| 释义 |
▪ I. soundless, a.1|ˈsaʊndlɪs|
[f. sound v.2]
Of water, the sea, etc.: That cannot be sounded; unfathomable. Freq. fig. or in fig. context.
c1586C'tess Pembroke Ps. cxlviii. iv, When heav'n hath prais'd, praise earth anew:..Then soundlesse deepes, and what in you Residing low, or moves, or rests. c1600Shakes. Sonn. lxxx. 10 Your shallowest helpe will hold me vp a floate, Whilst he vpon your soundlesse deepe doth ride. 1647Herrick Noble Numbers, Hell, Hell is no other, but a soundlesse pit. 1731A. Hill Advice to Poets xv, In Wit's cold Shallows, wade..no more, Her soundless Ocean tempts you from the Shore. 1823Byron Island iv. iii, The crag's steep inexorable face, With nought but soundless waters for its base. a1861T. Woolner My Beautiful Lady, Tolling Bell xxvi, My lost soul sank adown in soundless seas. 1884W. H. White Mark Rutherford's Deliverance iv, When we consider that we live surrounded by the soundless depths in which the stars repose.
transf.1614C. Brooke Ghost Rich. III, Poems (1872) 79 Nor wits, nor chronicles could ere containe, The hell-deepe reaches of my soundlesse braine.
▪ II. soundless, a.2|ˈsaʊndlɪs|
[f. sound n.3]
1. Having, making, emitting, etc., no sound; devoid of sound; quiet, silent.
Freq. in the 19th cent.
1601Shakes. Jul. C. v. i. 36 Your words..rob the Hibla Bees, And leaue them Hony-lesse,..and soundlesse too: For you haue stolne their buzzing, Antony. 1663Boyle Usef. Exp. Nat. Philos. i. ii. 49 They celebrate his praises, though with a soundless voice. 1797Mrs. Radcliffe Italian vi, She glided forward with soundless step. 1826Disraeli Viv. Grey v. xv, Once more the attentive ear listening for the soundless breath. 1855Lynch Rivulet xciii. ii, Soundless as chariots on the snow. 1883Standard 7 Sept. 5/6 The soundless progress of the apparently animated car.
b. In quasi-adv. use: Soundlessly.
1844Mrs. Browning Drama of Exile 522 My lips prayed, soundless, to myself. 1879G. Macdonald Sir Gibbie III. i. 14 The moment the sound of them had ceased, he darted soundless after him.
2. In which no sound is heard; still.
1816Wordsw. Sonn. Liberty ii. xxxiv. 38 A soundless waste, a trackless vacancy! 1818Milman Samor 63 Vast Germany..Deserts to silence and the beasts of game Her long and soundless forests. 1881Macm. Mag. XLIV. 191 She lingered in the soundless drawing-room long after the fire had gone out.
3. Of the ear: Hearing no sound. rare—1.
1890Talmage From Manger to Throne 297 The world has never seen but one surgeon who could..reconstruct the drum of a soundless ear.
Hence ˈsoundlessly adv., ˈsoundlessness.
1837Blackw. Mag. XLI. 608 Insinuating its way into the bottom of her pocket, and *soundlessly relieving it of the notes and shillings. 1865Whitney Gayworthys xxvi, Skylie clapped her hands again, soundlessly. 1889Harper's Mag. Dec. 117/2 Soundlessly you will tread those shadowy pavements.
1834Fraser's Mag. X. 663 Then comes a sort of moonlight dimness, and a dulled *soundlessness. 1881H. James Portr. Lady xxxix, The soundlessness of her step. 1897Hinde Congo Arabs 77 The same monotony of colour and of soundlessness was above us as in the depths below. |