| 释义 |
starveling, n. and a.|ˈstɑːvlɪŋ|
[f. starve v. + -ling.]
A. n. A starved person or animal; one who habitually starves or is stinted of food; one who is emaciated for lack of nutriment.
1546Supplic. Poore Commons (1871) 64 If none should be alowed meat in your Highnes house, but suche as were clothed in veluet... What steruelynges would your seruantes be aboue all other? 1557Tusser Husb. (1878) 226 The fewe [swine] that she kepe, much the better shal bee: of all thing, one good is worth steruelinges three. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. i. 76 If I hang, Ile make a fat payre of Gallowes. For, if I hang, old sir Iohn hangs with mee, and thou know'st hee's no Starueling. 1674Marvell Reh. Transp. ii. 49 But the more hungrey starvelings generally look'd upon it as an immediate Call to a Benefice. 1830M. Donovan Dom. Econ. II. 119 Some [hogs] will fatten where others would remain starvelings. 1854Mrs. Gaskell North & S. xxii, And now they've frightened these poor Irish starvelings so with their threats. 1871B. Taylor Faust (1875) II. i. iii. 47 What will the lean fool do? Has he, so dry a starveling, humour?
b. transf. of a plant, etc.
1600Surflet Country Farm iii. xvi. 453 You may graft..two or three scutcheons, prouided that they be all of one side: for they would not be equally set together in height, because that so they might all become staruelings. 1664Evelyn Sylva xxi. §3 (1679) 92 Some of the outward skirts [of the wood] were nothing save shrubs and miserable stervlings. 1709Shaftesbury Moralists ii. iv. 118 What think you of the Brain in this Partition? Is it not like to prove a Starveling?
c. fig.
1579Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 610/2 Therfore as oft as we play the lingerers, & cold staruelinges..let vs take this Exhortation. a1652J. Smith Sel. Disc. v. 157 As if rather some blind fortune had bestowed her blessings carelessly till she had no more left, and thereby made so many starvlings. 1861J. G. Holland Lessons in Life xxiii. 331 An irreligious man..is always a starveling.
B. adj.
1. That lacks a sufficiency of food; hence, lean and weak for want of nutriment; ill-fed, hungry.
1597Bp. Hall Sat. ii. i, So lauish ope-tyde causeth fasting⁓lents, And staruling Famine comes of large expence. 1617Moryson Itin. i. 239 Starveling flies sucke much more, then those that are fully gorged. a1660Contemp. Hist. Irel. (Ir. Archæol. Soc.) I. 152 The poore starulinge souldiers, after theire longe and tedious marche, fell eagerly to eate and drinke. 1693Evelyn De la Quint. Compl. Gard. I. 175 If any Trees..have all their Leaves lesser, and more starveling than they should be. 1787Beckford Lett. Italy, etc. II. 263 The stems of starveling pines. 1850S. Dobell Roman vi, The very meanest starveling hound. 1883Symonds Ital. Byways iii. 61 The palace has become a granary for country produce in a starveling land.
fig.1642Milton Apol. Smect. Wks. 1851 III. 325 Sending heards of souls starvling to Hell, while they feast and riot upon the labours of hireling Curats. 1675J. Owen Indwelling Sin xv. (1732) 199 They..perform Duties with as much constancy as ever they did, but yet have poor lean starvling Souls.
2. Poverty-stricken. Of circumstances, etc.: Characterized by or exhibiting poverty.
1638Featly Transubst. 9 To another a Cardinals hat was given, but with so thinne lining..that he was commonly called the starveling Cardinal. 1728Pope Dunciad ii. 36 No meagre, muse-rid mope, adust and thin,..But such a bulk as no twelve bards could raise, Twelve starveling bards of these degen'rate days. 1822W. Irving Braceb. Hall xxii. 188 [He] then cast a glance upon his own threadbare and starveling condition. 1850― Goldsm. vi. 89 The book⁓sellers, who gave him occasional, though starveling, employment. 1874F. C. Burnand My time xxxi. 309 There was a starveling air about the place.
fig.1841–9J. C. Hare Par. Serm. II. 190 Our hearts are too poor and starveling..to find food and room for all these thoughts and feelings.
3. Perishing (with cold and exposure). rare.
1697W. Dampier Voy. I. 498 In this wet starveling plight we spent the tedious night. 1805Wordsw. Waggoner iv. 260 And babes in wet and starveling plight; Which once, be weather as it might, Had still a nest within a nest.
4. fig. Poor in quality or quantity, lean, thin, meagre, scanty.
a1641Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 117 It is a starveling conceit of Innovating brain-pans. a1665J. Goodwin Being filled with the Spirit (1670) 79 The expressions of such a man, whether by words or actions, will be lean and starveling. 1768–78Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 484 We talk..of a meagre and starveling style, of crudities in expressions. 1816Coleridge Statesman's Man. 36 A hunger-bitten and idea-less philosophy naturally produces a starveling and comfortless religion. 1843Gladstone in For. & Col. Q. Rev. II. 565 They are so much at variance with the fixed formularies of the Church, from the narrow and starveling form of their doctrine, that they [etc.]. 1859R. F. Burton Centr. Afr. in Jrnl. Geog. Soc. XXIX. 195 Beyond Uyogo is Usange, a starveling settlement of Wanyamwezi. 1889C. Edwardes Sardinia 297 A starveling little group of pines.
5. Comb.: † starveling-brained adj.
1638Ford Ladies Trial i. ii, Leave such poore out-side helpes to puling lovers, Such as Fulgoso your weake rivall is, That starveling braind-companion. |