喜樂美語

核心畫面

One way to hold this word: something is standing beside you like a tower. You tip your head back to find the top, and everything near it suddenly looks small. That is the whole of towering — not a measurement, but the feeling of one thing rising far above its neighbours. English then lets that same height slide off physical things: a person can rise that far above others in their field, and, inside one fixed expression, so can an anger.

「towering」可以想成有一座塔就立在你旁邊。你得抬起頭，才找得到它的頂端。而且它一站在那裡，周圍的東西全被比小…更多收起「towering」可以想成有一座塔就立在你旁邊。你得抬起頭，才找得到它的頂端。而且它一站在那裡，周圍的東西全被比小了。這個畫面裡真正的重點不是幾公尺，而是「高出一截，把旁邊壓下去」。這個高度後來被搬離了具體的東西：一個人可以在同行裡高出這麼多；在一組固定說法裡，怒氣也可以這樣拔高。

From the word’s history

In the source data, towering is listed as the present participle of the verb tower (to rise high), so the adjective is the verb's picture held still: something in the act of rising like a tower.

在這份資料裡，towering 被標為動詞 tower（高高聳立）的現在分詞。所以這個形容詞可以想成把那個動作定格下來：某樣東西正像一座塔那樣拔起。

Packet evidence: Wiktionary entry 'towering' (verb), gloss 'present participle and gerund of tower' (evidence_id wikt:towering:verb:0; source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1234373264).

Two branches

看得見的高：高到壓過周圍

這一支就是核心畫面本身，還沒有被搬到抽象的東西上。

adjective · B2

So tall that it rises high above everything near it and makes those things look small. Used about cliffs, mountains, trees, buildings and waves, and sometimes about a person who is much taller than the people around them.

高聳的

高度變成程度：在同類裡拔尖，在情緒上拔高

英文常把「位置高」拿來講「程度高」。同一座塔搬離了地面之後，量的就不再是公尺，而是「比同類高出多少」。

adjective · C1

Far greater than others of the same kind. Used about a person, or about that person's talent, work or success, when they stand well above everyone else in their field.

卓越的；出類拔萃的

原始詞典資料3 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，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。

toweringadj/ˈtaʊəɹɪŋ/

  • 1

    Very tall or high and dwarfing anything around it.

    • So this was my future home, I thought![…]Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
    • She is a towering girl with a husky baritone voice and a friendly and flamboyant style.

toweringnoun/ˈtaʊəɹɪŋ/

  • 1

    The act or condition of being high above others.

    • Gaiety seldom fails to give some pain; the hearers either strain their faculties to accompany its towerings, or are left behind in envy or despair.
    • But I am an old hawk at the sport; and wrote her such a cool, deliberate, prudent reply, as brought my bird from the aerial towerings, pop down at my foot like Corporal Trim's hat.

這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：

資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。