| 释义 |
darksome, a.|ˈdɑːksəm|
[f. dark n. + -some: cf. toilsome.]
1. Characterized (more or less) by darkness; somewhat dark or gloomy. Now chiefly a poetic synonym of dark, of vaguer connotation.
1530Palsgr. 309/2 Darkesome, tenebreux. 1549–62Sternhold & H. Ps. cxxxvi. 9 And Starres that doe appeare To guide the darksome night. 1667Milton P.L. ii. 973 By constraint Wandring this darksome desart. 1718Rowe tr. Lucan 357 She seeks the Ship's deep darksom Hold below. 1848M. Arnold Sick King Bokhara, Alone and in a darksome place Under some mulberry-trees I found A little pool.
2. Somewhat dark in shade or colour; sombre.
1615G. Sandys Trav. 73 He hath a little haire on his vpper lip..of a darksom color. 1667Milton P.L. xii. 185 A darksom Cloud of Locusts swarming down. 1807Wordsw. White Doe iv. 56 With pine and cedar spreading wide Their darksome boughs on every side. 1879Dixon Windsor I. i. 2 Darksome clump, and antique tower.
3. fig.
a. Characterized by obscurity of meaning.
1574tr. Marlorat's Apocalips 1 To the Fathers of olde tyme, Daniels vision seemed moste darkesome. 1597–8Bp. Hall Sat. iii. Prol., Whose words were short, and darksome was their sense. 1626Bacon Sylva §900 Paracelsus and some darksome authors of Magic. 1838C. Sumner Mem. & Lett. (1878) I. 379 The darksome notes and memoranda which he made on the margin of the volumes he read.
b. Characterized by gloom, sadness, or cheerlessness.
1649Roberts Clavis Bibl. ii. 24 All my darksome doubtings fled away. 1719D'Urfey Pills (1872) IV. 109 It is a darksome Passion. 1828Carlyle Misc. (1857) I. 199 His darksome, drudging childhood and youth. a1845Hood Two Swans iv, In darksome fears They weep and pine away.
c. Morally of dark character.
1880McCarthy Own Times IV. lxvii. 532 Some rather darksome vices..prove their existence in the character.
Hence ˈdarksomeness, darkness, obscurity.
1571Golding Calvin on Ps. xviii. 12 Darksomnesse of water. 1583― Calvin on Deut. xlii. 248 Let vs not charge it [God's truth] with darksomenesse. a1642Sir W. Monson Naval Tracts v. 495/2 The Darksomness of the Night. |