| 释义 |
▪ I. contexture|kənˈtɛkstjʊə(r)|
[a. F. contexture (Montaigne, 1572–80), = It. contestura (Florio), prob. repr. a med.L. *contextūra, f. context- ppl. stem of contexĕre: cf. L. textūra texture. Very common in 17th c.; now rare.]
1. The action or process of weaving together or intertwining; the fact of being woven together; the manner in which this is done, texture.
1649Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. ii. xi. ⁋5 Christ..will provide one [scourge] of his own contexture. 1664Power Exp. Philos. i. 46 In the Silk Ribbans, you might plainly see the Contexture. 1691E. Taylor tr. Behmen's Theos. Philos. 64 The profitable Contexture of the Silk-worm. 1726Leoni tr. Alberti's Archit. I. 89 b, Oziers..strike their Roots into the Rampart, and by the contexture of their Fibres strengthen the whole work. 1877Bryant Sella 78 Then Sella hung the slippers in the porch..and all who passed Admired their fair contexture.
b. Sc. Law. (See quot.) Cf. constructure 2.
1861W. Bell Dict. Law Scot., Contexture is a mode of industrial accession borrowed from the Roman Law. It takes place where things belonging to one are wrought into another's cloth, and are carried therewith as accessary.
2. transf. The linking together of materials or elements, so as to form a connected structure (natural or artificial); the manner in which the parts of a thing are thus united.
1605Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. vii. §4 Touching the Contexture or Configuration of things. a1652J. Smith Sel. Disc. vi. 207 A true understanding of things in their coherence and contexture. 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. iii. ii. §14 Without this there cannot be imagined any concourse of Atoms at all, much less any such contexture of bodyes out of them. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iii. §25. 131 Secundary Results from certain fortuitous Concretions and Contextures of Atoms. 1748tr. Vegetius' Distemp. Horses 81 The Joinings and Contexture of the Belly and Intestines. 1866Felton Anc. & Mod. Gr. II. vii. 401 The people..are well shaped and of excellent contexture.
b. fig. of things non-material.
1604Daniel Fun. Poem Earl Devonshire, How that brave mind was built, and in what sort All thy contexture of thy heart hath been. 1672Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 29 The Roman Church, having by a regular Contexture of continued Policy..interwoven itself with the Secular Interest. a1716South Serm. II. viii, Such small..hints have sometimes unravelled..the contexture of the deepest villanies. 1861A. Beresford-Hope Eng. Cathedr. 19th C. v. 168 The services became more lengthy in their recitation, and more artificial in their contexture.
3. The structure, composition, or texture of anything made up by the combination of elements. Now chiefly fig. from 1.
a1639Wotton (J.), He was not of any delicate contexture; his limbs rather sturdy than dainty. 1665–6Phil. Trans. I. 35 A large Mushrom of a loose watrish contexture. 1720W. Gibson Diet. Horses vii. (ed. 3) 111 In some Contextures of Body this produces no immediate effect. 1749Fielding Tom Jones (1775) III. 86 Women are of a nice contexture; and our spirits, when disordered, are not to be recomposed in a moment. 1811Pinkerton Petral. II. 225 Stones apparently hard, are sometimes more subject to decay than those of a softer contexture. 1851Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. I. 525 Society's whole contexture.
4. That which is put together or constructed by the intertwining of parts.
a. quasi-concr. A mass of things interwoven together.
1603Florio Montaigne i. xix. (1632) 37 Shall I not change this goodly contexture of things for you? 1667Phil. Trans. II. 491 The Corpus Callosum is nothing but a Contexture of small Fibres. 1752Chesterfield Lett. III. cclxxiii. 250 That most ingenious contexture of truth and lies. 1876Alexander Bampton Lect. (1877) 229 A great contexture of converging probabilities.
b. An interwoven structure, a fabric.
1603Florio Montaigne i. liii. (1632) 168 All this our contexture is built of weake and decaying peeces. 1664Power Exp. Philos. i. 17 How many thousand parts of Matter must go to make up this heterogeneous Contexture? 1715tr. Pancirollus' Rerum Mem. I. i. iv. 12 These kind of Contextures are not made of Vegetables, but of the Stone Amiantus. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) I. 361 We must not pick out single threads but regard the whole contexture as one piece.
5. The weaving together of words, sentences, etc. in connected composition; the construction or composition of a writing as consisting of connected and coherent members.
1603Daniel Def. Rhime (1717) 19 The contexture of Words. 1605Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. ii. §2 A perfect continuance or contexture of the thread of the narration. 1668Wilkins Real Char. iii. iii. 309 The Contexture of sentence with sentence. 1670G. H. Hist. Cardinals Pref. A iij, There is one thing I may properly call my own, and that is the Stile, and Contexture of the book. 1758Johnson Idler No. 25 ⁋9 The art of dramatick disposition, the contexture of the scenes. 1873H. Rogers Orig. Bible v. 206 The contexture, peculiarities, and relations of the several books.
b. The connected structure or ‘body’ of a literary composition; a connected passage or composition.
a1619Daniel Coll. Hist. Eng. Pref. (1626) 1 It is more then the Worke of one man..to compose a passable Contexture of the whole History of England. 1628Hobbes Thucyd. Pref., Being discourses inserted, and not of the contexture of the Narration. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 122 ⁋12 Collateral events are so artfully woven into the contexture of his principal story. 1785Reid Int. Powers vi. vi. 452 Any contexture of words which does not make a proposition is neither true nor false.
c. = context 4.
1608T. Morton Preamb. to Encounter 17 Which the contexture may seeme also to import. a1661B. Holyday Juvenal 11 If we view the contexture of the place, we shall find, etc. a1672Sterry Posth. Wks. II. 360 This Text lying in this Contexture. 1878S. Cox Salv. Mundi (1884) 44 Is there anything in the intention and contexture of these ten passages to warrant so grave a departure from the common meanings of the words?
▪ II. conˈtexture, v. rare.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To give its contexture to; to weave.
1831Carlyle Sart. Res. i. x, Round his mysterious Me, there lies..a Garment of Flesh, contextured in the Loom of Heaven. |