a. [f. WASH sb. or v. + -Y1.]
† 1. Having too much moisture, water-logged. Of wind or weather: Bringing moisture or rain.
In quot. 1566 the word corresponds to Horace’s plumbeus, lit. ‘leaden,’ used app. for ‘depressing.’
1566. Drant, Horace, Sat., II. vi. H 6. Not lewde ambition vexethe here; nor washye southerne wynde.
1661. J. Childrey, Brit. Baconica, 133. Under this upper Clay lyes a mouldring washy Clay.
1661. Pepys, Diary, 24 Sept. We … found a most sad alteration in the roade by reason of last night’s rains; they being now all dirty and washy.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 303. They … on the washie Oose deep Channels wore.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 216. In washy weather all the hay one can give to cattle will not make them thrive.
1726. Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., I. 40/2. Of places … some are … damp and washy, as are those which lie near Seas or Lakes.
2. Of food, drink, etc.: Too much diluted, weak, sloppy, thin, watery.
1615. T. Adams, England’s Sickn., ii. 72. Meates of a washy and fluid nature.
1763. Museum Rust., I. 327. New oats are a washy food, owing to a crude humidity that abounds in them.
1825. E. Hewlett, Cottage Comforts, viii. 99. Common corn and washy potatoes.
1832–4. De Quincey, Caesars, Wks. 1862, IX. 133, note. By comparison with the washy tea breakfasts of most Englishmen.
1883. Harper’s Mag., July, 165/2. Serving pots of washy ale over the counter.
Comb. 1746. W. Thompson, R. N. Adv. (1757), 42. The Flesh of such washy fed Sows is … flabby.
b. fig. Of literary style, productions, utterances, etc.: Wanting in force or vigor, feeble, sloppy, thin.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life, VII. xl. Being compelled by a deaf person … to repeat some very washy remark three or four times over.
1829. [see SPEWY a. 1 b].
1831. Carlyle, Ess., Schiller (1840), III. 21, note. Our English translation, one of the washiest, was executed … in Edinburgh by a ‘Lord of Session.’
1879. Geo. Eliot, Theo. Such, v. 113. This mixture of other persons’ washy opinions.
1897. Mrs. Oliphant, W. Blackwood, I. 100. The publication altogether was a weak and washy production.
3. Of the stomach: Having an accumulation of liquid and undigested food, relaxed.
1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., I. 47. But for such washie Tripes as mine then were, I held it no good meate.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 491. The physician who neglects the factor of dilatation because the stomach is not as blown out and washy as to force itself on his notice, has an imperfect comprehension of his case.
4. Of color, painting, etc.: Having too much ‘wash,’ lacking body, weak, pale.
a. 1639. Wotton, Surv. Educ., Reliq. (1651), 325. A palish Clearnesse, evenly and smoothly spread, not overthin and washie, but of a pretty solid consistence.
1647. Trapp, Comm. Matt. xxv. 4. Christ putteth not upon his a washy colour of profession … but he dyeth them in grain, with true grace and holinesse.
1718. Ozell, trans. Tournefort’s Voy., I. 188. Four rows of Scales of a washy purple.
1785. H. Walpole, Lett. to H. S. Conway, 6 Oct. Sir Joshua’s washy Virtues make the Nativity a dark spot from the darkness of the Shepherds.
1817. Self Instructor, 524. A middling full pencil, not too washy.
1848. Mrs. Gaskell, Mary Barton, ii. With a washy, but clean stencilled pattern on the walls.
1884. 19th Cent., Feb., 355. The colours are washy and unimpressive.
1886. G. Allen, Maimie’s Sake, xix. Blue eyes like hers … look so mild and gentle and washy.
5. Of a horse or cow: Poor in quality or condition; esp. liable to sweat or scour after slight exertion.
1639. T. de Grey, Compl. Horsem., I. iv. (1656), 40. The Horse … is generally weake,… tender, and washy of flesh.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 300. Your thin necked and bodied cows, that are washy and flue.
1730. W. Burdon, Gentl. Pocket-Farrier, 61. Some Horses … part with their Food before ’tis well digested, and scour all the Way; which makes ’em so thin and lank, that they are ready to slip through their Girts; they are called washy.
1809. Sporting Mag., XXXIII. 138. It was a washy ill constitutioned horse.
1828–32. Webster, Washy … liable to sweat profusely with labor; as, a washy horse.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 163. [This] gives to a beast what is called a washy appearance, and is always attended with a liability to looseness in the bowels. This washiness is generally attended with an inordinate breadth of hooks [i.e., hips].
1864. E. Mayhew, Illustr. Horse Managem., 483. A leggy, a washy, a soft species of creature, which gentlemen find it cheaper to hire than to buy.
6. Of a person: Lacking strength or stamina; weak, feeble, insipid; poor, mean, worthless. Now rare or Obs.
a. 1631. Donne, Serm., xlv. (1640), 448. All the good of man, considered supernaturally, is in grace; but that will not grow in a washy soule, in a liquid, in a watery, and dissolute, and scattered man.
1657. J. Watts, Scribe, Pharisee, etc., III. 24. Like as some, who used water instead of wine … were called by the Church ὑδροπαραστάται, or Aquarii, watry and washy Hereticks, as Augustine witnesseth.
1682. Dryden, Epil. to King & Q., 37. Alas, our Women are but washy Toys.
1693. Ld. Falkland, Congreve’s Old Bach., Prol. If the Slave, After his bragging, prove a washy Knave; May he be banish’d to some lonely Den.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills, III. 337. What washy Rogues are here, are these the Sons of Beef, and English Beer?
a. 1721. Prior, Daphne & Apollo, 10. One mile has put the fellow out of breath;… Washy he is, perhaps not over sound.
