| 释义 |
▪ I. miracle, n.|ˈmɪrək(ə)l|
Forms: 4 maracle, -kle, meracull, -kill, mercle, miracil, -cyl, -kel, myrakil(l, -kyl, 4–5 meracle, myrrakull, 4–6 myracle, 5 mirakelle, -ylle, 5–6 mirackle, miracule, 6 mirakill, mirakle, myrackle, 2– miracle.
[a. OF. miracle, ad. L. mīrāculum object of wonder (in Eccl. L. miracle), f. mīrārī to wonder, f. mīr-us wonderful. Cf. Pr. miracle, Sp. milagro, Pg. milagre, It. miracolo.]
1. a. A marvellous event occurring within human experience, which cannot have been brought about by human power or by the operation of any natural agency, and must therefore be ascribed to the special intervention of the Deity or of some supernatural being; chiefly, an act (e.g. of healing) exhibiting control over the laws of nature, and serving as evidence that the agent is either divine or is specially favoured by God. Phrases, to do, † make, work, † show a miracle.
The L. miraculum in this sense, though common in patristic and later theology, is foreign to the Vulgate, in which the Gr. words rendered ‘miracle’ in the English Bible—σηµεῖον ‘sign’, τέρας ‘wonder’, δύναµις ‘power’ or ‘mighty work’, are translated respectively by signum, prodigium, and virtus.
1154O.E. Chron. an. 1137 (Laud MS.), He maket þur ure Drihtin wunderlice & manifealdlice miracles. a1225Leg. Kath. 1426 Þæt wes miracle muchel. c1250Kent. Serm. in O.E. Misc. 30 Þis was þe commencement of þo miracles of ure louerde þet he made flesliche in erþe. a1300Cursor M. 177 Iesu..did þe meracles sua rijf Þat þe Iuus him hild in strijf. Ibid. 9512 Quat man es moght se sa bright, Þat suilk a man cuth think in thoght Þat mustre þat mercle moght? c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 23 God did faire miracle for Elfride þat houre. a1340Hampole Psalter xvii. 16 He shewyd many myrakils. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 438 Þorw myracles..al þat marche he torned To cryst and to crystendome. c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 288 Þou seist þat myraclis & lyues of holy men approuen þis dowynge of þe chirche. c1400Mandeville (1839) xii. 139 This was the firste Myracle..that Machomete dide in his ȝouthe. c1440Sir Gowther 743 (Breul) He..gyffus to þo mad hor wytte, And mony odur meracullus yytte. c15111st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.) Introd. 35/1 Saint Thomas doeth more myracles, than ony seynt in heuen. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, v. iv. 41 Chosen from aboue..To worke exceeding myracles on earth. 1608Bp. Hall Epist. i. vi. 73 Miracles must be iudged by the doctrine which they confirme; not the doctrine by the miracles. 1611Bible John iv. 54 This is againe the second miracle that Iesus did. 1699Burnet 39 Art. iv. 62 A Miracle is a Work that exceeds all the known Powers of Nature. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) I. 466 A St. Ignatius performing a miracle, by Rubens, on another altar. 1865Mozley Mirac. i. 5 Miracles or visible suspensions of the order of nature for a providential purpose, are not in contradiction to reason. 1872Tennyson Gareth & Lynette 1292 Wonders ye have done; Miracles ye cannot.
b. In generalized sense.
a1225Ancr. R. 158 Al were he, Þuruh miracle, of barain iboren [etc.]. 1390Gower Conf. III. 106 That therof mai be non obstacle, Bot if it stonde upon miracle. c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 13 Lyke to the watyr of Archideclyne, Wiche be meracle were turned into wyne. 1590Shakes. Com. Err. v. i. 264 Then you fled into this Abbey heere, From whence I thinke you are come by Miracle. 1671Milton P.R. i. 337 Who brought me hither Will bring me hence... By Miracle he may, reply'd the Swain. 1742Young Nt. Th. iv. 131 Am I fond of life, Who scarce can think it possible, I live? Alive by miracle! 1855Milman Lat. Chr. ix. ix. IV. 256 By what was believed to be miracle, which might be holy art. 1869Liddon Serm. Spec. Occas. viii. (1897) 164 When we take up the Book of Jonah, that which strikes us first of all..is the degree in which miracle pervades the whole narrative.
