| 释义 |
abysmal, a.|əˈbɪzməl|
[f. abysm n. + -al1.]
1. Of, pertaining to, or resembling an abyss; fathomless; deep-sunken. lit. and fig.
[1656Blount Glossogr. 1721Bailey. Not in Johnson.] 1817Coleridge Biogr. Lit. 83 ‘Only fourpence,’ (O! how I felt the anti-climax, the abysmal bathos of that fourpence)! 1850Mrs. Browning Poems I. 7 Countless angel-faces, still and stern, Pressed out upon me from the level heavens, Adown the abysmal spaces. 1865Sat. Rev. 4 Feb. 146/1 Madame had carious teeth, abysmal eyes, and a wide wet grin. 1879Farrar St. Paul II. 546 The government of Nero..at this moment presented a spectacle of awful cruelty and abysmal degradation.
2. In weakened sense: of an exceptionally poor standard or quality; extremely bad.
1904H. James Golden Bowl ii. xxviii. 345 She had..told her maid, a new woman, whom she had lately found herself thinking of as abysmal, that she didn't want her. 1933Dylan Thomas Let. ?15 Oct. (1985) 25, I always said his taste was abysmal. 1965G. Melly Owning-Up vi. 59, I can still remember some of the abysmal patter which he delivered. 1984N.Y. Times 10 July a23/1 Guatemala's abysmal human rights record. |