a. [f. CHEESE sb.1 + -Y.]
1. Of or belonging to cheese; consisting of, or of the nature of, cheese; abounding in cheese.
1398. Trevisa, Barth De P. R., XIX. lxxiii. (1495), 904. Wheye that is thynne and watry wyth chesy party synketh downe to the grounde.
1579. J. Jones, Preserv. Bodie & Soule, I. iv. 7. Eyther thicke and cheesie, or watry and whayey.
1677. W. Harris, trans. Lemery’s Chym. (1686), 30. The Butter and Cheesy part of Milk.
1821. Blackw. Mag., IX. 81. Like to a maggot in her cheesy sphere.
2. Resembling cheese in appearance, consistence, etc.; esp. in Pathol. = CASEOUS 2.
1731. Arbuthnot, Aliments (ed. 4), 75 (J.). Acids, mixed with them, precipitate a tophaceous chalky Matter, but not a cheesy [1731 chyly] Substance.
1866. A. Flint, Princ. Med. (1880), 196. Cheesy plugs often occlude the bronchial tubes.
1877. Cycl. Pract. Med., XVI. 783. The beginning of cheesy degeneration.
¶ 3. slang. ‘Fine or showy’ [prob. f. CHEESE sb.2]
1858. R. S. Surtees, Ask Mamma, xlviii. 211. To see him at Tattersall’s sucking his cane, his cheesy hat well down on his nose.
