draconian: [18] Draconian ‘excessively harsh’ is a monument to the severe code of laws drawn up in 621 BC by the Athenian statesman Draco. Its purpose was to banish inequities in the system which were leading at the time to rumblings and threats of rebellion among the common people, and to an extent it succeeded, but all it is now remembered for is its almost pathological harshness: the most trivial infraction was punished with death. When taxed with his laws’ severity, Draco is said to have replied ‘Small crimes deserve death, and for great crimes I know of no penalty severer’.
draconian (adj.)
1876 (earlier Draconic, implied from 1640s), from Draco, Greek statesman who laid down a code of laws for Athens 621 B.C.E. that mandated death as punishment for minor crimes. His name seems to mean literally "sharp-sighted" (see dragon).
双语例句
1. There has been an overall growth in population, despite some draconian efforts to contain it.
尽管有严厉的遏制措施,人口还是在全面增长.
来自《简明英汉词典》
2. In U.S. S . R collectivization was imposed 1930 by draconian Methods: Which met bitter peasants'resistance.
1930年苏联采取严厉的办法推行 集体化 时遭到农民的强烈抵制.
来自辞典例句
3. Let us keep at our efforts to abolish the draconian ISA.
让我们继续斗争以废除残酷的内安法令.
来自互联网
4. But Superfund's draconian liability rules offend any common - sense notion of justice.
但超巨额基金所规定的严厉措施是同尽人皆知的公正观念相违背的.
来自互联网
5. The government has introduced a draconian regulation intended to gag the press.