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Unflagging describes effort, energy, interest, or support that keeps going at full strength and never gets tired or weaker. The key is the word 'never' — it is not about being strong once, it is about being strong for a long time, hour after hour, year after year. So it almost always goes with words about long stretches of effort: unflagging support, unflagging energy, unflagging enthusiasm, unflagging determination, unflagging devotion. Think of a nurse who works a twelve-hour night and is still gentle with the last patient, or a mother who has helped her son with homework every evening for six years. It is a warm word. When you call someone's effort unflagging, you are praising them, and you sound a little formal and a little moved. You meet it in speeches, in thank-you letters, in newspaper writing, in the first page of a book where the writer thanks their family. In everyday talk people usually just say 'she never gives up' or 'he's always full of energy'. One thing to notice: it describes the effort, not usually the person. We say 'his unflagging support', and 'an unflagging worker' is possible but much rarer. Also, it is one of those un- words where the positive form is nearly dead — English keeps 'unflagging' but almost never uses '' as a compliment, because '' by itself means getting weak ( sales, interest, my energy was by three o'clock). So the pair is a bit lopsided: '' is common enough, 'unflagging' is common enough, but they live in different kinds of sentences.
不懈的、不減的(形容熱情、支持、努力一直維持在最強,從不變弱);常見說法:不遺餘力的支持、始終不渝的熱情。注意這裡的 flag 跟「旗子」沒有關係,是動詞「變弱、鬆懈」的意思。
組成un- ('not') + flagging. The verb 'flag' here does not mean the cloth flag on a pole — it is a separate old verb meaning to droop, to lose strength, to hang down tired. Its origin is uncertain; scholars have not settled it, though it may be related to old Germanic words for hanging loosely. So 'unflagging' is literally 'not drooping'.
原始詞典資料1 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。
unflaggingadj
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Never tiring or lacking energy; without rest; without slowing.
- His unflagging efforts have not gone unnoticed.
- He went on kissing her with unflagging industry, while she remained limply in his arms, in a species of satisfied trance.
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。