| 词组 | enhance |
| 释义 | enhance The use of enhance with a personal object was called obsolete by Fowler 1926 and is cited as an error in one recent dictionary (Longman 1984). Evidence in the OED shows that enhance with a personal object was once common, but that it fell into disuse during the 17th century. Its occurrence in current English is rare but not obsolete: • I think clothes should enhance the woman, not the designer —Margaret Gunster, quoted in Women's Wear Daily, 6 Dec. 1976 • A successful run enhances a runner in his own eyes —Dr. Brent Waters, Runners World, June 1981 Enhance now almost always has a thing—often an abstract quality—as its object: • ... the general effect, enhanced by a ceiling of pale-blue metal plates —New Yorker, 10 Apr. 1971 • The fresh flavour of the vegetables is ... enhanced by the other ingredients —Marguerite Patten, Health Food Cookery, 1972 • We have done little to enhance the productivity of programmers —John R. Ehrman, Datamation, 4 Mar. 1980 Enhance normally describes the improvement or heightening of something desirable, but its use with a negative object is not incorrect: • ... the very circumstance which at present enhances your loss, must gradually reconcile you to it better —Jane Austen, letter, 8 Apr. 1798 Bernstein 1965 finds that such usage occurs "not uncommonly." Our evidence shows, however, that it is now about as rare as the use of enhance with a personal object. The "make better" associations of enhance are now so well established that its use to mean "make worse" puts some strain on idiom: • ... such evils as distracting youngsters from more nutritious foodstuffs, enhancing obesity, ruining teeth and causing diabetes —Jane E. Brody, N.Y. Times, 25 May 1977 |
| 随便看 |
|
英语用法大全包含2888条英语用法指南，基本涵盖了全部常用英文词汇及语法点的翻译及用法，是英语学习的有利工具。