a. [f. as prec. + -Y1.]
1. Of the form of a wreath, coil, or twisted band; marked or characterized by convolution, twisting or twining; wreathing, curling.
1644. Digby, Nat. Bodies, xxiii. § 1. 203. A vast multitude of seuerall little ioyntes, and wreathy labyrinthes of nature.
1658. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep. (ed. 3), III. xxiii. 135. That famous one [sc. horn] which is preserved at St. Dennis near Paris, hath wreathy spires, and cochleary turnings about it.
1798. Joanna Baillie, Fugitive Verses (1840), 3. Slowly mounts the smoke in wreathy clouds. Ibid., 110. Wreathy folds.
1817. Moore, Lalla R., Nourmahal, 411. Those wreathy, Red Sea shells, Where Love himself, of old, lay sleeping.
a. 1851. Moir, Evening Tranquillity, vi. Above yon cottage … The wreathy smoke ascends.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxxvi. (1856), 332. The long, wreathy brown clouds.
transf. 1784–5. Ann. Reg., Poetry, 137. Wreathy smiles, and roseate pleasures, Are thy richest, sweetest treasures.
1853. Fraser’s Mag., XLVII. 513. The very foam of the sea, flung in all its wreathy airiness from the crest of a wave.
2. Decked with a wreath or wreathing.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, IV. 438. The Bacchanalian Dames … houl about the Hills, and shake the wreathy Spear.
b. Her. (See quot.) rare–0.
1894. Parker’s Gloss. Her., Tortilly,… a term applied to Ordinaries which are wreathed; the term wreathy is also found.
3. Of the nature of, forming or constituting, a wreath or garland. Also transf.
1718. Rowe, trans. Lucan, 181. Her bristling Locks the wreathy Fillet scorn.
1725. Pope, Odyssey, VI. 152. Around his loins the verdant cincture spreads A wreathy foliage.
c. 1750. R. Cumberland, in Mem. (1806), 62. The victim beast,… With all its wreathy honours on its head.
1818. Blackw. Mag., III. 90. On Carmel’s brow the wreathy vine Had all its honours shed.
1823. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. III. 146. A wilderness of blossom, interwoven, intertwined, wreathy, garlandy.
1830. [see GARLANDY a.].
1845. Browning, Flight of Duchess, xvii. 59. His forehead chapleted green with wreathy hop.
