| 释义 |
sordidness|ˈsɔːdɪdnɪs|
[f. as prec. + -ness.]
The state or quality of being sordid.
1. Dirtiness, filthiness; unclean or soiled character; squalor.
1637Sanderson Serm. (1681) II. 63 To it [sc. money]..hath the very name of sordidness been appropriated of old. 1665Needham Med. Medicinæ 66 Carelesness, Sordidness in neglecting their own Bodies. 1691Ray Creation ii. (1704) 357 To deter Men and Women from Sluttishness and Sordidness. 1819L. Hunt Indicator No. 8 (1822) I. 64 He sat looking at his old beard and the wilful sordidness of his hands. 1833H. Martineau Charmed Sea i. 2 At the first glance the men looked all alike; their heads being shaved, and their dress uniform in its sordidness.
b. Lack of refinement or elegance; coarseness or roughness. rare.
1670Clarendon Hist. Reb. xii. §121 Nor did she prefer the glory of the Church of England before the sordidness of the Kirk of Scotland. 1873Burton Hist. Scot. VI. lxv. 24 They were offended at the sordidness of the food offered to them.
2. Baseness or meanness; esp. low, mean, or mercenary character or motives; selfish regard for material gain in place of higher interests.
1656Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. i. xcix. (1674) 133 Keeping continually..hid within the husk of their interest..with so much sordidness and obstinacy never to come out. 1674tr. Scheffer's Lapland ix. 34 Their Priests who..vilify their doctrine by the sordidness of their lives. 1702Echard Eccl. Hist. (1710) 403 His chiefest advice to them about him was to abhor all rapine and sordidness. 1746Francis tr. Horace, Sat. i. vi. 90 If none with avarice justly brand my fame, With sordidness, or deeds too vile to name. 1771Foote Maid of Bath iii. Wks. 1799 II. 236 The sordidness of your mind and manners. 1850L. Hunt Autobiog. I. iii. 106, I blush to remember this..on account of the sordidness of the custom. Ibid. II. xi. 55 An extraordinary mixture of..fearlessness with sordidness. 1870Pall Mall G. 24 Dec. 2 The result is but a just retribution on our sordidness and Pharisaism. |