| 释义 |
adjective wɒnwɑn 1(of a person's complexion or appearance) pale and giving the impression of illness or exhaustion. she was looking wan and bleary-eyed Example sentencesExamples - Körbes, normally luminous on the State Theater stage, here never seemed to come alive, looking wan and passive, and was completely overshadowed by either.
- Judging from his wan appearance, however, it was clear that the show had taken its toll.
- Estelle grew from a wan, sickly child into a lovely maiden, her skin pale as the moonlight and hair as raven as the starless night.
- Anyway - if you feel the need to be pasty, wan and outraged, you can always write to me and tell me how you feel.
- When he arrived home that night, he looked wan, slightly more drained than usual.
- Doyle still slept, looking wan and exhausted, but that hint of a smile was still there.
- Eli reminded me of an older Bob Dylan, his size and wan complexion and his face.
- Outside, the once splendid Nevski Prospekt (St. Petersburg's O'Connell Street) is in need of a lick of paint and seems to be trying desperately to become European, but its people are grey and wan.
- ‘After several days of flying in space, the astronauts may look wan and sallow, so medical staff will put make-up on them to make them look ruddy,’ the newspaper said.
- Warhol devised the most telling face of fame - wan, bleached out, with a camera hanging from the neck.
Synonyms pale, pallid, ashen, white, white as a sheet, grey anaemic, jaundiced, colourless, bloodless, waxen, chalky, milky, pasty, pasty-faced, whey-faced, peaky, sickly, tired-looking, washed out, sallow, drained, drawn, sapped, ghostly, deathly, deathlike, bleached rare etiolated - 1.1 (of light) pale; weak.
Example sentencesExamples - Instead, our wars exposed the limits of our capability and cast a wan light on many of our cherished illusions.
- Sunlight filtered upon their tired, wan faces and I knew I looked the same.
- It could just be the light, but she looks pretty wan to me, and too skinny - like the one in four women under 25 who now describe themselves as vegetarians.
- One need only stand in the aisle marked Produce to understand how the wan light obscuring the bruised fruit makes all of our decisions more difficult.
- She leaned forward, elbows on knees and her head in the wan moonlight as she smiled.
- There might not be as many shadows to cling to, but the light from lamp posts was wan and deceiving; he could hide well enough if he needed to.
- The stones on the bottom of the brook were flat and greenish in the wan afternoon light.
- Eric Gautier photographed it, with frequent and unnecessary use of the wan light and monochromatic effects that are now high-fashion clichés of their own.
Synonyms dim, faint, weak, feeble, pale, watery, wishy-washy - 1.2 (of a smile) lacking enthusiasm or energy.
Example sentencesExamples - ‘Total dedication,’ she said with a somewhat wan smile: she had come in on the day of my visit despite being in intense pain from a suspected slipped disc.
- ‘Come on then,’ he said, and gave her a wan smile.
- Ellen suppressed another shudder and gave a wan smile that she hoped he would take to mean the week would be a long one for her.
- He gave Jean a wan smile before grabbing a baguette at the table.
- With a wan smile, Delaney removed her license from her wallet and showed it to him.
- And so, I walked in without my customary bright smile, wan, blinking hard.
- I wasn't, though I probably just murmured something vague in reply, and I may have given a wan smile.
- She gazes toward, but beyond the viewer with a slightly wan and wistful smile, as though she has a secret somewhere deep inside.
- The secretary looked up momentarily and gave her a wan smile.
- But he gives her a wan smile, the best he can manage under the circumstances.
- ‘No, I didn't know that,’ he says quietly, offering a wan smile.
- She almost manages a wan smile, but misses a bit on the execution.
- She gave him a wan smile when she saw him, and lifted herself to a sitting position carefully.
- Sighing wearily, Isabella shifted her gaze to her mother with a wan smile on her lips.
- The smile she gave Wanda Bryk was the rueful, wan, chastened smile of someone who had just come through a crying spell.
- Allyson paused, listening to the soft melody, a shy smile spreading over her wan features.
- When deep brown eyes finally opened and she stared up at him, she gave him a wan smile that caused a cringe as the sore skin on her cheek stretched greatly.
- Tamani offered him a wan smile, ‘Thank you, Sir Pontelau.’
- But her gaze cleared, and she managed a wan smile.
- ‘Hello, Susanna,’ Westley said, a wan smile on his face.
- I gave him a wan smile, ‘As well as can be expected, I suppose.’
- She smiled a wan sort of smile, and glanced around at what should be the living room.
- He glanced over his shoulders at his slightly meaner looking co-workers and offered Mary a wan smile.
