erstwhile

英 [ˈɜːstwaɪl]

美 [ˈɜːrstwaɪl]

adj.  以前的; 先前的; 过去的; 往昔的

GRE

Collins.1 / BNC.14300 / COCA.18074

牛津词典

adj.

• 以前的；先前的；过去的；往昔的
  former; that until recently was the type of person or thing described but is not any more
  1. an erstwhile opponent
     以前的对手
  2. His erstwhile friends turned against him.
     他先前的朋友转而与他作对。

柯林斯词典

• ADJ 以往的;往昔的
  You useerstwhileto describe someone that used to be the type of person indicated, but no longer is.
  1. Erstwhile workers may have become managers...
     过去的工人可能已经成了经理。
  2. He fled to America with Phyllis Burton, an erstwhile friend of his wife's.
     他和他妻子以前的一个朋友菲莉丝·伯顿一起逃往美国。

英英释义

adv

• at a previous time
  1. at one time he loved her
  2. her erstwhile writing
  3. she was a dancer once
  Synonym:onceformerlyat one timeerst

双语例句

• Imposing one-sided adjustment on erstwhile debtors will not work.
  让昔日债务人单方面调整不会有多大效果。
• Its erstwhile parent was quick to follow China Merchants in successfully pushing for a new licence based on its history, and managed to obtain approvals for five provinces.
  它的前任母公司迅速效仿了中国商会，根据中国商会的的历史奋力为自己争取了一个新的执照，并成功取得了在五个省份的经营许可。
• Thanks to company shutdowns, Palo Alto the erstwhile Mecca of masculinity is now just 49 percent male.
  由于公司倒闭，帕洛阿尔托从前充满阳刚之气的圣地目前的男性人口比例仅49%。
• Like some other erstwhile true believers, he became one of most cogent critics of his former faith.
  如同昔日的某些真正信徒一样，他也成为其原有信仰最有力的批判者之一。
• By contrast, Britain and its erstwhile EU partners would have to decide quickly how people on the wrong side of newly erected barriers to the free movement of labour should be treated.
  相比之下，英国与之前的欧盟伙伴必须迅速作出决定，为身处因劳动力自由流动而新竖立起来的壁垒错误一边的人们应当得到怎样的待遇。
• Tony Blair his friend and erstwhile boss, who takes the hot seat soon will have bee watching n anxiously.
  作为他的朋友和过去的老板托尼布莱尔（TonyBlair），不久将如坐针毡，并将一直焦急地关注此事。
• If policymakers leave commodities trading unattended, this erstwhile backwater could one day become a sea of economic troubles.
  如果政策制定者们对大宗商品交易放任不管，这一昔日的回水可能有朝一日会变成经济的麻烦之海。
• Ideally, these would be people to whom you reported, but erstwhile peers and others ( satisfied clients, for example) will do in a pinch.
  理想情况下，这些人应该是你的直接上司，如果没有的话，以前的同事和其他人（比如对你很满意的客户）也凑合。
• Washington's crime was to assume that the Yalta agreement had fallen along with the Berlin Wall, and that the peoples and nations of the erstwhile Soviet empire should thus be free to make their own choices.
  美国政府的错误在于想当然地认为雅尔塔协定（YaltaAgreement）也伴随着柏林墙的倒塌而失效，因此昔日臣服于苏联帝国的民族和国家应该可以自由选择。
• It's easy to sympathise: the erstwhile masters of the universe seem to have forgotten the meaning of both moral and hazard.
  这很容易让人同情：过去的宇宙主宰者（mastersoftheuniverse）们似乎忘记了道德和风险的涵义。