| 释义 |
comfortable, a. (n.)|ˈkʌmfətəb(ə)l|
Also 4–6 con-.
[a. Anglo-F. confortable, f. confort-er to comfort, on L. type *confortābilis; for the active force of the suffix, see -ble, last paragraph. (Mod.F. confortable is from Eng.)]
A. adj.
I. With active sense.
†1.
a. Strengthening or supporting (morally or spiritually); encouraging, inspiriting, reassuring, cheering. Obs. or arch.
c1440Beryn 721 His wordis been so comfortabill. c1500Lancelot 2651 Seing al the gret suppris Of fois cummyng..Togiddir al his cumpany he drew, And confortable wordis to them schew. 1547–8Ordre of Commvnion 4 The moste confortable Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christe. 1587Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1998/1 The valiant prowesse of the English souldiers, incouraged with the comfortable presence of sir William Cobham. 1641Hinde J. Bruen xxxii. 100 With great and comfortable successe. 1713Berkeley Hylas & Phil. Pref., The comfortable expectation of Immortality. 1739Cibber Apol. (1756) I. 2, I have such comfortable numbers on my side. 1774Burke Corr. (1844) I. 497 Your last letter was not comfortable. 1869Tennyson Coming of Arthur 267 He spake and cheer'd his Table Round With large divine and comfortable words.
b. the Comfortable Words: in some Anglican liturgies, the four scriptural passages following the Absolution in the Communion service, prefaced by ‘Hear what comfortable words’ [etc.].
1855Procter Bk. Comm. Prayer 324 The Comfortable Words that follow are the scriptural statements upon which the absolution is grounded. 1893C. Whitaker Prayer Bk. 79 Comfortable Words. These are taken from Hermann's Consultation.
†2. Helpful, serviceable, advantageous. Obs.
1575–6Thynne in Animadv. Introd. 54 The comfortable ayde of the golden sheife. 1725De Foe Voy. round W. (1840) 344 Their..canoes which had been so comfortable to them.
†3. Strengthening or refreshing to the bodily faculties or organs; sustaining. Obs.
c1440Gesta Rom. 338 (Camb. MS.) It most be wyne comfortable þat shold be yeue to the syke. 1568Turner Herbal iii. 40 [Nutmegs] are..comfortable for the stomache. 1614Markham Cheap Husb. i. i. (1668) 7 After you have let him blood..give him a comfortable drench. 1744Berkeley Siris §77 Cured by this comfortable cordial. 1756C. Lucas Ess. Waters III. 264 Vapor baths..to the comfortable relief of many diseases. 1816Scott Old Mort. iv, The comfortable creature, which the carnal denominate brandy. [Factitious archaism.]
†4. Pleasing or grateful to the senses. Obs.
c1400Beryn 697 Many..flouris..That lusty been, and confortabill for mannys siȝte! 1576Fleming Panoplie Ep. 340 The sweet and comfortable sounde of musicall instrumentes. 1659Vulgar Errours Censured i. §4. 9 The comfortable blush of the approaching Morne. 1713Derham Phys. Theol. ii. iii. 45 The comfortable Changes of Day and Night.
†5.
a. Affording mental or spiritual delight or enjoyment; pleasant, enjoyable. Obs.
c1340Hampole Prose Tr. i. 2 Desederabill es thi name, lufabyll and comfortabyll. 1515Barclay Egloges i. (1570) A ij/3 Mery talking is greatly comfortable. 1535Coverdale Ps. liii. 6 [I will] prayse thy name o Lorde, because it is so comfortable. 1632Lithgow Trav. ix. (1682) 379 My Singular good friend..whose presence to me..was exceeding Comfortable. 1748Hartley Observ. Man ii. iii. 310 The Love of God, and the constant comfortable Sense of his Presence.
†b. Satisfactory; also colloq. ‘tolerable’, ‘fair’, ‘pretty good’. Obs.
1658Whole Duty Man xiv. §9. 109 To enable their pastors to give a comfortable account of their souls. 1720Derby Post-Man I. No. 10. 4 A large, massy Caudle Cup, a comfortable piece of Plate. 1728Vanbr. & Cib. Prov. Husb. ii. i, Sir F. The Boy has a strong Head! M. Yes, truly, his Skull seems to be of a comfortable Thickness.
6. Affording or conveying consolation; comforting, consolatory: of persons (obs.) or things (arch.).
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xiv. 281 Contricioun is confortable þinge..and a solace to þe soule. 1430Lydg. Chron. Troy iii. xxvi, Hym..That was to her..So kynde founde and so comfortable. 1529More Comf. agst. Trib. ii. Wks. 1200/2 Let him be pitteous & comfortable, to those that are in distresse. 1593Shakes. Rich. II, ii. ii. 76 For heauens sake speake comfortable words. 1601― All's Well i. i. 86 Be comfortable to my mother..and make much of her. a1631Donne Serm. l. 507 A despairing Soule will set Gods comfortablest Words to a sad Tune. 1754Chesterfield Lett. IV. 77 If you still want comfort, Mrs. ―..may, if she will, be very comfortable. 1788T. Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 389 It is a comfortable circumstance. 1869Goulburn Purs. Holiness vii. 57 That most comfortable truth the Paternity of God.
7. a. Affording or fitted to give tranquil enjoyment and content; attended with or ministering to comfort (see comfort n. 6). This and 10 are the ordinary current uses; and this tends to be commonly treated as a transferred or extended use of 10, a ‘comfortable house’ being thus viewed as a house in which one is comfortable; this is still more manifest in ‘comfortable circumstances’. Cf. 10 b.
