| 释义 |
absorb, v.|əbˈsɔːb|
Pa. pple. absorbed, formerly absorpt.
[a. mod.Fr. absorbe-r, a refashioning, after L., of OFr. asorber, more commonly asorbir, assorbir:—L. absorbē-re to swallow up, f. ab off, away + sorbē-re to suck in; pa. pple. absorpt-us, whence absorpt, formerly used as pa. pple. In no Dict. bef. Blount 1656; Cockeram 1626 has absorbeate; Cotgr. 1611 has Fr. ‘Absorbé, supped or drunk wholly up; devoured, swallowed, consumed’.]
I. To swallow up.
†1. To swallow up; as water, mire, an earthquake; also fig. Obs.
1490Caxton Eneydos xxvii. 160 Take my sowle and delyuere her..from these sorowfulle peynes in whiche I am absorbed in the grete viage of heuynes. 1548Udall, etc. Erasm. Paraph. Matt. xvii. 5 A bryghte cloude ouershadowed thapostles, lest they should be absorpte and ouercummed with the highnesse of the sighte. 1684T. Burnet Th. of Earth 85 As to Rome, there is..a more dreadful fate that will attend it; namely, to be absorpt or swallowed up in a lake of fire and brimstone. 1725Pope Odyssey xii. 130 Beneath, Charybdis holds her boist'rous reign 'Midst roaring whirl⁓pools, and absorbs the main. a1800Cowper On names in Biogr. Britann. Dark oblivion soon absorbs them all.
2. Hence, To swallow up, to include or take a thing in to the loss of its separate existence; to incorporate. to be absorbed, to be swallowed up, or comprised in, so as no longer to exist apart.
1553–87Foxe A. & M. iii. 17 The substance of the bread is absorpt..into the human body of Christ. 1659Pearson On Creed (1839) 231 That old conceit of Eutyches..that the humanity was absorbed and wholly turned into the Divinity. 1820W. Irving Sketch Bk. I. 120 In some countries, the large cities absorb the wealth and fashion of the nation. 1866Rogers Agric. & Prices I. iv. 65 The purchase of a pound of candles would have almost absorbed a workman's daily wages. 1876Freeman Norm. Conq. I. ii. 9 Into the English nation his own followers were gradually absorbed.
3. To engross, or completely engage the attention or faculties.
1830Baroness Bunsen in Hare Life I. ix. 353 [It] could not so far absorb me as to prevent my often turning my back upon it. 1853Kane Grinnell Exped. (1856) xliii. 403 [I] only postponed it because I happened to get absorbed in a book. 1875Farrar Silence & Voices iii. 52 Let us absorb our entire beings in this one aim.
II. To drink in.
4. To suck in, drink in (a fluid); to imbibe.
a1626Bacon (J.) The evils that come of exercise are that it doth absorb and attenuate the moisture of the body. 1814Sir H. Davy Agricult. Chem. 15 Animal and vegetable matters deposited in soils are absorbed by plants. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 24 The clay refuses to absorb the water.
5. To take up (imponderable agents) by chemical or molecular action.
1707in Phil. Trans. XXV. 2374 Whether the Muslin absorps the Effluvium,..I cannot tell. 1794Sullivan View of Nat. I. xiv. 140 Some reflect the rays without producing any change, and those are white; others absorb them all, and cause absolute blackness. c1860Faraday Forces of Nat. iii. 78 Whenever a solid body loses some of that force of attraction by means of which it remains solid, heat is absorbed. 1869Roscoe Chem. 186 It is found possible to absorb hydrogen in certain metals. 1899Rutherford in Phil. Mag. XLVII. 123 The α radiation from uranium and its compounds is rapidly absorbed in its passage through gases. 1923Glazebrook Dict. Appl. Physics IV. 582/1 The rays are absorbed according to an exponential law. 1942Stranathan Particles xii. 470 The atmosphere..acted merely as an absorbing blanket, absorbing radiation coming from above. |