- 1表象、表面上的樣子（a semblance of order＝表面上的秩序、像樣一點的秩序；不是 resemblance 的「長得像」）
A semblance of something is a state that is close to that thing — usually something people want, like order, peace, or a normal day. After a storm, a town may get a semblance of order: a few shops open, a bus runs. It is not the full thing. It is near enough that you can point at it and say, we have a little of that back.
You almost always say a semblance of + a noun. The word is a little formal. News, books, and careful talk use it more than friends over a snack.
Though actually, “close to a good thing” can sound warmer than real use. Often a semblance is thin. A semblance of calm can mean people are only acting calm. Older writing also used semblance for a face or a look on the outside, even a false one. Today the of-phrase is the one you will keep meeting.
組成From Middle English semblaunce, from Old French semblance, from sembler (“to seem, to look like”), from Latin similis (“like”).
原始詞典資料10 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
semblancenoun/ˈsɛmblən(t)s/
- 1
The outward appearance or form of a person or thing.
- Oft haue I ſeene a timely-parted Ghoſt, / Of aſhy ſemblance, meager, pale, and bloodleſſe, […]
- Be you the Souldier, for you likeſt are / For manly ſemblance, and ſmall skill in vvarre: […]
- 2
The outward appearance or form of a person or thing.
- O povverfull Loue, that in ſome reſpects makes a Beaſt a Man: in ſom other, a Man a beaſt. You vvere alſo (Iupiter) a Svvan, for the loue of Leda: O omnipotent Loue, hovv nere the God drevv to the complexion of a Gooſe: a fault done firſt in the forme of a beaſt, (O Ioue, a beaſtly fault:) and then another fault, in the ſemblance of a Fovvle, thinke on't (Ioue) a fovvle [i.e., foul]-fault.
- He also hath his own conceit: / It is, thinks he, the gracious Fairy, / Who loved the Shepherd Lord to meet / In his wanderings solitary; / […] / 'Twas said that she all shapes could wear; / And oftentimes before him stood, / Amid the trees of some thick wood, / In semblance of a lady fair, […]
- 3
The outward appearance or form of a person or thing.
- And other diuels that ſuggest by treaſons, / Do botch and bungle vp damnation, / VVith patches, colours, and vvith formes being fetcht / From gliſt'ring ſemblances of piety: […]
- [H]e his vvonted pride / Soon recollecting, vvith high vvords, that bore / Semblance of vvorth not ſubſtance, gently rais'd / Their fainted courage, and diſpel'd their fears.
- 4
Followed by of: a person or thing that is seen; an apparition, a vision.
- Still she bears her weird [charm or spell] alone, / In the Valley of Saint John. / And her semblance oft will seem / Mingling in a champion's dream, / Of her weary lot to plain, / And crave his aid to burst her chain.
- England, seated far north in the turbid sea, now visits my dreams in the semblance of a vast and well-manned ship, which mastered the winds and rode proudly over the waves.
- 5
Followed by of: a person or thing that looks similar to another person or thing; a likeness.
- Then call them not the Authors of their ill, / No more then vvaxe ſhall be accounted euill, / VVherein is ſtampt the ſemblance of a Deuill.
- In this reign died John Rous, the antiquarian of VVarvvickſhire, vvho drevv his ovvn portrait and other ſemblances, but in too rude a manner to be called paintings.
- 6
Followed by of: a bare or mere appearance of something.
- When the former [Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset] wished to put his own brother [Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley] to death, without even the semblance of a trial, he found a ready instrument in [Thomas] Cranmer.
- 7
A person's non-verbal behaviour or demeanour which shows their feelings, thoughts, etc., or which is faked to hide such true feelings, thoughts, etc.
- And of truth the Protectour [later Richard III of England] and the Duke of Buckingham [Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham] made very good ſembleaunce vnto the Lord Haſtinges [William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings], and kept him much in their company.
- And euer vvhen the Prince vnto him ſpake, / He louted lovvly, as did him becum, / And humble homage did vnto him make, / Midſt ſorrovv ſhevving ioyous ſemblance for his ſake.
- 8
datedIn the form make semblance: an act of appearing; an appearance, a manifestation; also, a false appearance, a pretence.
- [T]hey all make ſemblance of loathing Piero, and knit their fiſts at him; […]
- [H]ee vvas ſlain by a ſouldior, that making ſemblance to deliver unto him the keies of the Caſtle hanging at the head of a ſpeare, ranne him into the body vvith it.
另外 2 個記錄的用法
- 9
archaicThe quality or state of being similar; likeness, resemblance, similarity.
- I find that holy VVrit in many places / Hath ſemblance vvith this method, vvhere the caſes / Doth call for one thing, to ſet forth another: / Uſe it I may then, and yet nothing ſmother / Truths golden Beams; Nay, by this method may / Make it caſt forth its rayes as light as day.
- I thought no body had been like me, but I ſee there vvas ſome Semblance 'tvvixt this good man and I, […]
- 10
obsoleteThe chance of something happening; likelihood, probability.
- And yet ſome ſemblance there is that it [a law] vvas yet more ancient, even in the time of Hen[ry] I. if I miſtake not the ſence of that clauſe in his lavvs concerning vagabonds; […]
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。