakes. Cor. iii. i. 148 It must omit Reall Necessities, and giue way the while To vnstable Slightnesse. 1691T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. 104 The service and firmness of the Cast-Lead, and the sleightness and the charge of the other. 1727Bailey (vol. II), Sleaziness (of Cloth), Slightness of Workmanship. 1788Sir J. Reynolds Disc. xiv. (1842) 254 The slightness which we see in his [Gainsborough's] best works cannot always be imputed to negligence. 1817Jas. Mill Brit. India I. ii. iv. 163 It is treated with a negligence and slightness due to a matter of subordinate importance. 1856Ruskin Mod. Paint. II. iii. i. x. §3 It is..easy to know the slightness of earnest haste from the slightness of blunt feeling, indolence, or affectation.
2. Smallness in amount, degree, etc.
1747tr. Astruc's Fevers 206 A mild fever, through the slightness of the inflammation. 1846Hawthorne Mosses fr. Manse ii. xii. (1864) 254 Glancing with imperceptible slightness at the artist's small and slender frame. 1884Manch. Exam. 13 Dec. 5/2 The slightness of the change is duly appreciated elsewhere. 1889Law Rep. 14 P.D. 109 The absence or slightness of the evidence.
3. Slimness, slenderness.
1797–1805S. & Ht. Lee Canterb. T. V. 128 He had a fixed redness in his face, and had lost the slightness of his person. |