| 释义 |
cupidity|kjuːˈpɪdɪtɪ|
[a. F. cupidité, ad. L. cupiditāt-em passionate desire, f. cupidus eagerly desirous.]
1. gen. Ardent desire, inordinate longing or lust; covetousness. Const. † of, for. arch.
1547Boorde Brev. Health 110 Cupiditie of worldly substance or goodes. 1548Hall Chron. Hen. VII an. 11 (R.) That tyraunt blynded..with the cupiditie of rulynge and souereigntie. 1566Painter Pal. Pleas. I. 57 Men whiche be giuen to cupiditie of gouernement, honor, and glorie. 1648Mountague Devout Ess. xiii. §6 (R.) The serpent..thus sharpens the curiosity while he suggesteth the cupidity. 1755Johnson, Cupidity, concupiscence; unlawful or unreasonable longing. 1809–10Coleridge Friend (ed. 3) III. 96 The cupidity for dissipation and sensual pleasure in all ranks.
b. (with pl.) An inordinate desire or appetite. arch.
1542Udall Erasm. Apophth. i. 85 a, These cupiditees by philosophie to ouercome, in a more honest and ioyly thyng. 1598R. Barckley Felic. Man (1631) 506 Immoderate desires and cupidities. 1623J. Wodroephe Marrow Fr. Tongue 216 (T.) All sorts of cupidities do hinder us to know the word of God. 1754Richardson Grandison (1812) VI. 179 (D.) She calls her idle flame love—a cupidity which only was a something she knew not what to make of. 1859G. Bush Doctrines & Disclosures of Swedenborg 52 This spirit has appetites, cupidities, desires, affections.
2. spec. Inordinate desire to appropriate wealth or possessions; greed of gain.
1436Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 184 Allas, cupidité! That they that have here lyves put in drede Schal be sone oute of wynnynge, al for mede. a1797Burke (Webster 1828), No property is secure when it becomes large enough to tempt the cupidity of indigent power. 1818Jas. Mill Brit. India II. v. i. 326 The country of the Rohillas was an object of cupidity to both. 1872Yeats Growth Comm. 23 Their riches only excited the cupidity of a hardier race. |