Dictionary Workbench Ondict

miasma

Dictionary entry view. Switch to definition mode above when you know the meaning but not the word.

miasma

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 5++朗文当代英语 5++LDOCE 5++朗文 5++mi·as·ma /miˈæzmə, maɪ-/ noun [singular] literary  1 DNALdirty air or a thick unpleasant mist that smells bad 污浊难闻的空气,瘴气 He looked up at me through a miasma of cigarette smoke. 他在香烟烟雾中抬头看着我。 A foul miasma lay over the town. 一阵难闻的瘴气笼罩在小镇的上空。2 BADan evil influence or feeling that seems to surround a person or place 有害的影响;不良的感觉miasma of The miasma of defeat hung over them. 失败的气氛弥漫在他们中间。
Examples from the Corpus
miasmaSuspicion rose like a miasma from which it was impossible ever to take a breath.You feel the devastation of the war like a miasma over the battlefield.An acrid miasma came from the sewage plant.Acrid miasmas coiled from ventilation ducts and sewage flooded avenues.But here the clouds converge and mist falls and general miasma overtakes the public brain.I went to wash up as the table edge trembled to a familiar sick-to-the-gut miasma of nothingness.A lurid miasma dazed his vision.The two of them now resembled a superstitious swamp devil, humming, hovering, and plowing through the miasma.
Origin miasma (1600-1700) Greek making dirty
mi·as·ma nounChineseSyllable
air a or Corpus mist unpleasant thick dirty


miasma
miasma /miˈæzmə, maɪ-/ noun [singular] literary
 Date: 1600-1700
 Language: Greek
 Origin: __making dirty__
1. dirty air or a thick unpleasant mist that smells bad:
    He looked up at me through a miasma of cigarette smoke.
    A foul miasma lay over the town.
2. an evil influence or feeling that seems to surround a person or place
    miasma of
    The miasma of defeat hung over them.


mi·asmaBrE /miˈæzmə/ 🔊NAmE /miˈæzmə/ 🔊BrE /maɪˈæzmə/ 🔊NAmE /maɪˈæzmə/ 🔊 noun [countable, usually singular, uncountable] (literary) a mass of air that is dirty and smells unpleasant 污浊难闻的空气A miasma of stale alcohol hung around him. 他身上常带着难闻的酒精味。🔊🔊(figurative) the miasma of depression压抑的气氛