| 释义 |
stately, a. and adv.|ˈsteɪtlɪ|
Forms: 4–8 statly, 5–7 statelie, 5–6 -lye, 5–7 Sc. staitly, 5– stately.
[f. state n. + -ly. Cf. the equivalent estately a. and adv. in 14–15th c.
The G. staatlich of identical formation has now in the literary language only the sense ‘pertaining to a (political) state or to the State’. In dialects, however, and in early mod. German, it has the meanings of the Eng. word, which in standard German have been transferred to stattlich, f. statt = stead n. Cf. Du. statelijk, Sw. ståtlig, stately, magnificent.]
A. adj.
1. a. Of personal appearance or demeanour, and of persons with reference to these. In early use, Befitting or indicating high estate, princely, noble, majestic. In later use, Imposingly dignified. (Occasionally said of animals: cf. 4 b.)
c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 1372 Thou rote of false lovers, duk Iasoun!.. Thow madist thyn recleymyng & thyn luris To ladyis of thyn statly aparaunce. c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 11 Sapience, To-fore whos face, most statly and rialle, Were the vij. science callyd liberealle. Ibid. 213 This stately fowle most imperial,..Callid in Scripture the fowle celestial. 1724Ramsay Vision xi, He, with..staitly air, did me rebuke. 1877C. M. Yonge Cameos Ser. iii. xi. 94 She was a good, sensible, and learned woman, but the stateliest of dames.
absol.1868Tennyson Lucretius 172 That council-hall Where sit the best and stateliest of the land.
b. Of movement, a person or animal in movement: Dignified, deliberate.
1593Shakes. Rich. II, v. ii. 10 Bullingbrooke, Mounted vpon a hot and fierie Steed,..With slow, but stately pace, kept on his course. 1826Disraeli Viv. Grey vi. ii, A whole flock of stately geese issued in solemn pomp from another gate.
2. Of persons, their dispositions or actions.
†a. Haughty, domineering, arrogant. Obs.
c1440Alphabet of Tales lxxx. 62 And sho was a passand fayr mayden emang all oþer, & with þat sho was passand statelie & prowde, & thoght skorn be evur ilk common man. Ibid. dcxlii. 428 He was neuer prowde nor statelye. c1450in Aungier Syon (1840) 361 For often tymes statly and unreligious porte causeth murmur and grudgynge to other. 1544Betham Precepts War i. clxx. H vij b, The multitude neuer iustly ne egally can beare rule and offyce thorough theyr arrogaunte, stubburne, and stately conditions. 1577Hanmer Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619) 180 He presumed to waxe stately against his fellow Emperours. 1599Hayward 1st Pt. Life & Reign Hen. IV 4 Neither did the continuance of his Raigne bring him to a proude port and stately esteeming of himselfe, but in his latter yeares he remained so gentle and faire in cariage, that [etc.]. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 658 Such is the stately mind of this little Beast, that while her limbes and strength lasteth, she tarrieth & saueth her self in the tops of tal trees.
b. In milder sense: Showing a sense of superiority; repellently dignified; not affable or approachable. In recent use a euphemistic application of sense 1.
a1625Fletcher Wit without M. ii. ii, This widow is the strangest thing, the stateliest, and stands so much upon her excellencies. 1688S. Penton Guardian's Instr. 22 When I say I would have my eldest son a little stately: I do not mean any degree of that gross imperious Pride which God and Man hates. 1712Swift Let. to D'hess of Ormond 20 Dec., [Your grace's picture] will set me labouring upon majestic, sublime ideas..; and will make those who come to visit me think I am grown on the sudden wonderful stately and reserved. 1841James Brigand vii, When we did meet, he was distant and stately in his manner. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair xlix, Their ladyships made three stately curtsies.
absol.1707Refl. Ridicule 88 There are Women who think to act the Stately by affronting every body.
3. a. Of things: Appertaining to or befitting a person of high estate; magnificent, splendid.
c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 3 In statly wise whan thei were mett, Eche oone welle horsed, made no delay, But with her mayer rood forthe in her way. 1433― S. Edmund i. 134 The statly royal date Whan I first gan on this translacioun. 1447O. Bokenham Saints, Magd. 870 Thou lyist here in a statly paleys, Bewrappyd in clothys of sylk & gold. 1555Act 2 & 3 Phil. & Mar. c. 20 §1 The Duchie of Lancastree, being one of the most famous Princeliest & Stateliest peeces of our said Sovereigne Ladie the Quenes auncyent Enheritance. 1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. (1585) 65 Golde silke or silver lace of stately price. 1639Fuller Holy War iv. xii. 188 [Lewis the ninth] arrived in Cyprus; where Alexius Lusignan King of the Island entertained him according to the stateliest hospitality. 1756Nugent Gr. Tour, Germany II. 256 In winter they have races in stately sledges, besides masquerading and splendid balls. 1842Tennyson Ld. of Burleigh 43 A gateway she discerns With armorial bearings stately.
b. of ceremonies, etc.
