| 释义 |
spectre, n.|ˈspɛktə(r)|
Also 7– specter (now U.S.).
[a. F. spectre (16th cent., = It. spettro, Sp. and Pg. espectro), or ad. L. spectrum, f. specĕre to look, see.]
1. a. An apparition, phantom, or ghost, esp. one of a terrifying nature or aspect.
1605Z. Jones (title), A Treatise of Specters or straunge Sights, Visions and Apparitions appearing sensibly unto men. 1641Lords Spiritual 15 Thus this great Goliah being handled, appeareth..rather a ghost and specter, then a body. 1703Pope Thebais 133 Swift as she pass'd, the flitting ghosts withdrew, And the pale spectres trembled at her view. 1744Harris Three Treat. Wks. (1841) 40 The superstitious have not a more previous tendency to be frightened at the sight of spectres,..than [etc.]. 1813Scott Trierm. ii. Interlude i, How should I, so humbly born, Endure the graceful spectre's scorn? 1862Macm. Mag. Apr. 507 The simple..explanation of spectres is that they are our own thoughts. 1871Palgrave Lyr. Poems 37 A terror..As when a sudden spectre at mid-day Meets us.
b. fig. An unreal object of thought; a phantasm of the brain.
1711Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) I. 53 When the mind is taken up in vision, and fixes its view either on any real object, or mere specter of divinity.
c. fig. An object or source of dread or terror, imagined as an apparition.
1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) II. 206 Death..is a spectre which frights us at a distance. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. i. i. iv, That same cloud-capt, fire-breathing Spectre of Democracy. 1856Kingsley Lett. (1878) I. 500 The glaring eye of the dark spectre of bereavement. 1893Black & White 29 July 122/2 The Channel Tunnel spectre is laid.
d. transf. One whose appearance is suggestive of an apparition or ghost.
1807–8W. Irving Salmag. (1824) 352 [She is] a mere house⁓hold spectre, neither giving nor receiving enjoyment. 1825J. Neal Bro. Jonathan I. 362 A creature like you—a spectre—..to talk about seeking your fortune! 1891Marie A. Brown tr. Runeberg's Nadeschda 50 Ever since a spectre From place to place he wanders.
e. A faint shadow or imitation of something.
1849C. Brontë Shirley xxiv, With the strangest spectre of a laugh.
2. One of the images or semblances supposed by the Epicurean school to emanate from corporeal things.
1785Reid Intell. Powers 26 The spectres of Epicurus were composed of a very subtle matter. 1834Southey Doctor v. 11 The old atomists supposed that the likenesses or spectres of corporeal things..assail the soul when she ought to be at rest.
3. An image or phantom produced by reflection or other natural cause.
1801Encycl. Brit. Suppl. II. 514/2 Spectre of the Broken, a curious phenomenon observed on the summit of the Broken. 1832Brewster Natural Magic vi. 148 It is only within the last forty years that science has brought these atmospherical spectres within the circle of her dominion. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. ii. 22 Before each of us..stood a spectral image of a man... We stretched forth our arms; the spectres did the same. 1908[Miss Fowler] Betw. Trent & Ancholme 299, I must look again for this aerial and charming spectre.
4. Zool. One or other of the insects or animals distinguished by the epithet spectre- (see 7), esp. an insect of the family Phasmidae.
1797Trans. Linn. Soc. IV. 190 This singular animal [sc. Phasma dilatatum]..belongs to that tribe of insects which Stoll has called by the title of Spectres. 1815Kirby & Sp. Entomol. iii. (1818) I. 67 note, Orthoptera consisting of Cockroaches, Locusts,..Spectres, Mantes, &c. 1816Ibid. xxiii. (1818) II. 328 The spectres..are distinguished by tarsi of five joints. 1880Encycl. Brit. XIII. 152/2 Phasmidæ (Spectres, or Walking-Sticks).
†5. A horrid spectacle or sight. Obs.—1
a1763Shenstone Elegies xxii. 68 To see my limbs..gash'd beneath the daring steel, To crowds a spectre, and to dogs a prey!
6. a. attrib. (chiefly in sense 1), as spectre-bark, spectre-chimera, spectre-doubt, spectre-fashion, spectre-horse, etc.
1817Coleridge Anc. Mar. iii. xiii, Off shot the *spectre⁓bark.
1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. iii. vi. i, Through some section of History, Nineteen *spectre-chimeras shall flit,..till Oblivion swallow them.
1799Campbell Pleas. Hope ii. 263 Ye *spectre-doubts, that roll Cimmerian darkness on the parting soul!
1822Scott Nigel x, It were a shame to my household, thou shouldst glide out into the Strand after such a *spectre-fashion.
186.B. Harte Friar Pedro's Ride in Fiddletown, etc. (1873) 112 A phantom friar, on a *spectre horse.