- Amy gave her a wan smile, and moved to stand beside her. her eyes were red from crying, and her armour was mangled in more than a few places.
- John insisted on kissing them as well, bringing the first wan smiles to their faces after the events of the night.
- Often the answer would be in the form of a wan smile or silence.
- Elsa shook it off with a shrug of the shoulders and a wan smile.
- My light-hearted offer to provide a dumpster was usually met with a wan smile.
- The woman sitting next to me, a blonde South African wearing jeans and fashionable spectacles looks at me, raises an eyebrow, gives me a wan smile and gets up to leave.
- In another image, two bored children gaze at the camera, the older one giving the camera a wan smile.
- Sarah looked up from her conversation with Jake with a wan smile.
- Other bands might get away with this on intensity alone, but Harcourt's straightforward, predictable manner leaves his wan material desperately lacking.
- ‘I actually didn't think that was a big deal,’ says Pottruck, a wan smile playing across his broad face.
- 1.3literary (of the sea) without lustre; dark and gloomy.
Derivatives adverb ˈwɒnli Una Vita was published in 1892, and wanly noticed; Senilità, published in 1898, sank into oblivion. Example sentencesExamples - The mystic overtones of a suffering, bearded and often bare-chested man waving wanly to onlookers gazing up at him have also struck chords.
- So I spent the day lying round like a nineteenth century heroine laid low by love and germs, and the evening wanly supervising the film studies test.
- Turning around, the subdued light diffusing through the closed front window curtains into his living room wanly lit an unexpected object standing between the couch and the TV.
- And although the resolution wanly concedes Senate complicity in mob murders, it does little to compensate victims of a racist terrorism that was culture-deep.
noun ˈwɒnnəsˈwɑnnəs Then he took the perfumed linen sheet, wrapped it round him as a mantle, and turned away, to the wanness of the chill dawn. Example sentencesExamples - The boarding school novel has long been a droopy flower in the garden of American literature, and its wanness can be explained only in part by the fact that we don't have many boarding schools.
- She maintains her wanness behind a cello, bowing away, all woebegone.
- It is excellent, but it is not by means of water-carriage, a more than ordinary wanness had overspread the emaciated fingers through which trickled many passionate tears.
- Since that little cloud was dispelled all the temporary waste and wanness have vanished.
Origin Old English wann 'dark, black', of unknown origin. This is an example of a colour word that has reversed in meaning, like auburn. Until ad 700 wan meant ‘dark, black’, and it did not start to mean ‘pale’ until around 1300. As well as ‘dark’ it originally meant ‘of an unhealthy greyish colour’, particularly of the face of a person who was dead or affected by disease, and this notion of unhealthiness could have provided the connection with ‘pale’.
Rhymes aide-de-camp, aides-de-camp, anon, Asunción, au courant, begone, Bonn, bon vivant, Caen, Canton, Carcassonne, Ceylon, chaconne, chateaubriand, ci-devant, Colón, colon, Concepción, con (US conn), cretonne, don, Duchamp, Evonne, foregone, fromage blanc, Gabon, Garonne, gone, guenon, hereupon, Inchon, Jean, john, Jon, Le Mans, León, Luzon, Mont Blanc, Narbonne, odds-on, on, outgone, outshone, Perón, phon, piñon, Pinot Blanc, plafond, Ramón, Saigon, Saint-Saëns, Sand, Schwann, scone, shone, side-on, sine qua non, Sorbonne, spot-on, swan, thereon, thereupon, ton, Toulon, undergone, upon, Villon, whereon, whereupon, won, wonton, yon, Yvonne abbreviationwanwæn 1Computing
Wide area network. 2Nigeria (international vehicle registration).
adjectivewɑnwän 1(of a person's complexion or appearance) pale and giving the impression of illness or exhaustion. she was looking wan and bleary-eyed Example sentencesExamples - ‘After several days of flying in space, the astronauts may look wan and sallow, so medical staff will put make-up on them to make them look ruddy,’ the newspaper said.
- When he arrived home that night, he looked wan, slightly more drained than usual.
- Doyle still slept, looking wan and exhausted, but that hint of a smile was still there.
- Eli reminded me of an older Bob Dylan, his size and wan complexion and his face.
- Warhol devised the most telling face of fame - wan, bleached out, with a camera hanging from the neck.
- Körbes, normally luminous on the State Theater stage, here never seemed to come alive, looking wan and passive, and was completely overshadowed by either.