1593Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, v. vii. 43 That we spend the time With stately Triumphes, mirthfull Comicke shewes. 1648Gage West Ind. 16 The Dominicans..invited all the Jesuites..to a stately dinner both of Fish and Flesh. 1891E. Peacock N. Brendon I. 53 The most stately ritual that can be devised. 1899A. C. Benson Life E. W. Benson I. xvii. 635 The circumstances of his life placed him in stately spheres of activity. 1911W. W. Fowler Relig. Exp. Rom. People ix. 218 Meaningless as they were, the stately processions remained.
4. Imposing or majestic in size and proportions.
a. of inanimate things, a building, town, tree, mountain, etc. Also of a ship, now usually with some reference to its motion: see 1 b. stately home: originally in allusion to quot. 1827; now a fixed phrase designating a great country-house; also attrib. and Comb.
c1450in Kingsford Chron. London (1905) 142 And many moo good tovnys and stately villagis. 1586A. Day Eng. Secretary i. (1625) 23 Woods high and decked with Stately trees. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, i. vi. 21 A statelyer Pyramis to her Ile reare, Then Rhodophes or Memphis euer was. 1613–16W. Browne Brit. Past. i. i. 10 Or the Nymph of Kent, That statelyest Ships to sea hath euer sent. 1632Lithgow Trav. i. 25 This Prouince is mainely watered through the middle with stately Po. 1667Milton P.L. iv. 142 And as the ranks ascend Shade above shade, a woodie Theatre Of statliest view. 1700R. Cromwell in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1898) XIII. 116 A statly chine, accompaned with a fatt Turkey. 1784Johnson in Boswell (1904) II. 569 When somebody talked of being imposed on in the purchase of tea and sugar, and such articles: ‘That will not be the case’, said he, ‘if you go to a stately shop, as I always do.’ 1827F. Hemans in Blackw. Mag. Apr. 392 The stately Homes of England, How beautiful they stand! 1831J. Brown Let. 26 Oct. (1912) 26 There is certainly something unapproachable in the ‘stately homes of England’. 1842Tennyson Locksley Hall 37 Many an evening by the waters did we watch the stately ships. 1848A. Brontë Tenant of Wildfell Hall III. xv. 311, I..looked back, for one last view of her stately home. 1874Jewitt & Hall (title) The stately homes of England..illustrated with 210 engravings on wood. 1914Blackw. Mag. Sept. 301/1 From the walls of stately cathedrals and monuments, they being dead may yet speak. 1920D. H. Lawrence Touch & Go iii. i. 68 This is what happens to the stately homes of England—they buzz with inky clerks, or their equivalent. 1934Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves xiv. 167 Some stately-home owners of the name of Stretchley-Budd, hanging out in a joint called Kingham Manor. 1938N. Coward Operette i. vii. 54 The Stately Homes of England How beautiful they stand, To prove the upper classes Have still the upper hand. 1945B. Goolden Ichabod ix. 50 A group of persons restricted to the Services, the stately homes of England, and a line running roughly from Stanhope Gate to Eaton Square. 1959Duke of Bedford Silver-Plated Spoon xi. 215 We had jumped straight into the front rank of the stately homes business. 1977B. Pym Quartet in Autumn v. 45 There would be visits to a safari park and to the stately homes that offered the best attractions.
b. of a person or animal. (Cf. 1 b.)
1653Walton Angler i. ix, The Carp is the Queen of Rivers: a stately, a good, and a very subtle Fish. 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 148 After them, came..at length the Basha himself, mounted on a stately Horse. 1815Byron Hebrew Mel., Wild Gazelle ii, The Cedars wave on Lebanon, But Judah's statelier maids are gone! 1825Scott Betrothed xiii, Fourscore years had not quenched the brightness of her eyes, or bent an inch of her stately height. 1849W. E. Aytoun Lays Scott. Cavaliers 113 When they scent the stately deer. 1851Tennyson Sonn. Macready, Garrick and statelier Kemble, and the rest Who made a nation purer through their art. 1863Geo. Eliot Romola i. xix, She looked up with one of her happy, loving smiles at the stately old man. 1907Verney Mem. II. 488 A tall, dignified woman..and the mode in which her black hair towered above her forehead made her statelier still.
c. Of sound: Impressive, majestic.
1655Stanley Hist. Philos. iii. (1687) 102/2 Good Heavens, what voice is this, how strange and stately? a1661Fuller Worthies, Cornw. (1662) 196 The hall (rising above the rest) yieldeth a stately sound as one entereth it. 1850Kingsley Misc. (1860) I. 228 The stately calmness of the wood-dove's note.
