sb. and a. Also 9 vulgar -injine. [f. WEST INDIA.]
1. sb. † a. pl. The original inhabitants of the West Indies. Obs.
1584. R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., III. xv. 50. The West Indians doo the like.
1597. J. King, Jonas (1618), 177. Those [cruelties] that were practiced by the Spanish nation vpon the west Indians.
1618. W. Lawson, New Orch. & Gard., xii. (1623), 41. Also I read in the History of the West Indians, out of Peter-Martyr, That [etc.].
1658. Phillips, Wereance, a name given to any great Lord, among the West-Indians.
b. An inhabitant or native of the West Indies, of European origin or descent.
1661. E. Hickeringill, Jamaica, 100. The Major part of the Inhabitants being old West-Indians.
1757. [Burke], Europ. Settlem. Amer., VI. x. II. 112. In the foregoing manner the West-Indian would state some part of what he conceives to be his grievances.
1764. Foote, Patron, I. (1781), 11. This is one of Lofty’s companions, a West-Indian or an over-grown fortune.
1771. Cumberland (title), The West Indian.
1817. Jane Austen, Sanditon (1925), 78. They who scatter their Money so freely, never think of whether they may not be doing mischief by raising the price of Things—And I have heard that ’s very much the case with your West-injines.
1873. B. Harte, Fiddletown, etc., 97. Yet here sat that young West Indian … Alexander Hamilton.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Deronda, I. iii. She had no notion how her maternal grandfather got the fortune inherited by his two daughters; but he had been a West Indian—which seemed to exclude further question.
2. adj. Of or pertaining to, situated in, connected with, the West Indies.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Araroye, A round … ornament of feathers, worne by the West-Indian Sauages at their backes.
1647. N. Ward, Simple Cobler, 4. The Sub-planters of a West-Indian Island.
1667. Earl Orrery, St. Lett. (1742), 239. The West-Indian fleet consists of an hundred and thirty five sail.
1681. Grew, Musæum, I. § iv. iv. 80. A Great Nest of an other West-Indian Bird.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Rum,… West-Indian Drink stronger than Brandy.
1754. H. Walpole, Lett. to Bentley, 3 Nov. The West Indian war has thrown me into a new study.
1821. T. Dwight, Trav., II. 458. Horses they sell at New-Haven and Hartford for the West-Indian market.
1835. Moodie, Ten Yrs. S. Afr., I. 20. The major … ordered some cold rum-punch, very weak, to be made for us in the West Indian fashion.
1885. Tennyson, Wreck, iii. 6. A rich West-Indian isle.
b. in specific names.
1781. Latham, Synopsis Birds, I. I. 287. West Indian Green Parrot.
1804. Shaw, Gen. Zool., V. 108. West Indian Pike.
1815. Burrow, Elem. Conchol., 200. Voluta Musica, West Indian Music Shell.
1864. Grisebach, Flora W. Ind. Isl., 788. West-Indian-bark, Exostemma caribæum.
