| 单词 | plaintive |
| 释义 | plaintive, a.|ˈpleɪntɪv|
Forms: 4–8 as in plaintiff; 6– -ive.
[ME. a. OF. plaintif, -ive, corresp. to L. type *planctīv-us, f. planctus plaint: see -ive, and note s.v. plaintiff.]
1. Complaining, grieving, lamenting; † suffering. Now rare.
1390Gower Conf. II. 6 How goodli that Penelope Of his lachesce was pleintif. 1600J. Lane Tom Tel-troth 654 Thus men by women, women wrongde by men, Giue matter still vnto my plaintife pen. 1700Dryden Iliad i. 500 To sooth the sorrows of her plaintive son. 1718Prior Solomon iii. 374 His younger Son..First Fruit of Death, lies Plaintiff of a wound Given by a Brother's Hand. 1752Hume Ess. & Treat. (1777) I. 240 The mere suffering of plaintive virtue.
†2. Being or pertaining to the complainant or plaintiff in a suit. Obs.
c1400Beryn 3533 And eke also the cost Of euery party plentyff þat fallith in his pleynt. 1489Caxton Faytes of A. iv. v. 240 Ryght and restytucion were made vnto the party playntyff of his actyon and demaunde. 1577Parties plaintiffe [see plaint n. 3 β]. 1581Marbeck Bk. of Notes 886 If in this place the Judge doe signifie God, and the aduersarie plaintiue the Diuell. 1596Spenser F.Q. v. iv. 40 To heare the piteous beast pleading her plaintiffe cause.
3. Having the character of complaint; expressive of sorrow; mournful, sad.
1579E. K. in Spenser's Sheph. Cal. Gen. Argt., These xij. æclogues,..eyther they be Plaintiue,..or recreatiue,..or Moral. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 473 His careful Mother heard the Plaintive Sound. 1705Addison Italy 3 Oft in the Winds is heard a plaintive Sound Of melancholy Ghosts, that hover round. 1784Cowper Task iv. 479 The fiddle screams Plaintive and piteous, as it wept and wailed Its wasted tones. 1869H. F. Tozer Highl. Turkey II. 242 These songs are recited slowly to a peculiarly plaintive melody.
4. Comb., as plaintive-echoing adj.
1740Dyer Ruins of Rome 48 They..mournfully among The plaintive-echoing ruins pour their streams.
Hence ˈplaintively adv.; ˈplaintiveness.
1773W. Melmoth tr. Cicero's De Senect, Remarks 196 The alternate plaintiveness and boldness of his strain. 1797Mrs. Radcliffe Italian xi, So sweetly, so plaintively did the strain grow on the air. 1845Jane Robinson Whitehall xix, Gushes of rapture and plaintiveness. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 195 They tell you plaintively of how many evils their old age is the cause. |
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