5. a. Of speech or writing or its style; hence of a speaker or writer: Elevated in thought or expression, dignified, majestic.
1579Lodge Def. Poetry 23 Yf you had wanted your Mysteries of nature, & your stately storyes, your booke would haue scarce bene fedde wyth matter. 1583B. Melbancke Philotimus E iij, He might tricke his speech with a few superficiall colours, but all his statly style were not woorth a strawe. 1685Dryden Sylvæ Pref. A 6, Virgil..maintains Majesty in the midst of plainess;..and is stately without ambition, which is the vice of Lucan. 1802Wordsw. Resolution & Indep. 96 Choice word and measured phrase, above the reach Of ordinary men; a stately speech. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 404 That deficiency he did his best to conceal..by stately declamation.
absol.1809Malkin Gil Blas xi. v. (Rtldg.) 404 He preferred the stately, or rather the grotesque in writing.
b. of a subject.
1602Warner Alb. Eng. x. lx. 266 Of which [Fleets and their commerce] shall be digested here the Progresse,..Though stately be the Subiect, and to slender be our Arte. 1644Milton Educ. 5 Then will the choise Histories,..and Attic tragedies of statliest, and most regal argument..offer themselves.
†6. Powerful, effectual. Obs.
With quot. 1662 cf. G. stattlich, in early mod.G. said of medicines (Grimm s.v., II. i. c).
1587Turberv. Trag. Tales 142 b, So statelie is the stroke of Cupids bow. 1662R. Mathew Unl. Alch. 78 Make a Lixivium or stronge lye of Chalkes vive, or White-lime for this is most stately, and operates very potently. Ibid. 177 One of the most potent, stateliest Medicines that I think is attainable in the World.
†7. Pertaining to the state or body politic. (nonce-use.) Obs.
1641Milton Reform. 73 What a perversenesse would it be in us of all others to retain forcibly a kind of imperious, and stately Election in our Church?
8. Comb.
a1618Sylvester Woodman's Bear xli, Shee was Strait proportion'd, stately-pased. 1777T. Warton Poems 79 Whate'er adorns the stately-storied hall.
B. adv. In a stately manner. Now rare.
†1. With splendid ceremonial or surroundings; in state. Obs.
c1407Lydg. Reson & Sens. 2662 Where that love, as I ha tolde, Stately holdeth his housholde With his meyne in gladnesse. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 378 The King sitting in a Pauilion stately apparelled. 1648Gage West Ind. 84 Spaniards who thought nothing too good for us, and would entertain us stately.
†2. In a domineering or arrogant manner. Obs.
1449Paston Lett. (1900) Suppl. 24 And ther to Mariot seyd stately, that myght not be performed. 1538Elyot Dict., Imperiose, stately, rigorousely. 1539Bp. Tonstall Serm. Palme Sundaye (1823) 33 Whyles a noble manne..dyd prostrate hym selfe..and kyssed his shoo, whyche he stately suffered to be doone, as of duetie.
†3. In a noble or dignified form or style; so as to have a stately appearance. Obs.
1582Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 17 Martyred in battayls, ere towne could statelye be buylded, Or Gods theare setled. 1625Bacon Ess., Gardens (Arb.) 555 When Ages grow to Ciuility and Elegancie, Men come to build Stately, sooner then to Garden Finely. 1633Bp. Hall Hard Texts, Ps. cxxii. 3 Ierusalem is stately built. 1640tr. Verdere's Rom. of Rom. III. 50 He met with a house very stately built.
4. With stately or dignified bearing, movement, or expression.
1584Lyly Campaspe iii. iv, How stately she passeth bye, yet how soberly! 1602Shakes. Ham. i. ii. 202 A figure..Appeares before them, and with sollemne march Goes slow and stately. 1794Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xxv, A tall signor..who walks so stately. 1821Scott Kenilw. xvi, Both Earls moved slowly and stately towards the entrance. 1858G. Macdonald Phantastes iii, Tiny, gaily decorated forms,..moving stately on.
†5. In a fitting manner, properly. Obs.
c1440York Myst. xxvi. 82 We! þare sir, he skelpte oute of score [of money-changers in the Temple] Þat stately stode selland þer store. 1513Bk. Keruynge in Babees Bk. (1868) 269 And yf ye wyll wrappe your soueraynes brede stately, ye muste square and proporcyon your brede.
6. Comb.
1591Sylvester Du Bartas i. v. 891 The fair Peacock..Proud, portly-strouting, stalking, stately-grave. 1592Kyd Sp. Trag. iv. i. 158 But to present a Kingly troupe withall, Giue me a stately written Tragedie. 1648J. Beaumont Psyche vi. lxxxix, The Glass..weep'd to see its stately-beautious face Dissolv'd by one short Touch. 1728Thompson Spring 777 The stately-sailing swan. |