2. transf. in various uses, esp. as applied hyperbolically to an achievement seemingly beyond human power, or an occurrence so marvellous as to appear supernatural. Also with defining word prefixed designating a remarkable development in some specified area.
c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1817 A myracle ther bifel anon. 1586Let. to Earle Leycester, etc. 12 The bottomlesse graces and immeasurable benefits bestowed upon me by the Almightie..I must..admire..accounting them as well miracles as benefites. 1633T. Stafford Pac. Hib. i. xiv. 84 Captain Flower at Lysmore, wrought miracles against the Rebels in those parts. 1638Junius Paint. Ancients 95 Now these miracles of Nature may seem to fall out by meere chance. 1692Dryden Cleomenes ii. ii. 17 O Miracle! He blushes! 1738Wesley Ps. cxxxix. v, Lord to thy Works of Nature join Thy Miracles of Grace! 1824R. Stuart Hist. Steam Engine 35 It would, indeed, have been a miracle had a copy, of any equally unimportant book, been found at such a distance of time in that unenviable situation. 1850Scoresby Cheever's Whalem. Adv. xi. (1859) 145 She was within a miracle of being upset. 1860Pusey Min. Proph. 257 The moral miracles were, in these hundreds of thousands, God's over-powering grace. 1903Daily Mail 11 Sept. 3/1 There are two theories to account for the radium ‘miracle’. 1959M. Crosland tr. Rovan's Germany 78 The fact that millions of new arrivals were housed and employed..is the most miraculous aspect of the ‘German miracle’. 1963Listener 21 Feb. 321/2 This contract production is an important factor in the Polish miracle. 1973A. Price October Men ix. 128, I don't mind him being part of the Italian economic miracle.
b. Phrase, to a miracle: so well or successfully as to seem miraculous; marvellously well.
1643Trapp Comm. Gen. xxxi. 27 Hypocrites are likened to bull-rushes, which are green and smoothe; and he is curious to a miracle, that can find a knot in them. 1672Dryden Assignation i. i, Gad, sir, everything becomes you to a miracle. 1758J. S. Le Dran's Observ. Surg. (1771) 335 Things went on to a Miracle. 1840Dickens Old C. Shop xvi, Nelly..was soon busily engaged in her task, and accomplishing it to a miracle. 1882Stevenson New Arab. Nts. (1884) 94, I understand my part to a miracle.
c. concr. A wonderful object, a marvel; a person or thing of more than natural excellence; a surpassing example of some quality.
c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) vii. 24 Ȝit es þe heued of þat beste with þe hornes halden and keped at Alisaunder for a miracle. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 167 The bird appeereth as it were a myracle of nature. 1595Daniel Civ. Wars v. xiv. (1609) 117 That magnanimous King, Mirror of vertue, miracle of worth. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. iii. 33 O Miracle of Men! 1602Carew Eng. Tongue in Camden's Rem. (1614) 44 Take the miracle of our age Sir Philip Sidney. 1617Moryson Itin. iii. 64 The Bridge at London is worthily to be numbred among the miracles of the world. 1709J. Lawson New Voy. Carolina 145 The Humming-Bird is the Miracle of all our wing'd Animals. 1712Addison Spect. No. 543 ⁋3 Sir Isaac Newton, who stands up as the miracle of the present age. 1797Coleridge Kubla Khan 38 It was a miracle of rare device. 1845Craik Sk. Hist. Lit. Eng. V. 174 To Garrick, a miracle of an actor,..we owe [etc.].
†3. A miraculous story; a legend. Obs.
c1386Chaucer Sir Thopas Prol. 1 Whan seyd was al this miracle, euery man As sobre was that wonder was to se.
4. One of a class of dramatic representations of the Middle Ages based on the life of Our Lord and the legends of the Saints. Now usually called miracle play (see 5).
1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 4659 Þat make swyche pleyys to any man As myracles and bourdys. c1386Chaucer Wife's Prol. 558 To pleyes of myracles and to mariages. c1394P. Pl. Crede 107 At marketts & myracles we medleþ vs nevere. 1798in Archæologia (1800) XIII. 237 But those theatrical pieces called ‘Miracles’ were their delight beyond all others. 1852Hallam Lit. Ess. & Char., E. Europ. Drama 4 Geoffrey, afterwards abbot of St. Alban's, while teaching a school at Dunstable, caused one of the shows, vulgarly called miracles, on the story of St. Catherine to be represented in that town.
5. attrib. and Comb. (chiefly objective), as miracle-abode, miracle-author, † miracles-doing, miracle drug, miracle-making, miracle-monger (hence miracle-mongering), miracle-worker, miracle-working. Also miracle-bred, miracle-breeding, miracle-proof adjs.; miracle man, one who performs miracles; † miracle minter, one who ‘coins’ fictitious miracles; miracle play = miracle 4; † miracle player, one who takes part in a miracle play; miracle rice, a modern hybrid rice seed that yields more than the traditional varieties; † miracle shop, contemptuously for a shrine at which miracles are reputed to be wrought.
1807Wolcot (P. Pindar) in Monthly Mag. Feb. 1 Me⁓thinks I see them [sc. Chaucer's pilgrims] on the road To Becket's *miracle-abode.
1749G. Lavington Enthus. Meth. & Papists (1820) 237 One of their famous *miracle-authors declares, that one brother was so elevated..that he boasted of having visions of angels attending him.
1928W. B. Yeats Tower 62 Even the grey-leaved olive tree *Miracle-bred out of the living stone.
1814Mrs. J. West Alicia de Lacy III. 174 By pacing at midnight the flinty aisle of some *miracle-breeding chapel.
c1440Alphabet of Tales 305 Þe tone of þaim fell vnto þe syn of lichorie, & her-for God deprivid hym of *meracles-doyng. c1449Pecock Repr. ii. viii. 188 Bi the seid euydencis of myraculis doing.