1805Scott Last Minstr. vi. xxvi, Like him..Who spoke the *spectre-hound in Man.
c1820S. Rogers Italy (1839) 118 He had so oft beheld..The *spectre⁓knight.
1825J. Wilson Poems II. 305 While stern beneath the chancel high, My country's *spectre monarch stood.
1777Warton Poems 61 We bid those *spectre-shapes avaunt.
1798Coleridge Anc. Mar. iii. xiv, Off darts the *Spectre⁓ship.
1807Byron Childish Recoll. 7 What grisly forms, the *spectre-train of woe, Bid shuddering Nature shrink beneath the blow.
1816Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxi. (1818) II. 220 The *Spectre tribe..go still further in this mimicry.
1817Coleridge Anc. Mar. iii. x. marg. note, The *Spectre-Woman and her Death-mate.
b. Comb., chiefly in similative adjs., as spectre-faint, spectre-lean, spectre-like (also adv.), spectre-looking, spectre-pale, spectre-pallid, spectre-staring, spectre-thin; also spectre-haunted, spectre-mongering (adjs.), spectre-queller.
1924R. Graves Mock Beggar Hall 5 The exiled Alcibiades Beheld him in the Chersonese, Yet *spectre⁓faint.
1831Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. viii, At worst as a *spectre⁓fighting Man, nay who will one day be a Spectre-queller.
1718Rowe tr. Lucan 303 No Swain thy *Spectre-haunted Plain shou'd know. 1873E. Brennan Witch Nemi, etc. 78 That dark land and spectre-haunted grove.
1887Meredith Ballads & P. 85 He came out of miracle cloud, Lightning-swift and *spectre-lean.
1719De Foe Crusoe i. (Globe) 258 Not making quite so staring a *Spectre-like Figure as I did. 1834Tait's Mag. I. 726/1 Spectre-like they stray, And soon their steps in distance die away. 1884J. Colborne Hicks Pasha 41 The camels glided noiselessly and spectre-like over the track.
1849–50Alison Hist. Europe VIII. lv. §24. 580 With a few thousand miserable and *spectre-looking followers.
1809Byron Bards & Rev. 919 Let *spectre-mongering Lewis aim..To rouse the galleries.
1928V. Woolf Orlando v. 233 The *spectre-pale beech trees.
1844Hood Haunted House iii. ix, But from their tarnish'd frames dark Figures gaz'd, And Faces *spectre-pallid. 1831*Spectre-queller [see spectre-fighting above].
1826Milman A. Boleyn (1827) 72 Thy tossing, feverish, *spectre-staring midnights.
1820Keats Ode to Nightingale 26 Where youth grows pale, and *spectre-thin, and dies.
7. Special combs.: spectre-bat, a tropical species of bat (Vespertilio or Phyllostoma spectrum); spectre-candle (see quot.); spectre-crab, a glass-crab (Cent. Dict.); spectre insect, an insect of the genus Phasma (see 4); spectre-lemur = spectre tarsier; spectre-mantis = spectre insect; spectre-shell (see quot.); spectre-shrimp, a slender-bodied amphipod of the genus Caprella; spectre tarsier, a small lemuroid animal (Tarsius spectrum).
1781Pennant Hist. Quadrup. II. 552 *Spectre Bat... Inhabits South America. 1827Griffith tr. Cuvier V. 71 Phyllostoma Spectrum (Spectre or true Vampyre Bat).
1835Penny Cycl. IV. 172/2 Belemnite, Thunderstone, or Arrowhead..: we..find the term Devil's fingers bestowed on them, and not unfrequently that of *spectre-candles.
1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. III. 90 The largest egg known..is that of a *spectre insect (Phasma dilatatum), figured in the Linnean Transactions. 1886Geikie Class-Bk. Geol. 359 Spectre-insects (Phasmidæ)..have been detected chiefly among the shales and coals of the Coal-measures. 1882*Spectre-lemur [see tarsier].
1840F. D. Bennett Whaling Voy. I. 343 The insects we found here were the *spectre⁓mantis; a purple butterfly [etc.].
1753Chambers' Cycl. Suppl., Concha spectrorum, the *spectre shell, a name given by authors to a species of voluta, from some odd figures described on its surface [etc.].
1882Cassell's Nat. Hist. VI. 212 The popular name of *Spectre, or Skeleton Shrimp, seems very appropriate.
1871Ibid. I. 250 The *Spectre Tarsier, which inhabits the Oriental Archipelago and the Philippine Islands.
Hence ˈspectre v. trans., to fill with spectres; ˈspectredom, the realm or region of spectres.
1849Aytoun Old Camp ii, It hath a look that makes me old, and spectres time again. 1883J. S. Stallybrass tr. Grimm's Teutonic Myth. III. 930 Part and parcel of this heathenish spectredom. 1897Daily Tel. 20 July 7/3 The tyranny of the manager of spectredom. |