- Outside, the once splendid Nevski Prospekt (St. Petersburg's O'Connell Street) is in need of a lick of paint and seems to be trying desperately to become European, but its people are grey and wan.
- Estelle grew from a wan, sickly child into a lovely maiden, her skin pale as the moonlight and hair as raven as the starless night.
- Anyway - if you feel the need to be pasty, wan and outraged, you can always write to me and tell me how you feel.
- Judging from his wan appearance, however, it was clear that the show had taken its toll.
Synonyms pale, pallid, ashen, white, white as a sheet, grey - 1.1 (of light) pale; weak.
Example sentencesExamples - She leaned forward, elbows on knees and her head in the wan moonlight as she smiled.
- Sunlight filtered upon their tired, wan faces and I knew I looked the same.
- There might not be as many shadows to cling to, but the light from lamp posts was wan and deceiving; he could hide well enough if he needed to.
- One need only stand in the aisle marked Produce to understand how the wan light obscuring the bruised fruit makes all of our decisions more difficult.
- Eric Gautier photographed it, with frequent and unnecessary use of the wan light and monochromatic effects that are now high-fashion clichés of their own.
- Instead, our wars exposed the limits of our capability and cast a wan light on many of our cherished illusions.
- The stones on the bottom of the brook were flat and greenish in the wan afternoon light.
- It could just be the light, but she looks pretty wan to me, and too skinny - like the one in four women under 25 who now describe themselves as vegetarians.
Synonyms dim, faint, weak, feeble, pale, watery, wishy-washy - 1.2 (of a smile) weak; strained.
Example sentencesExamples - Sighing wearily, Isabella shifted her gaze to her mother with a wan smile on her lips.
- She gazes toward, but beyond the viewer with a slightly wan and wistful smile, as though she has a secret somewhere deep inside.
- He glanced over his shoulders at his slightly meaner looking co-workers and offered Mary a wan smile.
- She almost manages a wan smile, but misses a bit on the execution.
- She gave him a wan smile when she saw him, and lifted herself to a sitting position carefully.
- I gave him a wan smile, ‘As well as can be expected, I suppose.’
- Amy gave her a wan smile, and moved to stand beside her. her eyes were red from crying, and her armour was mangled in more than a few places.
- John insisted on kissing them as well, bringing the first wan smiles to their faces after the events of the night.
- And so, I walked in without my customary bright smile, wan, blinking hard.
- But he gives her a wan smile, the best he can manage under the circumstances.
- But her gaze cleared, and she managed a wan smile.
- The woman sitting next to me, a blonde South African wearing jeans and fashionable spectacles looks at me, raises an eyebrow, gives me a wan smile and gets up to leave.
- He gave Jean a wan smile before grabbing a baguette at the table.
- The smile she gave Wanda Bryk was the rueful, wan, chastened smile of someone who had just come through a crying spell.
- My light-hearted offer to provide a dumpster was usually met with a wan smile.
- I wasn't, though I probably just murmured something vague in reply, and I may have given a wan smile.
- ‘Come on then,’ he said, and gave her a wan smile.
- Sarah looked up from her conversation with Jake with a wan smile.
- With a wan smile, Delaney removed her license from her wallet and showed it to him.
- ‘Total dedication,’ she said with a somewhat wan smile: she had come in on the day of my visit despite being in intense pain from a suspected slipped disc.
- Tamani offered him a wan smile, ‘Thank you, Sir Pontelau.’
- Ellen suppressed another shudder and gave a wan smile that she hoped he would take to mean the week would be a long one for her.
- Allyson paused, listening to the soft melody, a shy smile spreading over her wan features.
- ‘I actually didn't think that was a big deal,’ says Pottruck, a wan smile playing across his broad face.
- She smiled a wan sort of smile, and glanced around at what should be the living room.
- Often the answer would be in the form of a wan smile or silence.
- ‘Hello, Susanna,’ Westley said, a wan smile on his face.
- When deep brown eyes finally opened and she stared up at him, she gave him a wan smile that caused a cringe as the sore skin on her cheek stretched greatly.
- Elsa shook it off with a shrug of the shoulders and a wan smile.
- In another image, two bored children gaze at the camera, the older one giving the camera a wan smile.
- ‘No, I didn't know that,’ he says quietly, offering a wan smile.
- Other bands might get away with this on intensity alone, but Harcourt's straightforward, predictable manner leaves his wan material desperately lacking.
- The secretary looked up momentarily and gave her a wan smile.
- 1.3literary (of the sea) without luster; dark and gloomy.
Origin Old English wann ‘dark, black’, of unknown origin. abbreviationwænwan Computing |