释义 |
ˈdead-aˈlive, a. Also dead-and-alive. Dead while yet alive; alive, but without animation; dull, inactive, spiritless.
1591Sylvester Du Bartas i. v. 953 Leaving a Post-hume (dead-alive) seed behind her. 1617Collins Def. Bp. Ely 453 The Monke that liues in pleasure, and delicacie, and idlenesse, is dead aliue. 1794Miss Gunning Packet II. 103 A dawdling, dead-alive..drowsy subject. 1840Hood Up the Rhine 2 A..dead-alive, hypochondriacal old bachelor uncle. 1854Thoreau Walden 166 He is dead-and-alive to begin with. a1862Thoreau Lett. (1865) 198, I have performed this journey in a very dead and alive manner. 1868Holme Lee B. Godfrey xxvi. 138 This..dreary..dead-alive place. 1901‘M. Franklin’ My Brilliant Career iii. 16 It's the dead-and-alivest hole I ever seen. 1908E. J. Banfield Confessions of Beachcomber i. i. 9 The ‘scrub fowl’..wastes no valuable time in the dead-and-alive duty of sitting. 1909H. G. Wells Tono-Bungay i. ii. 67 This place..gives me no Scope... It's dead-and-alive. Nothing happens. 1936W. Holtby South Riding II. iii. 112 A bit dead-and-alive, isn't it? Other end of nowhere, eh? Hence dead-alivism.
1887Jessopp Arcady 170 Dismal, dull, dead-alivism. |