a. [f. BOOK sb. + -ISH.]
1. Of or belonging to a book or books; literary.
1567. Drant, Hor. Epist., xiii. E iij. Thou must retaine thy bookish charge.
1594. Ord. of Prayer, in Liturg. Serv. Q. Eliz. (1847), 657. Did not Saunders second his bookish treasons … by commotion in Ireland?
1816. Q. Rev., XVI. 1. A phenomenon, in these days of bookish luxury.
1817. Coleridge, Biog. Lit., 10. Natural Language, neither bookish nor vulgar.
1878. S. Cox, Salv. Mundi (ed. 3), Pref. 8. To recast these Lectures into a more bookish form.
2. Addicted to the reading of books; studious.
1570. Levins, Manip., 144. Bookish, studiosus.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., III. iii. 73. Though I am not bookish, yet I can reade Waiting-Gentlewoman in the scape.
1665. D. Lloyd, State Worthies (1670), 672. [Raleigh] An accomplished Gallant, and yet a bookish man.
1775. T. Sheridan, Art Reading, 330. Bookish men are remarkable for taciturnity.
1874. Maurice, Friendship Bks., i. 12. In this bookish time of James I.
b. Disparagingly: Acquainted with books only.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., I. i. 259. Whose bookish Rule, hath pull’d faire England downe.
1680. Crowne, Misery Civ. War, II. 16. Under the reign of this tame bookish Henry.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 482, ¶ 2. A bookish man, who has no knowledge of the world.
1864. Burton, Scot Abr., II. i. 68. A monkish, bookish person, who meddles with nothing but literature.
3. quasi-adv. = next.
1591. Florio, 2nd Frutes, A iv. b. To … speake bookish.
