| 释义 |
contingently, adv.|kənˈtɪndʒəntlɪ|
[f. contingent a. + -ly2.]
In a contingent manner.
1. As a possibility that may or may not befall.
c1430tr. T. à Kempis 104 Besy careyng of þinges þat are contingently to come. 1608[S. Hieron] Defence ii. 210 To prove that the devil could not foretell things contingently to come. 1798Malthus Popul. (1817) III. 138 The increase of vice which might contingently follow an attempt to inculcate the duty of moral restraint.
2. In certain contingencies or cases, under certain conditions.
1657Cokaine Obstinate Lady Poems (1669) 339 Fal. Dost thou not think..that man happy Who's free from..bondage of a woman? Cle. My Lord, contingently. 1849Ruskin Sev. Lamps vii. § 8. 193 Feelings which it may be only contingently in our power to recover. 1885Act 48–49 Vict. c. 25 §25 A liability contingently chargeable, though not actually charged, on the revenues of India.
3. Not of necessity, but as circumstances are.
1588Fraunce Lawiers Log. i. x. 46 b, Necessarily in the first, contingently in the second. 1628T. Spencer Logick 157 Euery proposition doth signifie something to be, either necessarily, or contingently. 1869J. Martineau Ess. II. 153 Its propositions are true, not contingently..but necessarily.
†4. Not under predetermined necessity; with freedom of will or liberty of action. Obs.
1601Dent Pathw. Heauen 283 He sinned voluntarily and contingently. 1653T. Whitfield Treat. Sinf. Men ix. 39 He determines that some things shal come to passe necessarily, other things freely and contingently. a1680J. Corbet Free Actions i. xi. (1683) 8 Who can say..that God cannot Foreknow what a Creature, acting freely and contingently, will do? 1754Edwards Freed. Will ii. ii. (ed. 4) 57 Those things which have a prior ground and reason of their particular existence..do not happen contingently.
5. As it may happen, as chance will have it; accidentally.
1668Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. i. xxiii. 68 [These] happen by accident and contingently. a1687Petty Pol. Arith. ii. (1691) 36 Commodities..whose value depends upon the Fashion; or which are contingently scarce and plentiful. 1695Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth iv. (1702) 218 Out of even the highest mountains, and indeed all other parts of the Earth contingently and indifferently.
6. In dependence upon circumstances; dependently.
1655H. More App. Antid. (1712) 193 But contingently and dependently of another. 1864Bowen Logic ii. 33 The operations of the Thinking Faculty are also contingently modified by the coexistence of other powers and affections of the mind. |