1953J. Ramsbottom Mushrooms & Toadstools xxiii. 279 Penicillin was really on the stage at last; it dwarfed other performers into insignificance. It was hailed as a ‘*miracle drug’. 1962Lancet 2 June 1137/1 A miracle drug that will charm away any and every form of infection. 1970P. Moyes Who saw her Die? xvi. 209, I got hold of the streptomycin..and the miracle drug worked. She was cured.
1677Gilpin Demonol. (1867) 181 When his [Satan's] agents can go no further in the trade of *miracle-making, he [etc.].
1572Forrest Theophilus 1235 in Anglia VII, Bruited abroade this great *myracle Man. 1914F. L. Packard (title) The miracle man. 1926A. Conan Doyle Hist. Spiritualism I. iii. 54 He [sc. Andrew Jackson Davis] was a miracle man, the inspired, learned, uneducated apostle of the new dispensation. 1951L. MacNeice tr. Goethe's Faust 185 In priestly robes and wreath a miracle-man Will now fulfil what he in hopes began. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. x. 179 They are willing to acclaim anyone who habitually comes top of the class without apparent effort, naming him Genius, The Brains, Miracle Man.
1603Harsnet Pop. Impost. 103, I should haue acquainted you how the *Miracle-minter in his miracle booke doth solemnly tell vs, that [etc.].
1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. viii. i. (1886) 125 Why doo not these (meaning *miraclemongers) appoint some Siloah to swim in? 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 93 We leaue to you the stile of Mirabiliary Miracle⁓mongers. 1856R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) I. 36 All the pretences, both of heathen and of Christian miracle-mongers.
1881A. B. Bruce Chief End Rev. iv. 182 Legendary tales due to the..*miracle-mongering spirit of the..reporters.
1852Hook Ch. Dict. (1871) 517 *Miracle-plays were a kind of church performance in the middle ages representing the miracles wrought by the holy confessors, and the sufferings by which the perseverance of the martyrs was manifested. 1875Ward Eng. Dram. Lit. (1899) I. 41 Miracle-plays, on the other hand, are more especially concerned with incidents derived from legends of the Saints of the Church.
a1400Serm. agst. Miracle-plays in Rel. Ant. II. 46 Therfore to pristis it is uttirly forbedyn not onely to been *myracle pleyere but also to heren or to seen myraclis pleyinge.
1711Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) II. 328 The safest station in Christianity is his who can be mov'd by nothing of this kind, and is thus *miracle-proof.
1969Americana Ann. 408 The introduction of U.S.-supplied ‘*miracle rice’ notwithstanding, the country [sc. Laos] was still unable to produce enough rice for its own people. 1972Times 8 May 14/1 Dr Norman Borlaug, the discoverer of the ‘miracle’ rice and wheat strains..was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.
1629Donne Serm. xxiv. (1640) 239 In the Romane church (where miracles for every naturall disease may be had at some Shrine or *miracle-shop, better cheap, then a Medicine..).
1561T. Norton Calvin's Inst. C.'s Pref. A iv b, The Lorde hath made vs ware agaynste suche *miracle workers. 1857Stanley Mem. Canterb. ii. (ed. 3) 103 His [Becket's] fame as the great miracle-worker of the time, was increasing every month. 1923Kipling Independence 29 He was something of a magician, if not a miracle-worker. 1970G. Greer Female Eunuch 277 She twice..took a little pill... She thinks they are little miracle workers.
1605Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. xi. §3 They haue exalted the power of the imagination to be much one with the power of *Miracle-working faith. 1867Macfarren Harmony iv. (1876) 152 This miracle-working harmony.
Add:[2.] [a.] In weakened use: a surprising or unexpected phenomenon or event.
a1616Shakespeare Merry W. III. v. 119 Being thus cram'd in the Basket..it was a miracle to scape suffocation. 1748S. Richardson Clarissa (1811) III. 273 It would be a miracle if she stood such an attempter. 1819Byron Don Juan ii. l. 144 Half epileptical, and half hysterical:—Their preservation would have been a miracle. 1886Pall Mall Gaz. 13 Nov. 5 It will be a miracle if no one finds out who the trustee is. 1954W. Faulkner Fable 273 The miracle is that we have anything left after four years of being overrun by foreigners. 1992Daily Mail 17 Aug. 39/3 After conceding four goals in the Charity Shield last weekend, it's a miracle they weren't reduced to a similar shambles.
▪ II. miracle, v. nonce-wd.|ˈmɪrək(ə)l|
[f. miracle n.]
a. refl. ? To be revealed by miracle.
b. intr. To work miracles.
1611Shakes. Cymb. iv. ii. 29 Ime not their Father, yet who this should bee Doth myracle it selfe, lou'd before mee. a1656Hales Tracts (1677) 169 Their undaunted fortitude, their power of miracling.
▪ III. miracle
corrupt form of merel, a game. |