1769Gray Jrnl. Tour 9 Oct. in Mason Life, Kendal—The buildings (a few comfortable houses excepted) are mean. 1823Lamb Elia, Old & New Schm., My companion..left me in the comfortable possession of my ignorance. 1859Geo. Eliot A. Bede i. i, Hitherto Gyp had kept his comfortable bed. 1878Jevons Prim. Pol. Econ. 26 If we wish to have comfortable clothes and houses. Mod. The family was left in comfortable circumstances.
b. absol. quasi-n.
1793W. Roberts Looker-on No. 59 (1794) II. 384, I have seriously projected a treatise on the comfortable. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 319 In the buildings..a happy union of the comfortable and the graceful.
II. With passive or neuter sense.
†8. passively. Capable of being comforted, consolable. Obs. rare—1.
1609Bible (Douay) Pref., Sorow..not so much for our owne affliction, for that is comfortable, but for you.
†9. In a state of consolation; ‘of good comfort’, cheerful, cheery. Obs.
a1593H. Smith Wks. (1866–7) I. 393 Paul saith, ‘God comforteth us, that we may be able to comfort others..shewing that we cannot comfort others unless we be comfortable ourselves. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. ii. vi. 10 For my sake be comfortable. 1607― Timon iii. iv. 71 His comfortable temper has forsooke him. 1755Mrs. Delany Life & Corr. (1861) III. 365, I despair of writing a comfortable letter while I stay at the Bath.
10. a. In a state of tranquil enjoyment and content; free from pain and trouble; at ease. (Usually, but not always, in reference to physical conditions or circumstances.)
1770H. Walpole Let. to G. Montagu 1 July, Mrs. White..has given me a good fire and some excellent coffee and bread and butter, and I am as comfortable as possible. 1811Jane Austen Sense & Sens. (1866) 9 Do but consider..how excessively comfortable your mother-in-law and her daughter may live. 1828Scott Diary 27 Apr. in Lockhart, Let it freeze without, we are comfortable within. 1858J. Martineau Stud. Chr. 271 [The Church] relies..on the dislike felt by the comfortable classes towards the trouble of thought and the disturbance of feeling. 1872Geo. Eliot Middlem. xli, Here is your poor mother..you could afford something handsome now to make her comfortable. Mod. I am not [or I do not feel] quite comfortable about the matter.
b. Expressing or characterized by comfort; easy and tranquil; undisturbed; also colloq. of persons, suggestive of complacency, placidly self-satisfied.
1856J. H. Newman Callista 48 There's Bacchus: he's a good, comfortable god, though a sly, treacherous fellow. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. iv. xii, ‘Why argue?’ returned Mr. Inspector in a comfortable sort of remonstrance. 1872Geo. Eliot Middlem. v, ‘Go to bed soon’, said Celia, in a comfortable way, without any touch of pathos. 1878R. H. Hutton Scott i. 5 A motherly comfortable woman.
11. Comb., as comfortable-looking adj.
1875W. McIlwraith Guide to Wigtownshire 48 Comfortable-looking two-storey houses.
B. n.
†1. That which gives comfort; pl. comforts (see comfort n. 5 c, 7). Obs.
1650O. Sedgwick Christ the Life 22 Whatsoever the Christian finds in Himself..for the Habituals of Grace..and..for the Comfortables of Grace. 1675Brooks Gold. Key Wks. 1867 V. 327 The returning prodigal hath garments, and ornaments, and necessaries, and comfortables. 1786M. Cutler in Life, Jrnls. & Corr. (1888) II. 247 He..proposes to provide well in comfortables for the journey.
2. a. A worsted covering for the wrist. b. A long woollen scarf worn round the neck in cold weather; = comforter 6. c. (U.S.) A quilted bed-covering; a down quilt; = comfort n. 8.
1835Sir J. Ross Arct. Exp. iii. 42 A blue jacket and trousers, a flannel shirt, a comfortable. 1839Lady Lytton Cheveley (ed. 2) III. i. 11 Their face half hid in green worsted comfortables. 1842in J. S. Buckingham E. & W. States Amer. III. 434 Still Mr. Van Buren was not content; he longed for the ‘Turkish divan’ and the ‘French comfortable’. 1844M. Edgeworth Frank, a Sequel (1854) II. 9 Knitting..a pair of scarlet worsted cuffs or bracelets, by some called wristlets, by others comfortables. 1847Rep. Comm. Patents 1844 35 [Cotton] has already been employed in what are variously called ‘comforts’ and ‘comfortables’. 1856S. T. L. Robinson Kansas 28, I..slept on comfortables and buffalo-robes on the floor in the attic. 1864Webster, Comfortable, a..stuffed or quilted coverlet for a bed; a comforter; a comfort. (U.S.) 1874Mrs. Whitney We Girls vii. 155 Ruth brought some pillows and comfortables..made up a couch..on the box-sofa. 1945L. R. Tryon Poor Man's Doctor 96, I threw back most of the voluminous quilts, comfortables and sheets.
Add:[7.] c. comfortable margin, one great enough to rule out any challenge or doubt. Also transf. of a victory or the winner.
1934Esquire Feb. 96/2 This still leaves a comfortable margin of popular acclaim for the boys who couldn't read it but who..knew how to swing it. 1964Observer 28 June 8/5 The cost of carrying goods by liner trains will be so much less than by heavy lorries..that he should be able to undercut the roads by a comfortable margin. 1978Dumfries Courier 20 Oct. 5/1 Lochar Amateurs, with a comfortable 5–2 win over Abbey Vale, regained the top spot. 1980N.Y. Times 12 Oct. ii. 21/2 He has enjoyed comfortable margins of victory in every race since 1964. 1986Lydney Observer 12 Sept. 2/6 Sunday's game was a more lively affair, Berry Hill running out comfortable winners. |
