a. [f. VEIN sb.]
1. † a. Veiny artery, one or other trunk of the pulmonary vein. Obs.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 227. For this cause it is called the veiny artery, because it holdeth of the nature both of an artery and of a veine.
1603. J. Davies (Heref.), Microcosmos, Wks. (Grosart), I. 29/1. The Lunges through veiny-artire, aire doth shoue Vnto the hart, it to refresh againe.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., IV. xxiii., note. The third is called the Veiny arterie, rising from the left side, which hath two folds three-forked.
b. Full of blood-veins; having prominent veins; of or pertaining to veins. Also fig. (quot. 1612).
1611. Cotgr., Veineux, veinie, full of veines.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., v. 327. So Gresholme far doth stand;… and Gatholme, nearer land (Which with their veiny breasts intice the Gods of sea).
1681. Grew, Musæum, II. I. iv. 198. Within this Veiny-Coat, lie’s a soft, white, thick and Oval Body.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Veiny, belonging to, or full of Veins.
1789. M. Madan, trans. Persius (1795), 163. If you say these things among veiny centurions.
1813. Shelley, Q. Mab, IX. 234. A gentle start convulsed Ianthe’s frame; Her veiny eyelids quietly unclosed.
1813. Examiner, 22 Feb., 124/1. The hands … are divested of their too veiny inflation.
1888. ‘L. Scott’ (Mrs. Baxter), Tuscan Stud., II. iv. 223. There is a general darkness and veiny roughness about the hands of the performers.
2. a. Traversed by veins of a different (mineral) substance or structure.
1708. Ozell, Boileau’s Lutrin, 46. The veiny Flint and hardy Steel ingage.
1778. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 96. A kind of Stone … not at all of a veiny quality.
1783. Justamond, trans. Raynal’s Hist. Indies, IV. 476. Veiny diamonds, in which these extremities are not uniform, and in the same direction.
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, vi. She could see the veiny precipices and tangled thickets that closely impended over the road.
b. Full of, having the nature of, veins or continuous passages.
1827. Hood, Mids. Fairies, lx. We bear the gold and silver keys or bubbling springs and fountains, that below Course thro’ the veiny earth.
1854. H. E. J. Howard, Rape Proserpine, 11. Is it the wind, that works its stealthy way Where veiny clefts the secret pass betray?
3. Marked by veins of colour.
c. 1711. Petiver, Gazophyl., Dec. VIII. Tab. 71. A hard reddish veiny Wood from the Philippine Isles.
1727–46. Thomson, Summer, 135. Effulgent, hence the veiny marble shines.
1800. Hull Advertiser, 11 Oct., 2/3. Six blocks of very superior veiny marble.
1816. J. Scott, Vis. Paris (ed. 5), 162. The finest specimens … have been cleansed and repaired till they look like lapis lazuli jars, stained and veiny.
4. Bot. Of leaves: Having many veins.
c. 1711. Petiver, Gazophyl., Dec. VI. Tab. 59. The true Ipecacuanha … a low Plant with … soft veiny Leaves.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., III. v. (1765), 184. Venose, veiny.
1807. J. E. Smith, Phys. Bot., 166. Venosum, veiny, when the vessels by which the leaf is nourished are branched, subdivided, and more or less prominent. Ibid. (1828), Eng. Flora, II. 89. Leaflets … ovate, veiny, deeply serrated and cut.
1849. Florist, 232. It will give an idea of coarseness, as in a veiny Pelargonium.
