▪ I. ignoble, a. (n.)
(ɪgˈnəʊb(ə)l)
Also 5 innoble.
[a. F. ignoble (14–15th c. in Hatz.-Darm.) = It. ignobile, Sp. innoble, ad. L. ignōbilis, f. i-2 = in- not + gnōbilis, nōbilis noble.]
1. Not noble in respect of birth, position, or reputation; of low birth or humble station. a. Of persons, their birth, family, condition, etc.
| 1494 Fabyan Chron. vii. 335 All must pay hym [death] dette, Noble and innoble. 1548 Hall Chron., Edw. IV 192 Of all men, as well noble as ignoble, as well of riche as of poore. 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, iv. i. 70 You must all confesse, That I was not ignoble of Descent. 1617 Moryson Itin. iii. 133 The Gentlemen doe not meddle with trafficke..they thinke such trafficke ignoble and base. 1683 Brit. Spec. 191 To be ranked among the Peasantry and the Ignoble. 1738 Wesley Ps. xlv. xiv, Daughter of Heaven, tho born on Earth..Forget the first ignoble Birth. 1869 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) III. xi. 59 A West-Saxon house which, two generations back, had been undistinguished, perhaps ignoble. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 313 No man..will be allowed to exercise any ignoble occupation. |
b. Of animals, compared with each other or with man.
In Ornith. applied to those birds of prey, such as the kites and buzzards, which are not used in falconry. In Falconry applied to the short-winged hawks, such as the goshawk and sparrow-hawk, which chase or rake after the quarry, in contradistinction to the noble or long-winged falcons, which stoop to the quarry at a single swoop.
| 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 234 Peacock-fish..Is an insipid and ignoble fish. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 38 This more ignoble creature [the great Black Snail] hath also a circulation of its nutritive humour. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) V. 129 The more ignoble race of birds make up by cunning and assiduity what these claim by force and celerity. 1829 Lytton Devereux i. ii, As the human eye is supposed to awe into impotence the malignant intentions of the ignobler animals. 1833 R. Mudie Brit. Birds (1841) I. 79 The old division of noble and ignoble hawks,..so well understood, when falconry was a general field sport. |
c. Of things, places, etc. (Often passing into 2.)
| 1611 Coryat Crudities (1776) I. 23 This Clermont is a meane and ignoble place, having no memorable thing therein, worthy the obseruation. 1635–56 Cowley Davideis iv. 351 Like some fair Pine o'relooking all th' ignobler Wood. 1666 Boyle Orig. Formes & Qual. (1667) 41 Some..maintain it to be possible to transmute the ignobler Metals into Gold. 1713 Young Last Day iii. 234 My strength exhausted, fainting I descend, And chuse a less, but no ignoble, theme. |
2. Not noble in disposition, nature, or quality; mean, base, sordid; dishonourable. Of persons, their actions, aims, desires, etc.
| 1592 Nashe P. Penilesse (ed. 2) 19 a, His beggerly parsimony and ignoble illiberaltie. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, iii. v. 22 Here is the Head of that ignoble Traytor, The dangerous and vnsuspected Hastings. 1660 Milton Free Commw. Wks. (1847) 449/1 The worst and ignoblest sort of men. 1667 ― P.L. ii. 227 Thus Belial..Counsel'd ignoble ease, and peaceful sloath. 1695 Addison Poems, King, His Toils for no Ignoble ends designed. 1703 Pope Thebais 233 With scandal arm'd, th' ignoble mind's delight. 1851 Ruskin Mod. Paint. I. Pref. to ed. 2. 32 Every kind of knowledge may be sought from ignoble motives, and for ignoble ends. 1871 Dixon Tower IV. x. 96 The most ignoble year in an ignoble reign. |
B. as n. chiefly in pl. ignobles, persons not of noble rank; commoners. (In quot. 1808, used as = persons of ignoble character.)
| c 1610 Sylvester Honour's Fare-well 42 A holy Mirrour, Reducing Nobles, from Ignobles' Errour. a 1761 Law tr. Behmen's Myst. Magnum xxii. (1772) 98 Be it either by Nobles or Ignobles, none excepted. 1808 E. S. Barrett Miss-led General 19 note, The Reader may..think that ignobles would be a more proper term [than nobles]. |
▪ II. ignoble, v. rare.
(ɪgˈnəʊb(ə)l)
[f. prec. adj., as the opposite of ennoble.]
trans. To make ignoble or infamous; fig. to make of bad repute.
| 1590–2 Bacon Disc. Praise Q. Eliz. in Spedding Lett. & Life (1861) I. 142 The Invincible Navy..ignobling many shores and points of land by shipwreck. a 1614 Donne βιαθανατος (1644) 80 By confiscation, and by condemning the memory of the delinquent, and ignobling his race. 1628 Gaule Pract. The. (1629) 105 The Person dignifies the Place, the Place ignobles not the Person. 1870 E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. III. 188 Early sorrow had prevented or ignobled much that was good in him. |